[STICKY] TP LINK TL-WN725N WIFI Card Not Working

Very nice ov3rwatch!!! Great guide.

Just one question.
Before "make" and "sudo make install", you don't need to "sudo ./configure"?

Have made this a [STICKY] to help others! 60 blue jewels overdue to you sir!

Sorry, but I'm really new to Zorin and this forum. I have a TL-WN725N wireless adapter that won't come alive in Zorin. I found this discussion but I don't understand it. What's a STICKY and how can I use it to try and solve my issues?

Hi,

sadly this thread is incomplete and needs to be deleted!.

I have a link for you and hopefully our resident WiFi expert MV will swing by to help you with further questions.

Go to this thread here and read it carefully, if you have further problems, please post back:

http://peppermintos.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5619

I don't do WiFi myself so sit tight and wait for MV.

Hope it helps.

Regards Wolfman

Can you pease open terminal (ctrl+alt+T) and post back here the result of the following terminal commands:

lsusb
sudo lshw -c network
sudo rfkill list all

First, I wanted to add that I am running Zorin OS 7 from a bootable USB drive. Here are the results of the commands given by MV:

live@live:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0930:6544 Toshiba Corp. Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 Stick (2GB)
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:8179 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0951:1642 Kingston Technology DT101 G2
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
live@live:~$ sudo lshw -c network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 19
bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:1a:4b:7c:db:30
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=2.1.4-k firmware=0.3-0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:44 memory:e4400000-e441ffff memory:e4420000-e4420fff ioport:5000(size=32)
live@live:~$ sudo rfkill list all
live@live:~$

After I ran these I attempted to execute the commands on the site suggested by Wolfman:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic git

It appeared to do some steps but then reported a series of failures to perform other steps.

Thanks for the quick response - I appreciate it.

What version of zorin are you using? 6 or 7 ?
And is it 32 or 64 bit?

Zorin 7 32 bit

Plug an ethernet cable to get internet, open terminal and give the following 4 commands, the one after the other:

Code:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
wget https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com/files/rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
echo "blacklist rtl8192cu" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

After all is completed, restart the computer and see if your wireless dongle is now recognized and working.

I performed these steps and seemed to hit an error after the "Get 11" line in step 1. I finished running the steps in case they would be helpful in analyzing this issue.

live@live:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
dpkg-dev fakeroot g++ g++-4.7 libalgorithm-diff-perl
libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl libstdc++6-4.7-dev
Suggested packages:
debhelper debian-keyring g++-multilib g++-4.7-multilib gcc-4.7-doc
libstdc++6-4.7-dbg libstdc++6-4.7-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
build-essential dkms dpkg-dev fakeroot g++ g++-4.7 libalgorithm-diff-perl
libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl libstdc++6-4.7-dev
0 upgraded, 10 newly installed, 2 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 11.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 28.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main libstdc++6-4.7-dev i386 4.7.3-1ubuntu1 [1,705 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main g++-4.7 i386 4.7.3-1ubuntu1 [7,760 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main g++ i386 4:4.7.3-1ubuntu10 [1,456 B]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main dpkg-dev all 1.16.10ubuntu1 [712 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main build-essential i386 11.6ubuntu4 [5,654 B]
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main dkms all 2.2.0.3-1.1ubuntu2 [72.8 kB]
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main fakeroot i386 1.18.4-2ubuntu1 [89.0 kB]
Get:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main libalgorithm-diff-perl all 1.19.02-3 [50.0 kB]
Get:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl i386 0.04-2build3 [13.1 kB]
Get:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main libalgorithm-merge-perl all 0.08-2 [12.7 kB]
Get:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main linux-headers-3.8.0-31-generic i386 3.8.0-31.46 [1,006 kB]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main linux-headers-generic i386 3.8.0.31.49
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.202 80]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/main linux-headers-generic i386 3.8.0.31.49
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.202 80]
Fetched 11.4 MB in 7s (1,507 kB/s)
Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 9_i386.deb 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.202 80]
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

live@live:~$ wget https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-driver ... .6_all.deb
--2013-11-08 12:07:59-- https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-driver ... .6_all.deb
Resolving realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com (realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com)... 74.125.193.82, 2607:f8b0:400d:c06::52
Connecting to realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com (realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com)|74.125.193.82|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1068478 (1.0M) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: ‘rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb’

