How to Install RTL8188EU, RTL8723DS or other rtlwifi Driver via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04

Last updated: April 22, 2021

wifi hotspot

Miss Realtek rtlwifi drivers or get ‘No WiFi Adapter Found‘ issue? There’s now an Ubuntu PPA that contains the most recent rtlwifi drivers for Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and derivatives.

Without building from the source code, the “Linux Mint Türkiye” team maintains a PPA that contains the most recent wireless drivers with DKMS support for rtl8723bu, rtl8822bu, rtl8188eu, rtl8188fu, rtl8192cu, rtl8192du, rtl8192ee, rtl8192eu, rtl8192fu, rtl8723au, rtl8723bu, rtl8723de, rtl8723ds, rtl8723du, rtl8812au, rtl8814au, rtl8821ce, rtl8821cu, rtl8822bu devices.

If you have a RealTek USB WiFi Adapter or a laptop / notebook with built-in chipset in the previous list, do following steps may help you install the drivers in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 20.10, Linux Mint 20.

1.) First open terminal either from the system application launcher or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard.

2.) Then run command to add the Ubuntu PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/kablosuz

3.) Then open Synaptic package manager, click Reload button refresh package cache, search either rtl or dkms.

Scroll down to find out the list of driver packages, then right-click on the one for your chipset and select ‘Mark for Installation’, finally click on Apply button to install it.

Or you can run command in terminal to install the driver (replace rtl8723de-dkms in the code):

sudo apt install rtl8723de-dkms

4.) The wireless network should work immediately after you installed the driver. You can manually unload and re-load the kernel module via commands (replace rtl8723de-dkms in the code):

sudo modprobe -r rtl8723de

sudo modprobe rtl8723de

Uninstall the RealTek Wifi Driver:

To remove the driver, either use Synaptic package manager or run apt command in terminal:

sudo apt remove --autoremove rtl8723de-dkms

And remove the Ubuntu PPA via command:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:linuxmint-tr/wireless-ppa

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17 responses to How to Install RTL8188EU, RTL8723DS or other rtlwifi Driver via PPA in Ubuntu 20.04

  1. I have had very little trouble with WIFI drivers on Linux. Just PC Linux that could not find my Qualcomm driver and Debian which I had to put on a wire to install a Broadcom the driver as it is proprietary and you must therefore install it yourself. Sorry to see a company as popular as Realtek not supporting or supported in Linux. Glad there is a fix though.

  2. The message I got on adding PPA :

    Cannot add PPA: ‘ppa:~linuxmint-tr/ubuntu/wireless-ppa’.
    The team named ‘~linuxmint-tr’ has no PPA named ‘ubuntu/wireless-ppa’
    Please choose from the following available PPAs:
    * ‘focalbase’: focalbase

    why? is it moved ?

  3. Hi Thanks for the article. facing some error while following the step [4] . If possible, can you please help ?

    I tried to install “rtl8822ce driver” on Ubuntu 18.04.4 for my HP laptop which is having “rtl8822ce” wireless adaptor.

    Error details :
    “modprobe: FATAL: Module rtl8822ce not found.”

  4. Hi, I have a hp laptop which needs a rtl8723de driver. After running through the above-mentioned solution, the wifi card is visible but is not connecting to any device. It tries to connect but fails every time.

    Please let me know if you know the solution for this. I also tried many other methods but this is the only one working till this stage.

  5. computer user June 25, 2021 at 8:51 pm

    I got it working but the signal strength is about one third less the signal then it was on windows.Linux is garbage the developers will never get it right.

    • sudo modprobe -r rtl8723de && sleep 5 && sudo modprobe rtl8723de ant_sel=1

      Run this command

  6. Thanks ..Finally wifi start working properly

  7. I tried this again after a few months on my usb stick with mint cinnamon 20,2 UMA and now the keyservers dont work. Always something with linux.

  8. very good, perfect install. Thanks

  9. Simple and pretty. Thank you.

  10. EMERSON LEANDRO May 26, 2022 at 7:54 pm

    ME SALVOU, NOTEBOOK BRASILEIRO, DATEN, REALTEK 8723DU FOI UM PARTO CONSEGUIR, INSTALEI EM OUTRA MAQUINA PORQUE O REFERIDO APARELHO SÓ POSSUI CONEXAO WIFI.

  11. I followed this guide to install drivers for the RTL8188EUS version on a POP!_OS 22.04 with kernel 5.17.15. The module wasn’t loaded after installation, neither with modprobe, but a system restart did the trick. Everything working very well, thank you

  12. Thank you so much. This is the first time I have used any form of Linux in over 18 years. Was beating my head against the wall trying to get the WiFi to work on my laptop.
    It took two days to find something that worked THANK YOU.