How can I get a Realtek driver for FreeBSD?

SirDice said:
That's a Linux driver, you cannot install Linux drivers on FreeBSD.
Click to expand...

Well that is good to know. Thank you, sir!

But since FreeBSD does not support my RTL8723BE wireless chipset, am I shit out of luck, or is there some technical stuff I could do to make FreeBSD detect and use my device?
 
The (only) technical stuff that will work is to either improve existing FreeBSD drivers to support your device, or to write a FreeBSD driver for your device. But this is real work; it takes knowledge and time.
Sorry, there are no magical formulas in the real world.

If you are pragmatic and have the money, you can always buy a usb wireless dongle that is supported by a FreeBSD driver. Using apropos wireless will tell you about the man pages with the word "wireless" in them. If you read the man pages for wireless drivers, you will find out which chipsets are supported. Now your quest is reduced to finding a usb wireless dongle which states the chipset used. Good luck!
 
In theory, you could run both Linux and FreeBSD simultaneously on your laptop (using virtual machines), use Linux just for connecting to the network and bridging to the other OS, and then use FreeBSD as your normal operating system. Sounds like a crazy hack, and lots of work: (probably an hour or two for someone who has experience setting up VMs, way more for someone who's never done it before. Just for one wireless chip that's out of line; getting a USB wireless device seems more practical.
 
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It's possible to forward network traffic from a host to a VM running on that host using NAT.
Curious, is there a way to bridge or forward network traffic from a VM running on the host to the host itself?
 
That is a fairly new chip and NDISulator is based on Windows XP drivers. Did not specifically look but I'm cynical that there will be a Windows XP driver for this chip.

Another option is to replace the card with one that is supported. I replaced an realtek wifi card on an HP Stream 14 but it was a bit of a chore to pry the case open. Depending on the make/model of your laptop, this can be easier or harder. The other thing to investigate is if the BIOS has a vendor whitelist. My HP Stream did but it was easy to get an intel card that had been pulled from an HP laptop and was listed as supported.
 
If you do go the wifi dongle route and don't know which one to buy, remember that the popularity of the Raspberry Pi means that loads of these online shops now provide pretty compatible hardware (originally intended for Raspbian Linux).
 
Edimax EW-7811un Version 1 USB nano dongle works with rtwn driver. Uses the RealTek RTL8192cu chipset USB Vendor/Product Ids 7392:7811. Edimax EW-7811un Version2 uses the RTL8188EU RealTek chipset USB Vendor/Product Ids 7392:b811
Reference these 2 GhostBSD forum posts, that I wrote to manually get a driver installed and working with GhostBSD to have Wifi operational. I share some brief FreeBSD commands below, yet read the 2 posts referenced below for greater details and explanation

GhostBSD uses the same terminal (CLI) commands as FreeBSD. Find what devices are connected on the PCI bus and the USB bus with the following terminal commands. See if your Wi-Fi device is listed there in the output from the following commands.
You need to know your installed networking hardware and installed kernel modules and your version and revision of freebsd.
uname -a or uname -k command and look for the revision number like r310386 and the Kernel version FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT #1 The separate usb and pci drivers were combined into one rtwn driver module, with 2 interface kernel modules if_rtwn_usb.ko & if_rtwn_pci.ko after Release r310386 ( Verify Release number )

Then check the PCI bus devices and the USB bus devices to see what you have for WiFi hardware in your computer.
pciconf -lv
usbconfig list or usbconfig dump_device_desc


Now edit 3 Files to add configuration lines into them. This will make Wi-Fi operational
/boot/loader.conf /etc/rc.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Create rtwn0 device. Only needed the first time when installing Wi-Fi. This is persistent over future use and reboots.
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev rtwn0

Check operation of wlan0 device. Scan for Wi-Fi access points
ifconfig wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up scan
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up

Kill any previous instances of dhclient running.
killall dhclient Then issue the wpa_supplicant command to configure the details of the Wi-Fi device. A Debug version of wpa_supplicant is wpa_supplicant -d -K -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Now kill the dhclient and issue the wpa_supplicant command again in the background. Networking should come up and your ping commands should work
killall dhclient
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhclient wlan0


