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Date:      Fri, 17 Jul 2015 11:22:28 -0400
From:      William Bulley <web@umich.edu>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Can not get Realtek RTL8188CU USB adapter to work on 10.2-BETA1 laptop
Message-ID:  <20150717152228.GG751@dell4>

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I have a new laptop with an Intel core i7-5600U CPU running 10.2-BETA1 FreeBSD.

I tried following the directions here:

   https://vzaigrin.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/how-to-setup-usb-wifi-on-raspberry-pi-with-freebsd/

and I tried the directions in the "% man 4 urtwn" man page:

     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
     kernel configuration file:

           device ehci
           device uhci
           device ohci
           device usb
           device urtwn
           device wlan

     Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
     following line in loader.conf(5):

           if_urtwn_load="YES"

     In both cases, place the following line in loader.conf(5) to acknowledge
     the firmware license (see below):

           legal.realtek.license_ack=1

  [[I did both: rebuilt kernel AND added two lines to the /boot/loader.conf file]]

     and

     This driver requires the firmware built with the urtwnfw module to work.
     For the loaded firmware to be enabled for use the license at
     /usr/share/doc/legal/realtek must be agreed by adding the following line
     to loader.conf(5):

           legal.realtek.license_ack=1

     and

     The urtwn driver supports Realtek RTL8188CU/RTL8188RU/RTL8188EU/RTL8192CU
     based USB IEEE 802.11b/g/n wireless network adapters, including:

           Edimax EW-7811Un   [[which is the product I have]]

Given that I have the urtwn(4) driver built into the kernel, and that I have
those two lines in the /boot/loader.conf file, it isn't surprising that the
laptop seems to detect the USB adapter at boot time:

   unix% dmesg | grep -i urtwn
   urtwn0: <vendor 0x7392 product 0x7811, class 0/0, rev 2.00/2.00, addr 1> on usbus0
   urtwn0: MAC/BB RTL8188CUS, RF 6052 1T1R
   urtwn0: 11b rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps
   urtwn0: 11g rates: 1Mbps 2Mbps 5.5Mbps 11Mbps 6Mbps 9Mbps 12Mbps 18Mbps 24Mbps 36Mbps 48Mbps 54Mbps

However, this error occurs in /var/log/messages when I try to use it:

   urtwn-rtl8192cfwT: You need to read the LICENSE file in /usr/share/doc/legal/realtek/.
   urtwn-rtl8192cfwT: If you agree with the license, set legal.realtek.license_ack=1 in /boot/loader.conf.
   module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (urtwn-rtl8192cfwT_fw, 0xc2aa24f0, 0) error 1
   urtwn-rtl8192cfwT: could not load firmware image, error 8
   urtwn0: failed loadfirmware of file urtwn-rtl8192cfwT

There is in fact, the /usr/share/doc/legal/realtek license file at that
location.  But the urtwn(4) man page also says this:

   DIAGNOSTICS
     urtwn%d: error %d, could not read firmware %s  For some reason, the
     driver was unable to read the microcode file from the filesystem.  The
     file might be missing or corrupted.

When I issue this command as root "# ifconfig wlan0 create wlandev urtwn0"
I get this error:

   ifconfig: create: bad value

The "could not read firmware" sub-string from the man page is close enough
to the generated error sub-string when I try to use the USB adapter:

   "could not load firmware image"

to make me think the microcode file is missing or corrupted.

These files are in the /usr/src/sys/contrib/dev/urtwn directory:

unix% ls -l /usr/src/sys/contrib/dev/urtwn
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel   2115 Jul 12 09:22 LICENSE
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  19198 Jul 12 09:22 urtwn-rtl8188eufw.fw.uu
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  21765 Jul 12 09:22 urtwn-rtl8192cfwT.fw.uu
-rw-r--r--   1 root  wheel  21765 Jul 12 09:22 urtwn-rtl8192cfwU.fw.uu

Since the adapter reports itself to be a RTL8188CUS, then the first of
the three firmware/microcode files above should be loaded, yet the error
message reproduced above is looking for the rtl8192cfwT firmware file.
But even that file is present -- the second of the above three files.

Does anyone know how to make this wi-fi adapter work in 10.2BETA1 on
this laptop?  It seems to work on the Raspberry Pi (see the URL above)
on an earlier 10.x system, so it ought to work today on 10.2BETA1 one
might surmise.  Any thoughts on how to make this adapter work?  Thanks.

Regards,

web...

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