Ubuntu WiFi brick wall

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

I’m trying rather futilely to get a USB wifi adapter working with Ubuntu. The adapter works fine under Windows, so it does not appear to be a hardware issue. The manufacturer claims the adapter is Linux compatible, but only provides source code for Ubuntu 16.04 (I have 18.04, and the compile fails.)

TP-Link Archer T9UH AC1900 USB 3.0 WiFi adapter (version 1)

The chipset appears to be either rtl8812au or rtl8814au. I’ve tried a couple of git drivers ( https://github.com/zebulon2/rtl8814au and https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au.) The resulting source code will build a loadable module, but the adapter remains invisible to iwconfig and NetworkManager. I suspect the problem is evidenced below:

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 002: ID 17ef:602e Lenovo 
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:0106    
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 413c:2113 Dell Computer Corp. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

As can be seen the USB vendor and device ID of 2357:0106 is not recognized, and I suspect that this is preventing the modules I’ve built from loading. Problem is, I don’t know how to add a USB device to whatever table Ubuntu is referencing.

Any thoughts?

2

Kernel APIs that iwconfig relies on are ancient and really not intended to be used by any wireless nic from the last 5… maybe even 10years perhaps. Use iw instead.

That said, if your driver is not looking for, or not finding your adapter, it wouldn’t help.

Doing a quick search: https://www.google.com/search?q=2357%3A0106+github sends me to the aircrack-ng repos

And quickly scanning the open issues tells me there’s one guy working on this unofficially hacking their way into getting the adapter working.

I’d consider perhaps getting a different adapter, something ath10k based perhaps. … if you have that choice.

3

I got the device IDs updated with “sudo update-usbids”, but even though lsusb recognizes the hardware now, the module still won’t take control over the adapter. “iw” still can’t find it either. Sigh.

I remember ndiswrapper being able to load Windows WiFi drivers back in the day. Is that still a viable option?

4

I don’t think ndiswrapper is a thing anymore.

5

apt-cache search ndiswrapper
ndisgtk - graphical frontend for ndiswrapper (installation of Windows WiFi drivers)
ndiswrapper - Userspace utilities for the ndiswrapper Linux kernel module
ndiswrapper-dkms - Source for the ndiswrapper Linux kernel module (DKMS)
ndiswrapper-source - Source for the ndiswrapper Linux kernel module

6

Finally got it working with this repo:

Not really sure why the half-dozen or so other repos and official drivers I tried failed…

3 Likes
7

For future readers, I also was able to get my WiFi drivers working with the aircrack-ng repo.

2 Likes
8

ubuntu usually lists some older repos as alternatives but often fails to see if they are defunct. its usually one reason many buntu flavors fail unless they have long term support.

9

Well the build from aircrack-ng stopped working. I dug out an Edimax AC1200 MIMO-MU from my collection of antiquated computer hardware. It didn’t work, of course, but unlike the TP-Link adapter there was a Linux driver that worked. See here: