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Warning: only for Linux Mint 19.x and Ubuntu 18.04.x running on a kernel from the 4.15 series (not any later series), not for Linux Mint 20.x and Ubuntu 20.04.x or later!
In some cases you can try an old and obsoleted driver for Realtek chipsets in the older Linux Mint 19.x and Ubuntu 18.04.x running on a kernel from the 4.15.x kernel series.
You can namely install the obsoleted rtlwifi_new driver from Larry Finger (lwfinger). Larry Finger has unfortunately removed his rtlwifi_new driver from GitHub, but thankfully I've preserved a copy of it which I made in January 2020.
This solution is available for the following common Realtek chipsets:
RTL8192CE, RTL8188CE, RTL8192SE, RTL8192DE, RTL8188EE, RTL8192EE, RTL8723AE, RTL8723BE and RTL8821AE.
Note: for the RTL8723BE chipset, it's sometimes not necessary to replace the driver, because the current driver can sometimes be fixed by modifying the antenna selection (item 2).
This is how to install that driver:
1. Are you unsure what Realtek WiFi chipset you have? That can happen easily, because the brand and type printed on a USB WiFi dongle or internal PCI card are meaningless; "under the hood" it can be anything.
Ordinarily, you can determine your WiFi chipset like this:
a. If it's a USB WiFi dongle, connect it to your computer.
b. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)
c. Use copy/paste to transfer the following command into the terminal:
inxi -Fxz
(if you type: the letter F is a capital letter, and don't omit the space after inxi!)
Press Enter. In the complete hardware overview you get to see then, you should also find your WiFi chipset.
d. But in a few cases, inxi doesn't give sufficient information. You can then proceed as follows:
For a USB WiFi dongle, use copy/paste to transfer the following word into the terminal:
lsusb
Press Enter.
For an internal PCI WiFi card, use the terminal command lspci
e. Now you should see at least one line that approximately resembles the following output (example from my own computer):
Bus 002 Device 007: ID 0bda:b720 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
f. The combination of characters and numbers that I've made red, is the unique ID of your Realtek chipset. Use Google to find out what the type name of that chipset is.
2. Now establish temporary internet connection for your computer by means of your cell phone.
3. Download the driver from my Google Drive. Then unpack the zipped file in your Downloads folder.
4. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)
5. Use copy/paste to transfer the following command line into the terminal:
sudo apt-get install mokutil && mokutil --sb-state
Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.
If it reports that Secure Boot is enabled: reboot and disable Secure Boot in the BIOS. In order to do this, you might need to set an administrator password in the BIOS first.
No worries: although Secure Boot is a fairly reasonable idea in theory, it provides little real-life security anyway. So disabling it is no loss. In practice, Secure Boot is primarily an obstacle for using another operating system than Microsoft Windows. Which might or might not be an intended side effect.
6. Copy/paste the following command line into the terminal, in order to download and install the required build packages (the building tools with which you're going to build the driver):
sudo apt-get install git build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Press Enter. Type your password when prompted. In Ubuntu this remains entirely invisible, not even dots will show when you type it, that's normal. In Mint this has changed: you'll see asterisks when you type. Press Enter again.
7. Copy/paste this line into the terminal, in order to enter the folder with the unpacked driver files:
cd ~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new
Press Enter.
8. Now you're going to compile the required kernel module from the driver files. For that, run this command:
make
9. Finally, install the compiled module with this command:
sudo make install
10. Now you're going to remove the folder with the driver files, which has become useless (and can't be used for other kernels, as it has been tailored to your current kernel by "make"). With this command:
rm -v -R --interactive=never ~/rtlwifi_new
11. Reboot your computer.
12. Your WiFi should work well now: click on the icon of Network Manager in the system tray, in order to see the available wireless networks.
Note: do NOT install kernel updates or new kernels, because then you'll probably lose the driver again! So I advise to lock the current kernel (item 7).
Or if you want to install newer kernels anyway, from time to time: rename the compressed (.tar.gz) file that you've downloaded to wifi-driver and keep it in reserve.
You can then use it in the now familiar way (first unzip it, of course) to build and install the driver again when you've lost your WiFi after booting with a newly installed kernel.
Want more tips?
Do you want more tips and tweaks? There's a lot more of them on this website!
For example:
Speed up your Linux Mint!
Clean your Linux Mint safely
Avoid 10 fatal mistakes
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