Getting a RealTek 8185 Wireless card to work in Ubuntu
April 25th, 2008 by
jim
Monday, September 6, 2010
jim I’ve never been able to use the Linux driver for my RTL 8185 in Ubuntu. Instead, I’ve used Ndiswrapper with the Windows XP driver. It works great.
Here’s the download for the XP driver: rtl8185
Once you have that, you’ll want to install NdisWrapper. Open a terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9
Once you have ndiswrapper installed, unzip the file you downloaded and change your terminal to that directory. Then install the drivers with these commands:
sudo ndiswrapper -i net8185.inf
sudo ndiswrapper -m
sudo ndiswrapper -mi
sudo ndiswrapper -ma
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
At this point, you should be able to use your wireless card. If you type “ifconfig” in your terminal, you should see “wlan0″ listed.
This has worked every time for me, so I hope it solves any issues you are having with this card too!
EDIT:
If everytime you reboot, you have to run ‘sudo modprobe ndiswrapper’ command, try adding ndiswrapper to your /etc/modules file.
To do that:
Open a terminal and type:
sudo gedit /etc/modules
Add a line and type ndiswrapper
Save and close the file.
Reboot.
Posted in Computers, Linux | 
15 Comments »
15 Responses
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May 2nd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Thanks for the help for my Realtek 8185 wireless. Instructions worked great.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:31 am
Thanks for the info. I was freaking out a little when Ubuntu didn’t recognize my wireless card, but now everything works like it should.
I have one small note to add. In 8.04 Hardy Heron, ndiswrapper-modules-1.9 is already installed as part of a virtual package (or at least it was in my case). So it was only necessary for me to install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9.
Thanks again!
May 8th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I have an easy way to install it..
Aplications> Add or remob> typing: NdisWrapper [Aplay]
then go to: Sistem> Administration> Windows Drivers Drivers> Install new control [search 4 the .inf] and.. that’s it.
My OS is on spanish.. so it maybe not be equal..
Sincerely
Alejandro Perea.
By the way.. Tnks 4 the information.
May 26th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I’ve tried and tried. Get message “invalid Driver!” when I go: System> Administration>Windows Wireless Drivers.
Any advice? What am I doing wrong?
June 26th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks!!!! This is a great help!!
June 28th, 2008 at 6:26 am
I got it working, but every time I restart my PC I have to repeat sudo modprobe ndiswrapper because somehow the information doesn’t get stored. How can I get it working in such a way I don’t have to repeat the last step every time I start my computer?
July 11th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
thank you so much, i wish i found this post earlier, i tried so many times. I also might add that i was originally trying with ubuntu 8.04 amd64 version, and when i went to the i386 it seemed to work better. thanks again.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Now you are my GOD, thanks a lot xD
August 27th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
That works perfectly!!
I want to buy you some ice cream!!
October 5th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
When I enter the following in terminal:
sudo ndiswrapper -i net8185.inf
I get the following:
couldn’t open net8185.inf: No such file or directory at /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper-1.9 line 219
I don’t get it…what next?
October 5th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Nevermind…I took the card out and rebooted…after reboot, I went to system/administration/windows wireless drivers and installed new driver.
For whatever reason, it worked…the driver showed up but showed card not installed (correct).
I shut down, installed the card and rebooted. All is well!!!
December 8th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
It sounds like you’ve figured it out but can you put it even more simply? I’m very new at this. I down loaded ndiswrapper – then… open a terminal? how. I’d like to give ubuntu a real try but I need wireless to do so. I have a Gateway with an internal realtek 8185 wireless card. Thanks
March 25th, 2009 at 5:35 am
This problem was causing headaches!
10% or so connection was driving me mad (and within 10 feet of the access point!). Ndiswrapper/you instructions worked a treat. Happy happy happy.
Thanks Jim, much appreciated.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Cool. Glad it worked for you!
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Thanks! I just got an Addon GWK150v4, which uses this chipset, so that I could breathe some life into my dad’s ancient laptop. These instructions worked great!