Join devRant
Do all the things like
++ or -- rants, post your own rants, comment on others' rants and build your customized dev avatar
Sign Up
Pipeless API
From the creators of devRant, Pipeless lets you power real-time personalized recommendations and activity feeds using a simple API
Learn More
-
@retoor your bot keeps messaging me on spam rants. I thought it was you being "cute'. Maybe your bot is obsessed? Does your obssessive compulsivness trigger when people use wrong quotes and mispell?
-
yeah, with RTL it's a hit-and-miss. Before purchasing one I now check in the internet what's the underlying chipset and whether or not there are drivers for it for Linux.
With some manual configuration (mostly udevd-related) RTL8814AU works very well in my case. In AP mode. I'm sorry yours didn't. Though I know the struggle, I walked the same path a few years back when I was building my first Linux router. I've learned from my mistakes and now I'm on my 2nd gen as my main and only home wifi AP.
Another dev on my team just got a new machine. Before he came in today I made two separate USB installers and ...
Realtek fucking sucks on Linux. I wasted two days trying to get their shitty USB WiFi dongle to work, only to find out it doesn't support AP mode with the Linux driver. It works fine on Windows, but not on Linux. Realtek doesn't support their modern USB WiFi chipsets with in-kernel drivers. This is true even though we saw in-kernel support for some Realtek WiFi 5 chipsets in 2023—however, that support was added by a Linux community developer, not Realtek.
Realtek does make non-compliant Linux drivers for many USB chipsets, but they don't publicly release them or accept problem reports. A few vendors post Realtek USB WiFi drivers at irregular intervals, but they’re only available in source code format and must be compiled. These drivers don't keep up with changes in new kernels, so it falls on people like me in the community to maintain them.
Am I a fan of how Realtek supports Linux? Absolutely not.
Users of Realtek’s out-of-kernel drivers often ask why these drivers aren't included in the Linux kernel. The answer is simple: the drivers are not Linux standards-compliant, Realtek doesn’t provide documentation, and creating new drivers would be easier, though it’s a huge task.
While there are Realtek out-of-kernel drivers available, they are not recommended for general Linux users. These drivers are meant for skilled programmers working on embedded systems, not for casual users. Those using desktop distros like Ubuntu, Debian, Manjaro, Fedora, Raspberry Pi OS, or others will find adapters with in-kernel drivers to be more stable, reliable, and feature-rich.
My testing over the past couple of years has shown good results for WPA3 with in-kernel drivers. I’ve tested USB WiFi adapters ranging from N150 to AXE3000, and adapters using Mediatek/Ralink and Atheros chipsets with in-kernel drivers work well with WPA3. Keep in mind that your Linux distro must support WPA3 for it to function properly. As of mid-2022, all distros I use, including Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and later, work well with WPA3.
Most modern out-of-kernel drivers (like Realtek) now support WPA3-SAE, but not all. Realtek has stopped working on most of its WiFi 5 out-of-kernel drivers as of mid-2023, so be careful when purchasing, or you could end up with a dead-end product.
rant
linux
realtek
drivers