{Solved} Wifi support

[Lefty665]

Hi folks, I'm a geezer geek but new to Linux. Help please.

First install went great, I even found published support for 2.5gb ethernet that installed seamlessly. 2nd install was to be Wifi and it is not so hot. The install went fine, but I've unsuccessfully tried 4 different USB wifi adapters, all with Realtek chipsets. None have published drivers on Github and what I've found and downloaded the scripts for have not worked. The next time I string an ethernet cable across the floor to run this computer my wife may strangle me with it.

Is there no native support for Wifi in Mint 20.2? Are there wifi cards that come bundled with Linux drivers? Do I have to go back to wireless N or G?

Thanks for your help.

[Portreve]

Hey Lefty665:

Is there no native support for Wifi in Mint 20.2? Are there wifi cards that come bundled with Linux drivers? Do I have to go back to wireless N or G?

So, to try and tackle this in a bit of reverse order, I wouldn't be surprised to learn there's any number of WiFi adapters for which no support exists in Linux. It entirely depends upon how accessible the chipsets those adapters use are, and (to the extent that they're unique to others on the market) how many developers have them in their own hands and therefore have some capacity to attempt to write a compatible driver.

One of the better choices (at least it used to be, and I'm not aware that it still isn't) for chipsets is Atheros, since they explicitly give support to Linux for their stuff. There are any of a number of adapters which use their chipsets. Here's an Amazon search for that range of product. Maybe you'll find something appropriate to your needs.

I still have an 802.11n USB adapter I use from time to time when I need to do a fresh install of Linux on my older MacBook Pro. It has an Atheros chipset, and since those drivers are bundled with the kernel, there's no installation process to speak of. It works by virtue of just plugging it in.

In March of 2020 I bought an HP Envy TE01-0014 tower. It came with a Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac wireless adapter which also works without me having to install anything.

[Lefty665]

Portreve, Thank you. You got me there through the back door. The Amazon search turned up the nic I got a couple of weeks ago, Cudy AC1300 (Realtek 802.11ac chip), at $12.90 it is priced right. That drove me back through their web site to a linux driver. My DUH for not getting there by myself. Now it's off to figuring out how to load a wifi router that's not squawking it's name, mount a network drive, read an NTFS file system and install a network printer. But I'm moving, the network cable is coiled back up, and my neck feels safer:)

Am I going to have to reinstall wifi every time there's a kernel update? If so, how often does that happen?

Thanks again for getting me off the mark. I'm back to feeling good about Mint.

edit: Neat, the network printers came up all by themselves, easier than windows and hidden network was simple

[sleeper12]

If you installed the wifi driver with dkms, you should be good with kernel updates.

[Lefty665]

Here's where the install is. Does it use dkms? Thanks
https://newwezhanoss.oss-cn-hangzhou.al ... tion%2Fpdf

[sleeper12]

I can't tell from that, which commands did you use to install it?

[Lefty665]

The command lines listed on that link which were the script provided by the nic vendor which are:

root@ubuntu:~# cd /home/colin/project （Notes：Driver must have been copy to this directory.）
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/# tar -xzvf rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777.tar.gz
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/# cd rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777# sudo make
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777# sudo make install
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777# sudo modprobe -r 88x2bu
root@ubuntu:/home/colin/project/rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.4_37264.20200922_COEX20191120-7777# sudo modprobe 88x2bu

[sleeper12]

Ok, I'm not sure if dkms is included in that. I see no mention of it, so I'd guess no. But, maybe someone else will know.

[Lefty665]

It's apparently not!

I just let mint do an update and it trashed the wifi. I'm back on a network cable to reinstall. If I have to reinstall drivers every time it updates that's a deal breaker.

Help folks, there must be a way to avoid this issue. Linux cannot really be incapable of maintaining installed drivers over OS updates, can it?

[sleeper12]

If you need a temporary connection:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... ernet.html

Then, try this, one line at a time:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install git dkms
git clone https://github.com/cilynx/rtl88x2bu.git
sudo dkms add ./rtl88x2bu
sudo dkms install rtl88x2bu/5.8.7.1 

Reboot

[mintscorlock]

I ran into a similar problem with needing to add Wifi drivers where no ethernet was available. The Wifi also needed to be suitable for a 3D FPS gaming desktop, so a USB or PCIe solution was fine.

Seems like there are plenty of wifi cards/usb for which you can download linux drivers, **if only** you have an existing internet connection to your machine, but I did not. Therefore, any solution which required an active internet connection to download and then compile code was not going to work in this specific instance.

After searching on web, I discovered that there are a handful of USB/PCIe devices where the drivers already exist within linux mint/ubuntu, or can be easily loaded from a manufacturer provided CD, or downloaded and transferred from a computer with an internet connection to the wifi-only pc, via USB drive using a simple set of copy/paste commands.

For the AX200 series of PCIexpress series of cards, there is a simple copy/paste wifi driver suitable for even 3D FPS gaming [i.e. low latency].
No code to compile, so kernel updates to Mint work fine without making any changes to the Wifi drivers.

Look for AX200 from Intel, Fenvi, Wavelink, Ziyituod, etc. on Newegg, Amazon, your-fav-retailer, etc.
For Mint, you simply copy/paste the drivers into the /lib/firmware folder.

I chose the Ziyituod card because it also came with Bluetooth 5.0 as well, if that matters to you.

