UNSTABLE: For experienced users or developers. If your laptop dies using this software not my fault

Driver for the wireless card realtek 8187se for kernels 2.6

It's a fork of this driver "rtl8187se_linux_26[1].1022.0904.2008_Release.tar.gz" uploaded to forums.msiwind.net by an user.

• Check this Installer to automatically download, build and install this driver. Thanks to ctwardy
• Ubuntu packages available for hardy and intrepid: http://boskastrona.ovh.org/

Changelog

0.4

• Fix of the last fix :) Thanks the help of ctwardy

0.3

• Fix building on kernel version prior 2.6.27

0.2

• All warnings of gcc removed
• Bugs in r8180_wx_set_auth and r8180_wx_set_gen_ie fixed (affects authentication)

• Fixes in makedrv, makecln. Added install script
• New procfs entry /proc/net/rtl8180/wlan0/rf_kill

About RF KILL in RTL8187se

If the wireless device is off (using Fn+F11 with MSI Wind) this file contains 1. In the other case 0.

The original driver uses a tricky method to notify when the wifi is disabled or enabled by the user. A script in this hardcoded path "/etc/acpi/events/RadioPower.sh" with RFOFF or RFON argument is called by the driver when the user activates or deactivates the wifi device using Fn+F11. The problem is, this method only works when the wlan interface is up and polling the hardware continuously with intervals of 1-3 seconds.

How to notify Network Manager

Configure a shortcut key launching the following python script when the wifi is toggled. It can be done in gnome, kde, xfce using their respective keyboard preferences interface or using other tools as hotkeys. Remember chmod +x the script

#!/usr/bin/env python
import dbus

bus=dbus.SystemBus()

hal_obj =bus.get_object ('org.freedesktop.Hal', '/org/freedesktop/Hal/Manager');
nm_obj  =bus.get_object ('org.freedesktop.NetworkManager', '/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager')

nmp     =dbus.Interface (nm_obj, 'org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties');
hal     =dbus.Interface (hal_obj, 'org.freedesktop.Hal.Manager')

wifi    =(nmp.Get('org.freedesktop.NetworkManager', 'WirelessEnabled')==1)
rf_kill =(file('/proc/net/rtl8180/wlan0/rf_kill').read()[0]=='1');

if wifi == rf_kill:
        wifi = not wifi
        nmp.Set('org.freedesktop.NetworkManager', 'WirelessEnabled', wifi)
        nmp.Set('org.freedesktop.NetworkManager', 'WirelessHardwareEnabled', wifi)

References

• Msi Wind Forum. Thread in msiwind.net forums where you can find some experiences with native drivers for this card.

• Todo ultraportátiles. Thread in a Spanish forum

• Ubuntu Launchpad. Bug #246141 no support for realtek rtl8187se.