Driver problem with wireless card

Vendor's drivers available here:
http://safecom.cn/code/support/DMF.aspx?pid=319&pos=1#1

http://safecom.cn/code/product/WLAN/SWLPR-5400/Drivers/Linux-Driver.zip
or
http://www.safecom.cn/code/product/WLAN/SWLPR-5400/Drivers/Linux-Driver.zip
(both listed on vendor website, same file I think)

I can confirm the problem. As far as I can tell it is not distro related, since it also exists in Slackware 10.2.

The problem exists with any drivers I managed to get my hands on:
1. The ones included in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 6.06
2. Open source RTL8180/8185 driver http://rtl8180-sa2400.sourceforge.net/ (both branches)
3. Realtek RTL8185L Linux driver http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?software=True&compamodel=RTL8185L

I have a SMC SMCWPCI-G PCI Wireless Card that also seems to use the same chipset.

lspci:
0000:02:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.: Unknown device 8185 (rev 20)

lspci -n:
0000:02:09.0 0200: 10ec:8185 (rev 20)

I had to blacklist the r818x drivers as they could cause extreme instability within Ubuntu, with random freezes at boot, or during the time Network Manager tried to connect to my network. Once blacklisted, I tried ndiswrapper which also seems to fail. Once the driver is loaded, modprobing ndiswrapper causes a Segmentation fault.

Tried ndis wrapper too - I've go segmentation fault as well.

Rejecting ubuntu task

Oops, should actually just be reassigned to a package, assigning to linux-source

Not a network-manager bug, but rather a kernel bug. Rejecting.

THIS IS NOT A KERNEL BUG. I repeat: IT IS NOT A KERNEL BUG.
Tried a number of kernels available for Ubuntu and other distros. I've even tried 2.4.xx kernel with Slackware 10.2 and had same results (tested the 2.4.xx compatible branch of Open source RTL8180/8185 driver)

I can't really tell where the bug is (trusting Tollef here), but it would be useful if someone could dissect the drivers available at the vendor's website and see if we could retrofit them into ubuntu: http://safecom.cn/code/product/WLAN/SWLPR-5400/Drivers/Linux-Driver.zip

* c2h5oh

| THIS IS NOT A KERNEL BUG. I repeat: IT IS NOT A KERNEL BUG.
|
| Tried a number of kernels available for Ubuntu and other
| distros. I've even tried 2.4.xx kernel with Slackware 10.2 and had
| same results (tested the 2.4.xx compatible branch of Open source
| RTL8180/8185 driver)

How does your statement that since it doesn't work with other kernels
it's not a kernel bug? If the machine hard locks as soon as the
wireless card is used, it's a kernel bug. Period. No discussion.

--
Tollef Fog Heen ,''`.
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are : :' :
                                                                      `. `'
                                                                        `-

Well, for starters this card (or RTL8185L to be precise) has been reported to work both with 2.4.xx and 2.6.xx kernels including the default Ubuntu 5.10 kernel. There's a number of 'flavors' of this card with various radios (Rtl8225, Phillips, GCT, Maxim) and it is possible (an probable in this case) that we're the 'lucky' owners of the wrong one (wrong meaning not working with those drivers).
Ok, there's a possibility that there's a kernel bug that haven't been spotted anywere from 2.4.** kernels or it could be that's something wrong with alpha-stage wireless card drivers. If I was to bet I'd go with the second option.
Ok, what I said was to definitive: It could be a kernel bug, IMHO it's just not very likely.

More people are having interesting (and inconsistent) results with this card/driver here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=210958&page=2

Card vendor insists the official drivers are good (available on http://safecom.cn/code/support/DMF.aspx?pid=319&pos=1#1 but I can't make any sense of them)

My rtl8180 (uses same driver as 8185) has a very similar issue to this, so I'm going to assume for now it's the same issue. I can connect and use wireless networks fine, for the most part, but ever so often my machine locks up. I can reproduce a lockup every time by saving a doc file over the network (samba) with Open Office. Also, if I stop a bittorrent download, the machine will lockup. I also get a lot of locks, randomly, when I use one particular wireless network. The only difference between this network and my other one is that the SSID is hidden and it uses no encryption, instead it has a login page. This is not just a 2.6.17 issue, I was having the same problem with Dapper.

Same problem here: I have got a RTL8180 card with Edgy. With the included driver it freezes if I try to download a torrent + use other Internet activity. Only downloading a torrent works just fine. Just surfing the net is also ok.

sorry don't know how to edit my last post. But this is a similar problem I think:
https://launchpad.net/bugs/46845

This worked for me before Feisty using ndis and the kernel driver. Both of them worked fine.

My report is here with the corresponding syslog of the freezes (with the trace of the cause which seems to be ieee80211_rtl)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/77161

Major annoyance since it worked before.

My experiences:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=173476

https://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=652149

Also email exchanges with Realtek support on their version of a driver for the rtl8185l chipset. They are asking for logs of the errors, which I am still trying to recreate. Been sidetracked with attempting to get a trendnet tew-424ub running in place of the noname rt8185l chipset in my laptop.

I have experienced the same problems in Fedora 8 and Ubuntu Studio 7.10, 64-bit versions. Will be attempting dropping back to 32-bit tonight with any luck. I think the trendnet will work then, with encryption, but who knows; it's another Realtek chip.

I've seen some postings that suggest there is an 8185 driver in 2.6.24, but it appears to be disabled/missing from the Ubuntu Hardy alpha.

Hmmm, is that reported to the Ubuntu Hardy folks? I am using my rtl8185 now under ndiswrapper dropping back to 32bit OS. (Realtek has not supplied a 64bit driver except for Vista, which uses a version of ndis that is not supported by ndiswrapper last I looked.) Card works really well, once you have it running this way, for whatever that's worth. Look forward to a kernel supplied driver though. If there's anything I can do to move it along, be happy to do so.

Humm, it seems there is a little of a misunderstanding here. I think you
want to reach ndiswrapper not auto-ndiswrapper. We are just a really small
project working on the automation of the installation of windows drivers
with ndiswrapper. I really don't know anything about how ndiswrapper works
or about how it interfaces with the kernel. I wish I could help you :( but
I simply don't have the knowledge required. I suggest you contact
ndiswrapper http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/joomla/ directly to solve you
problem. If there is anything else I could help you with just contact me
again.

Good Luck!

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 2:27 AM, silver city productions <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Hmmm, is that reported to the Ubuntu Hardy folks? I am using my rtl8185
> now under ndiswrapper dropping back to 32bit OS. (Realtek has not
> supplied a 64bit driver except for Vista, which uses a version of ndis
> that is not supported by ndiswrapper last I looked.) Card works really
> well, once you have it running this way, for whatever that's worth.
> Look forward to a kernel supplied driver though. If there's anything I
> can do to move it along, be happy to do so.
>
> --
> Driver problem with wireless card
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/55905
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of HErD,
> which is the registrant for Auto-NDISwrapper.
>

Closing the auto-ndiswrapper task as it seems it was added unintentionally.

Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . You should be able to test your bug using the LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

Hi! I have been running with the beta Hardy for a while, but have been
ndiswrapper'd. I will try to un-blacklist the kernel driver and test it
out. Will let you know.
Thanks!
Michael

Kjell Braden wrote:
> Hardy Heron 8.04 was recently released. It would be helpful if you
> could test the new release and verify if this is still an issue -
> http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . You should be able to test your bug
> using the LiveCD. Please let us know your results. Thanks.
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

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