WIFI usb adapter dongle for Linux ( RTL8812AU )

[ssfc72]

OK, in another post, someone was looking for recommendations on the above.

I finally got the usb wifi dongle, that I ordered.  It is a wifi category AC 1200 (chip is a Realtec RTL8812au ) and is usb 2 and 3 compatible. It was stated to work under Linux.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1200Mbps-802-11AC-USB-Dual-Band-2-4G-5GHz-Wireless-WIFI-Network-Adapter-Q8X1/401478186783?hash=item5d79f6f71f:g:ZCAAAOSwW9RaXvTi

Well, it certainly is not discoverable by the Linux Distros Mint 17 or 18, Pepperrmint or Lubuntu 1804 Beta.
I was able to, under Mint 18, to go into the Driver Manager window and it downloaded the RTL driver, from the Ubuntu repositories.
However my Mint 18, on my HP notebook, only saw the built in wifi card and could not find the usb wifi dongle.

I still have a few more tries to make with this usb wifi dongle.

At this point however, I would not recommend this usb wifi dongle, for use under Linux, because Linux does not yet appear to automatically, find the dongle.

There is a mini CDRom that comes with it, that has drivers for Windows and Linux.  The Windows driver works well.
I haven't tried the Linux Shell script, that is suppose to get it to work under Linux

SOLVED!!!   See reply #21

[fox]

I suspect that the reason is that you're using a distro with a relatively old kernel. I'm guessing that any distro running 4.15 will find it.

[ssfc72]

On my Acer Aspire 1430, Mint 17, I have kernel 4.4.0.116

[fox]

For fun, try the latest image of Ubuntu 18.04. It is running kernel 4.15. Same with openSUSE Tumbleweed.

[ssfc72]

Thanks Mike, for the suggestion of trying Ubuntu 18.04 Beta.
Unfortunately, I still can't get this wifi adapter to work, with Ubuntu 18.04
As with the Mint 18 Distro, I can go to the Driver Manager and it does pick up this usb wifi dongle, as well as the built in Broadcom wifi.
I suspect the Distro is latching onto the built in wifi first and I don't seem to be able to have a way to select the usb wifi.

I will remove the built in wifi card and see what happens.
I suspect I will need to have a wired network connection, so that the Live Ubuntu can access the internet to grab the Realtec driver for the usb wifi.  Sigh!!  Not a workable situation, for me.

I may shortly have a usb AC wifi dongle for sale! :-(

[fox]

Something strange there, Bill. A Ubuntu installer shouldn't pick up a Broadcom wifi until that driver is installed. Bring your stuff to PLUG MUG tonight; maybe I can help.

[ssfc72]

OK, I removed the built in Broadcom wifi card from my notebook computer running Mint 17.3
However, I still could not get the computer to talk to the usb wifi adapter dongle.

I next booted up a Live Kubuntu 18.04 Beta from a usb pendrive.
Still could not get the computer to talk to the usb wifi adapter.
I was able to use the Driver Manager to load up the RTL driver from the Ubuntu repositories.

I finally copied the Linux files from the mini cdrom, that came with the wifi adapter.
There is a script by the name of, install.sh   which is suppose to make/install the driver.

I had to make the  install.sh  file an executable file and then I ran the script.

There was no indication that anything had happened after running the script.

However, when I checked for wifi connections, I found that I now had my wifi AC connection showing.  Yeah!!!

This is running from a Live usb Kubuntu 18.04.  So now I will try and get the wifi adapter, working on the Mint 17.3 that is installed on the hard drive of this computer.

[fox]

Interesting. Glad it worked!

[Jason]

Bill, did you run the script from a terminal program? Or did you just run it from your file manager?

I was surprised you needed the driver CD-ROM if it was picked up already in Driver Manager. I'm also wondering if you did that before you removed the internal card if it would have worked. Also, many notebooks have a key function that can disable the internal wireless and/or do it from Network Manager tray icon.

In any case, good job on getting it to work.

[ssfc72]

I think I probably did it both ways.  There didn't seem to be anything after each attempt, to say the operation was completed

Bill, did you run the script from a terminal program? Or did you just run it from your file manager?

I believe I did initially try, with the built in wifi card, installed.
That didn't work, so that is why I resorted to removing the built in wifi card.

I was surprised you needed the driver CD-ROM if it was picked up already in Driver Manager. I'm also wondering if you did that before you removed the internal card if it would have worked. Also, many notebooks have a key function that can disable the internal wireless and/or do it from Network Manager tray icon.

In any case, good job on getting it to work.

[ssfc72]

I have not been successful in gettting this usb RTL wifi adapter, dongle, to work with Mint 17.3
The Device Manager does not find any RTL driver, when it scans the Ubuntu repositories.

I know that in Mint 18.3, the Device Manager will find the RTL driver in the Ubuntu repositories and give me the option of selecting to use the driver.

So, I am going to attempt an upgrade from Mint 17.3 to Mint 18, on this Acer Aspire 1430 notebook computer  There are lots of good guides, on how to do this.

[Jason]

You might get away with just upgrading the kernel (using Update Manager) though I don't remember if it offered this option in LM 17.x. If it's there, you can find it by clicking on the View menu in Update Manager and then choose Linux Kernels and pick a series that is used in LM 18.x - which I think is the 4.8.x series. Just pick the most recent version 4.8.0-58, I think. It's a good idea to do an image backup before you install the newer kernel, just in case. Then install it and reboot. This may not work but if you want to upgrade to 18, you'll need to do this, anyway and might save you having to do all of that.

[ssfc72]

Thanks Jason!  It is worth a try.
Mint 17.3 kernal only goes up to 4.4.0.98, but I will give it a try.

[ssfc72]

No luck getting the RTL wifi driver, under Mint 17.3
I installed the latest driver, 4.4.0.98    Went to Driver Manager and it still did not find the RTL driver.

Next step will be putting Mint 18.3 on this Acer Aspire 1430 notebook computer.

[Jason]

Is there an upgrade path from 17 to 18? Or do you need to do a fresh install?