Drivers for RTL8812au on ODROID M1

[Nicola Zilio]

Dear all, 

I have recently acquired an ODROID M1 board and flashed Armbian 24.5.3 on it to replace my old XU4 running Armbian 24.5.1. I've managed to port everything from the old XU4 to the new M1 except for two WiFi dongles. They worked just fine on the XU4 but the M1 just doesn't want to recognize them, I can see them when I run `lsusb`

 

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0bda:0811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Realtek 8812AU/8821AU 802.11ac WLAN Adapter [USB Wireless Dual-Band Adapter 2.4/5Ghz]
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0bda:8812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8812AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2T2R DB WLAN Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub 

 

but I get no wifi interfaces. 

 

Does anybody know what the problem could be?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[SteeMan]

Have you tried installing armbian-firmware-full?

[Nicola Zilio]

Yes

 

armbian-firmware-full is already the newest version (24.5.1)

 

though I am not sure whether I need to do something specific after having installed that.

[Nicola Zilio]

Flashing https://armbian.hosthatch.com/archive/odroidm1/archive/Armbian_23.11.2_Odroidm1_jammy_current_6.1.68.img.xz did solve the issue.

 

However, running

 

apt update && apt upgrade

 

reintroduced the problem. Therefore, it would appear that some updated packages breaks compatibility with these WiFi dongles.

[Igor]

6 minutes ago, Nicola Zilio said:

Therefore, it would appear that some updated packages breaks compatibility with these WiFi dongles.

 

https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/main/config/kernel/linux-rockchip64-current.config#L3541
It seems they got disabled here https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/6202

 

Size reason? Perhaps they don't compile? I have open a PR and lets see what others say about.

[Nicola Zilio]

Ok, so that means that, for now, I could simple hold that one package back (apt-mark hold linux-dtb-current-rockchip64 and/or linux-image-current-rockchip64) and in theory I should be good?

[Igor]

4 hours ago, Nicola Zilio said:

in theory I should be good?

Yes. Or update, install headers and try to build this driver via DKMS. But it might be challenging ...

[Nicola Zilio]

Yes, it does seem to be challenging. I'm happy to wait for a fix :).

[Nicola Zilio]

@Igor, sorry to bother again about this, I am confused as to whether the drivers are actually included in the latest kernels or not? I checked your PR but it says that it says it's closed with unmerged commits https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/7012. Thanks a lot again!

[Igor]

We were not united at which driver to include and eventually nothing was made as kernel deprecation kicked in. This kernel is not used anymore, we have 6.12.y where same procedure has to be made once again. Since this is a public project and anyone can contribute to fixing it for everyone, I’m already pushing the limits of what’s possible.

[Nicola Zilio]

@Igor that's fair. So the same, i.e. lack of support for the drivers, applies to more recent kernels too? If so, could you maybe have tips on how to integrate them myself? Thank you very much!

[Igor]

6 hours ago, Nicola Zilio said:

could you maybe have tips on how to integrate them myself?

This is just 2-3x more expensive for time then just doing it  However, I can give you few tips:
- AFAIK driver currently present is not very stable. Our tests (on kernel 6.12.y are failing):

 

- driver provided by Hardkernel is better but might need adjustements for recent kernel (perhaps 1h of work)

- general information on USB drivers, perhaps a solution via DKMS https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi?tab=readme-ov-file

[c0rnelius]

The RTW88 driver was included for this; https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/7634

 

Prob needs to be ticked on in the defconfig for RK. Unless RK opted out of RTW88.

 

patrick@potato:~$ uname -a
Linux potato 6.12.21 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Apr  5 10:17:54 EDT 2025 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
patrick@potato:~$ lsmod | grep rtw88
rtw88_8821au           12288  0
rtw88_8821a            40960  1 rtw88_8821au
rtw88_88xxa            32768  1 rtw88_8821a
rtw88_usb              28672  1 rtw88_8821au
rtw88_core            172032  3 rtw88_88xxa,rtw88_8821a,rtw88_usb
mac80211              655360  2 rtw88_core,rtw88_usb
cfg80211              438272  2 rtw88_core,mac80211
patrick@potato:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 31b2:0010  
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:a811 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8811AU 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN Adapter
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05e3:0610 Genesys Logic, Inc. 4-port hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

 

[Nicola Zilio]

@Igor, I totally get that .

 

Then, perhaps, there is even a simpler and quicker solution: getting a new WiFi dongle. From what I see from https://www.armbian.com/compatible/?_search=wifi, the AC 8811au and AC 8812BU should be supported. Is that still the case? Which chip would you recommend getting, keeping future compatibility in mind?

[specs]

The Odroid 5BK/rtl8822 should work with 6.12+, without DKMS (tested and used with 6.13):

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/USB_WiFi_Chipsets.md

 

PS The Odroid 5A/rtl8811 seems to be supported from 6.14+ (checked the table and tested if it got recognized).

PPS In general, don't buy what's available or cheap, buy what is supported.  Test what you have or buy MT7921 if you can find it (and don't buy Realtek).

Edited 4 hours ago by specs