How to turn on WI-FI on HP-Laptop-15-rb0xx??
I am new to GNU Linux. I switched from Windows to Trisquel 9.0 and faced the fact that I couldn't connect wi-fi. I tried different options, nothing happened. Please help me figure it out.
iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
enp2s0 no wireless extensions.
ifconfig
enp2s0: flags=4163 mtu 1500
inet 192.168.1.102 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255
inet6 fe80::da83:6a44:4e43:d2de prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20
ether 10:62:e5:e2:34:3b txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 20919 bytes 13937884 (13.9 MB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 20797 bytes 4208421 (4.2 MB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
lo: flags=73 mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Локальная петля (Loopback))
RX packets 9446 bytes 568781 (568.7 KB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 9446 bytes 568781 (568.7 KB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
lspci
Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723DE 802.11b/g/n PCIe Adapter
rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
P.S. ID in Jami: c93c79bc4881bf7197e1f9fdbb947bdf04506e78
You might find this thread helpful: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/rtl8723be-wifi-card
and especially this comment: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/rtl8723be-wifi-card#comment-145250
Thank you for your reply!
Exiting video about new genus)
As lutes points you to, there is no free firmware for your Wi-Fi chipset. The easiest solution that respects your freedoms is to acquire a USB adapter with typically a AR9271 chipset. You can search the Web for such an adapter. Unfortunately, manufacturers usually do not indicate the chipset (what matters). And they sometimes change the chipset in a same model. To have certainty that a Wi-Fi adapter will work, you can buy it to some of the few vendors that guarantee that what they sell will perfectly work with 100% free GNU/Linux system, such as http://libre.thinkpenguin.com or on https://tehnoetic.com
Thank you for advice, Magic Banana:)
One more question:
the same situation with other laptop "Lenovo-IdeaPad-S206" OS: GNU Lunix Trisquel 9.0 Mini
Can I install Wi-Fi here?
Also, can you recommend a laptop that doesn't have proprietary drivers or they can be replaced?
lspci
Network controller: Ralink corp. RT3090 Wireless 802.11 1T/1R PCIe
iwconfig
wlp3s0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=0 dBm
Retry short long limit:2 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
lo no wireless extensions.
ifconfig
lo: flags=73 mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 4106 bytes 292606 (292.6 KB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 4106 bytes 292606 (292.6 KB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
You may have confused "driver" with "firmware". For example, your Realtek card does have free/libre driver in the kernel, but the free/libre driver won't work without non-free firmware. If you want to replace the WLAN card freely, most coreboot-supported model should be okay (as long as the WLAN card is physically replaceable).
And here is my suggestion. You can buy one AR9271 and it's a free/libre workaround. But only use USB-based ath9k-htc when it's impossible to use internal PCI/e-based ath5k/ath9k.
I remember that actually, some Atheros AR9285 mini PCIe WiFi cards are still avaraible for HP and Lenovo laptops as official spare parts (even in 2012 laptops and ultrabooks). It might help if we find pretty well in AliExpress or eBay for affordable prices.
The lack of information on the Wi-Fi chipset is a problem as well when you buy a new laptop. And the same solution applies: acquire hardware that has been guaranteed to work with 100% free GNU/Linux distributions. https://ryf.fsf.org/products is an excellent list. The laptops there have a free BIOS too. Unfortunately, that BIOS, Libreboot, only supports old processors. Another BIOS, coreboot, may support slightly newer models. nadebula.1984 is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to coreboot.
If you really need newer hardware to the cost of running a nonfree BIOS, you can buy from http://libre.thinkpenguin.com or from https://puri.sm/products/ to have the certainty that the Wi-Fi card will respect your freedoms.
Or you can acquire any laptop with an Intel integrated GPU... and be ready to buy a Wi-Fi adapter. Changing the internal Wi-Fi card is sometimes possible. However, some manufacturers prevent you through DRM to change that card. Chris (ThinkPenguin's CEO) used to list Dell, HP, Lenovo/IBM, Toshiba, Apple and Sony as offenders: https://trisquel.info/forum/laptop#comment-79469
That was more than five years ago. Hopefully, the list has not gotten longer.
Don't expect to have an ath5k/ath9k in new laptops. Atheros has been acquired by Qualcomm for nearly 10 years.
