Purchased a new usb device to test this. Tested first on a 64-bit Xfce desktop with i5-2500, 16GB RAM, Intel graphics, and a wired Internet connection. Plugged in the device, and confirmed that it does not work correctly with the system rtl8xxxu driver and kernel 5.7.19-3.

Installed dkms-rtl8192eu and associated dependencies. Numerous online sources, and several older Mageia bugs, confirm that the rtl8xxxu module must be blacklisted for this driver to work, so as root I placed a text file "realtek.conf" containing the line "blacklist rtl8xxxu" into /etc/modprobe.d.

Rebooted, and used the net_applet to disconnect from the wired connection and connect using the wifi device. There was a longer delay than I expected, but the connection come up and worked.

Updated dkms-rtl8192eu and rebooted into kernel 5.7.19-3. Again there was a delay, but by the time the desktop had fully initialized the wifi connection had come up and worked.

Updated to kernel-desktop 5.10.3-1 and everything still worked.

Also tried this on a 64-bit Plasma system, AMD Phenom II X4, 8GB RAM, AMD HD 8490 graphics. This machine has an internal PCI-e dual-band wifi card, and uses Network Manager to manage the connection.

I did the same test as above, with much the same results. There was no delay before the connection was established as there is on the Xfce system. Network Manager had to be told which device to use for the connection, as all were set at the same priority. 

As I tried different things, I discovered that it was possible to establish a wifi connection on the 5GHz band of the internal card, and on the 2.6GHz. band of the usb device, simultaneously. I did not explore what might have happened if I had tried to use it that way.

Anyway, the device worked perfectly on both systems, with both kernels, so I'm passing it on. Validating. Advisory in Comment 0.

CC: (none) => andrewsfarm, sysadmin-bugs
Keywords: (none) => validated_update
Whiteboard: (none) => MGA7-64-OK

Wow, that's going above and beyond Thomas!

If the device works with rtl8xxxu, is this package even needed?  Are they some devices only it supports?

CC: (none) => pterjan, tmb

BTW I also bought a few more USB realtek things few months ago from China to cover a bunch of drivers and they have now all arrived:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQntD4pttWnxyLa4vcCsmO0RzxxNMN0H1tg-OFiLgO5F0fPsHb5tMBDGjuG2Dq-Ysf6qqapywKXBoRw/pubhtml?gid=1015996909&single=true

(In reply to David Walser from comment #2)
> Wow, that's going above and beyond Thomas!
> 
Thank you.

> If the device works with rtl8xxxu, is this package even needed?  Are they
> some devices only it supports?

This device only partly works with rtl8xxxu. It can detect SSIDs, so that they can be configured(passwords and such), but it refuses to connect, either with the Network Center or with Network Manager. 

That reminds me of the way my rtl8192cu device used to act with Mageia 2, 3, and 4. That was traced to "buggy" firmware. When better firmware became available the rtl8192cu device started working. That's probably what's needed for the rtl8192eu, too - better firmware.

As an aside, it *would* appear that dkms-rtl8192cu may no longer be needed because of that improved firmware, but that's a topic for another bug.

Advisory pushed to SVN.

CC: (none) => ouaurelien
Keywords: (none) => advisory

The dkms-rtl8192eu driver also works with at least one rtl8192cu device, and probably others.

An update for this issue has been pushed to the Mageia Updates repository.

https://advisories.mageia.org/MGAA-2021-0001.html

Resolution: (none) => FIXED
Status: NEW => RESOLVED