Realtek RTL8821CE-M 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

Short question: Is EOS/Arch compatible with it?

No idea, but if it works on any other flavour of GNU/Linux, it should work on Arch just as well.

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I’ve just heard it won’t work on Ubuntu. :thinking:

Then the chances are pretty high it also won’t work on Arch. Though, you’d have to try to be sure… Looking at the Realtek website there are only windoze drivers, maybe there is a third-party Linux driver for it, but I wouldn’t be too hopeful. Seems like a rubbish piece of hardware.

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So spend a couple hundred €uros on a laptop that won’t even connect to the interwebz?

Linux starts at 14:25

Yeah, @14:25 in that video, it says it doesn’t connect to WiFi on Linux. You’ll have to use a USB WiFi adapter, or connect it via cable. Or wait until someone comes up with an open driver for this crappy Realtek hardware (wouldn’t hold my breath).

I wouldn’t take that laptop for free if you gave it to me, it’s just insulting…

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It is isn’t it? But you know, monetary constraints forcing us to compromise here and there …
What I don’t get is Realtek is huge in wifi, no? So why can’t Ubuntu handle it? I thought it’s probably outdated and the always up-to-date Arch has no problems. Was my thinking shit?

They didn’t bother to make Linux drivers for it, and it’s all proprietary :poop: and it seems nobody in the Linux world bothered to reverse-engineer it.

Can you send it back? If not, those little USB WiFi adapters are quite cheap, and are a pretty decent option. Just do your research before buying to make sure it works on Linux, and that it is fast enough for your WiFi.

Or you could replace your wifi card with another one that works.
This is what I have done with my wives HP laptop.

It’s just plug and play.

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yay -Si rtl8821ce-dkms-git

Don’t know if this helps, but AUR has it.

I haven’t bought it yet. Just took it into the inner circle of affordable lappies for now.

… and kicked out already. :angry:

Thx everybody for your help.

I noticed that another poster mentioned a driver in the AUR. Alternately, back in the day, when there was no Linux driver, we’d use the Windows driver under ndiswrapper (ndiswrapper-dkms is in the community repo).

Have you already tried this laptop? If it doesn’t work try the rtw88-dkms-git which has the newest Realtek drivers or rtl8821-ce-dkms-git

Edit: The driver may already be in the kernel you’ll have to see if it works.
I came across this on a site.

The new Realtek WiFi driver, rtw88, will support rtl8821ce in 2020 or later.

Edit2: I am running an HP with an rtl8822ce and it’s driver (module) is rtw_8822ce
This is directly from the kernel already working.

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Naw, only know it from Lisa’s and Lon’s reviews and found it interesting coz it’s affordable.