Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

[Larry Finger]

Jorge Munoz wrote:
> I'm a L300 Toshiba user, this laptop has a rtl8187 wifi card (Bus 007
> Device 003: ID 0bda:8198 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.).
> Running down  Ubuntu 8.10 kernel 2.6.27.9-generic based distro
> (www.molinux.info <http://www.molinux.info>), wifi does not work
> correctly, it fall down in few minutes. We can improve this behaviour by
> fixing bit rate ($iwconfig wlan0 rate 12M fixed).
> Now there is a new kernel 2.6.27-11-generic. I would like to know if
> there are improvements about this bug.
> All my colleagues from my region (Castilla La Mancha, Spain) have the
> same laptop (28.000 were delivered by spanish goverment). We have
> created a patch to fix the bit rate and I don't know if it's necessary
> maintain it.
>  I'll be grateful for your support.

There have been patches for the RTL8187B in recent kernels that have
been sent to stable; however, I don't follow the updates to Ubuntu
kernels and do not know if they have been applied there.

The main patch that did the most to improve stability for the rtl8187
devices was:

================

commit 2fcbab044a3faf4d4a6e269148dd1f188303b206
Author: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
Date:   Fri Jan 23 11:46:32 2009 -0600

    rtl8187: Add termination packet to prevent stall

diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
b/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
index 6ad6bac..22bc07e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
@@ -273,6 +273,7 @@ static int rtl8187_tx(struct ieee80211_hw *dev,
struct sk_buff *skb)

 	usb_fill_bulk_urb(urb, priv->udev, usb_sndbulkpipe(priv->udev, ep),
 			  buf, skb->len, rtl8187_tx_cb, skb);
+	urb->transfer_flags |= URB_ZERO_PACKET;
 	usb_anchor_urb(urb, &priv->anchored);
 	rc = usb_submit_urb(urb, GFP_ATOMIC);
 	if (rc < 0) {



Larry

Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

[Hin-Tak Leung]

On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 10:19 PM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> wrote:
> Jorge Munoz wrote:
>> I'm a L300 Toshiba user, this laptop has a rtl8187 wifi card (Bus 007
>> Device 003: ID 0bda:8198 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.).
>> Running down  Ubuntu 8.10 kernel 2.6.27.9-generic based distro
>> (www.molinux.info <http://www.molinux.info>), wifi does not work
>> correctly, it fall down in few minutes. We can improve this behaviour by
>> fixing bit rate ($iwconfig wlan0 rate 12M fixed).
>> Now there is a new kernel 2.6.27-11-generic. I would like to know if
>> there are improvements about this bug.
>> All my colleagues from my region (Castilla La Mancha, Spain) have the
>> same laptop (28.000 were delivered by spanish goverment). We have
>> created a patch to fix the bit rate and I don't know if it's necessary
>> maintain it.
>>  I'll be grateful for your support.

That sounds like various things we have worked on recently.
Unfortunately you will need to install compat-wireless
(see http://linuxwireless.org/), or wait until about 2.6.30 to get
some of the improvements. I say go and install compat-wireless and
publicise your experience with compat-wireless to your colleagues, and
if it does not work, come back.
2.6.27.9 is quite old.

>
> There have been patches for the RTL8187B in recent kernels that have
> been sent to stable; however, I don't follow the updates to Ubuntu
> kernels and do not know if they have been applied there.
>
> The main patch that did the most to improve stability for the rtl8187
> devices was:
>
> ================
>
> commit 2fcbab044a3faf4d4a6e269148dd1f188303b206
> Author: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
> Date:   Fri Jan 23 11:46:32 2009 -0600
>
>    rtl8187: Add termination packet to prevent stall
>
> diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
> b/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
> index 6ad6bac..22bc07e 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187_dev.c
> @@ -273,6 +273,7 @@ static int rtl8187_tx(struct ieee80211_hw *dev,
> struct sk_buff *skb)
>
>        usb_fill_bulk_urb(urb, priv->udev, usb_sndbulkpipe(priv->udev, ep),
>                          buf, skb->len, rtl8187_tx_cb, skb);
> +       urb->transfer_flags |= URB_ZERO_PACKET;
>        usb_anchor_urb(urb, &priv->anchored);
>        rc = usb_submit_urb(urb, GFP_ATOMIC);
>        if (rc < 0) {
>
>
>
> Larry
>
> --
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>

Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

[Hin-Tak Leung]

