linux-compatible 802.11ac usb-adapter chipset

Question

Are there any 802.11 usb-chipsets that have linux drivers available?

There are plenty of 802.11ac usb-adapters shipping already, but all I have seen only had windows support.

Solution 1

I can confirm that the edimax EW-7822UAC works under linux (using the driver downloaded from their website - http://www.edimax.com/en/support_detail.php?pd_id=479&pl1_id=28&pl2_id=138 (direct link http://www.edimax.com/images/Image/Driver_Utility/Wireless/NIC/EW-7822UAC/EW-7822UAC_linux_v4.2.2_7502.20130517.tar.gz)

Unfortunately the linux driver does not appear to support "monitor mode", so it's no use as a sniffer, though netmon can capture traffic under windows.

Solution 2

Apparently, the only linux driver supporting 802.11AC networking is ath10k (see http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/ath10k ), supporting Qualcomm Atheros 802.11ac QCA98xx chipset. However no usb-adapter so far seems to support that chipset.

This doesn't necessarily give you an answer as I may be wrong, but after some research this is the only conclusion I came to. Any good news on this side are welcome.

Solution 3

There is quite an up-to-date table of OSS wireless stack drivers on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_wireless_drivers#Driver_capabilities As ow now, there seems to only one driver which is ac-capable at all and this one is not for USB devices.

The only possbility currently seems to use RTL8812AU based dongles. There are quite some

Problem is, that it requires you to compile a kernel module manually.

Solution 4

I can confirm that edimax EW-7822UAC provide Linux driver. I successfully compiled its driver and connected it in Fedora 19. The download speed can reach average 15MB/s and peak 20MB/s by using perf.

This is the output of iwconfig and lsusb:

$ iwconfig
enp6s0u2  IEEE 802.11AC  ESSID:"Orz-5Ghz"  Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>"
      Mode:Managed  Frequency:5.2 GHz  Access Point: 74:D0:2B:41:EC:FC   
      Bit Rate:867 Mb/s   Sensitivity:0/0  
      Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
      Power Management:off
      Link Quality=100/100  Signal level=94/100  Noise level=0/100
      Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
      Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 7392:a822 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd

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Comments

[vanthome]

Did you find a model which does not require any drivers outside of the Kernel?

[Chinasaur]

After kernel 3.10 there are some missing functions due to interface change. I found this version works: github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux

[valentt]

But there are no Qualcomm devices in usb dongle form. If you know of any please provide the link. Until them I'm down voting you.

[munish]

what about en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Linksys_WUSB6100M