rtl8812au wifi dongle on RPi 3

  • Hi rtl8812au users.

    There's a new rtl8812au driver in a recent LE9/Kodi18a1 test build, based on the work done by gordboy.

    The download details and initial feedback (working/stable AC connection) are here, and it would be really great to have more testing and feedback in order for us to make a more informed decision about switching to this new driver.

    Unfortunately this new driver does not support rtl8821au and some other chipsets that the older driver may have supported, so there could be some fallout but hopefully not too much.

    I'll start including this new v5.2.9 driver in future nightly LE9/Kodi 18 builds from tomorrow, Tuesday (#0718).

    Thank you, milhouse and gordboy.

    I'm testing the new driver. :) I can say it's more stable than the older one since the previous driver always frooze in a few minutes, in AC mode..

    I'll let you know if I have any issues.

  • giannia many thanks. Unfortunately there's been another report of an RTL8821 user losing support (this time in the Kodi RPi test thread) so given I've only got a fairly small sample of test users (about 250) it's probably not a good sign for the overall LibreELEC user base. Given that, I'm going to revert back to the v5.1.5 driver with broken AC from the paspro repository as of tonight. I guess it's better to have something that kind-of/mostly works for everyone rather than have something that works well for only a subset of existing users.

    If anything significant changes in future then I'll revisit this, but for now I think I'm done...

  • Hi rtl8812au users.

    There's a new rtl8812au driver in a recent LE9/Kodi18a1 test build, based on the work done by gordboy.

    The download details and initial feedback (working/stable AC connection) are here, and it would be really great to have more testing and feedback in order for us to make a more informed decision about switching to this new driver.

    Unfortunately this new driver does not support rtl8821au and some other chipsets that the older driver may have supported, so there could be some fallout but hopefully not too much.

    I'll start including this new v5.2.9 driver in future nightly LE9/Kodi 18 builds from tomorrow, Tuesday (#0718).

    Is it possible to use this new(er) driver on my LibreELEC 8.1.2 installation (RPi3)? If so, can someone help me with instructions in the right direction please?

    I own a EW-7811UTC dongle, which is now only working when I set my Wifi 5Ghz network to N only.

  • No, not possible unless you're prepared to build LibreELE 8.1.2 yourself with the alternative driver repository.

    Thnx for the reply! I have not much knowledge of compiling my own builds. Definitely not with adding alternative repositories....

    Is the LE9 build stable enough to use on daily bases yet? I don't want to set my router to N-only 5Ghz, because that is working fine... but not as fast as AC.

  • I find it quite stable, though some addons may be broken (mainly game). You can try it, and if you don't like it it's easy enough to downgrade back to an official release.

  • It may do, power management usually causes problems and makes no real sense on mains powered devices. However the RTL8812AU module is being built with power saving disabled, unless that's no longer supported.

    LibreELEC.tv/package.mk at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

    I used the these commands:

    echo "options 8812au rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=0 rtw_ips_mode=1 rtw_vht_enable=0 rtw_ht_enable=1" > /storage/.config/modprobe.d/8812au.conf

    cat /etc/modprobe.d/8812au.conf options 8812au rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=0 rtw_ips_mode=1 rtw_vht_enable=0 rtw_ht_enable=1

    It is very stable now.... but on 2.4Ghz.... I didn't find a way to use the full ac potential..... (accept maybe upgrading to LE9)

    The things I changed, can someone tell me how to get these back to default?

    Edited once, last by SkywalkerPD (October 9, 2017 at 6:29 PM).

  • As an extra I disabled the internal Wifi and Bluetooth of my Pi3 by adding the following to /flash/config.txt

    Code
    mount -o remount,rw /flash
    nano /flash/config.txt

    Make your changes, then ctrl+x to save. In this case:

    dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi

    dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt

    Code
    mount -o remount,ro /flash

    Reboot.

  • I'm seeing a switch to a new repo for the rtl8812au driver on #1012 build. Are there any news? Is AC protocol full supported again? Thanks.

    This switch is mainly to allow the building of RTL8814AU - the benefits for RTL8812AU are unknown and will need to be determined. Hopefully the new repository is similar to the old repository, just better maintained. If you find new problems with this RTL8812AU driver please shout.

  • You can test the #1012 build which included RTL8812AU 5.1.5, but I've reverted back to the original repository because the person that requested the new driver disappeared and provided zero feedback. I have no further plans to change this repository so if it's not working for you then check your WiFi environment.

  • I used the these commands:

    echo "options 8812au rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=0 rtw_ips_mode=1 rtw_vht_enable=0 rtw_ht_enable=1" > /storage/.config/modprobe.d/8812au.conf

    cat /etc/modprobe.d/8812au.conf options 8812au rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=0 rtw_ips_mode=1 rtw_vht_enable=0 rtw_ht_enable=1

    It is very stable now.... but on 2.4Ghz.... I didn't find a way to use the full ac potential..... (accept maybe upgrading to LE9)

    The things I changed, can someone tell me how to get these back to default?

    Are these changes reset with an update of LibreELEC?