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I'm having a wifi card driver issue (I think) with a new install of ubuntu 20.04.3 on a laptop

I've installed the same iso on 3 laptops recently. Two are working without issue. The third has no internet access (and is the same model as one that has wifi connectivity). This seems similar to the known driver issues for the rtl8821ce. However, this laptop has no ethernet card and so far I've been unsuccessful with other means of connection (I bought a USB wifi stick but have not been able to get it to talk to NetworkManager either). I've tried many suggestions on this forum that do not involve connecting to the internet. Is there a solution to the RTL8821ce driver issue that does not involve an internet connection on the laptop in question? Assuming the answer is yes, could someone please explain how to download the driver on another computer and install via an external drive?

Also, I've tried a newer iso (20.04.3, did not install, tried off of the installation media) and the issue persisted

Background information:

$ sudo lshw -C network

*-network UNCLAIMED
description:  Network controller
     product:  RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
     vendor:  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
     physical id: 0
     bus info:  pci@0000:02:00.0
     version:  00
     width:  64 bits
     clock:  33MHz
     capabilities:  pm msi pciexpress cap_list
     configuration:  latency=0
     resources:  ioport:e000(size=256) memory:a1100000-a110ffff


$ lspci -nnk | grep 0280 -A3


02:00.0 Network controller [0280]:  Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapater [10ec:c821]
        DeviceName:  WLAN
        Subsystem:  AzureWave RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [1a3b:3040]
        Kernel Modules:  rtw88_8821ce


$ nmcli d


DEVICE TYPE       STATE       CONNECTION
lo     loopback   unmanaged   --

$ sudo dmesg | grep 8821 is the same as this post

$ uname -r

5.11.0-27-generic (20.04.3)

5.13.0-30-generic (20.04.4 booting from install media)

Bluetooth shows up/appears to work (although I have not tried it yet, I do not have a bluetooth device)

I'm not sure if it is related or not but I also see "SGX disabled by BIOS" during startup on this laptop and not on the same model (that connects to wifi). I didn't find a toggle for SGX in the bios GUI. I do not know what SGX does nor do I know if it could be related.

Mike
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1 Answers1

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The solution to this issue was to use a USB ethernet connection in order to install the rtl8821ce-dkms package (and other associated packages). This worked seamlessly once an internet connection was established. Details:

The issues with the RTL8821ce seem to be a common. There are many posts related to this issue and I tried just about everything I could find that did not require an internet connection. I also picked up a USB wifi stick but it was not recognized either (this was an ASUS USB to wifi adapter). After trying to download all the relevant packages on another computer and transfer them using a USB memory stick all I managed to do was brick the computer in question. At that point I decided to go back to the big box store and look again for a USB ethernet adapter. While they did not have a USB A to ethernet in the section where most of that type of thing is kept, they did have a USB C to ethernet adapter in a different area of the store. This adapter is the Insignia brand from Best Buy (which I think is the store brand).

After a quick reinstall of ubuntu (20.04.4 in this case), the adapter worked and I could get on the internet over ethernet. At this point everything was as easy as noted in other posts. I installed dkms first (but, in retrospect probably didn't need to do this as it would have automatically been installed. Then I installed rtl8821ce-dkms. At that point wifi was an option in the systray and I could connect to the internet over wifi, without ethernet.

Mike
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