9 replies to this topic

[Fae]

Hi again, all...

I honestly can't make top nor tail of this Linux... I'm still trying to install my Realtek R8192e drivers, but I still can't seem to do... anything. at all.

So! I got a file containing some kind of realtek firmware (although at the moment I don't recall exactly what it was, or where I got it from... It was a few weeks ago and I've been busy, and don't have time to track it down now), I believe in a .deb file, and it broke linux completely. Verbosely, it crashed at boot with some complex error message, and the only way I could get out of that was to unplug my laptop and physically remove the battery. I dunno if it's relevant, but the Caps Lock light flashed at this point...

Anyways, I removed this my logging in recovery mode and using aptitude, and tried it again, same result, so I did a little more digging and found a forum post offering the driver I need in tarball format.

I've managed to extract this using tar -xzvf or something, and then I came to use Make like the readme said. Make told me:

Quote

/lib/modules/2.6.32-5-amd64/build: No such file or directory. Stop.

...so I made a directory in there called 'Build'. At which point, it told me:

Quote

make[1]: Entering directory `/lib/modules/2.6.32-5-amd64/build'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `modules'. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/lib/modules/2.6.32-5-amd64/build'
make: *** [all] Error 2

...and I rooted around, and found I needed some Linux-Headers. so,I used Synaptic to get every linux-headers file availible for my kernel version (as the forums are not specific about which Linux-headers I needed), and I get the same result.

I've rootedaround some more, and found several different solutions to the same problem in Ubuntu and Debian forums. And Ididn't understand a word of any of it, which is where my frustration with Linux begins anew.

Every post I read either says: "Oh, try this! This will fix your problem!" without any description of what you're doing, so when it inevitiblydoesn't work, I'm left as clueless as I started, or they have discussions in Linux speak that's incomprehensible to a newbie like me.

So yeah, I'm still just as in the dark as I was, only this time I can get a wired connection to the internet (but not at home, because apparently my Netgear router's LAN ports are either all fried or its LAN software is fried... and I'm hesitant to reset the software, as if it IS the hardware, I won't be able to get in to the router to set up the wireless, and I can't afford another £130 to fix it)

...So, yeah. until I get these Wireless drivers in, I can only get on the internet if I relocate, so I want them working ASAP. But again I'm blocked by poor understanding of anything Linux tries to tell me.

Sorry for bugging you all with my petty complaints; if I understood even a little of what was written on other sites, or knew where to get some information by myself, I wouldn't bug you guys so much... v_v

Oh yeah, and I'm running Debian Squeeze 2.6.32-5-amd64

[Milyardo]

You like doing things the hard way.

Step one, make sure you have the non-free repository in your /etc/apt/sources.list

Step two:

#apt-get install firmware-realtek

You can find more information about the firmware-realtek package here:
Debian -- Details of package firmware-realtek in squeeze

[Milyardo]

Also you may want to try and undo everything that previous file you downloaded did.

[Fae]

Sorry it took so lonng to reply to this

Milyardo said:

You like doing things the hard way.

Step one, make sure you have the non-free repository in your /etc/apt/sources.list

Step two:

#apt-get install firmware-realtek

You can find more information about the firmware-realtek package here:
Debian -- Details of package firmware-realtek in squeeze

That's pretty much what it said on Debian Wiki, and itmakes no sense to me...

I checked in etc/apt/ and didn't find either a directory or a file called 'sources.list'
I tried apt-get install realtek-wireless, but it told me no. I can't remember specifically why (and unfortunately, I'm not at the place where I can access a router through wired connection, so I can't find out at the moment), but I'm pretty sure 'Not found' was mentioned. IIRC, it told me firmware-realtek did not exist. Which can't be true, if it's in the Debian package site...

The thing that gets me, once again, is I don't know anything about the situation, nor do I know how to find out. I've tried looking up what a 'repository' is, and have came up with nothing, I've checked into Sources.list and can't find anything telling me what it does, how it does it, why it doesn't exist in some cases etc...

It's not the problem in itself that I mind so much; it's the fact that I have no idea of how to find any information on the problem itself.
...Well, this one'll probably be the worst, after this, I won't have to boot back into windows every time I want to find some new information...

But still, I'd like to know if there are any places online with any kind of information that would be helpful instead of the 'Type it into Google and hope' approach I'm using now :)

PRE-POST-EDIT: Okay, I'm starting to feel REALLY stupid now...

I've found an explaination of Sources.list, telling me it's a file that holds locations of several mirrors that apt uses to get packages and whatnot. So, the reason the firmware-realtek did not exist is because apt was only looking in the default places to check for new packages, as I have no sources.list file to tell it otherwise.

So, all I need to do is create a sources.list file, add in what should be there already along with the new mirror, and then try apt again, and it'll work!

Okay! ^^ That's raised my confidence a bit. I guess then a 'repository' in this case is an online package resource server or something...

Still, Ithink that's good for my other issue. If I'd have found that kind of basic information in the beginning, I never would have got frustrated and pestered you again (Sorry!)

