Solving the MSI Wind Wi-Fi problem on Linux Mint 7

The first thing I noticed when I first used my newly-installed Linux Mint 7 on my MSI Wind was that my Internet connection was noticeably slower and I kept getting disconnected. I thought it might have had something to do with my Internet service provider or our super old router at home, but this problem also occurred at other places.

While searching at Google, I found that there were many ways to solve the problem. Apparently, the Realtek Wi-Fi card installed on the MSI Wind is really problematic on the Linux Mint. I tried three solutions, and the last solution was the only one that worked. I will refer to these three solutions as actions.

First Action: Updating the Wi-Fi Driver
1. I checked the model of my Wi-Fi driver by typing this in the Terminal:

lspci | grep Wireless

This is what came out:

02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8187SE Wireless LAN Controller (rev 22)


2. I opened the Package Manager (from the Menu) and used the search function to find the Realtek driver. Check the package that has the rtl8187se-modules and click "Apply". Updates for the Realtek driver automatically installed.




Second Action: Blacklisting the Drivers
Borgy had a hunch that Linux Mint might be loading the wrong driver for the wifi card at startup, so we blacklisted (meaning: prevented Linux from loading those drivers) some drivers that might possibly be used in place of the correct wifi driver. How this was done:

1. Check the list of all drivers installed by typing this in the Terminal:

cd /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic

2. Find the drivers listed below which contains: . -name rtl\*

3. Blacklist the drivers that do not contain "rtl8187" by typing this in the Terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Third Action (this one worked): Installing WICD

WICD, which stands for Wireless Interface Connection Daemon, is an interface to connect to networks. The default network manager of Linux Mint 7 is the GNOME Network Manager. Maybe the GNOME Network Manager doesn't work well with the Realtek Wi-Fi card, but for some reason replacing this with WICD worked.

1. To download WICD, type in the Terminal:


sudo apt-get wicd

2. This will allow the Network-manager and the GNOME Network Manager to be removed and WICD will be installed.

3. Restart your computer.

You may also download and install WICD from the Package Manager.

One drawback for using WICD is that I have to manually connect to the Internet every time I turn on my computer. This is done by clicking the WICD icon located beside the date and time on the bottom right part of the desktop. If there is a way to automatically connect, please tell me!

Here's how the WICD window looks like: