RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter on Mint 21<Solved>

[LinuxMTnewUser]

Wifi adapter ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
NOT working properly on Mint 21. It has low signal. Restored back to Mint 20.3 and all works well again. Tried all to my ability but to no avail. More testing needed so I will test a fresh install on a new drive.

[LinuxMTnewUser]

Ok so I decided to boot into LM21 live. The difference between LM20.3 and LM21 is the driver. I copied All info in a txt file.
From what I as a noob can see is the kernel driver is different! I did go to https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8188eu/tree/v5.2.2.4 but this is a bit advanced for me.
Can anyone assist with this?

Linux Mint 20.3
lsmod lib80211 16384 1 r8188eu
NetworkManager -V 1.22.10
With Kernel 5.4.0-122-generic
The "rtl8188eu" driver

Linux Mint 21
lsmod r8188eu 671744 0
NetworkManager -V 1.36.4
With Kernel 5.15.0-41-generic
The "r8188eu" driver

[sleeper12]

"The "rtl8188eu" driver has been replaced by the "r8188eu" driver."
From: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-5.15-Staging

[sleeper12]

If you reinstall Mint 21, you could try #2 here:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... t.html#ID2

If not, just stay with Mint 20.3, supported until April 2025.

[LinuxMTnewUser]

Thank you very much for replying. I tried that before restoring. Must say in my venture to resolve this I also visited a site that said don't buy hardware with this chipset. Well I just bought it new about 7 months ago. Just thought I can manage to resolve it I will try a bit more before I give up It does teach me a bit more on kernel and drivers. At least I can work again on 20.3 but will try a new setup on another hdd and keep the forum up to date if I discover a solution. Thanks again!

[LinuxMTnewUser]

Hi Guys.
This worked for me after restarting.
https://github.com/ivanovborislav/rtl8188eu

[sleeper12]

Ok, good. Edit your first post & add 'Solved' to the Subject line.

[LinuxMTnewUser]

Thanks! Still a newbie at forums Oh I forgot what will happen if a kernel update comes to the update manager? Will this override my install of this driver?

[hglee]

Wifi adapter ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
NOT working properly on Mint 21. It has low signal. Restored back to Mint 20.3 and all works well again.

I just got a TP-Link WN725N (v3.0) Nano USB-2 dongle, a humble 150Mbps WiFi-4. It has the Realtek RTL8188EUS (0bda:8179) chipset.

Seeing the driver file in Mint 21 had me believe the WN725N should run, right-out-of-the-box. Mint could see it with lsusb, but otherwise couldn't get a response out of it. Thought I'd bought a dud. Then, for a look-see, I booted Windows 10 -- which smugly used my laptop's onboard MT7921 WiF-6 to find a driver for the 8188EUS. And it ran, just fine.

So, head hanging in despair, I boot back home to Mint... and suddenly the 8188EUS is as happy as a lark -- using the driver that comes with Mint 21. Maybe the WN725N was shamed back to life, thinking that it would be relegated to only ever be used with Windows!

Yeah, that must be why.

[sleeper12]

Thanks! Still a newbie at forums Oh I forgot what will happen if a kernel update comes to the update manager? Will this override my install of this driver?

Not sure, but if it does, just reinstall the driver. Or, you can lock the current kernel:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... 2.html#ID7