Comments on: Hacking The RTL8187b On Linux

By: Martin Meredith

Martin Meredith — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Hmm, you say that the RTL8187B works with WEP but not WPA? I seem to have it the other way round. I can get it to connect to WPA, but not to WEP under Jaunty

By: Brian Cantin

Brian Cantin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 18:41:00 +0000

Check your makefile – does it have “CFLAGS +=
$(EXTRA_CFLAGS)” somewhere? Try removing that line and try again.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:13:00 +0000

I tried to compile the modified driver on my laptop running FC9 latest kernel version 2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686 but I got this error msg:

[root@phuongnn rtl8187b-modified]# ./makedrv
rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.mod.* *.ko *.o *~
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686/build M=/root/rtl8187b-modified/ieee80211 CC=gcc modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686'
scripts/Makefile.build:46: *** CFLAGS was changed in "/root/rtl8187b-modified/ieee80211/Makefile". Fix it to use EXTRA_CFLAGS. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/root/rtl8187b-modified/ieee80211] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2
rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko *~
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686/build M=/root/rtl8187b-modified/rtl8187 CC=gcc modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686'
scripts/Makefile.build:46: *** CFLAGS was changed in "/root/rtl8187b-modified/rtl8187/Makefile". Fix it to use EXTRA_CFLAGS. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/root/rtl8187b-modified/rtl8187] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.27.5-41.fc9.i686'
make: *** [modules] Error 2

Could you please help me to solve this.

Thanks,
Tuan

By: Brian Cantin

Brian Cantin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Sadly my wireless adapter seems to have burnt itself out so I can’t test this any further. I’ve switched to a different wireless platform. Good luck!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:58:00 +0000

If lsusb gives:
Bus 007 Device 003: ID 0bda:8198 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

use driver modified by me. All others doesnt work with ID :8198!
Probably module included with kernel 2.6.27 douesnt work with that id too.
http://rapidshare.com/files/152036377/rtl8187b_linux_driver_modified_for_0bda-8198_darck.zip.html

following installation:
./makedrv
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
add to this file: /change/path/to/correct/wlan0up
sudo apt-get install wicd
after restart chenge in wicd settings wireless interface to correct one (usually wlan0 or wlan1, can be checked by iwconfig)

run wicd, press refresh, APs should be detected. Press connect, vuala
———-
!?!?!!:
-driver compilation ./makedrv requires libraries: linux-headers- (install if gets fatal error)
-this driver probably doesn’t work with ID other than: 0bda:8198.
OR:
use (in /etc/rc.local) wlan0up in following way:
lsusb gives for example: Bus 007 Device 002: ID 0bda:8198 Realtek Semiconductor Corp., so:
wlan0up force_card=0×8189
-I couldn’t compile this driver with kernel v. 2.6.27

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:37:00 +0000

How well does the driver work for you? I’m running 2.6.27-rc5 on a Toshiba Satellite L350D-12M, and I’m getting quite a bit of packet loss – the WiFi signal is much worse than on my old Thinkpad X31.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:01:00 +0000

Hey, I'm a Linux newbie, dual booting Ubuntu 2.6.24-19-generic...well, trying to, anyway. I have the Realtek RTL8187B wireless card. I tried to follow the given directions to install the modified driver, but when I run the Makefile, I get the following error:

make[1]: entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-19-generic'
scripts/Makefile.build:46: ***CFLAGS was changed in "/wifi/ieee8021/Makefile". Fix it to use EXTRA_CFLAGS. Stop.
make[1]: *** [_module_/wifi/ieee80211] Error 2

This is followed by another identical error, except its in the RTL8187 makefile instead of the ieee80211 makefile. Any ideas? I'm in college, and being able to run Linux from my room would be much more convenient than running to the computer lab all the time. Also, I already checked the kernel sources and linux headers packages, and (I think) they're already installed. If you need any more info, let me know. Thanks in advance!

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:15:00 +0000

I patched the 2.6.26 kernel source with the 2.6.27-rc3 patch. Compiled the kernel. Installed it, and rebooted.

After some mucking around with settings, and adding and removing connections several times (a la windoze), and removing MAC filtering on the wireless, this now works. I am using it now.

Your blog got me pointed in the right direction, and I found a lot of help over at the opensuse forums (my distro).

Good luck to those out there. It DOES work, and will be mainstream when the 2.6.27 kernel is released (maybe 6 weeks).

Good luck!

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:38:00 +0000

If you are into compiling your own kernels, check out 2.6.27-rc3 at kernel.org, which is supposed to have native support for this adapter.

I will be giving it a shot tomorrow.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:52:00 +0000

Hello I am new to Linux and I just installed SUSE 10.2 on my A215 and wanted to use the wireless adapter but when I open the makedrv it throws me the following error:
/makedrv: line 5: cd: ieee80211: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `clean'. Stop.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
/home/Dragon20119/Documents/rtl8187B_linux_24.6.1024.0822.2007/makedrv: line 8: cd: ../rtl8187: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `clean'. Stop.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

I know something is wrong because I extraced all the files and folders to the same destination and I double cheked for the names... Could you plz help me
Chris