I haven’t had a PC for the last 10 years. I’ve always used laptops because it’s much easier and they give you freedom to work everywhere without almost no limitation except the battery life.
Last week, I got a PC, and I have installed it in my workroom where I work, study and make music (I have been working from home just like everyone else in the world since the outbreak of COVID-19).
The internet modem is a bit far from my room, so it’s not really a solution to use any cables!
I have two laptop and both of them have buit-in WiFi (dual band) which delivers a decent internet speed (check the screenshot):
It may not be fast enough for you, but for me, it’s good enough, especially because it’s a wireless connection! My internet subscription from Tele2 is 100Mbps, so getting 95Mbps over WiFi is really good ^_^
Let’s go back to the PC. The PC has no WiFi-adapter, so I had to order a new one. I have ordered TP-Link AC600 (ARCHER T2U, V3) from CoolBlue which is dual band WiFi-adapter! That means it can operate on 5GHz and 2.4GHz networks, and that’s great!
The adapter works fine and doesn’t require any driver installation on Windows 10. Unfortunately, that was not the case on Ubuntu 20.04. Since I use Ubuntu as well on that PC, I also need internet on Ubuntu. The adapter didn’t work out of the box just like it did on Windows 10! To make it even worse, the adapter doesn’t come with any driver installation for Linux. Although CoolBblue claims on their site that it’s compatible with Windows and Linux, I couldn’t find any driver files on the CD that it’s delivered with the adapter. You will find only drivers for Windows and MacOs!
Unfortunately, you won’t find the Linux driver or any other helpful information on the site of TP-Link except a user-guide (Ubuntu 16.04) on how to compile the driver, which is already outdated (palmface).
Here how you can install the driver for your TP-Link Archer T2U mini WiFi-adapter to be able to use it!
Within your Ubuntu terminal (Alt+Ctrl+T) execute following commands:
Install dkms
sudo apt install dkms
Clone the repository of RTL8812AU/21AU and RTL8814AU
git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git
Navigate to the repo’s folder
cd rtl8812au
Install the driver using the following command
sudo make dkms_install
Previously the installation was performed using dkms_install.sh
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
At the end reboot your computer, after that you will see the WiFi icon next the sound volume icon in the upper-right side of your screen! Enjoy 🙂
To ensure the driver is loaded and running. Execute this command from your terminal
dkms status you must rtl8812au there alongside other modules. In my case, I got the following output:
rtl8812au, 5.6.4.2, 5.4.0-37-generic, x86_64: installed
You can remove the folder of the downloaded repo, but you may need it in the future if you want to remove the driver from your pc!
To remove the driver from your pc just execute the following command within the repo folder
sudo make dkms_remove
References:
https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au
This worked flawlessly, thank you!
Great to hear! Thanks for passing by!
Help really helped out Thank You! Also the repos rtl8821au and rtl8814au are not available on github, but it didn’t matter in my case I have an archer t2u plus wifi adapter and it worked just fine with rtl8812au.
[…] the website is listed below. I used the guide provided in their GitHub page together with a post in peshmerge blog that showed how the adapter can be installed for Ubuntu […]
This was really helpful and got me up and running after banging my head against the driver compilation for several hours. Thanks!
Thanks for the tutorial. I’m trying to do this on an Ubuntu 20.04 installation and I got stuck at “sudo ./dkms-install.sh’. The terminal returns “command not found”. Checking the rtl8812au directory in my home, I can see there is no dkms-install.sh file in there. What am I doing wrong?
In an effort to try alternatives, I read the instructions on the git page and ran this command: “make && make install”, which is supposed to compile the driver. I don’t know what this did but I don’t have a driver an there still is no “dkms-install.sh” file in that directory. I hope I haven’t made things worse. I really don’t know my way around these commands. Please help.
Hi ANCA,
I will check it tonight and I’ll return back to you!
Hello Peshmerge,
Thank you for the post. I’m getting the same problem that ANCA: command not found when “sudo ./dkms-install.sh” is executed
Please helps!
Hi @RICARDO
Please check the post again, I have updated it.
It seems the maintainers of the script have changed the way of installing and removing from .sh file to make files.
For installing use:
sudo make dkms_install
for removing use:
sudo make dkms_remove
Thanks, @PESHMERGE, working now.
Dude, you simply deleted my comment? Somebody could have helped with an answer. I followed your tutorial and got stuck. Is there something wrong with simply posting my comment?
There is nothing wrong with your comment dude, I was just too busy to look at my blog! My fault 😛
ANCA, please check the updated version of the post!
Thank you very much, this worked for me!
Thanks so much.
I was stuck for a while using the older instructions.