100%[======================================>] 1,068,478 2.18MB/s in 0.5s

2013-11-08 12:08:00 (2.18 MB/s) - ‘rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb’ saved [1068478/1068478]

live@live:~$ sudo dpkg -i rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
Selecting previously unselected package rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms.
(Reading database ... 183710 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms (from rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms:
rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms depends on dkms (>= 1.95); however:
Package dkms is not installed.

dpkg: error processing rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms
live@live:~$ echo "blacklist rtl8192cu" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist rtl8192cu
live@live:~$

Ok, lets try something else. I know these are the same steps in the link provided by Wm, but did you have internet connection when carrying them out?
Again with an ethernet cable plugged in to have internet connection, give the following commands:

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic git
mkdir ~/RTL8188EU
cd ~/RTL8188EU
git clone git://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8188eu
cd ~/RTL8188EU/rtl8188eu
make
sudo make install
sudo cp -v ~/RTL8188EU/rtl8188eu/rtl8188eufw.bin /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/
sudo depmod -a
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo modprobe 8188eu

Hopefully your wireless should start working.

Great stuff! I have to admit that I wasn't connected to the internet on the initial try (I thought the code was just making changes to the Zorin configuration on my USB installation). When I got connected all of the steps worked until near the end when an attempted write to the USB stick failed because it was Read Only. After a bit of reading I realized that I had to allow space for persistent changes to my stick. After reinstalling and selecting the right booting option, running your commands, removing and installing the USB wireless interface it all works like a charm. Many thanks to you MV and WM for the help and patience!

Sorry to come back with the same issue (I feel like I'm in the bread line asking for toast). It is only this evening that I have had an opportunity to really test Zorin with the TL-WN725N wifi adapter and I am still having issues. When I initially boot from the USB drive with Zorin the adapter comes on at full bars. However, after approximately 30 seconds the strength drops quickly to one or two bars and communication to the internet stops. If I wait for 3 or 4 minutes the bars will go up, sometimes to full, and I can connect again only to have it drop again within 30 seconds again. If I manually stop and start the connection it invariably comes alive with full bars but again drops within 30 seconds to an unusable level. This adapter on this laptop running Windows 7 works without a hitch. I'm hoping these symptoms may indicate some solution to someone here.

When you are connected, please post back here the result of the following terminal command:

sudo lshw -c network

live@live:~$ sudo lshw -c network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 19
bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:1a:4b:7c:db:30
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=2.1.4-k firmware=0.3-0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:43 memory:e4400000-e441ffff memory:e4420000-e4420fff ioport:5000(size=32)
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
bus info: usb@2:5
logical name: wlan0
serial: f8:1a:67:0a:b7:f3
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8188eu ip=192.168.2.29 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg
live@live:~$

I suspect that you have other modules getting in the way of r8188eu (your driver), and create a conflict.
Can you please post the result of:

Code:

lsmod

We may have to blacklist in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf the other modules.
Probably :
blacklist rtl8192cu
blacklist rtl8192c_common
blacklist rtlwifi

