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No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Hi all.

I've just installed Artix linux on  a laptop.
Then   I installed from AUR:
5 aur/rtl8821ce-dkms 1.0.5.r110.gd95376d-1 (+2 0.75) (Installed)
    rtl8821CE driver with firmware

But I have no wireless.

This is the situation at the moment:

lspci:
07:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

uname -r:
5.9.2-artix1-1

ifconfig:
wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether f2:87:cd:9d:1b:9d  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lsmod | grep 8821
8821ce               1974272  0
rtw88_8821ce           16384  0
rtw88_8821c            77824  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_pci              28672  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core            192512  2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c
cfg80211              913408  3 rtw88_core,mac80211,8821ce

rc-service NetworkManager status
 * status: started

... obviously I'm doing something wrong, any hints?

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #1
Just wanted to add that ifconfig shows eth0 and lo normally, of course.

Rmoving the AUR rtl8821CE driver and rebooting doesn't solve anything, ifconfig still shows wlan0 and
Code: [Select]
lsmod | grep 882   gives:

rtw88_8821ce           16384  0
rtw88_8821c            77824  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_pci              28672  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core            192512  2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #2
hi, i have same card

Quote
04:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

Code: [Select]
[picasso etc]# lsmod | grep 8821
8821ce               1978368  0
rtw88_8821ce           16384  0
rtw88_8821c            77824  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_pci              28672  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core            204800  2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c
cfg80211              925696  3 rtw88_core,mac80211,8821ce

i tested now newest kernel (linux-zen-5.9.3) and newest driver rtl8821ce-dkms-git 1.0.5.r112.gda13a5b-1 and all works without problem . Networkmanager under KDE works!

some info about driver  https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce/blob/da13a5be26889c8040b1db9b9e3e27bf2eb1b438/README.md

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #3
lsmod | grep 882   gives:

rtw88_8821ce           16384  0
rtw88_8821c            77824  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_pci              28672  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core            192512  2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c


seems, that  driver 8821ce !!  missing in lsmod. Please check it again, or try load it manually
Code: [Select]
modprobe 8821ce
or check dkms build

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #4
I did as Alium suggested and I am also using kde plasma.
So now I have the 5.9.3 zen kernel - but the system doesn't boot, because grub looks for the wrong kernel, so how do I update grub on an artix system when I change kernel?

I booted by editing the kernel on the command line, so for the moment that's ok.
Code: [Select]
uname -r
Quote
5.9.3-zen1-1-zen

But although I have the right modules, I believe:

Code: [Select]
lsmod | grep 8821 
Quote
8821ce               1978368  0
rtw88_8821ce           16384  0
rtw88_8821c            77824  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_pci              28672  1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core            204800  2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c
cfg80211              925696  3 rtw88_core,mac80211,8821ce

And although ifconfig shows wireless:
Code: [Select]
ifconfig
Quote
eth0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.162  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::3ae6:127c:942f:3198  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether f8:75:a4:d6:5c:12  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 699  bytes 110762 (108.1 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 418  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 311  bytes 54833 (53.5 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 714  bytes 55296 (54.0 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 714  bytes 55296 (54.0 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlan0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 5e:13:5b:f5:55:5e  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Wireless doesn't work, even though:
Code: [Select]
rfkill list
Quote
0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no
1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth
        Soft blocked: yes
        Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: no

rc-service NetworkManager status
started

So, it looks like some configuration option is wrong somewhere .. but why and where?

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #5
manual scanning (like iwconfig wlan0 scan) works?

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #6
Code: [Select]
iwconfig wlan0 scan
iwconfig: unknown command "scan"

iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

wlan0     unassociated  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency=2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated  
          Sensitivity:0/0 
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

By the way, I downgraded the kernel to LTS and reinstalled the rtl8821ce module, but still no joy.

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #7
Not very clear what you meant by "no wifi" ?  You were not able to configure the wireless connection or not able to connect?

Seems that the driver is loaded and your wireless card is activated.  Did you check your wpa_supplicant service?

Code: [Select]
rc-service wpa_supplicant status

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #8
No wifi .. means that Wifi networks are not seen, so there is no way to connect to them. At the same time, no bluetooth - it says that no adapter was found at all. The RTL8821CE is a dual WiFi - bluetooth chip.

So I reformatted my hard disk and installed Manjaro to see what happened; same thing: bluetooth adapter "doesn't exist" and Wifi theoretically exists ( wlan0 is present) but no Wifi is seen. I also tried deactivating and then reactivating the wifi from the Bios without luck.

At this point I'm sure it's a hardware problem, the laptop is almost brand new ( may 2020 ) so I'll try to see if I can get it repaired and how long it would take. Otherwise I'll try an external wifi dongle.


Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #9
Quote
iwconfig wlan0 scan

my bad, sorry

Code: [Select]
iwlist wlan0 scan

EDIT: to your situation, I had a similar problem with wifi. Then it suddenly started working ... (I'm currently using another card, 8821ce I have for Soft-AP). Should be more driver problem. 8821ce should recieve driver in future versions of the kernel (next months) - it's planned. You have a very new card - you could say. (My comp is from Jan 2020)

Re: No wifi with Realtek RTL8821CE

Reply #10
No wifi .. means that Wifi networks are not seen, so there is no way to connect to them. At the same time, no bluetooth - it says that no adapter was found at all. The RTL8821CE is a dual WiFi - bluetooth chip.

So I reformatted my hard disk and installed Manjaro to see what happened; same thing: bluetooth adapter "doesn't exist" and Wifi theoretically exists ( wlan0 is present) but no Wifi is seen. I also tried deactivating and then reactivating the wifi from the Bios without luck.

At this point I'm sure it's a hardware problem, the laptop is almost brand new ( may 2020 ) so I'll try to see if I can get it repaired and how long it would take. Otherwise I'll try an external wifi dongle.



Might be the driver issue. Try this one,

rtl8821ce (aur/rtl8821ce-dkms-git 1.0.5.r36.gca4abd8-1)

There's a link inside regarding the bluetooth issue as well.