Can't get WiFi to work on Lenovo x200s under Ubuntu Karmic

Question

I have just gotten my Lenovo X200s laptop, and I am installing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic on it. The installation went through without a hitch, but I can't get my Wi-Fi to work.

lspci | grep Network

Produces the following results:

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8172 (rev 10)

The weird part is that when I turn the wifi hardware switch on and off on the side of the laptop, I get the following printed in /var/log messages:

Dec 30 23:24:48 temp-laptop kernel: [  213.432302] usb 4-2: USB disconnect, address 2
Dec 30 23:24:52 temp-laptop kernel: [  217.276310] usb 4-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Dec 30 23:24:52 temp-laptop kernel: [  217.441759] usb 4-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

Does Ubuntu think my Wi-Fi card is a USB device? Am I missing some driver? What can I do to fix this?

Answer 1

I followed the instructions here.

Here is a quick overview:

Download the driver from the following locations:

for the 64Bit version:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/34090404/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009_64bit.tar.gz

for the 32Bit version:

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/33927923/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009.tar.gz

Use "tar xvzf" to unpack. Go into the directory created, and build it as root (or sudo) by calling "make", and "make install".

Reboot laptop, network should work.

Answer 2

Be aware that there are several WiFi adapters an x200 can come with, including WiFi Link and PCIe. On Windows you can check Device Manager, there should be something similar on Ubuntu.