Driver for RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter

General questions
1

Running vyos 1.4.0 on a PELADN Mini PC. lspci report a RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter. Vyos does not recognize the wiless interface.

Searching Google, I found an article to compile the drive on Debian.

Is there any way to get this drive into Vyos?

apt install bc module-assistant build-essential dkms
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package bc
E: Unable to locate package module-assistant
E: Unable to locate package build-essential
E: Unable to locate package dkms
2

The below is for 1.5-rolling only, doesn’t cover 1.4, disregard.

I would say that in almost all cases you will be better off with a dedicated access point. They are cheap and will be more capable than VyOS’s wifi support.
VyOS documentation: WLAN/WIFI - Wireless LAN

But if you insist: There is no official Linux driver from Realtek but it seems to be part of the Linux kernel, driver rtw88.

You can’t compile it on VyOS itself, you can compile it with the vyos-build docker container on host computer. You would have to modify the VyOS default kernel config to include the rtw88 module and the rtl8821ce device.

Read the Build VyOS / Docker part and start with building an image yourself.

If you got that working, while still in the vyos-build git repo, add the following two lines to the end of

scripts/package-build/linux-kernel/arch/x86/configs/vyos_defconfig

CONFIG_RTW88=m
CONFIG_RTW88_8821CE=m

and compile the kernel

## from within the vyos build docker container
cd /vyos/scripts/package-build/linux-kernel
./build.py --config package.toml --packages linux-kernel
## and copy the resulting *.deb files to /vyos/packages
cp -v linux*.deb /vyos/packages
cd /vyos
## and create an ISO image, you may want to add other parameters, see the docu
sudo ./build-vyos-image generic --build-type release --architecture amd64
1 Like
3

Thanks for the response.

Mi intent is to use the Internet access via WIFI. This is a secondary line in case the primary router fails. So, the Vyos routers need access to a WiFi device. Is there a USB WiFi adapter that will work with the kernel in the Vyos device?

I would say that in almost all cases you will be better off with a dedicated access point. They are cheap and will be more capable than VyOS’s wifi support.
VyOS documentation: WLAN/WIFI - Wireless LAN

I did not find a reference to a hardware device on the page.

Read the Build VyOS / Docker part and start with building an image yourself.

Is building the source for 1.4 open again?

4

I missed that part, no you can’t compile 1.4. Disregard my earlier post then.

Is there a USB WiFi adapter that will work with the kernel in the Vyos device?

I don’t know about that.