alfa AWUS036AC USB WIFI adapter

Question

I am running Xubuntu 14.10 amd64. I have the latest USB adapter from alfa, model AWUS036AC. I downloaded linux drivers for it, they are not packaged to easily install. I do not know how to install the drivers. I unarchived the .tgz file, and it has some folders and files, one file is named makefile. I think my problem is just a lack of knowledge about linux, not that the driver doesn't work. At this point I don't even know what dir the drivers go in. The lsusb command shows the device "Bus 002 Device 012: ID 0bda:8812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.", it's just not showing up as a usable network adapter, most likely because it's pretty new. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Solution

With a working temporary internet connection:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential git
git clone https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux.git
cd rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe rtl8812au

It 'makes' with a couple of possibly harmless warnings but no errors on my system.

After Update Manager installs a later kernel version, also known as linux-image, and after the required reboot, recompile:

cd ~/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
make clean
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe rtl8812au

Please retain the file and these instructions for that time.

Comments

[chili555]

@P.-H.Lin Your suggested duplicate is for an RTL8187 chipset, not 8812au.

[P.-H. Lin]

@chili555 The instructions there provides enough information for doing this from scratch, my 2 cents.

[chili555]

@P.-H.Lin You haven't said where he gets rtl8812au_linux-master.

[P.-H. Lin]

@chili555 if you did download the driver from the alfa website, you will see that directory, he said he did unarchived it, so he will know that.

[chili555]

Will he? "I think my problem is just a lack of knowledge about linux..." My last word.

[Eliah Kagan]

Possible duplicate of How to install TP-LINK Archer T4U driver?

[Prinsig]

modprobe: FATAL: Module 8812au not found in directory /lib/modules/4.4.0-45-generic

[chili555]

@Prinsig Please start your own new question and tell us what you've tried so far.

[Eliah Kagan]

@Prinsig An earlier version of this answer gave the module name without the rtl prefix. I believe the correct command is sudo modprobe rtl8812au. Credit goes to Alexey Agapov for pointing this out. I've tested both module names to verify that rtl8812au is the one that works, and edited this post accordingly. (That should fix your "Module 8812au not found" problem, since the error message you got is the expected message when giving modprobe the name of a module that is not installed.)

[Shrout1]

I made a silly mistake by thinking that RTL (rtl8812au) was "RTI". Silly me. Might help someone else.