So you just purchased one of those 802.11ac USB WiFi cards but it’s not working on Linux. Not to worry, I’ve compiled a list of steps to get it working on your Fedora or Debian based distribution. If you’re on Arch Linux or a derivative, the steps will be similar but you’ll have to use pacman
to make sure you have the right dependencies.
For Fedora and RPM-esque distributions
Fedora was a bit tricky so you need to make sure you update your system and ensure you have kernel-devel
installed. I have the steps for you below
# Ensure your system is up-to-date
sudo dnf update
# If there are new kernel updates, please restart. Once done, install the kernel-devel and dkms package
sudo dnf install kernel-devel kernel-devel-debug dkms
# Once done, you can proceed with the following one-liner
cd /tmp && git clone https://github.com/brektrou/rtl8821CU.git && cd rtl8821CU && chmod +x dkms-install.sh
# Now you can install the dkms script
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
# If all goes well, you can now run the modprobe command
sudo modprobe 8821cu
For Ubuntu and Debian-esque distributions
Very similar to Fedora, we’re just going to use apt
to install a few packages.
# Ensure your system is up-to-date
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
# If there are new kernel updates, please restart. Once done, install the build-essential git and dkms packages.
sudo apt install build-essential git dkms
# Once done, you can proceed with the following one-liner
cd /tmp && git clone https://github.com/brektrou/rtl8821CU.git && cd rtl8821CU && chmod +x dkms-install.sh
# Now you can install the dkms script
sudo ./dkms-install.sh
# If all goes well, you can now run the modprobe command
sudo modprobe 8821cu
If you run into any issues, feel free to let me know.
Thanks for reading.
One reply on “Installing WiFi Driver For Realtek 802.11ac on Linux (0bda:c811)”
Hi, when I try the last command (sudo modprobe 8821cu) it gives me a fatal error. The error is “modprobe: FATAL: Module 8821cu not found in directory /lib/modules/5.16.0-kali7-amd64”. It seems as if it doesn’t recognize my NIC. However, when I do lsusb it comes up. How do I fix this problem? Thanks in advance! Alex.