I agree that having one ath9k-htc is good, because it's not always possible to replace the built-in WLAN card. In addition, flashing coreboot and purchasing ath5k/ath9k require some time, so it's desirable have one ath9k-htc during this period as a workaround.
BTW, as an extreme example, in some latest ultrabooks, the only thing you can replace is the SSD. Everything else is on-board, including memory, WLAN card, modem, etc..
If you want a low priced
free software usb ar9271 wifi,
and you do not oppose sellers like amazon
or aliexpress, then on those websites search for
ar9271.
Just as soon as I get my capitalism oopsy check from the goberment, I'm gonna stimulate the economy by ordering one of these to have for just such a scenario:
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb
Actually, I have an HP Mini 110-3712la with an Realtek RTL8188CE, which actually works with the free driver rtl8192ce. However, this libre driver only performs pretty well without their propietary firmware if the kernel version is the 5.10.x (actually, not avariable in the Trisquel repos, but easy to replace if you configure the linux-libre backport for Trisquel).
And unfortunately, this WiFi chipset model is so new that the propietary firmware has arrived to the version 4.17 and above, giving zero opportunities to make the free drivers to work without the propietary firmware.
So, the only one chance is get (as an official HP spare part) an Atheros AR9285 Wifi card (actually supported by the ath9k_htc libre firmware) as a replacement for your Realtek WiFi card. Otherwise, you can get a WiFi USB dongle with an Atheros AR9271 chipset.
It is true that a few Realtek WLAN cards do work on certain free/libre kernel versions. But keep in mind that they still rely on non-free firmware, which is stored on certain non-volatile storage on the cards. The non-free firmware is still loaded and executed on the card every time you use it, and is even more dangerous, because it's never updated. Therefore, I'm strongly against endorsing such Realtek WLAN cards that seem to work "out of box" on certain free/libre kernel.
And you may have confused ath9k with ath9k-htc. ath9k-htc has free/libre firmware, but ath5k/ath9k doesn't have any firmware. Even if you want to load some firmware to an ath5k/ath9k card, it has no dedicated processor or memory to run it. This is why ath5k/ath9k works on any Linux kernel regardless the situation of firmware.
AFAIK, the totally free/libre support for Realtek has been limited to the rtl8187xx drivers. However, the documentation about the rtl8192xx is still not updated from part of H-node (in fact, I put in a profile my HP Mini 110-3712la netbook with the report about it, but in this week, I'll update with the version 5.10.6 of the linux-libre kernel).
My netbook profile on H-Node:
https://h-node.org/notebooks/view/en/2207/HP-Mini-110-3712la
I have a Wi-Fi card with a RTL8188EE that stopped working on Trisquel 9, with the default 4.15 kernel. However, it now works, probably thanks to an update: although your chipset is slightly different (RTL8188CE), you may not need the 5.10 kernel anymore. Anyway, if it works for you, there is little reason to go back to the older version: version 5.10 is probably generally better than version 4.15 and, as far as I can see, Jason Self is as reliable as Trisquel when it comes to keeping up with the security updates.
Maybe something has changed in the mechanism regarding those WLAN cards that require non-free firmware to be loaded to work but also have copies of firmware stored somewhere on the cards. The newer kernels allow the use of the existing firmware copies when the operating system fails or rejects to provide firmware. This makes a few Realtek cards usable under such newer kernels.
But this is a bug, not a feature, as explained above. Said Realtek cards still require non-free firmware to be loaded, and such firmware is loaded every time, although from somewhere on the card rather than from /lib/firmware directory. Such firmware is often immutable, making it even more dangerous, as bugs cannot get fixed. Also, this is not what RMS calls "circuit", because it's always loaded and executed by the card and fully functional. Using such cards in such a way defeats every purpose of a free/libre distribution.
Curiously, I've tested with the Live ISO of Trisquel 9 and recognized my Realtek RTL8188CE WiFi card with the version 4.15 of the kernel. Same result with the August release of PureOS 9 with the version 4.19 supplied by Debian and the CLI ISO of Parabola GNU/Linux-libre with the version 5.7.10 of the linux-libre kernel (actually, I'm using Parabola as a replacement of Arch for just use Iceweasel instead of Abrowser).
However, I notice that the progress of the libre kernel is pretty notorious alongside to the Trisquel kernel. However, I feel more comfy using Parabola as main distro, so I consider to use Trisquel as a distro for an additional PC (specially, for my mom).