# HP Compaq with TL-WN881ND



## sunny09 (Jul 26, 2020)

Hi,
I'm new to both FreeBSD & community. Please be patient with me.

I've a HP Compaq DC7700 small factor PC, installed FreeBSD OS. I've bought TL-WN881ND PCI express card, as my PC doesn't have one to connect to wifi. I did install on to my PC, but, can't install the drivers, as they are compatible for windows.

So, I did mount the CD & try to compile using FreeBSD tools, but no luck, as the CD has .inf & .exe files only.

I did try another alternative, which is to download Linux drivers for TL-WN881ND, copied into a USB, mounted on to PC & try to compile the Linux drivers, still no use.

So my last hope is you(community). Can anyone help me to install drivers for TL-WN881ND PCI card.

Thanks


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## VladiBG (Jul 26, 2020)

Chapter 33. Advanced Networking
					

Advanced networking in FreeBSD:  basics of gateways and routes, CARP, how to configure multiple VLANs on FreeBSD, etc




					www.freebsd.org
				




ath(4)


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## sunny09 (Jul 28, 2020)

Hi VladiBG,

Thanks for your reply. I've tried the following command:


```
sysctl net.wlan.devices
```

Nothing showed up. I'm not sure whether TL-WN881ND is supported by FreeBSD. If it supports, then can you point me where I can find drivers of TL-WN881ND for FreeBSD. All I can find are either Windows or Linux drivers for TL-WN881ND.


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## VladiBG (Jul 28, 2020)

There's 2 versions of TL-WN881ND

TP-LINK TL-WN881ND    Atheros
TP-LINK TL-WN881ND v2.x    Realtek

If you have v1.x your PCI card is with Atheros AR9287  which is supported by ath_hal(4) part of ath(4)
If you have v2.x your PCI card is with Realtek chip Realtek RTL8192EE;RTL8192EE, G9H87H1 GG39 and not all of them have support by rtwn(4)and you can't use this card as there's no driver for it.

Check the output of `pciconf -lv` to identify your card or `dmesg`

And then try to load the driver with `kldload`


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## sunny09 (Jul 29, 2020)

OMG!!! my PCI driver is v2.x, which is Realtek RTL8192EE . So FreeBSD doesn't support it at all. I bought this PCI driver recently, guess I've to return it back.

When I check rtwn(4), it says, it supports RTL8192E, isn't it the same as RTL8192EE?
Check the screenshot attached.

Can you suggest some PCI cards which are compatible with FreeBSD. Thanks


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## VladiBG (Jul 29, 2020)

Yes RTL8192EE is supported. IS you card with this Realtek chipset? What is the output of `pciconf -lv` and `dmesg`



			https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=3387635


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## sunny09 (Jul 29, 2020)

```
pciconf -lv
```
 output


```
none1@pci0:32:0:0: class=0x028000 card=0x819610ec chip=0x818b10ec rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
vendor = 'Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.'
device = 'RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter'
class = network
```

In 
	
	



```
dmesg
```
 output, I don't see the RTL8192EE or TL-WN881ND. I even tried 
	
	



```
dmesg | grep 'Realtek'
```
All I got was some HDA CODEC, Audio Function Group, Rear Analog and Front Analog drivers.

*My FreeBSD Version*: 12.1-RELEASE r354233 GENERIC amd64

*NOTE*: Regards to the FCC link, I got this line, _You are not authorized to access this page_

Thanks VladiBG for all your help.


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## VladiBG (Jul 30, 2020)

Ok try to load the driver rtwn(4)

It may not work as it's RTL8192*EE* not RTL8192*E *and rtwn_pci(4) only support RTL8188CE/RTL8188EE chipsets










						Wireless Card compatibility (RTL8192EE) and ndisgen
					

Hello,  I installed FreeBSD 12.1 on my desktop, which has a TP-Link TL-WN881ND, which in itself has the Realtek RTL8192EE.   I went through the handbook and found that (unless I am missing something), I should use the XP drivers via ndisgen as I did not find a driver anywhere in the docs or...




					forums.freebsd.org


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## sunny09 (Jul 30, 2020)

Hi VladiBG ,
I tried to load rtwn(4), but no luck. See my `/boot/loader.conf` attached

*/etc/rc.conf*


```
wlans_rtwn0="wlan0"
ifconfig_wlan0="WPA SYNCDHCP"
```

Did run the following to restart

```
sh /etc/netstart
```

The PCI driver still doesn't show up in ifconfig.

I also found the RTL8192EE drivers for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. Following is what I did:

copied each of these windows versions .sys and .inf files into a USB
mount each of the windows version files separately and try to compile them to .ko file using ndisgen
When I try to use ndisgen, it says the following:

```
ndiscvt: creating .INF file - no entries created, are you using the correct files?
CONVERSION FAILED
```

If I couldn't use RTL8192EE, then can you suggest some other PCI drivers that works with FreeBSD. Thanks


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