RTL8812au support for wifi adapters

[Mateus Arruda]

Hi, this is my first time reaching a Linux distribution team and also english is not my primary language, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes.

I have a PC that uses a Wi-Fi adapter TP-Link 725N which uses the rtl8812au driver. This is not an included driver on the installation to work out of the box. The way to install it in previous versions (kernel 5.+) was to router 4G connection from my smartphone to the bluetooth receiver, perform an “apt update”, “apt install dkms”, “git clone 'the rtl8812au driver’” and “dkms_install” the driver in my machine, wich took a very long time because of the poor bluetooth connection. In Debian 12 this method fails because after dkms_install there is an error regarding the Kernel 6.+: “Error! Your kernel headers for kernel … 6.1.0 cannot be found”.

It is very difficult to overcome this problem when I don’t have internet connnection and from what I’ve read, this is a widely used driver for several adapters from TP-Link.

With all that said, my contact is to request the inclusion of rtl8812au driver in the installation image so we don’t need to install it by workarounds.

I don’t expect to get a response, but if someone from Debian team reads this, thank you for your time and support.

Best regards,

Mateus

[Bret Busby]

I have had problems with realtek wifi drivers on installations, and,
instead of using bluetooth (I disable bluetooth on all of my computers),
I did it by using USB tethering to my cellphone, to provide the Internet
connection, with my cellphone having direct Internet access, in its own
right, in addition to my 4G wifi modem/routers.

Does your cellphone have direct Internet access, and USB tethering
functionality?

Also, which desktop environment are you using, and, does it have a GUI
utility that deals with hardware drivers?

For example, I use the Mate desktop environment, which includes the
Control Center, with has Administration -> Driver Manager, and, using
that, in conjunction with the USB tethering to my cellphone, and, the
direct Internet access of my cellphone, make actions like installing
hardware drivers, such as the applicable Realtek wifi drivers, pretty
much, a "plug and play" operation, with the wifi device on one of my
computers, being a wifi dongle, that uses (possibly the same as yours) a
Realtek wifi system;

"
*-network
description: Wireless interface
physical id: 6
bus info: usb@3:14
logical name: wlx90de8039844b
serial: 90:de:80:39:84:4b
capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8821cu
driverversion=5.15.0-73-generic ip=192.168.1.105 multicast=yes
wireless=IEEE 802.11AC
"

Okay - for this computer (the one that has the wifi USB dongle), it is
"driver=rtl8821cu"
- yours has the "au" rather than the "cu" suffix, but, depending on
whether the equipment (including your desktop environment and your
cellphone) has the same functionality, you should be able to install the
driver for your wifi adaptor, similarly easily.

..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............

[Charles Curley]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2023 09:20:46 -0300
Mateus Arruda <mateusa...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, this is my first time reaching a Linux distribution team and also
> english is not my primary language, so please forgive me if I make
> any mistakes.

No worries. Although you may do better on a list for your primary
language. See https://lists.debian.org and
https://lists.debian.org/completeindex.html.

--
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

[Stefan Monnier]

> I have a PC that uses a Wi-Fi adapter TP-Link 725N which uses the rtl8812au
> driver. This is not an included driver on the installation to work out of
> the box. The way to install it in previous versions (kernel 5.+) was to
> router 4G connection from my smartphone to the bluetooth receiver, perform
> an “apt update”, “apt install dkms”, “git clone 'the rtl8812au driver’” and
> “dkms_install” the driver in my machine, wich took a very long time because
> of the poor bluetooth connection. In Debian 12 this method fails because
> after dkms_install there is an error regarding the Kernel 6.+: “Error! Your
> kernel headers for kernel … 6.1.0 cannot be found”.
>
> It is very difficult to overcome this problem when I don’t have internet
> connnection and from what I’ve read, this is a widely used driver for
> several adapters from TP-Link.

Here's what I think I'd do:
- boot with the old 5.+ kernel
- install the 6.1.0 kernel headers
- install dkms and the driver
- reboot using the new kernel


Stefan

[Brian]

On Tue 13 Jun 2023 at 09:20:46 -0300, Mateus Arruda wrote:

> Hi, this is my first time reaching a Linux distribution team and also
> english is not my primary language, so please forgive me if I make any
> mistakes.

Not quite a mistake but you do not appear to be subscribed to this
list. Most replies will go to the debian-user list and not to you.
I hope you have arrangements to read the list. (This is the last
time you will get a Cc: from me).

> I have a PC that uses a Wi-Fi adapter TP-Link 725N which uses the
> rtl8812au driver. This is not an included driver on the installation
> to work out of the box. The way to install it in previous versions
> (kernel 5.+) was to router 4G connection from my smartphone to the
> bluetooth receiver, perform an “apt update”, “apt install dkms”, “git
> clone 'the rtl8812au driver’” and “dkms_install” the driver in my
> machine, wich took a very long time because of the poor bluetooth
> connection. In Debian 12 this method fails because after dkms_install
> there is an error regarding the Kernel 6.+: “Error! Your kernel
> headers for kernel … 6.1.0 cannot be found”.

You would be better off with a device having a supported chipset
rather than struggling with the TP-Link 725N. For example, seach
on Ebay with " rtl8192cu" (or the name of any other supported
chipset). Suitable adapters can be had for less than 5 GBP and
be in your hands in a couple of days.

Debian 12 should be able to deal with giving you the needed
firmware.

--
Brian.