rtl8821au linux (or rtl8812au)

rtl8821/rtl8812 linux kernel driver Wireless Dual-Band USB Adapter

For the USB3 issue read at the end
and for RTL8813AU/RTL8814AU devices too.

If one USB-ID is missing, please mail me.

NEWS:
added driver (more) driver sources :

• v4.2.2 (I'm started with THIS)
• v4.3.8
• v4.3.22-beta

Known differences in the drivers are :
v4.2.2 supports STA only with wireless extension
v4.3.8 supports STA/AP maybe monitor, with cfg80211
v4.3.22-beta STA/AP/Monitor and new USB3 hack

currently firmware blobs are taken from v4.3.8

Using rtlwifi modparams
swenc: Set to 1 for software crypto
ips: Set to 0 to not use link power save
debug: Set debug level (0-5)

currently ips is/may be disabled

In 2T2R Modes they are some issues with the bandwith.
Output form iperf3
used with Xioami MiWifi : Wifi Chip MT7612E
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 113 MBytes 94.5 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 112 MBytes 94.2 Mbits/sec receiver
used with Edimax BR-6208AC : Wifi Chip RTL8812AE
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 17.3 MBytes 14.5 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 4] 0.00-10.00 sec 17.0 MBytes 14.2 Mbits/sec receiver

Maybe I test this further, if I have time. tough

Building and install driver

for building type
make

for load the driver
sudo insmod rtl8821au.ko

You need to install the needed fw with
sudo make installfw

If you need to crosscompile use
ARCH= CROSS_COMPILE= KSRC=
while calling make i.e.

make ARCH="arm" CROSS_COMPILE=armv5tel-softfloat-linux-gnueabi- KSRC=/home/linux-master modules

TESTED DEVICES:

• D-Link DWA 171
• Digitus Wirelss AC
• TP-Link T4U AC 1200
• Linksys WUSB 6300
• EDUP EP-AC1601
• TP-Link T1U Nano USB
  and some other unbranded ones.

with kernel 4.2 and up, lower kernel down to 3.10 will work too.

STATUS:

• Currently driver works with old wireless extension only
• Support for 'iw' only sta modes, no AP/Monitor mode !!!

The info about AP mode is my fault and realtek versioning.

ISSUES:

• With low traffic (150kBit/s), the driver will go into low power mode. Currently maybe fixed.

USB3 Mode Issue

Realtek aka the chipdesigner does some stupid idea to switch into USB3 mode via special efuse read/write.
Documented in rtl8821au/quirks.c
and in the v4.3.22-beta sources os_dep/linux/os_intfs.c

They are (mabye) facing some problems if a USB3 capable device is on a USB2 hub. The code does not detect correctly if the device does not switch and will end in an endless loop.
So they do this via modparam rtw_switch_usb3,
Which is not good.
Maybe they are other ways to do this ;-)
And of cources the USB3 hack is currenty not tested by me

RTL8813AU/RTL8814AU

v4.3.22-beta does not support above devices, there is no hint about the firmware blob and other things. Maybe someone can drop me a note.
I own a COMFAST 1750 Mbit WLAN WiFi to test this it's a RTL8813AU device.

TODO:

• more checkpatch fixes, code rewriting
• more adjustments for rtlwifi
• for a iterim stage switch to lib80211
• regulation fix for 2.4G/5G band (errors currently disabled)
• move into to rtlwifi, going upstream

Adding cfg80211 interface is out of scope because of missing concurrency with STA/AP/Monitor Modes together.

Hans Ulli Kroll ulli.kroll@googlemail.com