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I'm really struggling to have working wifi on my laptop lenovo E540. I googled about my network card using ubuntu, but nothing solved my problem.
First of all, I installed Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64-bit. I could use wifi, but after few minutes it would turn off and I could not connect to wifi again. So I started googling.
lspci:

Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

First of all, I found this thread with comment 29 to be helpful for many users having same controller as me. So I installed it and got kernel panic. I googled more. Found kozak127's edited rtl8723be. Tried it, got kernel panic.
Here is suggested to use older kernel. No differece there for me. My kernel:

3.13.0-35-generic

So my question is: Is there a way to get this realtek controller working? how?

Offtopic: I bought a new laptop, so I would have less problems than I had with lenovo n500 and ubuntu. Is there a brand that works great with linux? I looked up lenovo n540 and linux compatibility and no problems were reported there.

EDIT 1:

/etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
/lib/modules/3.13.0-32-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be
/lib/modules/3.13.0-32-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be/rtl8723be.ko
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-32/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-32/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be/Makefile
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-32-generic/include/config/rtl8723be.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-35/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-35/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be/Makefile
/usr/src/linux-headers-3.13.0-35-generic/include/config/rtl8723be.h
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  • Did you uninstall both the packages that caused a kernel panic? Is there any clue here? dmesg | grep rtl Thanks.
    – chili555
    Aug 29, 2014 at 21:23
  • I blacklisted them. I can not uninstall if it is blacklisted :( Should I run apt-get purge or something like that? dmesg | grep returns nothing, because it blacklisted. I don't see wifi option in my panel with that driver blacklisted.
    – Lucas03
    Aug 30, 2014 at 10:06

4 Answers 4

3

The system natively includes the driver rtl8723be. We need to troubleshoot the native driver. Before we do so, please uninstall the two drivers you installed that caused kernel panics. Follow the process you followed previously for both, except instead of make and sudo make install, do sudo make uninstall.

Then do:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Use nano or kate or leafpad if you don't have the text editor gedit. Remove the line: blacklist rtl8723be. Proofread carefully, save and close the text editor.

Now do:

sudo modprobe rtl8723be swenc=1
sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

Is your wireless working better now? If so, we'll amend a couple of files and make it permanent.

It appears that, somehow, the rtl8723be was deleted in the process of trying two replacements that failed by causing kernel panics. Let's try to reinstall the current linux-image. With a working internet connection:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-image-$(uname -r)

After it's done, retry the steps above.

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  • thanks, I uninstalled both drivers. No kernel panic now. But now I'm missing rtl8723be driver. modprobe: FATAL: Module rtl8723be not found.. How do I install it?
    – Lucas03
    Aug 30, 2014 at 13:08
  • If you are running 14.04.1, it should be present by default. Let's see if we can locate it: sudo updatedb This will take a few moments, please be patient. Then: locate rtl8723be.ko In my case, among others: /lib/modules/3.13.0-35-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be/rtl8723be.ko
    – chili555
    Aug 30, 2014 at 13:30
  • yep, its there: /lib/modules/3.13.0-32-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8723be/rtl8723be.ko
    – Lucas03
    Aug 30, 2014 at 14:12
  • And is 3.13.0-32 the kernel you are running right now? uname -r Do you have temporary ethernet or other connectivity so you can update?
    – chili555
    Aug 30, 2014 at 14:26
  • no, i'm running 3.13.0-35-generic.
    – Lucas03
    Aug 30, 2014 at 14:27
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I've resolved that on my Lenovo Flex2 with Ubuntu 14.10, installing the new driver from https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new. It seems to have solved my problems, don't forget to reboot Ubuntu.

Procedure:

After to unzip that run the following command to install the new drive

$: make $: sudo make install

reboot the OS.

note: we've to run the same procedure every time we want to upgrade our Ubuntu with a new kernel

note2: in Ubuntu 15.04 is not necessary to make that

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  • 1
    This worked for me on Linux Mint Rebecca. When I looked, the driver file was updated 19 days ago, thus 23 Feb 2015. One small note, after make install some permission errors, but sudo make install seems to do rest of work. Mar 14, 2015 at 17:45
0

Ok, there are still bugs with the rtl8723be on kernel 3.15.x.

I found the perfect fix with no disconnections or anything.

Go here and download and install all 3 debs for 32 or 64 bit:

http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/08/install-upgrade-linux-kernel-3-16/

Choose 32-bit or 64-bit (depending on which system you installed)

reboot into the new 3.16.x

Run:

apt-get -f autoremove

Next run:

dpkg --list | grep linux-image


apt-get purge (Old Kernel):

exp: apt-get purge linux-image-3.14-kali1-amd64

or

apt-get purge linux-image-3.14

Once you removed old kernel run:

update-grub2

After you are done, reboot. The wireless drivers will be 100% working and no data drops like in 3.15.x kernel!

& drivers are pre-installed in the new kernel!

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  • 1
    Still not working on 3.16 for me.
    – Teaqu
    Nov 2, 2014 at 14:59
0

I found this solution, and worked perfectly on a Lenovo g40-30 so i guess it should work in other lenovo pc...

quote:

for one time test:

sudo rmmod ideapad_laptop

for working after reboot:

echo "blacklist ideapad_laptop" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ideapad.conf

found it in: Wifi Not Working On Ubuntu 14.04 Lenovo G 50-30

prior to that I re-installed the module, updated the kernel to 3.16, and none of that worked. this piece of code did make the realtek run

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