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Realtek RTL8180, RTL8185, RTL8187, RTL8187B, RTL8187SE devices

This page describes how to enable support for WiFi devices based on Realtek 802.11b/g chipsets on Debian systems.

Drivers

rtl-wifi is a project to develop drivers for Realtek wireless LAN chipsets, a fork of the rtl8180-sa2400 project. These drivers were introduced into the mainline Linux kernel at various stages.

The driver modules are:

The RTL8187SE chipset is not supported by the project at this time. An experimental vendor driver is available, which is included in the mainline Linux kernel since 2.6.29-rc1. It is present in Debian kernel images since 2.6.29.1

{i} Realtek 802.11n devices are supported by different drivers.

Installation

<!> Lenny users:

<!> Etch users:


  1. Install the wireless-tools package:

    $ su
    # aptitude update && aptitude install wireless-tools
  2. If your device uses USB or PC Card (PCMCIA), physically connect it to your system.
  3. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via either:

    # modprobe rtl8180

    or

    # modprobe rtl8187
  4. Verify your device has an available interface:

    # iwconfig
  5. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    # ifconfig wlan0 up
  6. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Supported Devices

rtl8180

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rtl8180 in Debian 2.6.26 kernel images.

rtl8187

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/USB explains how to identify a USB device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rtl8187 in Debian 2.6.26 kernel images.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rtl8187 in Debian 2.6.32 kernel images.

RTL8187SE

The Realtek RTL8187SE is an IEEE 802.11b/g single-chip wireless LAN integrated circuit, with a PCI Express interface. This can be found in the Asus EeePC 701SD.

A driver from Realtek is available for initial device support on Linux systems. This is included in the mainline Linux kernel since 2.6.29-rc1. It is present in Debian kernel images since 2.6.29.

Installation

Lenny

  1. Add the Debian Backports repository to /etc/apt/sources.list, for example:

    # Backported packages for Debian Lenny
    deb http://backports.debian.org/debian lenny-backports main
  2. Update the list of available packages:

    # aptitude update
  3. Install a 2.6.32 kernel image appropriate for your system, along with the wireless-tools package. For example:

    # aptitude -t lenny-backports install linux-image-2.6-$(uname -r | sed 's,.*-,,') wireless-tools
  4. Restart your system and boot with the newly installed kernel.
  5. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:

    $ su
    # modprobe rtl8187se
  6. Verify your device has an available interface:

    # iwconfig
  7. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    # ifconfig wlan0 up
  8. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Squeeze

  1. Install the wireless-tools package:

    $ su
    # aptitude update && aptitude install wireless-tools
  2. The necessary kernel module should be automatically loaded. If necessary, it can be manually loaded via:

    # modprobe rtl8187se
  3. Verify your device has an available interface:

    # iwconfig
  4. Raise the interface to activate the radio, for example:

    # ifconfig wlan0 up
  5. Configure your wireless interface as appropriate.

Supported Devices

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo rtl8187se in Debian 2.6.32 kernel images.

See Also


CategoryHardware | CategoryWireless

  1. Formerly packaged as rtl8187se, removed to resolve Debian bug 522121. (1)