Your instructions are clear and showing the previous install command helped .. the lights suddenly went on for me.
Hi Sly,
I’m glad it helped you 🙂
Regards,
Peshmerge
@peshmerge! Thanks a lot for this this post. I was wondering how to return this device which I got. But you post saved it! Thanks Mate.
Never give up 🙂
@Peshmerge – Thanks a lot for this post. Worked wonderful.
Only question that I have is that will the driver installation have impact if I update ubuntu os?
Hi Winston Antony,
What do you exactly mean by “if I update Ubuntu os?” Do you mean upgrading your whole Ubuntu system from for example 18.4 to 20.04?
Regards,
Peshmerge
@Peshmerge – I meant the regular rolling updates that happen to Ubuntu 20.04, new kernel version updates and also the LTS version upgrade like 20.10 etc
It doesn’t matter! It must continue working as usual! No worries!
Peshmerge, thanks for your post. Since my TP Link connection to Wifi does not currently work, I’m not able to do this step:
git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git
Can I do this on another linux computer and then bring in the driver in on a USB?
Hi Gicky,
Yes you can do it on another pc and then put it on your machine using a usb flashdrive!
Thank you for providing these instructions. I’ve had times that my WiFi keeps asking me to reauthenticate, it seems like after I restart though it is good for a while. Has anyone else had this? Any troubleshooting tips to try?
Hi JON,
I’ve had that! Maybe removing it completely and reinstalling it could solve your problem? Honestly, I have no idea :(.
Good luck with troubleshooting!
If you found a solution, would you please post it here? I will update my post then with your solution/workaround?
works incredible! thx so much dude!
Just be careful to maintance about git clone link
Glad to hear 🙂
This was super helpful. I got this working for my nephew in no time thanks to your help.
Glad to hear 🙂
Very good post. The instructions work perfectly and I get great speeds on Ubuntu 20.04. Many thanks!
Hi Kim, I am glad to hear that 🙂
thank you! works perfectly!
Hi
Thanks for sharing.
It can’t locate the package/file
“bo@bo-ThinkCentre-E73:~
sudo apt install git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git
Indlæser pakkelisterne… Færdig
Opbygger afhængighedstræ
Læser tilstandsoplysninger… Færdig
E: Kunne ikke lokalisere pakken clone
E: Kunne ikke lokalisere pakken https://github.com/aircrack-ng”
Best regards
Bo
Hey
It worked for me too when I used the link to repository and downloaded the zipfile
Thanks a lot
Great stuff!
I haven’t a clue what I just did, but I followed the instructions and now I have WiFi! Amazing!
I totally feel like a hacker now hehe.
One thing that I had to google was the git clone command, which didn’t work for me, but I found that I had to install git first, with this command – sudo apt-get install git – I’m guessing that it’s a thing that most terminal users already have done, but I said I’d add it here in case there is any other total noobs like me who run into the same issue.
I bookmarked this page for the next time I reinstall everything.
Thanks a million.
Hi Steve,
Your comment makes me very happy! I am very glad this post helped you 🙂
This fucked my pc!
Hi Francisco, what’s happened?
It worked! Thank you so much for this!
Having just acquired the Archer T2U, for a dual-boot Windows10 and Ubuntu system here in Montana, USA, I’d like thank you for the well-written and organized material you posted. Worked fine for the Ubuntu side of things. Although TN-Link now has the same code posted, yours was better annotated. While I mostly use my Mac/Apple technology, keeping an older HP useful makes this 70 year old feel just a bit less out-of-date.
Hi Mr.Ross,
I am very happy to hear that I could help you 🙂
Regards,
Peshmerge
This is just save my life in ubuntu OS i was just about to give up!! Thank you so hard for this article!
Hi Thomas, I am glad it helped you 🙂
Thanks for the article, it’s to the point and has helped me to set-up wifi (2.4 Ghz networks). But, I have a encountered an issue – that 5GHz wifi networks are not visible and hence I am unable to connect.
Any insights as to what might have happened would be helpful!
Hi Hemant,
That’s really weird because I am only using the 5GHz wifi network! It works flawlessly with both types!
Is your 5GHz visible to your smartphone? Check your modem settings, maybe it’s set to be hidden?!
Hi, followed the instruction and got the WiFi settings option but cannot find any available networks.
Any idea what needs to be done?
Hi Gregor,
Glad to hear the blog post helped get things up and running!
That’s weird! If the adapter is recognized and the driver is installed, it should be able to find all networks! Make sure your network is visible! Or try to remove everything again and reinstall it!
I have done the process many times on multiple computers, and it has always worked perfectly!
Would you let me know if you have solved the problem? I like to know what it’s!