Check operation of network statistics or socket statistics
netstat -r
netstat -i
sockstat -4

When you make changes to the network, you might have to restart the network and routing processes. This should bring up the network and connect again.

service netif restart
service routing restart


ifconfig wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up
Check if we can ping localhost first using just IP numbers,\; then 2nd time using DNS lookup
ping -c 3 127.0.0.1
ping -c 3 localhost
Check if we can ping through external internet connection to Google.com
ping -c 3 8.8.8.8
ping -c 3 he.net ping IPS backbone provider Hurricane Electric in Fremont California, simple to type he.net


Edimax EW-7811un Wifi setup for GhostBSD / FreeBSD This is helpful reading to understand manual commands
RealTek RTL8188CE PCI card Wifi setup uses RTWN device driver This is helpful reading to understand manual commands.

Optional idea is to use a cell phone cable connected to your cell phone, for a tethered internet connection.
https://forums.ghostbsd.org/ USB cellphone tethering for Network connection This is helpful using a USB Tethering from your cellphone data via USB cable


EDIMAX EW-7811un details from manufacture website with a picture

EW-7811Un_Raspberry_Pi_Amzaon+_banner_02_970x300_web.jpg



RaspberryPi USB Wi-Fi Adapters listing with detail comments Some more reading to find usable Wifi Dongles for FreeBSD use by chipset number and User ID, this document references usage in a Linux Environment.
 
Last edited:
wb7odyfred said:
Edimax EW-7811un USB nano dongle works with rtwn driver. Uses the RealTek RTL8192cu chipset .
Reference these 2 GhostBSD forum posts, that I wrote to manually get a driver installed and working with GhostBSD to have Wifi operational. I share some brief FreeBSD commands below, yet read the 2 posts referenced below for greater details and explanation

GhostBSD uses the same terminal (CLI) commands as FreeBSD. Find what devices are connected on the PCI bus and the USB bus with the following terminal commands. See if your Wi-Fi device is listed there in the output.
pciconf -lv
usbconfig list or usbconfig dump_device_desc


Now edit 3 Files to add configuration lines into them. This will make Wi-Fi operational
/boot/loader.conf /etc/rc.conf /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Create rtwn0 device. Only needed the first time when installing Wi-Fi. Is persistent over future use and reboots.
ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev rtwn0

Check operation of wlan0 device.
ifconfig wlan0
ifconfig wlan0 up scan

Kill any previous instances of dhclient running. Then issue the wpa_supplicant command to configure the details of the Wi-Fi device. A Debug version of wpa_supplicant is wpa_supplicant -d -K -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
killall dhclient
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhclient wlan0



service netif restart
service routing restart



Check if we can ping localhost first using IP numbers then 2nd using DNS lookup
ping -c 3 127.0.0.1
ping -c 3 localhost
Check if we can ping through external internet connection to Google.com
ping -c 3 8.8.8.8
ping -c 3 he.net ping IPS backbone provider Hurricane Electric in Fremont California, simple to type he.net


Edimax EW-7811un Wifi setup for GhostBSD / FreeBSD This is helpful reading to understand manual commands
RealTek RTL8188CE PCI card Wifi setup uses RTWN device driver This is helpful reading to understand manual commands.

Optional idea is to use a cell phone cable connected to your cell phone, for a tethered internet connection.
https://forums.ghostbsd.org/ USB cellphone tethering for Network connection This is helpful using a USB Tethering from your cellphone data via USB cable


EDIMAX EW-7811un details from manufacture website with a picture

View attachment 8563


RaspberryPi USB Wi-Fi Adapters listing with detail comments Some more reading to find usable Wifi Dongles for FreeBSD use by chipset number and User ID, this document references usage in a Linux Environment.
Click to expand...

On FreeBSD, its only requiered to setup ifconfig in /etc/rc.conf and the network in /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.
 
