Installation and onboard wifi detection

[mwgary]

Hi,

Just a question regarding the detection of onboard wifi during the OS installation process.

I have two very different computers. Both around 7 or 8 years old. One that's a Lenovo mini, intel chipset, with an Intel Centrino 6235 wifi card on board. The Other is HP Pavilion desktop 550-182, AMD based, with a Realtek RTL8188EE onboard wifi.

The installation process on the Lenovo was very straight forward and couldn't have been more smooth. The wifi card was immediately detected during the installation and was configured correctly. No fuss. On the other hand, wifi detection on the HP was non existent. To get the thing to work, I spent ages on various websites and help groups piecing together the the correct method. Eventually, I got it working.

So, my question is this. Why did the intel one get detected, and the Realtek one didn't. I might be wrong but aren't they both supported in the kernel with modules?

Many thanks, Just curious.

Mark G

 

[nxjoseph]

Hi. rtwn is the driver for realtek wifi cards and it is not included by default in stock GENERIC kernel. So you have to load the rtwn module and configure properly. See rtwn(4)

grep -q rtwn /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC  && echo 'string found' || echo 'string not found'

 

[mwgary]

Hi. rtwn is the driver for realtek wifi cards and it is not included by default in stock GENERIC kernel. So you have to load the rtwn module and configure properly. See rtwn(4)

grep -q rtwn /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC  && echo 'string found' || echo 'string not found'

Which implies that the Intel drivers are included in GENERIC kernel, hence detected during installation. Getting the Realtek to work has been a learning curve, which is a plus!

 

[nxjoseph]

Yeah, they are included in the kernel.

Getting the Realtek to work has been a learning curve, which is a plus!

Good for you

% grep --color=auto Intel /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC | grep wireless
device          ipw                     # Intel 2100 wireless NICs.
device          iwi                     # Intel 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG wireless NICs.
device          iwn                     # Intel 4965/1000/5000/6000 wireless NICs.
device          wpi                     # Intel 3945ABG wireless NICs.