Linux Experts Welcome to Help Get my USB Wireless Adapter 'Driven' (please)

Greetings, this is my first post so please be gentle.

I have just put together a new PC (Athlon 200GE, ASRock B450M Pro4) and have decided against running Windows 10 in favour of the latest version of Ubuntu Studio.

I purchased a TP-Link Archer T1U with my PC Parts, without giving much thought to which operating system I was eventually going to decide upon.

The good news is that there is a Linux driver for the adapter but not the the type of driver that I’m used to.

I’ve been interested in Linux distros for about 15 years and have installed a variety of them on a variety of devices but I’m one of those people who can’t really get my head around the command line thing (I think it’s called ‘actual Linux’).

So I downloaded the driver files (I guess) which are accompanied by a PDF installation guide, which does not seem to be written by someone whose first language is English. This, combined with Linux jargon, is making me consider returning the adapter and replacing it with something that will easily get auto detected.

It is Christmas, however, so I thought I’d give someone the opportunity to help others while practicing the act of ‘participation’ myself.

In the guide, the first step is to ‘Compile the Driver’. They want me to make sure that I have the correct compile tool and kernel sources. It appears that I should bring up the Command prompt (?), type in ‘cat /proc/version’ to find out which compiler was used to compile the Linux system I’m using and then download that compiler using ‘apt-get’.

I’m then supposed to ‘access the directory of driver’ and before compiling, to make sure that the ‘path in makefile.c is suitable for your compile environment of [my] Linux system’ and then type ‘sudo make’ to compile the driver file.

Next I’m asked to go to the directory of the original driver file to run the command ‘sudo bash load.sh’ and type something else (9 lines of code) if that fails. Then type ‘lsmod’ to check if the driver is successfully loaded. Then there are instructions to ‘unload the driver’ if I want.

Anyway, it goes on and on… I’m sure it sounds really easy to a lot of people out there but is there an easier way to do this?

Would I be better off looking for recommendations for a different adapter that will allow me to not go anywhere near a command line? I mean that should be a basic human right, right?

I currently have the system connected to the 'net via an Ethernet cable.

Any advice that helps me get the wireless adaptor working quickly will be greatly appreciated along with any recommendations of an affordable alternative.

Thanks for taking the time to read and (in anticipation) respond. Hopefully I haven’t broken too many rules.

Regards

Can you elaborate on what you mean by ‘downloaded the driver’
Do you mean you downloaded some files from the manufacturers website? Or through the terminal via a repository?

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Sorry for not looking this up, but which kernel is ubuntu studio running on?

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Hi Guys, thanks for your respective responses.

I downloaded the files from the manufacturer’s site, originally on to a Windows PC.

The Kernel version is 4.18

This is the download location: https://www.tp-link.com/au/download/Archer-T1U_V1.html#Driver

Yeah, looks like it will only work on older kernels…
I can have a looksie when I get off work, but I can only really skim it, since I lack the hardware to actually test it.

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I was hoping that they simply haven’t tested it on anything newer and that if I could somehow follow the instructions it would work.

If you do get a chance to skim over the PDF that would be awesome! If you are able to dumb it down a bit for me and/or simplify it, that would be better still.

Thanks again

What does lsusb say it is?

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How do I put this… I’m not so sure how to get to the command line (yeah, it’s kinda like that squirm).

I will now go to that PC and find it and type in ‘lsusb’…

I have just typed in my first ever command into Terminal Emulator. It wasn’t that bad.

Here’s the result:

Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 046d:c31c Logitech, Inc. Keyboard K120
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0a5c:2021 Broadcom Corp. BCM2035B3 Bluetooth Adapter
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 090c:1000 Silicon Motion, Inc. - Taiwan (formerly Feiya Technology Corp.) Flash Drive
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f3:0234 Elan Microelectronics Corp.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2357:0105
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

It’s not the Bluetooth device, nor is it the flash drive.

Is it possibly the “Elan Microelectronics Corp.”?

EDIT: no, that would be the mouse

Now that I have built up my confidence I might try following the instructions as best I can

Thats the fudger we are trying to get working, there.

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Do you have any way to get internet to the machine via ethernet?

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I wonder if it would just be less hassle to use the windows driver and ndiswrapper.

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I wonder if there is a way to force the system’s attention towards “Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2357:0105” and bypass some steps?

I’m supposed to be installing ‘GCC’ (8.2.0) so that I can ‘compile the driver’ but this is what’s happening:

sudo apt-get install gcc
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package gcc is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package ‘gcc’ has no installation candidate

Adubs - Yes i’m now logged into the forums on the PC in question

I’m definitely willing to try that workaround but as you can see, some hand-holding may be required

I’m supposed to do this at some stage:

ifeq ($(WIFI_MODE),)
RT28xx_MODE = STA
else
RT28xx_MODE = $(WIFI_MODE)
endif
ifeq ($(TARGET),)
TARGET = LINUX
endif
#PLATFORM: Target platform
PLATFORM = PC
ifeq ($(PLATFORM),PC)

Linux 2.6

LINUX_SRC = /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build

Linux 2.4 Change to your local setting

#LINUX_SRC = /usr/src/linux-2.4
LINUX_SRC_MODULE = /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/
CROSS_COMPILE =
endif

Can you return it and get something that is better supported? Basically fix it in hardware? That way you don’t have to think about it ever again regardless of distro or whatever.

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This would be the best solution I think

This one is very well supported and has great capability

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Awesome suggestion. Looks mean too.

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Its actually a pretty ‘meh’ adapter but should just work. If you wanted more capability, alfa brand is pretty well known and respected in the wireless nerd community. They have a AC capable adapter which doesnt just work but its fairly simple to get working.

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