AC1200 Wireless Adapters

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Resources

Finding an adapter

  1. Browse to the WikiDev wireless adapter query page.
  2. Enter "abgn+ac" in the Supported 802dot11 protocols field.
  3. Select "linux_support" for the Table query type option.
  4. Click Run query.
  5. Scroll down to find a table of known abgn+ac wireless adapters with chipset, device ID, and probable Linux driver. The AC1200 adapters listed in the table will have Realtek RTL8812AU or Broadcom BCM43526 chipsets. The remaining adapters support data rates other than AC1200.

Finding a driver

  • Realtek 8723/8812/8821 PCIe drivers are in Linux 3.17.8 and later.
  • Intel's AC7260 PCIe driver is builtin the kernel. After reported problems with kernel 4.0.x, it is working well with kernel 4.1.x.
  • The Realtek 8812au USB driver (kernel 3.10) is available from https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au.
  • The rtltek 8812au USB driver (kernel 4.3.14) is available from https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux.
  • Broadcom drivers are provided by the net-wireless/broadcom-sta package, but support of BCM4352 and BCM43526 devices is very unlikely. BCM43526 is not listed under "SUPPORTED DEVICES" in the driver readme file. Using net-wireless/ndiswrapper and 32-bit Windows files may work, while 64-bit Windows files will not.

Working devices

PCI

The table below lists AC1200 PCIe adapters tested and working with Linux 4.1.3 and later on amd64 multilib.

Device Vendor ID / Product ID Vendor Name Product Name Chipset Driver
Intel 7260HMWDTX1 8086:08b1 Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 Unknown iwlwifi

USB

The table below lists AC1200 USB 3.0 adapters tested and working with Linux 3.18.5 and later on amd64 multilib.

Device Vendor ID / Product ID Vendor Name Product Name Chipset Driver
Alfa Network AWUS036AC 0bda:8812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Adapter Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
Alfa Network AWUS036ACH 0bda:8812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Adapter Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
D-Link DWA-182 (Rev. C1) 2001:3315 D-Link Corp. Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
Edimax EW-7822UAC 7392:a822 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
Linksys WUSB6300 13b1:003f Linksys WUSB6300 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8812AU] Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
Rosewill RNX-AC1200UBE 0bda:8812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Adapter Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au
TRENDnet TEW-805UB 20f4:805b TRENDnet Realtek RTL8812AU 8812au

Notes

  • The RTL8812AU driver will not install correctly if the USB adapter is plugged-in before the driver is installed.
  • The RTL8812AU driver may not install correctly unless the kernel configuration enables some of the built-in Realtek wireless drivers (including those in staging) as modules.
  • The RTL8812AU driver must be re-installed after every kernel update, even if the kernel version has not changed.
  • The RTL8812AU driver requires the Linux wireless extensions (wext) driver.
  • The RTL8812AU adapters listed in working devices support hot-plugging.
  • BCM43526 adapters are USB 2.0 and have a 480 Mbit/s maximum data rate, therefore they cannot support the theoretical 867 Mbit/s data rate of 5 GHz channels.
  • Depending on which driver is used, the following install script may have to be edited.

Realtek RTL8812AU

Kernel configuration

KERNEL 
[*] Networking support --->
      <*>   Wireless --->
              <*>   cfg80211 - wireless configuration API
              <*>   Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)
      <*>   RF switch subsystem support --->
    Device Drivers --->
      [*] Network device support --->
            [*]   Wireless LAN --->
                    <M>   Realtek rtlwifi family of devices --->
                            <M>   Realtek RTL8821AE/RTL8812AE Wireless Network Adapter
                            <M>   Realtek RTL8192CU/RTL8188CU USB Wireless Network Adapter
      [*] Staging drivers --->
            <M>   Support for rtllib wireless devices
            <M>     Support for rtllib CCMP crypto
            <M>     Support for rtllib TKIP crypto
            <M>     Support for rtllib WEP crypto
            <M>   Realtek RTL8723AU Wireless LAN NIC driver
            [*]     Realtek RTL8723AU AP mode
            [*]     Realtek RTL8723AU BlueTooth Coexistence

Scripted installation

Create the following installation script which performs the actions from the manual installation below:

FILE /root/rtlscript.sh
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
	echo "Please login as root, then try again" 1>&2
	exit 1
fi
eselected=$(eselect kernel list | awk '/\*/ {print $2}' | awk 'gsub("linux-", "")')
running=$(uname -r)
if [ "$running" != "$eselected" ]; then
	echo "Please ensure the eselected kernel source and running kernel are the same version, then try again." 1>&2;
	exit 1
fi
WGET="/usr/bin/wget"
$WGET -q --tries=1 --timeout=1 http://www.google.com -O /tmp/google.idx &> /dev/null
if [ -s /tmp/google.idx ]; then
	version=${eselected:0:1}
	required_version="4"
	if [ "$version" = "$required_version" ]; then
		wget -N https://github.com/csssuf/rtl8812au/archive/master.zip
	else
		wget -N https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au/archive/master.zip
	fi
	if [ -d "rtl8812au-master" ]; then
  		rm -rf rtl8812au-master
	fi
fi
if [ -s /root/master.zip ]; then
	unzip master.zip
fi
if [ -d "rtl8812au-master" ]; then
	cd rtl8812au-master
	sed 's/CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = y/CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = n/g' Makefile > OUT
	mv OUT Makefile
	make
	insmod 8812au.ko
		if [ ! -d "/lib64/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8812au" ]; then
			mkdir /lib64/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8812au
			echo "rtl8812au directory created."; 1>&2;
		else
			echo "rtl8812au directory existed." 1>&2;
		fi
	cp -f 8812au.ko /lib64/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8812au
	depmod -a
	echo "Connect the wireless usb device and reboot";
else
	echo "Unable to find or create /root/rtl8812au-master -> no internet connection, no master.zip file, no rtl8812au-master file.";
	exit 1
fi

Install the script dependencies:

root #emerge --ask --noreplace app-arch/unzip

Run the installation script:

root #chmod o+x /root/rtlscript.sh
root #/root/rtlscript.sh

Manual installation

After booting the kernel configured as above:
Use eselect kernel list and uname -r  and ensure the eselected kernel source and running kernel are the same version.
Download 
https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au/archive/master.zip# (incompatible with 4.x.x and >5.15.x kernels, pending pull approval of the change below)
OR
1) https://github.com/csssuf/rtl8812au/archive/master.zip (kernel 4.0.0 compatible pull)
2) https://github.com/fsantini/rtl8812au/archive/refs/heads/fix_kernel_5.15.zip (kernel 5.15 compatibility fix)
to a directory you can find again. cd into the directory containing master.zip .
If an "rtl8812au-master" subdirectory exists, remove it. 
unzip master.zip to create a fresh "rtl8812au-master" subdirectory.
cd rtl8812au-master .
Edit rtl8812au-master/Makefile to replace CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = y with CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = n .
Run make .
Run insmod 8812au.ko .	 
Make directory /lib64/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8812au if not present.
Copy 8812au.ko into the directory /lib64/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/rtlwifi/rtl8812au .
Run depmod -a .
Connect the wireless usb device and reboot.

External resources

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