AC1200 Wireless Adapters

wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/AC1200_Wireless_Adapters

Contents

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.

Vendor ID / Product
Device ID Vendor Name Product Name Chipset Driver

Intel 8086:08b1 Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 Unknown iwlwifi

7260HMWDTX1

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

Vendor ID /
Device Product ID Vendor Name Product Name Chipset Driver

Alfa Network 0bda:8812 Realtek RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Realtek 8812au

AWUS036AC Semiconductor Adapter RTL8812AU
Corp.

Alfa Network 0bda:8812 Realtek RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Realtek 8812au

AWUS036ACH Semiconductor Adapter RTL8812AU
Corp.

D-Link DWA- 2001:3315 D-Link Corp. Realtek 8812au

182 (Rev. C1) RTL8812AU

Edimax EW- 7392:a822 Edimax Realtek 8812au

7822UAC Technology Co., RTL8812AU
Ltd

Linksys 13b1:003f Linksys WUSB6300 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Realtek 8812au

WUSB6300 Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8812AU
RTL8812AU]

Rosewill RNX- 0bda:8812 Realtek RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Realtek 8812au

AC1200UBE Semiconductor Adapter RTL8812AU
Corp.

TRENDnet 20f4:805b TRENDnet Realtek 8812au

TEW-805UB RTL8812AU

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

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[*] 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:

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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# (not kernel 4.0.0 compatible pending pull
approval of the change in the branch below)
OR
https://github.com/csssuf/rtl8812au/archive/master.zip (kernel 4.0.0 compatible pull)
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
http://gpo.zugaina.org/net-wireless/rtl8812au

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