How to use Realek rtl8812au wifi in Fossapup64? (Solved)

[mendoh]

Hello everybody.

I installed a 64bit Puppy linux on a 5-year-old PC yesterday and I guess I can say I am very satisfied about its performance.
There is, however, one main issue: I have a WiFi USB card using the Realek rtl8812au drivers and it seems it is impossible to use it with Puppy to connect to the Internet.

The card is not being detected at all by the native Puppy WiFi wizard.
I managed to successfully install those drivers via the Puppy package manager, however, once again the WiFi wizard does not detect either the USB WiFi card or the installed rtl8812au drivers at all.
I even tried to load a similar rtl driver (e.g.: 8xxx ac) but it does not work at all.

Is there anybody who can point me out on how to have Puppy detect USB WiFi cards working on rtl8812au drivers?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - Welcome! I need some information before I can find (or create) a driver for you.

If you are using Fossapup64, I have attached a .pet file below. Use at own risk. Install by downloading, then clicking on .pet in ROXFiler.
EDIT: failed - withdrawn

Otherwise please specify exactly which puppy are you using & run (in a terminal), with your usb stick plugged in:

uname -r

and then

lsusb | grep -i rtl

and then

dmesg | grep irmware

Please post the results here.

[mendoh]

Hello OZ, many thanks for your fast and exhaustive reply!

Yes, I am actually using fossapup64.
I could install your driver successfully and have the Puppy Network Wizard detect it and place it in its list among the other available drivers, something which never happened before.
Your new 8812au driver is also loaded successfully, however, no new interface is being detected.
As a consequence, I am sending you the additional information you requested, as follows:

uname -r
5.4.53

lsusb | grep -i rtl
no output

dmesg | grep irmware
[ 0.905354] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[ 1.153921] intel_rng: Firmware space is locked read-only. If you can't or
intel_rng: don't want to disable this in firmware setup, and if

[bigpup]

Now that you have the driver installed.

Try doing a reboot.

make sure to save so driver is still installed.

A complete boot up of computer should make sure the WIFI card is loaded and the driver is being used.
Now check the network connection wizard and see if the wlan0 is now showing as a selection.

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - if still not working after reboot (as bigpup said above), and you DID have adaptor plugged in when you ran requested commands, need more info. I note the firmware output you published ended in 'if' - was there anything after that?

Please (also with adaptor plugged in) run in a terminal: lsusb

& post output

[mendoh]

Hello everybody!

The only "save" I could give to the driver install is avoiding unloading it after the Puppy Wizard tells me that no new interfaces were detected. Am I correct?
Rebooted as instructed and the plugged-in USB WiFi is still dead after rebooting.

Nothing more displayed after the firmware output "if" and I checked that twice.

lsusb
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0bda:0811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 802.11ac WLAN Adapter
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 1908:2310 GEMBIRD USB2.0 PC CAMERA
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 1c4f:0034 SiGma Micro Usb Mouse
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1a2c:2d43 China Resource Semico Co., Ltd USB Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Thank you!

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - what bigpup was saying is to install the .pet, then reboot puppy, choosing the save option that will be offered as part of the reboot process. Try that, then try to connect. Meanwhile, running this adaptor seems to be a common issue in linux.

EDIT: I have made two more drivers:

a. from newer source than previous - EDIT: failed - withdrawn

b. from older source than previous, which compiled with warnings, but may be worth trying if all above fails. EDIT: failed - withdrawn

[bigpup]

Try using a different USB port to plug it into.

[mendoh]

Hello guys, thanks again for your support.

Installing the latest driver you made available (i.e.: the one from older source than previous, which compiled with warnings) has brought the USB WiFi to life (I could see the USB WiFi blue LED light flashing immediately after driver install), however, the Puppy network wizard now detects two wireless interfaces (i.e.: wlan0 and wlan1) instead of one and whenever I try to configure everything for a wireless connection I am unable to connect on both interfaces.
Connection test of both wlan0 and wlan1 network interfaces gives the following report: "unable to connect to the network".
If I create a network profile with both SSID and password of the existing WiFi AP, connection test results are as following:

NETWORK CONFIGURATION OF WLAN0 UNSUCCESSFUL!

Unable to establish WPA connection

On the other hand, eth0 network connection is still available, however, I am not so sure it does not take over Wifi.
Then again, both SSID and password are correct for the AP I am trying to connect to.
It seems we are getting close, however, we are not there yet...