How to configure RTL8188CUS usb wifi
?. when I connect in my lap ideapad (LENOVO) , it is not recognised ...? what are the steps I need to follow?......Thanks for your valuable advice
 
root@abhi:/usr/home/abhi # ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev rtwn0
ifconfig: SIOCIFCREATE2: Device not configured
root@abhi:/usr/home/abhi #
 
Abhi said:
How to configure RTL8188CUS usb wifi
?. when I connect in my lap ideapad (LENOVO) , it is not recognised ...? what are the steps I need to follow?......Thanks for your valuable advice
Click to expand...
Start with these commands here to identify your Wifi Hardware Vendor/Product Ids.
http://bsd-hardware.info/ hw-probe -all This might probe from the website??

u name -a or uname -k What version of FreeBSD are you running?

Please provide more info by https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/hw-probe for diagnostics.
My valuable advice was to try the commands I listed in my Post above and to Follow Alexanders advice to read the FreeBSD Handbook Section 31.3 Wireless Networking. When I started there was not available a hand holding how to start from the beginning. I tried to write that in the forums.GhostBSD.org post I refered to up above I read a lot of web articles, forum posts, FreeBSD handbook to find out the details to manually issue commands to make Wi-Fi networking operational. It was hard to start, because I did not know what commands to issue in what order to find the information to edit into the files. It broke down to editing 3 files, issue a few command lines for me to be able to ping a network like ping -c 3 192.168.1.1 or ping -c 3 8.8.4.4 or ping -c 3 he.net. After that setup, networking just worked for me. Networking automatically connected the next time I booted up. I have placed the contents of those 3 files below: /boot/loader.conf,/etc/rc.conf,/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Note that FreeBSD 12.0 the USB and PCI versions of the RealTek driver were incorporated in to one driver Kernel module rtwn.ko if_rtwn_usb.ko if_rtwn_pci.ko. Kernel modules that can be loaded with command kldload rtwn if_rtwn_usb . kldstat will show which kernel Modules were loaded into memory.

Can we see your USB Wi-Fi dongle connected and identified in the following 2 commands.
Code: 
usbconfig list
usbconfig dump_device_desc

What are the outputs of the above two commands? Do you see the Wifi chip set IDs there, reported back to you?. No, pull out the USB dongle and reinsert to make sure it is seated good.

Check the output from dmesg looking for wireless information.
Code: 
dmesg | less
dmesg | grep wlan
dmesg | grep rtl

sysctl net.wlan.devices

cat /var/log/messages

First verify that the USB wifi dongle is securely inserted into the USB socket.
I strongly recommend reading the webpages linked up above and report back what messages you receive. You may say it "FAILS", but I am not there to see the messages to understand what exactly is failing.
Edimax EW-7811un Wifi setup for GhostBSD / FreeBSD This is helpful reading to understand manual commands to test and diagnose a wifi connection.

I copied and placed the contents of those 3 files below, so that you have a template to work from

/boot/loader.con
Code: 
legal.realtek.license_ack=1
if_rtwn_usb_load="YES"   #USB version Edimax 7811un [color=#000080]RTL8192CU[/color] installation lines
if_rtwn_load="YES"
rtwn-rtl8192cfwU_load="YES"
/etc/rc.conf
Code: 
wlans_rtwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0=" WPA SYNCDHCP"
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
Code: 
network={
    #: my NetGear box
    ssid="NETGEAR59"
    psk="my_passkey_892"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
network={
   #:  simple Open Access point
   ssid="innflux"
   key_mgmt=NONE
}

Code: 
# kill the running dhclient process
killall dhclient
# Debug wifi with information.  Use the following line for testing with the Debug and wifi Password debug printout options
wpa_supplicant -d -K -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhclient wlan0

# use the No Debug version to start wifi
killall  dhclient
#  Manually issue the wpa_supplicant with the background Dameon option and dhclient commands
wpa_supplicant -B -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
dhclient wlan0



The newer version of the Edimax EW-7811un Version2 is a RTL8188EU RealTek device USB Vendor/Product IDs 7392:B811 The Edimax EW-7811un Version1 is a RTL8192CU or RTL8188CU RealTek device USB Vendor/Product IDs 7392:7811
So you might have to edit the RTWN FreeBSD driver to have the ability to recognize the newer version Edimax EW-7811unV2 device. Look at the file rtwn_usb_attach.h for the details.
 
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