Installing RTL8821CE Network Controller on Ubuntu

Using Linux without internet is a disaster, for me.

Usually when we install a Linux Distro on a laptop, some of them get all of the driver installed totally, some is partially, or maybe not at all. It could be a disaster especially if the network driver isn’t installed in this internet era.

This is just happened when I installed Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.3 on my HP Notebook CM-0078AU. It is not the first time actually, back then I’ve faced this problem when I installed Zorin OS lite 11 on my old netbook. Well, I start to think this problem is not rare, it’s Open-Source after all.

by yourcomicstory from flickr

INDEX

• So, what have you done?
• How do you fix it?

So, what have you done?

First, I downloaded the image from the official website. After that, I ran Rufus to create a bootable with default setting. I configured the image source and then clicked start. Done, no error.

Ubuntu Budgie

Next I booted my laptop from USB and followed the installation instruction. I also checked install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware. After a few steps, ubuntu did the installation for me.

That’s all I did, then I clicked on network icon and found out only Ethernet network that exist there. What the hell….

How do you fix it?

So first I need to know what driver my laptop use by running this command

lspci | grep Network

Result:

Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

Then I google “Install RTL8821CE on ubuntu” and found a solution on stackoverflow that fixed my own problem.

How to install Wi-Fi driver for Realtek RTL8821CE on Ubuntu 18.04?

Here, I would like to review about what I did based on advice from stackoverflow.

• Go to https://github.com/tomaspinho/rtl8821ce and download the repo.

Those repo contains all the thing we need to install the driver.

I would like to say thank you to my savior, tomaspinho, for giving me hope to keep using Ubuntu. I don’t know you, Sir but I have my respect on you.

• Unzip the file and rename the folder from rtl8821ce-master to rtl8821ce

You have to rename the file properly or the error would rise.

• Run these on terminal:

cd Downloads/rtl8821ce/
sudo apt install bc module-assistant build-essential dkms
sudo m-a prepare
sudo ./dkms-install.sh

• Wait until it’s done and then reboot your PC.

On some case you might need to disable secure boot if the driver hasn’t installed yet after you follow the steps above.

Now try click the network icon and check if there is a Wi-Fi Networks there

If it’s still doesn’t work, there might be a different approach because those steps are work on my HP Notebook CM-0078AU but I have to disable the secure boot so the driver could be installed on my Laptop. I hope this blog could help you.