So, change of question: where would I find that kind of basic information if I get stuck? Just something to spell it out in newbie terms so I can grasp the concepts... Is there such a website?

Oh, and I hope what I concluded about sources.list is okay too, and I'm not embarrasing myself again ^^

Thanks again, Milyardo

ATER-POST-EDIT: Okay, I think it worked, but it broke Debian again. On boot-up it tells me that there's a null pointer error in the kernel, and gives me what looks like a Windows blue screen error code (00000000000020 or somesuch), and the caps lock light flashes again.

This is the same thing it did when I installed the firmware-realtek package from the .deb file using dpkg, but it's a different error message.

Could this possibly be a hardware problem regarding the specific aptop I'm using?

Thanks again

Edited by Fae, 06 November 2010 - 01:00 PM.

[Milyardo]

Yep sources.list is a file that describes where APT should look for packages. It takes the sources you give in that file, and builds a database of available packages from all the sources, choosing the newest version of each package between all of them.

The non-free repository is a special source set up for non-open source software, like your realtek driver(if you care to find out why it isn't open source, I'd send an angry letter to realtek to find out). Enabling it get you other things too like Flash, if you want to view flash content in a browser, or MP3 codecs. IIRC The non-free repository should be in your sources.list file by default, but it should be commented out, disabling its use. Uncommenting it

Below you'll see a copy of my sources.list and where is located(note this is an Ubuntu machine not Debian, so that why it points to ubuntu.com).

zpowers@zephyr:~$ ls /etc/apt/

apt.conf.d     secring.gpg   sources.list.d     trustdb.gpg  trusted.gpg~

preferences.d  sources.list  sources.list.save  trusted.gpg  trusted.gpg.d

zpowers@zephyr:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 10.10 _Maverick Meerkat_ - Release amd64 (20101007)]/ maverick main restricted

# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to

# newer versions of the distribution.


deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted


## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the

## distribution.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates main restricted


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu

## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any

## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick universe

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates universe


## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu 

## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to 

## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in 

## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu

## security team.

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick multiverse

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-updates multiverse


## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'

## repository.

## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as

## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes

## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.

## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review

## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.

# deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse

# deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick-backports main restricted universe multiverse


## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's

## 'partner' repository.

## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the

## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner

deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu maverick partner


## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party

## developers who want to ship their latest software.

deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main

deb-src http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick main


deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted

deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security main restricted

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe

deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse

deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu maverick-security multiverse

zpowers@zephyr:~$ 

In Ubuntu, non-free software would usually in the multiverse repository(the repository for anything unsupported)

Quote

I've found an explaination of Sources.list, telling me it's a file that holds locations of several mirrors that apt uses to get packages and whatnot. So, the reason the firmware-realtek did not exist is because apt was only looking in the default places to check for new packages, as I have no sources.list file to tell it otherwise.

So, all I need to do is create a sources.list file, add in what should be there already along with the new mirror, and then try apt again, and it'll work!

Are you sure there is no sources.list file at all? I can't imagine apt functioning well without one.
As for a description of sources.list, I think the Debian wiki had a pretty simple explaination of what sources.list was:
SourcesList - Debian Wiki

The Ubuntu wiki has a much more detailed explaination of what a repository is:
https://help.ubuntu....ty/Repositories
with tutorials on how to edit sources:
https://help.ubuntu....sitories/Ubuntu
and a command line version here:
https://help.ubuntu....ies/CommandLine



Whats the output ofls /etc/apt/?
There can also be a sources.list.d which is a directory that used for when you want to use multiple source files. I typically create a new source list there instead of modifying the system for custom repositories or PPAs(PPAs are small personal repositorys Debian developers use on Launchpad.net, if you want to get the very latest version of software straight from the developer or project maintainer himself, PPAs are the way to do it!).

[Fae]

Thanks foir that, Milyardo, I'll check over the Ubuntu Wiki after I'm done with this post.

I'm positive that there was no sources.list in /etc/apt/ initially. I had used apt-get and aptitude before, and installed updates and software etc... from them, so there must be some defaults in there somewhere.

Anyways, I used this page to generate a sources.list file for me, and it included the uk non-free repository, so I was good to go. I went to use the wired internet, and used apt-get to get the firmware-realtekand wireless-tools packages, and uninstalled the make package I'd tried to install before. Then, it told me I needed a bunch of updates (not surprisingly, since I'd just added a whole world of software locations), so I updated.

I restarted, and Linux didn't start up again (I edited my previous post to reflect this, not realising you'd replied already), and it crashed on boot. I got the same caps-lock key flashing as before, but a different error than when I tried to install the realtek-wireless package from a .deb file. This time it said that there was a null or unreferenced pointer in the Kernel, and it couldn't recover from that. It's rather annoying, as I have to unplug my laptop and remove the battery when it does this, as the power button doesn't respond...

