Promlems with bring up of USB wireless using rtl8812au device

English Hardware
1

I have been hacking at this a bit with no success, time to seek some help.

My HP laptop has internal 2.4 band wifi, which appears as wlan0.
It has been acting flaky for a while, plus I would like to add 5G band capability.
Hence I acquired a dual band usb dongle that uses the rtl8812au device.

My laptop is running Leap 15.0

carl@HPDV7-Linux:~> uname -a                                                                                                        
Linux HPDV7-Linux.capenet 4.12.14-lp150.12.25-default #1 SMP Thu Nov 1 06:14:23 UTC 2018 (3fcf457) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have the Hardware Repo enabled and have downloaded and installed what appeared to be the correct driver package


 |rtl8812au-kmp-default - Kernel driver for Realtek 802.11ac rtl8812au wifi cards|
|---|




 || Alternate Version| Installed Version|
|---|---|---|
| Version:| 5.2.20.2_k4.12.14_lp150.12.25-lp150.8.14| 5.2.20.2_k4.12.14_lp150.12.25-lp150.8.14|
| Build Time:| Thu 29 Nov 2018 04:06:48 PM EST| Thu 29 Nov 2018 04:06:48 PM EST|
| Install Time:|| Sat 01 Dec 2018 09:55:33 AM EST|
| Package Group:| System/Kernel| System/Kernel|
| License:| GPL-2.0-only| GPL-2.0-only|
| Installed Size:| 3.3 MiB| 3.3 MiB|
| Download Size:| 567.5 KiB| 0 B|
| Distribution:|| hardware / openSUSE_Leap_15.0|
| Vendor:| obs://build.opensuse.org/hardware| obs://build.opensuse.org/hardware|
| Packager:|||
| Architecture:| x86_64| x86_64|
| Build Host:|||
| URL:| https://github.com/gordboy/rtl8812au| https://github.com/gordboy/rtl8812au|
| Source Package:| rtl8812au-5.2.20.2-lp150.8.14| rtl8812au-5.2.20.2-lp150.8.14|
| Media No.:| 1||
| Authors:|||

After install, I ran

carl@HPDV7-Linux:~> sudo modprobe 8812au   
carl@HPDV7-Linux:~> lsmod |grep 8812       
8812au               1634304  0
cfg80211              696320  4 8812au,iwlwifi,mac80211,iwldvm
usbcore               286720  7 8812au,uvcvideo,ehci_hcd,xhci_pci,btusb,xhci_hcd,ehci_pci
carl@HPDV7-Linux:~> sudo depmod -a
carl@HPDV7-Linux:~> usb-devices            
                                                                                                                                    
..........
T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  4 Spd=480 MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=0bda ProdID=c811 Rev=02.00
S:  Manufacturer=Realtek
S:  Product=802.11ac NIC
S:  SerialNumber=123456
C:  #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 5 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)

So USB seems to have established the physical connection but the driver is not attached to it.

With the driver not attached, I am not surprised to see that only the existing PCI connected hardware appears

sudo iw dev                                                                                                     
[sudo] password for root:                                                                                                           
phy#0                                                                                                                               
        Interface wlan0                                                                                                             
                ifindex 3                                                                                                           
                wdev 0x1                                                                                                            
                addr 84:a6:c8:fa:9a:24                                                                                              
                type managed                                                                                                        
                txpower 16.00 dBm

Is there some additional magic I need to implement?
I have scoured the Forum and Googled a lot, sort of difficult to determine what applies these days, much of the discussion is rather dated.

Do I need to disable the existing wifi hardware first?

Thanks in advance

2

NetworkManager

As others have noted, people using NetworkManager need to add this stanza to /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

3

I was hoping you would stop by, have seen your frequent input on these topics.

I actually started by compiling the GitHub source and saw this item.
Made the addition a couple days ago.

cat /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf
[main]                                                                                                                              
plugins=keyfile

[connectivity]
uri=http://conncheck.opensuse.org

[device]
  wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no
4

No, the wlan0 interface pertains to your internal wifi device. If no driver is bound to the USB wifi chipset, then it will NOT function at all (let alone establish a wifi connection).

5

The chipset your device is using (Vendor=0bda ProdID=c811) requires the rtl8821cu driver.

https://software.opensuse.org/package/dkms-rtl8821cu?search_term=8821cu

6

Thanks, Deano.
I was just following the included “Official Install Guide” that came with it.
Perhaps they have changed the device used but delivered the old documentation?

Might I ask what reference you used to determine “requires the rtl8821cu driver.” ?

I could not make 1Click install work for https://software.opensuse.org/package/dkms-rtl8821cu?search_term=8821cu ,
so I manually downloaded the rpm and installed from Yast.

I now have wlan1 operational and connected to my 5G network.

Without question, thanks to you !

7

A quick online search with the chipset details eg ‘realtek c811’ turned up a number of related threads and references, two of which are below…

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=274934

I could not make 1Click install work for openSUSE Software ,
so I manually downloaded the rpm and installed from Yast.

I now have wlan1 operational and connected to my 5G network.

Without question, thanks to you !

Glad to read of your success with getting the wifi device operational! :slight_smile:

8

I now sort of understand the issue.
I purchased this from Amazon, where the “AU” version and the updated “CU” version were both available.

Clearly a packaging issue. I paid for and received the updated “CU” version; clearly a documentation issue in the packaging.

All is well that ends well.

9

Ah, that makes sense.