RTL8188FU driver install

[sgjava]

I was able to get RTL8188FTV $2.00 US USB wifi https://www.ebay.com/itm/123713550193 working with a script I made from a forked project. The power saver has already been disabled in the Makefile. Check out https://github.com/sgjava/rtl8188fu/tree/arm. I've tested this on ARM 32 and ARM 64, but not x86 or x86_64. This is currently a dkms module that requires beta repos to get matching kernel headers.

[Tim Makarios]

Good timing!  I had a couple of these arrive yesterday.

 

In the script, it says

sudo -E apt -y install linux-headers-edge-$LINUXFAMILY >> $logfile 2>&1

 

Is this because it's only expected to work with the edge kernel, or if I change "edge" to "current" in that line, should it work for the current kernel?

[sgjava]

Good catch, I need to get the release as well. I'll fix that tomorrow. For now you can use the manual steps and "current".

[sgjava]

@Tim Makariosall set. I added BRANCH for the linux headers. I also fixed the prompt for /etc/issues asked during apt upgrade.

[Tim Makarios]

Thanks!

 

I can confirm that the script works on my Rock64 board, running bullseye CLI with the current branch.  At first I thought it wasn't working, but then I moved it to a different spot and tried an open WiFi network.  I'm still not sure if I can get it working with my normal WPA2/WPA3 network.

 

Oh, and you might want to change "edge" to "$BRANCH" in the manual instructions, too.

[sgjava]

@Tim Makarios made change to README. WPA2 personal worked for me. I don't have WPA3, so you are on your own there. And yes the antenna is not very good, but I get 20 Mbs going through 2 rooms with drywall board.

[Tim Makarios]

I did a little more experimenting, and found that it connects without a problem when I tell it to use WPA2, rather than WPA3.  I don't know whether the problem with WPA3 is in my router or the client, but WPA2 is good enough for now.

 

I can also confirm that your script works on an A64-LTS board, too, so thank you again!

[sgjava]

@Tim Makarios I tested on NanoPi M1 32 bit and Pine 64 64 bit. I believe if the kernel headers install then it will most likely work. I cannot test WPA3. If it works with another adapter on the same distro/board then maybe it's the source.

[Tim Makarios]

On Jammy (Gnome, current, Rock64), I had to manually install dkms before the script would work.

[sgjava]

@Tim Makarios Yeah, I suspect there's going to be consistency issues depending on the distro and board. I'll go ahead and add the build stuff since it wont hurt if it's already there.

[BLFC]

Successfully built on armv7l. Thanks for releasing the script!
 

[ 2810.712732] rtl8188fu: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[ 2810.818513] =======================================================
[ 2810.818520] ==== Launching Wi-Fi driver! (Powered by Rockchip) ====
[ 2810.818525] =======================================================
[ 2810.818529] Realtek 8188FU USB WiFi driver (Powered by Rockchip) init.
[ 2810.818535] RTL871X: module init start
[ 2810.818541] RTL871X: rtl8188fu v4.3.23.6_20964.20170110
[ 2810.820396] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8188fu
[ 2810.820456] RTL871X: module init ret=0

 

May I ask if I need to run it again every time I upgrade the kernel?

 

Cheers

!3runo

from Brazil

Edited December 5, 2023 by BLFC