So, I'll go fix this now, and while I'm at it, I'll get the output of ls /etc/apt too... There's a sources.list there now, but that's the one I put there. There's no sources.list.d (oddly enough, I'm pretty sure that was there when I was using Lenny though)

I'm thinking that the error I'm getting is hardware-specific to my particular machine, but I could be wrong :)

Thanks again for the help! ^^

EDIT: okay, the output from ls /etc/apt/ is:

apt.conf.d
security.gpg
sources.list.d (I swear it wasn't there before)
trusted.gpg~
listchanges.conf
sources.list (The one I put there)
trustdb.gpg
trusted.gpg.d
preferences.d
sources.list~ (A temporary file for when sources.list is in use, I'd guess?)
trusted.gpg

Also, I used recovery mode again and took off firmware-realtek and everything works again. Except the wireless. and the sound, but that's secondary (tertiary, even) to getting my networking up.

It's probably worth mentioning that when I started aptitude in recovery mode, firmware-realtek was already marked for removal.

Edited by Fae, 07 November 2010 - 02:25 AM.

[Milyardo]

I would file a bug report for the firmware-realtek package using the bugreport command(realtek-firmware has to be installed for you to run a bug report against it, so you should reinstall the package).

If you feel like investigating yourself what the issue is before filing a bug report, I would take a look at dmesg(dmesg is the kernel ring buffer, a fancy term for where all the messaging in the kernel happens). You will find dmesg logged in /var/log/dmesg

I would use this command to find things related to the realtek driver in dmesg:

 $ grep rtl /var/log/dmesg*

If you prefer to just get your wireless working, I would try ndiswrapper, ndiswrapper is a kernel module that wraps around Windows XP versions of many wireless driver.

[Fae]

hehe... awesome ^_^ Computers always go wrong with me, but it's nice to get confirmation that it's not me being a massive idiot, and it's something completely unexpected.

I've checked around, and a few people seem to be having issues with the realtek firmware while running the 64-bit version of Squeeze, but they don't seem to be having kernel panics at boot like me.
I've also E-mailled Realtek, as they're got a bit of a reputation for replying to these kinds of problems with the correct driver files, which is odd as they don't have them availible on their website.

So, as for submitting the bug report, can I install and submit a bug report without restarting? 'cause I don't think I'll be able to restart once they're installed :)

Also, I found out about dmesg, and I used dmesg > dmesg.file, but it only gave me the data from the latest boot up (and since installation of the firmware causes a kernel panic at boot requiring a hard restart, in order to get back on to Linux I need to boot into recovery mode, run aptitude and remove the firmware-realtek package before I can get in), is there a way of getting dmesg outputs from previous boots?

And yeah, I've had ndiswrapper for a while, but until now, I've considered it cheating ^^ I'll see what Realtek have to say for themselves, and use the XP drivers if I have no choice. But I came up against problems with the Linux drivers, so they were far more interesting (albeit frustrating) to pursue.

I'll check into this first thing tomorrow, thanks again Milyardo ^^

[Milyardo]

Quote

So, as for submitting the bug report, can I install and submit a bug report without restarting? 'cause I don't think I'll be able to restart once they're installed

You'll need to restart so that the bugreport utility can grab a crash dump from then the kernel panics. So, you should install the package, reboot so that it panics, then reboot once more into single user mode(recovery mode) and submit the bug report.

Quote

Also, I found out about dmesg, and I used dmesg > dmesg.file, but it only gave me the data from the latest boot up (and since installation of the firmware causes a kernel panic at boot requiring a hard restart, in order to get back on to Linux I need to boot into recovery mode, run aptitude and remove the firmware-realtek package before I can get in), is there a way of getting dmesg outputs from previous boots?

You would get this from dmesg's log files in /var/log instead of using the dmesg command in the terminal.

[Fae]

Reviving an old thread because I've had a resolution to the problem. I've been in contact with Realtek tech support for the last month or so by E-mail, and I've finally got my wireless up and running :)

I contacted Realtek, and they sent me their mist recent driver. I wonder if it's possible to attach the driver to this post, so other people can find it? Anyways, I tried to install it, and once again, Kernel panic.

So, I spent the next few weeks / months sending dmesg reports and whatnot back and forth to Realtek, and they found that I had a RTL8192E driver installed already, which I hadn't removed. Not sure why havind two drivers would cause a kernel panic - I'd have thought one would just take presedence?
Anyways, I deleted that, and it installed correctly. However, it wouldn't allow any connections to wireless networks. I could see them, and when trying to connect it would ask me for the key, but would always fail to connect and ask me for the key again.

I was poking around, and came upon my etc/network/interfaces file, where wlan0 was not listed. ifconfig knew that there wasa wlan0, but it wasn't in the interface file, so I checked around and tried ifup, which didn't recognise wlan0 as an interface. Then, I found out about ifconfig wlan0 up, which was apparently supposed to do a similar thing. I tried this, and now it works perfectly! Althouygh I have no idea why. And embarrasingly, the /etc/network/interfaces file STILL doesn't have a wlan0 in there, so it seems that I came to the correct conclusion of what to do (that the wireless card may not be activated as an interface yet) from completely irrelevant evidence :D

I would like to understand what was going on, but for now I'm just happy posting a resolution, so anyone having this problem after me might find this thread.

Thanks again for all your help with this issue, all! I'm happy I can put it to rest.

~Fae