[Portreve]

Portreve, Thank you. You got me there through the back door. The Amazon search turned up the nic I got a couple of weeks ago, Cudy AC1300 (Realtek 802.11ac chip), at $12.90 it is priced right. That drove me back through their web site to a linux driver. My DUH for not getting there by myself. Now it's off to figuring out how to load a wifi router that's not squawking it's name, mount a network drive, read an NTFS file system and install a network printer. But I'm moving, the network cable is coiled back up, and my neck feels safer:)

Am I going to have to reinstall wifi every time there's a kernel update? If so, how often does that happen?

Thanks again for getting me off the mark. I'm back to feeling good about Mint.

edit: Neat, the network printers came up all by themselves, easier than windows and hidden network was simple

Well, the reason I posted the link I did was for you to look at Atheros chipset-based adapters. With one of those, you wouldn't have to worry about adding anything in, or keeping it installed, since their chipset drivers are made available to the Linux community and are built into the system.

[Lefty665]

Thanks portreve, I went back to amazon and looked for atheros chipset usb adapters and there were a bunch, and several reasonably priced. I'll try one. Although I was hoping to use stuff I already had, I guess the good news is my stack of usb wifi adapters does not take up much space.

It is still a little surprising that linux doesn't provide a wider variety of native support for wifi adapters. Is it because atheros provides drivers to the linux community and people like realtek don't? The folks who peddle the adapter I'm using (Cudy 1300) provide a linux driver on their site, and that's a realtek chipset. Wonder if they wrote it or if they got it from realtek? It's also curious that linux doesn't keep installed drivers over at least minor updates by default. Different strokes.

Again, thanks for your help.

[sleeper12]

Did you try what I said in my previous post?

[Lefty665]

Hi sleeper2, Thank you for your response. No I did not. I decided against ditching the vendor supplied drivers to maintain connectivity over updates. What I am going to do is order a couple of inexpensive atheros usb nics that the linux kernel apparently supports (or maybe not - see linked github post below).

In the meantime with the script for my current nics downloaded to an office doc it is a relatively painless copy and paste process to reinstall. If I learn how to make a batch file I could put an icon on the desktop and update with a click of the mouse. That would work I guess until a kernel update breaks the driver version I have, and it would lead me down the garden path from end user to geekdom that I have been resisting. In all, using nics with at least basic kernel bundled drivers seems the best and easiest route, especially since they are inexpensive.

It still is a little surprising to me that linux does not provide native support for common wifi chipsets. Is there a list somewhere of wifi chipsets with native kernel support? I figure I'm obsolescent with about half of my computers still wired ethernet. Seems like I'm mostly in the linux mainstream, wifi is avant garde and usb wifi is maybe somewhere in the future. I never would have guessed it. Here in the 21st century robust out of the box connectivity is not a novel idea.

Here's an interesting link: https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi They think that Mediatek and Realtek are the only 2 manufacturers of usb wifi chipsets.

[sleeper12]

Well, I would urge you to try the commands I posted. You have nothing to lose, either it will work or not.

[Lefty665]

Sleeper2. I would urge you to read the 2nd sentence of my prior post following my thank you to you for why I decided not to follow your suggestion.

Fortunately most things are as you suggest, either they work or not. The truly devilish issues to resolve tend to be those things that work or not intermittently. There are fewer of those than outright failures.

Regards

[sleeper12]

I think the problem is you didn't install the driver with dkms. What I posted would install it with dkms, but your call to try it or not.

[Lefty665]

sleeper2 following is a synopsis of our dialog:

1) You suggested that I install using dkms (a worthwhile suggestion)
2) I responded with a link to the nic vendors install script and asked if it used dkms (I know very little about linux)
3) You responded "I can't tell from that, which commands did you use to install it?"
4) I responded by cutting the install script from the vendor's site and pasting it into this thread
5) You responded "Ok, I'm not sure if dkms is included in that. ..."
6) I noted a kernel update had trashed my connection so apparently dkms was not part of the install
7) You provided a script for 3rd party drivers using dkms

By 5 I had less confidence and chose to pursue alternatives to the script you provided in 7

The github article I linked to on usb nic chipsets and drivers is interesting and explains issues with usb nic chipsets, drivers and linux support.

Thank you for your interest and willingness to help. Your recommendation to install using dkms was good.

Regards

[JeremyB]

sleeper2 following is a synopsis of our dialog:

1) You suggested that I install using dkms (a worthwhile suggestion)
2) I responded with a link to the nic vendors install script and asked if it used dkms (I know very little about linux)
3) You responded "I can't tell from that, which commands did you use to install it?"
4) I responded by cutting the install script from the vendor's site and pasting it into this thread
5) You responded "Ok, I'm not sure if dkms is included in that. ..."
6) I noted a kernel update had trashed my connection so apparently dkms was not part of the install
7) You provided a script for 3rd party drivers using dkms

By 5 I had less confidence and chose to pursue alternatives to the script you provided in 7

The github article I linked to on usb nic chipsets and drivers is interesting and explains issues with usb nic chipsets, drivers and linux support.

Thank you for your interest and willingness to help. Your recommendation to install using dkms was good.

Regards

I would say the commands given in post viewtopic.php?p=2070219#p2070219 should work fine as long as your device is covered as I haven't seen results from terminal for lsusb
DKMS is a really good thing, it automates the driver install when a kernel is updated