live@live:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 36186 1
snd_hda_codec_analog 75266 1
snd_hda_intel 38307 4
snd_hda_codec 117617 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_analog
snd_hwdep 13272 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 80890 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc 14230 2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_midi 13132 0
pata_pcmcia 16938 1
coretemp 13131 0
snd_seq_midi_event 14475 1 snd_seq_midi
joydev 17097 0
kvm 376505 0
tpm_infineon 17194 0
snd_rawmidi 25114 1 snd_seq_midi
hp_accel 25756 0
psmouse 81065 0
lis3lv02d 19463 1 hp_accel
snd_seq 51280 2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
input_polldev 13648 1 lis3lv02d
serio_raw 13031 0
snd_seq_device 14137 3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
8188eu 626602 0
hp_wmi 17712 0
snd_timer 24411 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
lpc_ich 16925 0
dm_multipath 22402 0
tpm_tis 18203 0
scsi_dh 14427 1 dm_multipath
pcmcia 39544 1 pata_pcmcia
snd 56485 18 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_analog
sparse_keymap 13658 1 hp_wmi
bnep 17669 2
yenta_socket 27095 0
pcmcia_rsrc 18191 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 21505 3 pcmcia,pcmcia_rsrc,yenta_socket
ppdev 12817 0
lp 13299 0
rfcomm 37420 0
soundcore 12600 1 snd
mac_hid 13037 0
parport_pc 27504 1
bluetooth 202226 10 bnep,rfcomm
microcode 18286 0
parport 40753 3 lp,ppdev,parport_pc
binfmt_misc 17260 1
ext2 63166 1
squashfs 35834 1
overlayfs 27279 1
nls_iso8859_1 12617 1
dm_raid45 75357 0
xor 26062 1 dm_raid45
dm_mirror 21621 0
dm_region_hash 16012 1 dm_mirror
dm_log 18137 3 dm_region_hash,dm_mirror,dm_raid45
usb_storage 47684 1
radeon 875105 3
firewire_ohci 35292 0
sdhci_pci 18158 0
firewire_core 61718 1 firewire_ohci
i2c_algo_bit 13197 1 radeon
sdhci 31824 1 sdhci_pci
crc_itu_t 12627 1 firewire_core
video 18894 0
ttm 71289 1 radeon
drm_kms_helper 47545 1 radeon
wmi 18590 1 hp_wmi
drm 228489 5 ttm,drm_kms_helper,radeon
ahci 25507 0
libahci 26108 1 ahci
e1000e 174556 0
live@live:~$

Also here is a listing of "/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf". I'm not sure if the changes you suggested above can simply be entered to this file or if it has to be changed through the command line and if there is any specific sequence required:

# This file lists those modules which we don't want to be loaded by
# alias expansion, usually so some other driver will be loaded for the
# device instead.

# evbug is a debug tool that should be loaded explicitly
blacklist evbug

# these drivers are very simple, the HID drivers are usually preferred
blacklist usbmouse
blacklist usbkbd

# replaced by e100
blacklist eepro100

# replaced by tulip
blacklist de4x5

# causes no end of confusion by creating unexpected network interfaces
blacklist eth1394

# snd_intel8x0m can interfere with snd_intel8x0, doesn't seem to support much
# hardware on its own (Ubuntu bug #2011, #6810)
blacklist snd_intel8x0m

# Conflicts with dvb driver (which is better for handling this device)
blacklist snd_aw2

# causes failure to suspend on HP compaq nc6000 (Ubuntu: #10306)
blacklist i2c_i801

# replaced by p54pci
blacklist prism54

# replaced by b43 and ssb.
blacklist bcm43xx

# most apps now use garmin usb driver directly (Ubuntu: #114565)
blacklist garmin_gps

# replaced by asus-laptop (Ubuntu: #184721)
blacklist asus_acpi

# low-quality, just noise when being used for sound playback, causes
# hangs at desktop session start (Ubuntu: #246969)
blacklist snd_pcsp

# ugly and loud noise, getting on everyone's nerves; this should be done by a
# nice pulseaudio bing (Ubuntu: #77010)
blacklist pcspkr

# EDAC driver for amd76x clashes with the agp driver preventing the aperture
# from being initialised (Ubuntu: #297750). Blacklist so that the driver
# continues to build and is installable for the few cases where its
# really needed.
blacklist amd76x_edac

Even if I don't see the modules running, just to be sure do the following:

Open terminal and run

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Write your password. The document will open with administrative rights so you can edit it.
At the end of the file add the following 3 separate lines:

Code:

blacklist rtl8192cu
blacklist rtl8192c_common
blacklist rtlwifi

Save, close and exit.
Reboot and see if that helped.

