Wi-Fi USB Dongle - TP-Link Archer T600U Plus

1st Official Post

    Hi,

    i got a TP-Link Archer T600U Plus USB dongle which doesn't work out-of-the-box, but i was able to get it running under debian with a kernel module from aircrack-ng (github repo).

    Is there a way to get "dkms" running under LibreELEC?

    If not, could you guide me to build LibreELEC by my self with the mentioned module?

    Based on Compile [LibreELEC.wiki] i have already setup the build enviroment, but i'm unsure how to integrate the module.

    Vendor Id: 2357

    Device Id: 0120

    Chipset: rtl8811au

    Kind regards

    Edit:

    Project: Generic

    Arch: x86_64

    • Official Post

    There is no package manager in LE and we refuse to add more garbage realtek vendor binary drivers to the core distro as they break with every kernel bump and require onerous maintenance. There are several examples of people sumbitting (and us refusing) realtek drivers in our github repo - have a look at closed pull requests. Similar packages with sources obtained from somewhere might work. Or might not .. that's the problem with out-of-tree drivers. If you abandon the idea .. have a look for devices with a railink chip as these a generally supported in-kernel. Or get a wireless bridge that connects via Ethernet. They're often cheaper and give better range/reception than most USB cards.

    I know, i already have seen your posts and i totaly understand the situation, but i need to work with what i have available (until i get a wired connection). Thats the reason why i didn't asked to include the driver into LibreELEC, i just want to know how i could integrate it by myself.

    I got it working by overwriting LibreELEC.tv/packages/linux-drivers/RTL8812AU/package.mk and thanks to your post i found a PR where someone mentioned the "linux-driver-addons", that is what i want to try next, so i don't need to build the whole image.

    Lets say i create an addon in LibreELEC.tv/packages/linux-driver-addons/rtl8812au-custom with PKG_NAME=rtl8812au-custom would the command to build it be PROJECT=Generic ARCH=x86_64 scripts/create_addon rtl8812au-custom or do i need to run a different command since it is a "linux-driver-addon"?

    PS: Maybe you could move this thread to Development?

    • Official Post

    The difference between self-building a full image and a driver add-on package is quite negligible, and IMHO the packaging with a standard package is lots easier to comprehend if you're not so familiary with the build-system. Create another driver under packages/linux-drivers and then add the new package name to the list of drivers in distributions/LibreELEC/options .. then "PROJECT=Generic ARCH=x86_64 make image" should build everything with the driver baked in. Just make sure you fork a new branch in git to contain your changes (don't hack in the release branch) and then it's trivial to rebase your changes and rebuild whenever we push changes to the release branch (new release etc.).