Problem with RTL8178

[Jonathan Allen]

Hi All,

I have an old laptop that got upgraded this week from WinXP to F14 after a 
massive virus/trojan hit :-(

The laptop has the Realtek RTL8178 wireless chipset and did wireless fine in 
WinXP.  Although it can see the wireless network fine, it won't connect in F14.

I downloaded the F16 Live CD and the wireless works and connects perfectly, so 
whatever was wrong with the RTL8178 stuff has been fixed between F14 and F16.  
However, as far as this laptop is concerned, F16 has downgraded to Gnome3, which 
the laptop can't run.

The choices seem to be:

a. F16 without Gnome 3

b. back-fitting the working RTL8178 stuff into the (otherwise fine)
        F14 installation

Recommendations or instructions?

Jonathan

[Alan Cox]

On Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:44:54 +0000
Jonathan Allen  wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have an old laptop that got upgraded this week from WinXP to F14 after a 
> massive virus/trojan hit :-(
>
> The laptop has the Realtek RTL8178 wireless chipset and did wireless fine in 
> WinXP.  Although it can see the wireless network fine, it won't connect in F14.
>
> I downloaded the F16 Live CD and the wireless works and connects perfectly, so 
> whatever was wrong with the RTL8178 stuff has been fixed between F14 and F16.  
> However, as far as this laptop is concerned, F16 has downgraded to Gnome3, which 
> the laptop can't run.
>
> The choices seem to be:
> a. F16 without Gnome 3
>
> b. back-fitting the working RTL8178 stuff into the (otherwise fine)
>     F14 installation
>
> Recommendations or instructions?

F14 is out of support so security holes in thr browser etc are not being
fixed. I'd suggest F16 with another desktop.

Alan

[Jonathan Allen]

Alan,
> > a. F16 without Gnome 3
> >
> > b. back-fitting the working RTL8178 stuff into the (otherwise fine)
> >     F14 installation
> >
> > Recommendations or instructions?
>
> F14 is out of support so security holes in thr browser etc are not being
> fixed. I'd suggest F16 with another desktop.

So, as a novice, how do I switch the default desktop on F16 to the old Gnome
that was used in F14?

Jonathan

[Suvayu Ali]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 12:23, Jonathan Allen
 wrote:
> > F14 is out of support so security holes in thr browser etc are not being
> > fixed. I'd suggest F16 with another desktop.
>
> So, as a novice, how do I switch the default desktop on F16 to the old Gnome
> that was used in F14?

Another desktop cannot be Gnome 2. Fedora ships only one version of
Gnome, Gnome 3. I would suggest you install KDE, XFCE, LXDE or
whatever suits your tastes. And simply choose the desktop environment
while logging in. That should set the default desktop for future
logins.

If you like using nice GUIs, I would suggest KDE. On the other hand if
you prefer something lightweight, try XFCE or LXDE.

HTH

[Heinz Diehl]

On 08.03.2012, Jonathan Allen wrote:
> So, as a novice, how do I switch the default desktop on F16 to the old Gnome
> that was used in F14?

This is no longer possible, Fedora decided to go on with Gnome 3. So
the choice is Gnome 3, or one of the other fine desktop environments
as e.g. KDE or XFCE. You can choose your desktop somewhere in the
install process of F16.

XFCE is fast, stable and is a lot "Gnome-2-alike", so maybe you want
to go with this one..

[Dale Dellutri]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 4:44 AM, Jonathan Allen
 wrote:
> I have an old laptop that got upgraded this week from WinXP to F14 after a
> massive virus/trojan hit :-(
>
> The laptop has the Realtek RTL8178 wireless chipset and did wireless fine in
> WinXP.  Although it can see the wireless network fine, it won't connect in
> F14.
>
> I downloaded the F16 Live CD and the wireless works and connects perfectly,
> so whatever was wrong with the RTL8178 stuff has been fixed between F14 and
> F16.  However, as far as this laptop is concerned, F16 has downgraded to
> Gnome3, which the laptop can't run.
>
> The choices seem to be:
>
> a. F16 without Gnome 3
>
> b. back-fitting the working RTL8178 stuff into the (otherwise fine)
>       F14 installation
>
> Recommendations or instructions?

I'd recommend F16 with XFCE.

Install XFCE and then change or create /etc/sysconfig/desktop to:

$ cat /etc/sysconfig/desktop
PREFERRED=/usr/bin/startxfce4

Or just re-install the system from the F16 Live XFCE CD,
which is what I did.

I've been using this combo on my Dell Latitude E6410 and an older
Dell Latitude D630, and I'm very pleased with it.

[Jonathan Allen]

Dear Dale (and others who helped),
> I'd recommend F16 with XFCE.
>
> Install XFCE and then change or create /etc/sysconfig/desktop to:
>
> $ cat /etc/sysconfig/desktop
> PREFERRED=/usr/bin/startxfce4
>
> Or just re-install the system from the F16 Live XFCE CD,
> which is what I did.
>
> I've been using this combo on my Dell Latitude E6410 and an older
> Dell Latitude D630, and I'm very pleased with it.

I'm downloading the F16 DVD now (2Mb broadband takes time) and will update
the laptop using 'update' mode.  Thank you to all.

Jonathan

[Joe Zeff]

On 03/08/2012 02:44 AM, Jonathan Allen wrote:
> a. F16 without Gnome 3

My pick.  You don't have to use Gnome to use Fedora and many of us 
don't.  I use XFCE, many others use KDE and there are lots of other 
choices out there.

[L]

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 4:25 AM, Joe Zeff  wrote:
> On 03/08/2012 02:44 AM, Jonathan Allen wrote:
> > a. F16 without Gnome 3

I use ndiswrapper to make Windows XP RTL(not sure the version??) USB
wireless adapter driver work under Linux (on lubuntu).

Here the ubuntu version steps, hope offer your so0me hints

Plug the device
    Enter following commands in the terminal.

sudo su

-Perform following in root.

apt-get update
    apt-cache search ndiswrapper

-In it you can find ndiswrapper-common, ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
packages. Install them by,

apt-get install ndiswrapper-common
    apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

-Change the folder to where the windows XP drivers for your network device is.

ndiswrapper -i filename.inf

-Give the name of .inf file for the driver. For DWA-120 it is netA5AGU.inf

ndiswrapper -m
    modprobe ndiswrapper

Add the line "ndiswrapper" (without quotes) at the end of the file
/etc/modules using command "sudo gedit /etc/modules" to load the
driver every time the system loads. If you do not want to load the
driver automatically, do not edit this file. Instead, enter following
command at terminal to turn on the adapter.

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

3. reboot the machine

All done. You can check whether your device working by typing "iwconfig".