How can I make my Realtek RTL8821CE wireless hardware work?

Question

I have been looking at several websites to try and set up wifi on Ubuntu with no success. OK, this website talks about the post 18.04 way. But how do you set it up after that version? I saw this website as well, and it talks about some of the differences but I still haven't been successful yet. Here are some things I have tried to do.

ip addr show

When I do this, I get this output:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp2s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether f4:39:09:22:a6:60 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Then I tried a similar command.

ip a

When I do this, I see this output:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp2s0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state DOWN group default qlen 1000
link/ether f4:39:09:22:a6:60 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

With this command, I can see a little more information than the prior.

I have also just tried to connect using the mouse. This is what I see when I go to the WIFI in settings:

For the no adapter issue, this Youtube video looked promising.

I gave this command.

#apt-get remove --purge bcmwl-kernel-source

But unfortunately, it didn't work. This is the output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package bcmwl-kernel-source
root@brian-HP-Slim-Desktop-290-a0xxx:/home/brian#

Note: I tried to install it using a live cd just to see if I could and it tried.

Here are some more things that I have done to gather information for this question.

lspci

And this is the output.

01:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 
802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. 
RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)


rfkill list

This is the output

0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

Next I did this.

dmesg

A lot of information came up, but it was too much for this website.

I also did this.

lsmod

Same problem, too much information and I couldn't post it. In reading some of this information. It said something was blocked because I used secureboot when I downloaded the OS. I will be honest, I don't think I know what secureboot is.I hope this information helps.

I am using a Century Link router, model number C1000A. It is not connected directly to the computer. I would be grateful to any and all who could render any kind of assistance, thank you.

Sorry about that, I check them and now I think they are working. — BJsgoodlife, Dec 05 '18 at 10:30
Update your question by copying and pasting the command(s) you typed followed by the messages the commands produced. — WinEunuuchs2Unix, Dec 07 '18 at 16:05
Please [edit] your question and convert the screenshots to text as that's searchable by google, whereas images are not... Also, please go here and add the additional info from there into your question. Then leave a message @Fabby ;-) 0:-) — Fabby, Dec 08 '18 at 20:03
What's going on here is that your WiFi adapter is not recognized. Please borrow/bribe/buy/steal ;-) an Ethernet cable, hook up your machine to the router that way and run this script so we can give you the perfect answer! 0:-) And thanks for converting the screenshots to text... — Fabby, Dec 09 '18 at 08:10
@Fabby, I am working on completing your requests. It tries to download from a live CD but there is a wall on my actual OS. — BJsgoodlife, Dec 09 '18 at 13:53
@Fabby- I have done some trial and error to see different outputs on the commandline and it is posted. Per the comments in the question, a couple of the commands gave too much information. If you have a way for me to share this information with you, let me know. — BJsgoodlife, Dec 09 '18 at 14:53
The full output to the script is needed if you want the pros to work on your question. The personally identifiable information is already anonymised in the script so stuff like your MAC address is not communicated. If you would deem any other output too invasive, leave the title in and add # Removed due to privacy concerns where the data was. Every time the full script was invoked, we've been able to solve the issue... ¯\(ツ)/¯. Use https://paste.ubuntu.com to paste the full edited output, don't try fitting it into your question; it's indeed too big. — Fabby, Dec 10 '18 at 12:12
In the meantime, I'll post an answer with the information we have. Any additional question needs the full output of the script though. — Fabby, Dec 10 '18 at 12:22

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 11 '18 at 16:22

4

You have Realtek RTL8821CE hardware, so use the following steps:

Open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and type:

cd /tmp/
sudo apt install --reinstall git dkms build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
git clone https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce
cd rtl8821ce
chmod +x dkms-install.sh
chmod +x dkms-remove.sh
sudo ./dkms-install.sh

Which will download the Arch source and build the driver. After the above is completed, you can insmod the driver or simply reboot.

Warning: As you're downloading and building your own driver, ensure SecureBoot is disabled in the UEFI Firmware / BIOS if a simple reboot would not bring the desired result.

edited Dec 11 '18 at 16:22

galoget

2,963

answered Dec 10 '18 at 12:28

Fabby

34,259

If you need any further help, edit your question and post a link to the output of the Wireless information script – Fabby Dec 10 '18 at 12:33
Hi Fabby, I tried to follow you instructions but this is the output that I got. Package build-essential is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source. – BJsgoodlife Dec 10 '18 at 14:25
I will post to the script. – BJsgoodlife Dec 10 '18 at 14:26
@BJsgoodlife For the missing package follow this first and if that fails do this one instead. – Fabby Dec 10 '18 at 21:20
the title bar is missing on my OS. Could you please tell me how I can get it to appear so I can follow these instructions? – BJsgoodlife Dec 11 '18 at 13:13
@Fabby- it is done, the script has been uploaded. – BJsgoodlife Dec 11 '18 at 16:09
@BJsgoodlife "Title bar missing?" Please elaborate... Also which instructions? this or that one? – Fabby Dec 11 '18 at 23:22
@Fabby- The menu bar that is supposed to be on top of the Software Center where I can find the "Edit" menu. The first set of instructions is the one I am referring to. I cannot do the second one because it requires use of the internet to do it. – BJsgoodlife Dec 11 '18 at 23:58
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Fabby Dec 12 '18 at 00:00
1

You're welcome @Fabby. :-) – galoget Dec 13 '18 at 17:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '20 at 15:51

1

This is available as an apt package on 20.04 - Run: sudo apt install rtl8821ce-dkms, restart and you're done :)

answered May 09 '20 at 15:51

Kookydev

11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 08 '18 at 12:43

0

For the package bcmwl-kernel-source to be available, you need to enable the restricted repository.

You need to run software-properties-gtk and enable the restricted repository.

Software & Updates

Then you will be able to install bcmwl-kernel-source

answered Dec 08 '18 at 12:43

solsTiCe

9,231

Hi solsTiCe- Thank you for your efforts to help me, however restricted drivers was already checked. I noticed something else, too. I tried to start with step one after it didn't work from where I left off, and my computer can't find the bcmwl-kernel-source driver to begin with. I will supply a screenshot of what I see. – BJsgoodlife Dec 08 '18 at 14:32

How can I make my Realtek RTL8821CE wireless hardware work?

3 Answers3

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