I ran the command and go the following:

live@live:~$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

** (gedit:13197): WARNING **: Can't load fallback CSS resource: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-fallback.css' does not exist

** (gedit:13197): WARNING **: Can't load fallback CSS resource: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-fallback.css' does not exist

(gedit:13197): IBUS-WARNING **: The owner of /home/live/.config/ibus/bus is not root!

However, the file did open and I was allowed to add the three blacklist lines and save them. I confirmed that they were in the file after rebooting. The signal drops are still happening.

Οκ, following the same method that we opened the blacklist.conf, delete the lines we added and save, exit.
Then follow my initial guide to get the dongle working, i.e. plug an ethernet cable to get internet, and then in terminal:

Code:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
wget https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com/files/rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
echo "blacklist rtl8192cu" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Restart and see if the dongle works.
We are basically trying another driver (rtl8192) instead of rtl8182eu as it may work better for you.
After the restart and in case you can connect to the internet using the dongle, post back the results of the following commands:

Code:

lsmod
sudo lshw -c network

I ran the commands you asked and ran into a couple of "404" errors on the first step. I ran all of the commands just in case there is something there of interest to you:

live@live:~$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
debhelper
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dkms
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 3 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,294 B/1,087 kB of archives.
After this operation, 348 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main linux-headers-generic i386 3.8.0.31.49
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.176 80]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/main linux-headers-generic i386 3.8.0.31.49
404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.176 80]
Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/m ... 9_i386.deb 404 Not Found [IP: 91.189.92.176 80]
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?
live@live:~$ wget https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-driver ... .6_all.deb
--2013-11-12 12:18:09-- https://realtek-8188cus-wireless-driver ... .6_all.deb
Resolving realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com (realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com)... 74.125.193.82, 2607:f8b0:4001:c00::52
Connecting to realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com (realtek-8188cus-wireless-drivers-3444749-ubuntu-1304.googlecode.com)|74.125.193.82|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1068478 (1.0M) [application/x-debian-package]
Saving to: ‘rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb’

100%[======================================>] 1,068,478 2.15MB/s in 0.5s

2013-11-12 12:18:10 (2.15 MB/s) - ‘rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb’ saved [1068478/1068478]

live@live:~$ sudo dpkg -i rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb
Selecting previously unselected package rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms.
(Reading database ... 185513 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms (from rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms_1.6_all.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms:
rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms depends on dkms (>= 1.95); however:
Package dkms is not installed.

dpkg: error processing rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms
live@live:~$ echo "blacklist rtl8192cu" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
blacklist rtl8192cu
live@live:~$

live@live:~$ sudo lshw -c network
*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 19
bus info: pci@0000:00:19.0
logical name: eth0
version: 03
serial: 00:1a:4b:7c:db:30
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=e1000e driverversion=2.1.4-k firmware=0.3-0 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
resources: irq:43 memory:e4400000-e441ffff memory:e4420000-e4420fff ioport:5000(size=32)
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 2
bus info: usb@2:5
logical name: wlan0
serial: f8:1a:67:0a:b7:f3
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=r8188eu ip=192.168.2.29 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bg

Have you changed the updates server? Could you go and see if it is set to main?
synaptics package manager > settings > repository > 1st tab

I went into the repository tab and on the way in I got a message "You have 1 broken package on your system!". I looked in the "Broken Filter" section and found Package "rtl8192cu-tjp-dkms". I kept on the updates area and in the Zorin Software tab all boxes are checked and in the "Download From" is "Main Server".

In terminal give

Code:

sudo apt-get install -f

This will hopefully fix broken packages.

Otherwise, last solution is to use ndiswrapper. (windows wireless drivers).
I have written a very detailed guide! viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5008&p=23910&hilit=ndiswrapper#p23910