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sysv_penguin

Member

Registered: 2025-09-28

Posts: 5  

[SOLVED] rtl8188ftv

Hello, I'm currently testing Devuan on my machine. everything is fine except my WiFi dongle. The RTL8188FTV/FU has been supported by the Linux kernel since 6.2.
I enabled backports and upgraded my kernel to 6.12. but nothing changed. Note that on the same machine, Ubuntu and any other distro with a recent kernel brings up the WiFi device, Devuan is the exception here.🙁

~$ inxi -N
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8188FTV 802.11b/g/n 1T1R 2.4G WLAN Adapter type: USB
    driver: N/A

on ubuntu 25 the output of inxi -N for my usb device is rtl8xxxu or something like that....

kernel version:

~$ uname -r
6.12.43+deb12-amd64

~$ apt list --installed | grep realtek

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

firmware-realtek/stable,now 20230210-5 all [installed]

maybe I should fetch this firmware from backports? IDK.

Regards.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,311  

Re: [SOLVED] rtl8188ftv

I don't know how new this adapter is. The firmware is from 2023, two years old. In any case installing the backports firmware is worth a try.

ralph.ronnquist

Administrator

From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS

Registered: 2016-11-30

Posts: 1,481  

Re: [SOLVED] rtl8188ftv

Does the command

# modprobe rtl8xxxu

change anything?

The module is available and obviously the model is recognised but apparently there's some automagic udev step that is broken for you.

How did you install Devuan? Which release are you using?

sysv_penguin

Member

Registered: 2025-09-28

Posts: 5  

Re: [SOLVED] rtl8188ftv

I don't know how new this adapter is. The firmware is from 2023, two years old. In any case installing the backports firmware is worth a try.

Linux kernel 6.2 was officially released on February19,2023 according to chatgpt. I'll give it a shot

Does the command

# modprobe rtl8xxxu

change anything?

It returned nothing and inxi is the same. So probably it did nothing.

How did you install Devuan? Which release are you using?

I installed Devuan from desktop-live ISOs.

sysv_penguin

Member

Registered: 2025-09-28

Posts: 5  

Re: [SOLVED] rtl8188ftv

🎉 Thank you so much for helping me. After upgrading that package, the dongle is working as expected.

TLDR, for users who might stumble upon this:

1. Enable backports by adding the backports repo to the file (For me it was there i just uncommented it): /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Install newer version of the Linux kernel from the backports repo: sudo apt install linux-image-amd64/daedalus-backports
3. Upgrade Realtek packages: sudo apt install -t daedalus-backports firmware-realtek
4. Reboot your system.