Realtek rtl8192SE wireless driver issues on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

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A few weeks back, after applying a series of updates and rebooting, my Lucid Lynx stopped purring contentedly and started coughing up furballz. Kernel panics seemed to occur at random, for next to nothing.

With a backlog of work to get through, I just decided to leave it to one side and boot into my Windows 7 64-bit option instead, and made do with the perfectly OK user experience that Win7 offers.
Missing the warm glow of Ubuntu (well, more of a purple haze, really), I could stand it no more.
It was time to boot her up and recreate the issue.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. Mid-update, the kernel didn't so much panic, as shat itself.

A quick review of the /var/log/messages showed this was what flashed through the kernel's mind before it died:

Apr 20 20:05:24 ubuntu kernel: [   55.810805] rtl8192_SetWirelessMode(), wireless_mode:10, bEnableHT = 1
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.292343] Linking with ThomsonE20565,channel:11, qos:0, myHT:1, networkHT:0, mode:6 cur_net.flags:0x406
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.292355] Linking with ThomsonE20565,channel:11, qos:0, myHT:1, networkHT:0, mode:6 cur_net.flags:0x406
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.292400] ===>rtllib_associate_procedure_wq(), chan:11
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.292403] HTSetConnectBwMode():pHTInfo->bCurBW40MHz:0
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.306383] rtl8192_SetWirelessMode(), wireless_mode:4, bEnableHT = 0
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.310749] Associated successfully
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.310752] normal associate
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.310760] Using G rates:108
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.310763] Successfully associated, ht not enabled(0, 0)
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.310766] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.311970] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.312052] RX: IEEE802.1X EPAOL frame!
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.317744] RX: IEEE802.1X EPAOL frame!
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.317826] alg name:TKIP
Apr 20 20:05:26 ubuntu kernel: [   57.334236] ===========>set_swcam():EntryNo is 4,KeyIndex is 0,KeyType is 2,is_mesh is 0
Apr 20 20:05:27 ubuntu kernel: [   58.333004] RX: IEEE802.1X EPAOL frame!
Apr 20 20:05:27 ubuntu kernel: [   58.333080] alg name:TKIP
Apr 20 20:05:27 ubuntu kernel: [   58.333095] ===========>set_swcam():EntryNo is 1,KeyIndex is 1,KeyType is 2,is_mesh is 0
Apr 20 20:05:27 ubuntu kernel: [   58.862950] dm_check_edca_turbo():iot peer is unknown, bssid:00:1d:68:69:7b:07
Apr 20 20:05:30 ubuntu kernel: [   61.294502] DHCP pkt src port:68, dest port:67!!
Apr 20 20:05:30 ubuntu kernel: [   61.305901] DHCP pkt src port:68, dest port:67!!
Apr 20 20:05:56 ubuntu kernel: [   91.920932] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:05:57 ubuntu kernel: [   93.439161] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:06:20 ubuntu kernel: [  115.992107] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Apr 20 20:06:46 ubuntu kernel: [  141.928983] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:06:47 ubuntu kernel: [  143.454210] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:07:36 ubuntu kernel: [  191.921344] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:07:37 ubuntu kernel: [  193.443392] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:07:39 ubuntu kernel: [  195.865137] CE: hpet increasing min_delta_ns to 15000 nsec
Apr 20 20:08:56 ubuntu kernel: [  271.921266] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:08:57 ubuntu kernel: [  273.446210] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:10:36 ubuntu kernel: [  371.925695] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 20:10:37 ubuntu kernel: [  373.466177] ===>rtl8192se_link_change():ieee->iw_mode is 2
Apr 20 21:44:07 ubuntu kernel: imklog 4.2.0, log source = /proc/kmsg started.

The last message shows when Linux was restarted, so I read upwards from that.
Looking at other bits of the log for other crashes (and digging around in the archived messages too, of course), I could see that these last few messages were pretty common.

Guessing that it was probably something to do with the wireless network driver, I went looking for a new/old/stable-at-least driver for my Realtek 8192SE on-board wireless networking device.

A google search for "ubuntu rtl8192se" and trawling the forum posts that came up in the results pointed me to two resources:

• http://218.210.127.131/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=48&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true#2302
• https://launchpad.net/~matt-price/+archive/mattprice/+packages

Having read on many forums that getting the official Realtek driver to compile, I was drawn to the DKMS version provided by Matt Price (second link).

I downloaded the .deb package, installed it, rebooted and now my Lucid Lynx is a happy kitty once again!

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