No internet connection detected on the Lenovo ThinkPad E545 equipped with Realtek RTL8188EE chipset.
No internet connection detected on the Lenovo ThinkPad E545 equipped with Realtek RTL8188EE chipset.
I'm just starting with Linux and haven't managed to connect my Lenovo ThinkPad E545 to Wi-Fi without a USB adapter. The built-in Wi-Fi uses the RealTek rtl8188EE chip. I have Mint 19 Tara, but checking forums hasn't helped much. I've looked in the Driver Manager for any disabled drivers, but none found. Running lspci in the terminal confirmed my computer can recognize the rtl8188EE, though I'm not sure what to do next. It seems the driver was missing. Could someone assist me? Thank you! Neurok ################### First output ##################### lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Root Complex 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Richland [Radeon HD 8450G] 00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller 00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 15h (Models 10h-1fh) Processor Bridge 00:05.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 09) 00:10.1 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40) 00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 11) 00:13.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07) 02:00.0 Network adapter: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) 03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)
The build process encountered an issue because the required file wasn't found. The command failed to locate the necessary directory.
If nothing appeared, means the driver got loaded, does it work?
I examined the Ubuntu/Mint preinstalled drivers; the rtl8188ee driver is present. I also noticed rtlwifi exists, but I’m unsure why both are there—should udev handle the right one automatically? Before trying that, check with " sudo lspci -vv " to see which driver is active on your Wi-Fi chipset. If modprobe rtl8188ee fails, try removing it and then reapplying it. If that doesn’t work, remove rtlwifi first and then apply rtl8188ee. If still problematic, consider reinstalling the kernel and rebooting. Also, according to ArchWiki for the e545, Broadcom-WL is needed for Wi-Fi, but this might not apply here since the specific version likely used a different chipset.
The BIOS on my ThinkPad Edge restricts internal wireless cards beyond the one included during manufacturing. Switching it causes the system to report issues during the next startup and prevent it from launching.
I purchased the computer running Windows 10 and it worked fine on Wi-Fi. After performing a Darik's Boot and Nuke, it fully booted into Linux Mint without any issues. However, later I encountered Wi-Fi problems again. I replaced the SSD, which eliminated the need for that boot process, but the Wi-Fi issues persisted.