Netgear A6100 on ubuntu 14.04

Question

I am attempting to use a Netgear A6100 wireless USB WIFI adapter on my Sony Vaio laptop with Ubuntu 14.04. The pre-installed wireless card lost bars of signal from my wifi router after installing Ubuntu, so I bought this USB wireless adapter to solve my connection issues.

This is the output for lsusb:

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 5986:02d3 Acer, Inc 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 3938:1032  
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0846:9052 NetGear, Inc. 
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

This is the output for sudo lshw -c network:

*-network               
   description: Wireless interface
   product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
   vendor: Qualcomm Atheros
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
   logical name: wlan0
   version: 01
   serial: 08:ed:b9:b8:88:cb
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.16.0-46-generic firmware=N/A ip=192.168.1.11 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
   resources: irq:16 memory:c0600000-c067ffff memory:c0680000-c068ffff
*-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
   logical name: eth0
   version: 07
   serial: 30:f9:ed:af:9f:a4
   size: 10Mbit/s
   capacity: 1Gbit/s
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
   configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half firmware=rtl8168e-3_0.0.4 03/27/12 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
   resources: irq:43 ioport:2000(size=256) memory:c0404000-c0404fff memory:c0400000-c0403fff
*-network
   description: Wireless interface
   physical id: 1
   bus info: usb@3:2
   logical name: wlan1
   serial: 6c:b0:ce:22:ed:3a
   capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
   configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl8812au driverversion=3.16.0-46-generic firmware=N/A link=no multicast=yes wireless=unassociated

Solution 1

Your device uses the rare and elusive driver 8812au. Please get a temporary wired ethernet or similar connection, open a terminal and do:

sudo apt-get update
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 8812au

Your wireless should now be working.

When Update Manager installs a later linux-image, recompile:

cd rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux/
make clean
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe 8812au

Please retain the file and these instructions for that time.

We probably need to blacklist the internal driver to keep from interfering. Please tell me its driver from the command:

 sudo lshw -C network

I will then edit this answer to provide instructions.

Solution 2

In addition to chilli's instructions above, the dkms option is also available with this driver.

cd
git clone https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux.git
cd rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
sudo cp -R . /usr/src/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux-1.0
sudo dkms add -m rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux -v 1.0
sudo dkms build -m rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux -v 1.0
sudo dkms install -m rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux -v 1.0

This way, you don't have to re-compile the driver every time you update your kernel.

Comments

[chili555]

Frankly, I'd rather troubleshoot the internal wireless.

[Billy Welsh]

ive tried troubleshooting the internal but i couldnt get a working answer

[chili555]

Please start a new question and give me the details of the internal: lspci -nn | grep 0280 and we'll help.

[Billy Welsh]

chili555 heres the link to the new question

[Billy Welsh]

askubuntu.com/questions/672284/…

[Billy Welsh]

i cant believe that so many other people are having the same problem as me but i cant seem to find a remedy

[Billy Welsh]

chili555 did you see the new questions

[Billy Welsh]

how do i use it to connect to the internet?

[chili555]

Did you successfully install the driver? Do available networks appear when you click the Network Manager applet?

[mchid]

I can confirm this works well on this device. In order to use 5G, you need to properly set regdom in /etc/default/crda and/or run iw reg set followed by the correct code and restart network-manager

[Billy Welsh]

how do i tell if the driver has been successfully installed?

[chili555]

Please see my edit above in a few minutes.

[Jeff Smith]

I get: remote: Repository not found. fatal: repository 'github.com/abperiasamy/rt18812AU_8821AU_linux.git' not found

[Jeff Smith]

Its working now! Thanks! I copied and pasted earlier, but was acting like git wasn't available. Must have been a server issue. Thanks!

[Jeff Smith]

The latest update killed my wifi, this no longer works for me. I ran the code to rebuild and I get an error. Is it still working for you?

[chili555]

Please elaborate. What error did you get after make clean, make or sudo make install?

[chili555]

Please see: askubuntu.com/questions/762254/…

[Jeff Smith]

That was it! Thank you so much for your quick response!