WIFI usb adapter dongle for Linux ( RTL8812AU )

ssfc72 · March 16, 2018, 10:15:49 PM

The fight to get this Realtec 8812au AC usb wifi dongle to work with Linux, continues!

OK, I did a clean install of Mint 18.3 to my Acer Aspire 1430 11" notebook computer.
I tried everything, even going to the very latest kernal, available.
Could not get the wifi working. I could get mint to download the RTL 8812 driver, from the Device Manager, but that was all.

So, I tried a Live usb boot of Kubuntu 18.04 Beta.
I was able to get the wifi to work!
So, I did a fresh install of Kubuntu to the hard drive and I was able to get the wifi to work.
There was 500 Meg of Updates, so I started the Updates. That crapped out, with about 26 updates to go.

I then found my wifi to not be working!
There was no way I could get the wifi working, again.

So Kubuntu 18.04 is coming off this notebook computer.

I might give Mint 18.3 another try. Sigh!!!

fox · March 17, 2018, 06:56:27 AM

Silly question perhaps, but is the RTL 8812 driver the correct one? Might I suggest that you boot up again with the Kubuntu beta live usb that worked and use the terminal command

Code Select

inxi -Nx to find out what driver it used.

Jason · March 17, 2018, 08:27:16 PM

Quote from: ssfc72 on March 16, 2018, 10:15:49 PM
I could get mint to download the RTL 8812 driver, from the Device Manager, but that was all.

Does that mean you did download it in Device Manager or didn't? Not sure from the context.

ssfc72 · March 18, 2018, 08:19:56 AM

Yes, the Device Manager did download the RTL driver.

In Mint 18.3 however, it apparently still can't see the usb wifi adapter and find any networks.

In Lubuntu 18.04 Beta, the usb wifi was found, after the Device Manager downloaded the RTL driver and it found the 5 GHz network of my router and worked well.
Until I did the standard Updates to Ubuntu. Then it lost the wifi connection and I was unable to restore the usb wifi, no matter what I tried.

Jason · March 18, 2018, 01:26:25 PM

Very strange. I assume you already tried the Linux driver on the CD?

ssfc72 · March 19, 2018, 09:54:24 PM

Yes, I did try the Linux CD driver and it doesn't work. :-(

Quote from: Jason Wallwork on March 18, 2018, 01:26:25 PM
Very strange. I assume you already tried the Linux driver on the CD?

ssfc72 · March 19, 2018, 10:09:20 PM

SOLVED!! Realtek usb wifi dongle, RTL8812AU now working on Mint 18.3, on the 5GHz, wifi AC Band.

Found the solution at this site, https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=191361 from poster, AlbertP
Got the driver from this site, https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux

Note - I went into the Mint Kernel Updates and installed the very latest kernel. 4.13.0-37
This kernel version may not be necessary. I only installed it, because at first, the wifi didn't work and so I went to the latest kernel, but this didn't help either.
It was installing the above driver, that fixed the problem of no wifi.

Bill

Update April 19, 2018 - Today I had an issue with this wifi dongle. :-(
I kept losing the wifi connection and then when I tried to reconnect, there were basicly no wifi sources listed, including mine own, that I could connect too.
I had to reboot the computer to get the wifi working again, only to have it lose all wifi connections again, after only a few minutes use of the wifi.

Turns out the issue appears to be that when Mint 18 did an update, it put the Ubuntu driver for this Realtec usb wifi dongle, back onto my system ( I had previously gone into the Driver Mangager and un-selected this driver because it did not work for this particular Realtec usb wifi dongle.
So, I just, again, went into the Driver Mangager and un-selected the Ubuntu Realtec driver, rebooted and the wifi is working perfectly aagin with the Realtec driver that I downloaded myself, as noted in my previous post above.

fox · March 19, 2018, 10:22:09 PM

Good to hear, Bill. Funny that your solution would be my problem. I'm running Mint 18.3 on my late 2015 iMac with the default kernel, 4.8 as I recall. I have tried upgrading the kernel to the version of 4.13 offered by Mint Update. Booting from that gives me a blank screen. Go figure!

Jason · March 20, 2018, 02:18:09 AM

Thanks for sharing, Bill! Glad you figured it out. Good work!

ssfc72 · April 19, 2018, 05:27:36 PM

Today, I had an issue with this Realtec usb wifi dongle, on my Acer 11", model 1430 notebook computer.
I have updated my previous post above, with the problem I had, and what I did to get the wifi adapter to work properly, again.

Jason · April 19, 2018, 09:34:57 PM

Thanks for sharing, Bill. I haven't tried it myself but after doing a system backup, you could use these steps to blacklist the driver that LM keeps trying to install and load:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-blacklist-a-module-on-ubuntu-debian-linux

It won't prevent the driver from being downloaded but will prevent it from starting.