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Realtek wireless chipset: install the right driver


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In some cases you can try another driver for Realtek chipsets in Linux Mint 22.x and Ubuntu 24.04.x. This page will show you how.

Contents of this page:

If unsure: determine the WiFi chipset

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 printed in red, is the unique ID of your Realtek chipset. Use Google to find out what the type name of that chipset is.

Driver for the Realtek RTL8192EU chipset (2357:0109)

2. Below you'll find a how-to for installing another driver for your RTL8192EU WiFi chipset. Proceed like this:

a. First establish temporary internet connection for your computer by means of your cell phone.

b. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

c. Copy/paste 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.

d. Copy/paste the following command lines into the terminal, one by one. Press Enter after each individual line:

sudo apt-get install git linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms

git clone https://github.com/clnhub/rtl8192eu-linux.git

cd rtl8192eu-linux

./install_wifi.sh
(note the dot at the beginning of the command line!)

e. Reboot your computer.

f. Now check whether the driver module has been loaded, with this terminal command:

lsmod | grep 8192eu

g. Now you're going to remove the folder with the driver building blocks, 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 ~/rtl8192eu-linux

HP laptop with RTL8723BE chipset: try antenna selection

3. Some HP laptops with the Realtek WiFi chipset card RTL8723BE have just one antenna on that card designed for two (stingy HP, anyone?). This has caused many problems for Linux users, as the default antenna is usually the missing one....

But thanks to Larry Finger and the good people at Realtek you can do some testing with a module parameter that allows for antenna selection. As follows:

a. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

b. First unload the currently active module with this command (use copy/paste to transfer it into the terminal):

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723be

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.

c. Then reload it with the instruction to use antenna number 2, with this command:

sudo modprobe rtw_8723be ant_sel=2

Press Enter.

d. Then check the signal strength with this command:

iwlist scan | egrep -i 'ssid|quality'

Press Enter.

e. Then test the the other antenna (number 1), to find out which one has a stronger signal. For this, execute the following three commands:

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723be

sudo modprobe rtw_8723be ant_sel=1

iwlist scan | egrep -i 'ssid|quality'

f. If ant_sel=2 gives the best signal (which is usually the case), do this (this is one line, use copy/paste to transfer it to the terminal):

echo "options rtw_8723be ant_sel=2" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723be.conf

Reboot your computer.

If ant_sel=1 gives the best signal (unusual, but not impossible), do this (this is one line, use copy/paste to transfer it to the terminal):

 echo "options rtw_8723be ant_sel=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723be.conf

(obsoleted)

4. This item has been obsoleted.

HP laptop with RTL8723DE chipset: try antenna selection or a new driver

5. Some HP laptops with the Realtek WiFi chipset card RTL8723DE have just one antenna on that card designed for two (stingy HP, anyone?). This has caused many problems for Linux users, as the default antenna is usually the missing one....

But thanks to Larry Finger and the good people at Realtek you can do some testing with a module parameter that allows for antenna selection. As follows:

a. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

b. First unload the currently active module with this command (use copy/paste to transfer it into the terminal):

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723de

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.

c. Then reload it with the instruction to use antenna number 2, with this command:

sudo modprobe rtw_8723de ant_sel=2

Press Enter.

d. Then check the signal strength with this command:

iwlist scan | egrep -i 'ssid|quality'

Press Enter.

e. Then test the the other antenna (number 1), to find out which one has a stronger signal. For this, execute the following three commands:

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723de

sudo modprobe rtw_8723de ant_sel=1

iwlist scan | egrep -i 'ssid|quality'

f. If ant_sel=2 gives the best signal (which is usually the case), do this (this is one line, use copy/paste to transfer it to the terminal):

echo "options rtw_8723de ant_sel=2" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723de.conf

Reboot your computer.

If ant_sel=1 gives the best signal (unusual, but not impossible), do this (this is one line, use copy/paste to transfer it to the terminal):

echo "options rtw_8723de ant_sel=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/rtw_8723de.conf

g. Hasn't this hack improved matters? Then try the rtw88 driver from Larry Finger, as described in item 6 below.

The rtw88 driver for many Realtek chipsets

6. For the following Realtek WiFi chipsets you can install the rtw88 driver:
RTL8723DE, RTL8814AE, RTL8821CE, RTL8822BE, RTL8822CE, RTL8723CS, RTL8723DS, RTL8821CS, RTL8822BS, RTL8822CS, RTL8723DU, RTL8811AU, RTL8811CU, RTL8812AU, RTL8812BU, RTL8812CU, RTL8814AU, RTL8821AU, RTL8821CU, RTL8822BU, RTL8822CU.

Note: For the RTL8723DE chipset it's sometimes not necessary to replace the driver, because the default driver can sometimes be fixed by switching the antenna selection, as described in item 5 on this page.

a. First establish temporary internet connection for your computer by means of your cell phone.

b. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

c. Copy/paste 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.

d. 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.

e. Download the actual driver (the construction kit) by means of git, with this command (use copy/paste):

git clone https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88.git

f. Copy/paste this line into the terminal, in order to enter the folder with the driver packages:

cd rtw88

Press Enter.

g. Now you're going to compile the required kernel module from the driver package. For that, run this command:

make

h. Then, install the compiled module by executing this command:

sudo make install

i. Now execute this command, in order to install the necessary firmware:

sudo make install_fw

j. Then execute this command, in order to put the required configuration file at the right spot:

sudo cp -v rtw88.conf /etc/modprobe.d/

k. Now you're going to remove the folder with the driver building blocks, which has become useless (and can't be used for other kernels, as it has been tailored to your current kernel by "make"). By executing this command:

rm -v -R --interactive=never ~/rtw88

l. Reboot your computer.

m. 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: download the folder with the driver build packages again with git, create a compressed (.tar.gz) file from it, rename the compressed file 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.

The rtw89 driver for some Realtek chipsets

7. For the following Realtek WiFi chipsets you can install the rtw89 driver:
RTL8831BU, RTL8851BU, RTL8832AU, RTL8852AU, RTL8832BU, RTL8852BU, RTL8832CU, RTL8852CU, RTL8912AU, RTL8922AU (no MLO yet), RTL8851BE, RTL8852AE, RTL8852BE(-VS, -VT), RTL8852CE, RTL8922AE(-VS).

a. First establish temporary internet connection for your computer by means of your cell phone.

b. Launch a terminal window.
(You can launch a terminal window like this: *Click*)

c. Copy/paste 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.

d. 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.

e. Download the actual driver (the construction kit) by means of git, with this command (use copy/paste):

git clone https://github.com/morrownr/rtw89

f. Copy/paste this line into the terminal, in order to enter the folder with the driver packages:

cd rtw89

Press Enter.

g. Now you're going to compile the required kernel module from the driver package. For that, run this command:

make clean modules

h. Then install the compiled module by executing this command:

sudo make install

i. Now install the firmware needed for the driver, by executing this command:

sudo make install_fw

j. Then copy a settings file to the right location, by executing this command:

sudo cp -v rtw89.conf /etc/modprobe.d/

k. Now you're going to remove the folder with the driver building blocks, which has become useless (and can't be used for other kernels, as it has been tailored to your current kernel by "make"). By executing this command:

rm -v -R --interactive=never ~/rtw89

l. Reboot your computer.

m. 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: download the folder with the driver build packages again with git, create a compressed (.tar.gz) file from it, rename the compressed file 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.

Check the Draft tips for more Realtek WiFi solutions

8. Didn't find what you were looking for? On the Draft tips page you'll find more Realtek solutions.


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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