Hi, I am trying to figure out what happened to my wifi signal. The signal was fine on my laptop up until a few days ago and now I am back to dial-up speeds (0.1 Mbps). My work laptop (runs on Windows) is getting normal speeds (~30 Mbps download/5 Mbps upload). I was googling for a solution but am not a developer so I wasn’t 100% sure that the solutions were right for me. Here is the info on my computer:
Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS with a RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller. I include this info because people on the other internet forums were talking about how it is a problem with the Realtek driver, but I don’t want to go off half-cocked and start putting on a new driver (the lwfinger/rtlwifi_new driver on github was suggested) because I don’t know if that is the correct driver to use (and my computer is too slow to download the file).
I tried to switch my antenna using this (from https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2394845) but wasn’t sure if I was doing it right (like, do I type in the " or is that just bracketing the command in the line of text?):
sudo -i
echo “options rtl8723be ant_sel=2” > /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
exit
It says that all of my software is up to date. Is there something else that I can check/fix/install? Thanks!
It’s worth checking to see if a kernel update is the cause of your issue.
Suggest reboot, immediately press and hold the shift key or escape key after the bios splash screen to display grub. Choose advanced options and select an older kernel to boot with.
Hi, I spoke to soon with my response. The computer worked normally right after I did the restart but the next time that I used it we were back to 0.2 Mbps. I did another restart and made sure that I booted with the older kernel but it didn’t make a difference this time. Any other suggestions? Thank you!
HI, I didn’t get much help on ubuntuforums (the only two responses were just to correct how I had asked the question). I tried switching the antenna and disabling 802.11n but now it just seems worse. I was thinking that I would just start from scratch and either restore everything in the OS back to the original settings or reinstall budgie. I still have my installation USB but wasn’t sure if there was a way to restore without completely pulling the plug. Is there a command that will do that? Thank you!
Did you create a question on askubuntu.com also? I would try them as well.
One of the install options in the installer is to Reinstall - it will try to keep your home folder but replace the backend system files. You may have to install your apps again. Do remember though to make a backup of your important files just in-case things go wrong.
I have posted on askubuntu but haven’t yet received a response. I had to postpone doing a reinstall until I can swipe a USB from work tomorrow so I am making a last-ditch effort to fix this my installing the lwfinger/rtlwifi_new driver off of github (https://askubuntu.com/questions/635625/how-do-i-get-a-realtek-rtl8723be-wireless-card-to-work). I cloned the driver off of github and think that I built it and possibly installed it. My computer worked great but then I got cocky and did a restart and everything went back the same as before. I did lshw -C network but it still lists the old iwlwifi driver so I think that it didn’t install. I have tried to repeat the process but am getting an error message after sudo make install: make -C /lib/modules/5.0.0-36-generic/build M=/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new modules make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.0.0-36-generic' arch/x86/Makefile:147: CONFIG_X86_X32 enabled but no binutils support ./scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 26: gcc: command not found ./scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 27: gcc: command not found make[1]: gcc: Command not found make[1]: gcc: Command not found make[1]: gcc: Command not found make[1]: gcc: Command not found CC [M] /home/lyn/rtlwifi_new/btcoexist/halbtc8192e2ant.o /bin/sh: 1: gcc: not found scripts/Makefile.build:284: recipe for target '/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new/btcoexist/halbtc8192e2ant.o' failed make[3]: *** [/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new/btcoexist/halbtc8192e2ant.o] Error 127 scripts/Makefile.build:515: recipe for target '/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new/btcoexist' failed make[2]: *** [/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new/btcoexist] Error 2 Makefile:1614: recipe for target '_module_/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new' failed make[1]: *** [_module_/home/lyn/rtlwifi_new] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.0.0-36-generic' Makefile:58: recipe for target 'all' failed make: *** [all] Error 2
My tilex command line is sitting at: lyn@lyn-Dell-System-Inspiron-N7110:~/rtlwifi_new$
Is there a different command that I should be entering here to finish the install of the driver?