IT/Hardware/USB-WiFi
Drivers
In order to determine what driver you need, you must first find out what USB-Wifi adapter you are using. To do so use
lsusb
You may need to dig deeper
to list all USB devices connected to your computer and look for the WiFi adapter.
sudo lshw -C network
These two pages give great information.
PowerSave
Sometimes the wireless NIC will drop ever so many minutes. This is likely a powersave issue.
/etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf
Change the powersave value to 2
Save the file and restart the computer.
If you don't believe me run iwconfig and the "Power Management:on" flag will still be there. You can restart NetworkManager
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager
Run iwconfig and taadaa still "on" Just restart the computer.
Has limited success on 8812cu chipset
Another option which may likely work better is to use tlp
Install tlp from the repositories
systemctl enable tlp.service
sudo nano /etc/tlp.conf
Change these lines so that both are "off" and then save:
- WiFi power saving mode: on=enable, off=disable; not supported by all adapters.
- WIFI_PWR_ON_AC=off
- WIFI_PWR_ON_BAT=on
sudo tlp start
Check the status here:
tlp-stat --rfkill
Here are lots of usage examples
RTLwifi PPA
To install a driver from this repository, download the repository using the following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/kablosuz
Then open Synaptic Package Manager, search for rtl and mark the driver you need for installation and apply changes.
RTW8821
This is a variant of the RTL It worked well natively till the 6.5 kernel when it broke again.
git clone https://github.com/morrownr/8821cu-20210916.git
cd 8821cu-20210916
sudo ./install-driver.sh
It will open a dialog where you can edit more options.
Reboot to finish
Update this driver(from the directory) with the following commands as needed:
$ git pull
$ sudo sh install-driver.sh
Note: Updates to this driver SHOULD be performed before distro
upgrades such as Ubuntu 23.10 to 24.04.
Note: Updates can be performed as often as you like. It is
recommended to update at least every 2 months.
Note: Work on this driver, like the Linux kernel, is continuous.
Enjoy!