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - Several reports & several different attempts at source code suggest this is a particularly difficult chip.
If you saved after installing .pets, need to uninstall before trying new ones, via Main Menu then Setup then Puppy Package Manager then Uninstall tab, then click on package to uninstall.
When you've done that, please try latest .pet (option a. in my previous post above).

[bigpup]

I know this is a lot of steps, but it tells us exactly what is happening and when.

Us the Network Wizard to do the setup.

menu->Setup->Internet Connection Wizard->Wired or wireless LAN->Network Wizard

Network Wizard wireless connection steps.

1. Select Network Wizard
2. Select wlan0 (your network card may have a different description)
3. Select Wireless in the Configure wireless network box.
4. Select Scan and your ESSID (WIFI router) should come up.
5. Select your ESSID and OK
6. Give a name to your profile. It should already be what you selected in step 5.
7. Encryption. Most people use WPA/TKIP - select it or WPA2. (what router is set to use)
8. A box will open for you to write the WPA password. It is called a Shared Key. Enter the password.
9. Leave the other boxes as they are. Rarely do these need adjustment.
9. Select Save
10. Select Use This Profile
11. A box will appear showing Puppy trying to connect
12. A box will come up “REPORT ON TEST 0f wlan0CONNECTION”
13. Select Auto DHCP in the Configure interface box and it will go through a handshake routine. and declare itself successful
14. Select done

If something does not work.
What step?
You do what?
You see what?

Also make sure your system's time zone setting is correct - if not, many website's certificates then act as if they are expired, and the webpage won't display.

[mendoh]

Hello OZ, thanks for your reply.

I actually uninstalled each and every driver right before trying a new one and according to the procedure you mentioned.
I tried the latest driver (option a) after uninstalling the previous ones I had installed, however, that did not do. Shall I try again? Only the driver in your option b caused the USB WiFi to start working.

For your better information, I could previously have the very same rtl8812au chipset on the very same machine working just fine on the lastest Kali releases after installing it via dkms...

[mendoh]

Hello bigpup,
thanks.
Followed your step-by-step instructions carefully until item 12, when I get stopped and a box comes up with the
following warning: "Unable to establish WPA connection".
At this point, if I click on "Details", I get:

Access Point: not associated
Link quality: 0
Output of wpa_cli -i wlan0 status:
wpa_state=SCANNING
address= mac address of the USB WiFi
uuid= alphanumeric code

System time zone is definitely ok.
Hope the above helps...

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - I've made a slightly newer driver than the one which partly worked. See below.
There is still more source code I can compile - shows how much trouble others have had, so need to try more options.
EDIT: failed - withdrawn

[bigpup]

It probably is a driver issue.

I will add this for info.

For WPA make sure you are trying to use the correct one for what your WIFI router is setup to use.
WPA is not the same as WPA2.
The WIFI router does need to be setup to use WPA or WPA2.

Thanks ozsouth for your driver support!!!

[mendoh]

Hello guys.

Unfortunately, the latest driver ozsouth posted is totally NOT working for me.
After installing it results are that not only it got me back to the starting point, but also it apparently caused the Internet connection Wizard to crash, since after loading it from ICW list I get the following message:

Network Wizard cannot start because it is already active.

each time I click again on the ICW, with absolutely no chance to have it working correctly again unless I completely reboot the system.
I am now proceeding with a full uninstall of the latest driver...

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - running out of source to try. One composite driver to try at own risk is here (permanent link - as usual,
download then install by clicking on .pet in ROXFiler): https://archive.org/download/Puppy_Linu ... 4k5453.pet

EDIT: Worked!

[Adam Li]

Hello

I'm sorry - I have little free time and can only provide a few links:
https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au
https://github.com/abperiasamy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
https://github.com/diederikdehaas/rtl8812AU
https://github.com/scrivy/rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux
https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-li ... -on-linux/
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=276910
Windows Drivers

Have a nice day and night

Adam Li

[mendoh]

@mendoh - running out of source to try. One composite driver to try is here: http://www.filepup.net/files/a2381f6e1611753467.html
If this one fails, I will try to get onto publisher of v4222 (the one that at least loaded) to see if they have any clues.

Dear ozsouth and bigpup...THANK YOU!
Ozsouth's latest driver + following bigpup's detailed step-by-step instructions did the magic.
I am now fully up and running on wireless rtl8812au.

Once again, THANK YOU guys.