On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:12 PM, Jorge Munoz <jorgeroden1@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's all right. I have followed all the steps written in compat-wireless
> (http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download#Buildingandinstalling) and it
> works!
> First of all I have had to install build-essential and
> linux-headers-2.6.27-11-generic  in my ubuntu based distro
> (www.molinux.info) compilation has done without any error (very clean).
> This is a key improvement, now  the signal level is better and wireless
> traffic isn't interrupted. Good job. Thank you.
>
> In order to help my colleagues I would like you to advice me about next
> issue. Ubuntu has a linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic but your
> improvement isn't on it yet. The problem is that this package includes
> others modules for Toshiba L300 hardware support (webcam, ...) and should be
> necessary install it. My question is if I can install the rtl8187.ko file
> directly (without compilation process) in another L300 laptop after
> upgrading the system with linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic.
> Thanks again

Kernel modules are matched to the specific kernel version (and
archtecture). I am not familiar with Ubuntu,
but in fact any of your colleague could just
1) copy your /lib/modules/<kver>/updates/ recursively
2) run "depmod -a"
3) either reboot or unload and reload the kernel module with "modprobe
-r rtl8187" then "modprobe -v rtl8187"

In fact step two is probably not necessary if you choose to reboot,
since depmod is often run just based on time-stamp at boot up.

I assume your question is just whether step 1) would work - the answer
is yes, provided you run depmod afterwards, or equivalent. You
actually don't need to copy the whole of that 40+ modules from
compar-wireless, just 4:
rtl8187
mac80211
eeprom_93cx6
cfg80211

(lsmod would tell you this).

Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

[Jorge Muñoz]

Thanks Hin-Tak, I haven't checked your answer yet. When I have got an
answer I' ll post here. But I have to say that I' ve compiled (Ubuntu
8.10 distro based) compat-wireless without uninstalling
linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic and rtl8187 works correctly.

In order to installing compat-wireless rtl8187 driver I' ve done a
shell script to automate compilation process but next
step should be create a .deb package to include this in a repository
tree. Do you know if is there one with stable rtl8187 driver yet
(2.6.27-11)?


On 2/11/09, Hin-Tak Leung <hintak.leung@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:12 PM, Jorge Munoz <jorgeroden1@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's all right. I have followed all the steps written in compat-wireless
>> (http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download#Buildingandinstalling) and it
>> works!
>> First of all I have had to install build-essential and
>> linux-headers-2.6.27-11-generic  in my ubuntu based distro
>> (www.molinux.info) compilation has done without any error (very clean).
>> This is a key improvement, now  the signal level is better and wireless
>> traffic isn't interrupted. Good job. Thank you.
>>
>> In order to help my colleagues I would like you to advice me about next
>> issue. Ubuntu has a linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic but your
>> improvement isn't on it yet. The problem is that this package includes
>> others modules for Toshiba L300 hardware support (webcam, ...) and should
>> be
>> necessary install it. My question is if I can install the rtl8187.ko file
>> directly (without compilation process) in another L300 laptop after
>> upgrading the system with linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic.
>> Thanks again
>
> Kernel modules are matched to the specific kernel version (and
> archtecture). I am not familiar with Ubuntu,
> but in fact any of your colleague could just
> 1) copy your /lib/modules/<kver>/updates/ recursively
> 2) run "depmod -a"
> 3) either reboot or unload and reload the kernel module with "modprobe
> -r rtl8187" then "modprobe -v rtl8187"
>
> In fact step two is probably not necessary if you choose to reboot,
> since depmod is often run just based on time-stamp at boot up.
>
> I assume your question is just whether step 1) would work - the answer
> is yes, provided you run depmod afterwards, or equivalent. You
> actually don't need to copy the whole of that 40+ modules from
> compar-wireless, just 4:
> rtl8187
> mac80211
> eeprom_93cx6
> cfg80211
>
> (lsmod would tell you this).
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-wireless" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>


-- 
www.jorgeroden.blogspot.com
FSF member 5687

Re: rtl8187 in Toshiba L300 linux troubles

[Hin-Tak Leung]

On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Jorge Mu=F1oz <jorgeroden@gmail.com> =
wrote:
> Thanks Hin-Tak, I haven't checked your answer yet. When I have got an
> answer I' ll post here. But I have to say that I' ve compiled (Ubuntu
> 8.10 distro based) compat-wireless without uninstalling
> linux-backports-modules-2.6.27-11-generic and rtl8187 works correctly=
=2E
>
> In order to installing compat-wireless rtl8187 driver I' ve done a
> shell script to automate compilation process but next
> step should be create a .deb package to include this in a repository
> tree. Do you know if is there one with stable rtl8187 driver yet
> (2.6.27-11)?
>

If you just want to distribute your build of kernel modules, you could
just tar up
/lib/modules/*/updates from your machine and untar that on the target m=
achine.

As I said, kernel modules are kernel-version specific, so I am afraid
for each kernel you want to boot you need to build a deb package, if
that's your direction. Something like dkms or equivalent may help you.
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