[mendoh]

@mendoh - running out of source to try. One composite driver to try is here: http://www.filepup.net/files/a2381f6e1611753467.html
If this one fails, I will try to get onto publisher of v4222 (the one that at least loaded) to see if they have any clues.

Dear ozsouth and bigpup...THANK YOU!
Ozsouth's latest driver + following bigpup's detailed step-by-step instructions did the magic.
I am now fully up and running on wireless rtl8812au.

Once again, THANK YOU guys.

Unfortunately, one different issue has come up after the successful driver install: after the first-time HDD frugal install, after configuring everything properly and despite clicking on "YES" when it is time to keep the customized wlan0 configuration, saved settings are not being retained and I have to do everything again from scratch upon the next reboot...where did I go wrong?

[ozsouth]

@mendoh - great! Assuming you saved your session when you exited puppy (to keep changed settings, either savefile or save folder is offered upon first shutdown/reboot & remembered thereafter), can try using frisbee option in connection wizard. I find it more consistent.

[bigpup]

We are assuming you have Fossapup64 9.5 installed as a frugal install, have done a shutdown and made a save file or folder.
Are doing a normal boot so the save is now being used.
You have setup the WIFI connection, shutdown and the save is updated with new info.

Do not use boot menu entry that says RAM only. That boots not using the save.

When you close the Network Wizard there are usually a couple of windows that pop up asking about making this the default connection and saving settings.
That default one is important.
It sets what connection wizard is auto used on boot up.
It does need to be the one you actually setup to connect.

Carefully read those pop up windows and make sure you click on the correct option button.

[mendoh]

@mendoh - great! Assuming you saved your session when you exited puppy (to keep changed settings, either savefile or save folder is offered upon first shutdown/reboot & remembered thereafter), can try using frisbee option in connection wizard. I find it more consistent.

I actually did everything you mentioned, however, frisbee did not do at all. I tried it instead of Network Wizard: it worked just fine the very first time, however, after the first reboot it did not connect automatically to the Internet even if the wlan0 interface connection type was set to "auto" and whenever trying to reconnect using the same wlan0 interface, it kept saying "wlan0 down".
I had to switch back to Network Wizard, which still does not retain settings despite I tell NW to save them for the next boot-up and compels me to manual-connect each and every time I am booting up the system...

[mendoh]

We are assuming you have Fossapup64 9.5 installed as a frugal install, have done a shutdown and made a save file or folder.
Are doing a normal boot so the save is now being used.
You have setup the WIFI connection, shutdown and the save is updated with new info.

Do not use boot menu entry that says RAM only. That boots not using the save.

When you close the Network Wizard there are usually a couple of windows that pop up asking about making this the default connection and saving settings.
That default one is important.
It sets what connection wizard is auto used on boot up.
It does need to be the one you actually setup to connect.

Carefully read those pop up windows and make sure you click on the correct option button.

You are assuming everything correctly.
I can see multiple options on boot, there is one that says "copy to ram" but I always choose one that highlights booting from the saved folder sda1/fossapup-save, however, despite doing so, whenever the system boots up I can ALWAYS see "copying to ram" warnings in pink.
During boot-up I can also see that the system is loading the fossapup-save directory, however, changes I made to the Internet connection are still not being retained after boot-up and I have to do everything from scratch each time anew.
Making the saved one the default connection and saving it for future boot-ups have also been selected, yet with apparently no appreciable results...

[bigpup]

The first boot menu entry should be the normal boot and it should boot using a save, if a save is there to use.

Other settings to Fossapup are being used and remembered?
Correct?

When you run the Network Wizard.
At the end of the process there are two Windows that will pop up.
Need to select yes on this one

Screenshot(1).jpg (19.29 KiB) Viewed 1119 times

Need to select set as default on this one.

Screenshot(2).jpg (32.14 KiB) Viewed 1119 times

.
.
Reboot computer and those settings should be put into the save and used at next boot up.

[mendoh]

The first boot menu entry should be the normal boot and it should boot using a save, if a save is there to use.

Other settings to Fossapup are being used and remembered?
Correct?

.
Reboot computer and those settings should be put into the save and used at next boot up.

I confirm I clicked on "yes" and "set as default" on the two windows, HOWEVER, those settings are never retained after reboot and each time I have to call up NM once again, select the wlan0 interface and get a new DHCP.
First boot menu actually boots to sda1/fossapup-save, then again, the above issue lingers on...