Question Installing Wireless adaptor Edimax AC600

doraimom

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Hi. I have recently open a thread here in order to try fixing my intel 7260 wireless card connection. Since it's showing little progress there and since I have an external USB wireless adapter at hand, I'd like your help to use it. May you help me?

The wireless adapter is called EDIMAX AC600. I have downloaded the Linux drivers from their website, followed the installation instructions and no error was shown during the installation. Now, I'm trying to use it but somehow the laptop is not "charging" the adapter (its on light indication is always off no matter the USB port I plug it in). I have tried the USB adapter while using windows and it works just fine, shining its blue light. So, i thought I might need to turn on the device. Unfortunately, I can't find the interface name (since it's turn off by the system). I tried something like "ifup wlan1" guessing its name would be wlan1, since the build in wireless card is named wlan0. That didn't work.

Can anyone help me?

I'm also having some problems with the Gnome NetworkManager. Although I am connected to the internet using the build in Intel wireless card, Gnome's networkmanager doesn't recognize the connection and displays an offline tray icon in the GUI. Its behavior is like there is no network card / adapter in the laptop.

My distro is Debian. Laptop Dell xps 12.
Hope someone can help me and suggest some commands to try here.
thank you.
 
This is where linux can really be a pain. The driver support is not as good as on windows so it takes a lot more effort.

One of the first things I found when trying to see if the adapter you have is supported at all on linux I found this. Not sure if you have seen it but it looks messy. Then again it is really going to depends on the exact part number you have since there appears to be a couple.
https://edimax.freshdesk.com/suppor...7822uac-in-linux-with-kernel-higher-than-v4-1
 

doraimom

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This is where linux can really be a pain. The driver support is not as good as on windows so it takes a lot more effort.

One of the first things I found when trying to see if the adapter you have is supported at all on linux I found this. Not sure if you have seen it but it looks messy. Then again it is really going to depends on the exact part number you have since there appears to be a couple.
https://edimax.freshdesk.com/suppor...7822uac-in-linux-with-kernel-higher-than-v4-1

The manufacturer has a installation guide for linux in the link below:
Manufacture Installation Guide EDIMAX AC600
The instructions followed were:
Extract the driver
tar vxzf rtl8812AU_linux_v4.2.0_6952.20130315.tar.gz
cd rtl8812AU_8821AU_linux_v4.2.0_6952.20130315
sudo make
sudo insmod 8821au.ko
No errors found above during installation.

As I said, after that, I checked the wireless adapter and its light is turned off (no energy).

using the command lshw:
lshw
*-usb:0 UNCLAIMED
description: Generic USB device
product: Edimax AC600 USB
vendor: Realtek
physical id: 1
bus info: usb@2:1
version: 2.00
serial: 00e04c000001
capabilities: usb-2.10
configuration: maxpower=500mA speed=480Mbit/s

another command:
root@meu-debian:/home/eu# cat /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
#ALISSON ALTERA ABAIXO ETH0 PRA WLAN0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

Can you help me from this point on?
 
Last edited:

doraimom

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Well friends, after much struggle, creating threads in multiple forums and even contacting the manufacturer, I was able to install a driver for the Edimax AC600 network adapter.
I followed the instructions here:
How to install ew-7811-ac600-ew-7822uac in linux
After a quick reboot, two new things happened in the system:
  1. The adapter's blue light (indicating it is powered up) finally started to shine and blink!
  2. The second great thing that happened is that Gnome's Network Manager Window started to show available wireless networks again!

The problems that still remains are:
  1. All available networks in Gnome's Network Manager Window shows a fully grey icon indicating zero signal strength. That's certainly a mistaken information, probably originated by some kind of conflict between the onboard network card and the recently installed USB network adapter.
  2. My first intention was to edit again the file /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup changing the wlan0 reference for the interface name of my USB wireless adapter, but I can't find the interface name. The only command I know is
root@meu-debian:/home/eu# ip link show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
3: wlx74da3874dfae: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 2312 qdisc mq state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 74:da:38:74:df:ae brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DORMANT group default qlen 1000
link/ether bc:a8:a6:30:34:0a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
but the command "ip link show" doesn't display the USB adapter.
I'm also not sure if editing /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup would be enough to fix the problems. I have already edited it before, replacing eth0 for wlan0 and because of that, Gnome's Network Manager stopped working properly.

Can anyone in the community help me in these that seem to be the last steps to fix the problem?
 

doraimom

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Guys, it seems all problems are inside the file /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup.
I have edited it again to:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

allow-hotplug wlx74da3874dfae
iface wlx74da3874dfae inet dhcp

#I am disabling the onboard network card
#auto wlan0
#iface wlan0 inet manual
The boot went smoothly and fast. Gnome's Network Manager works and connects, but somehow it's using the onboard network adapter and not the USB one. Look at this:
root@meu-debian:/home/eu# ifdown wlan0
ifdown: unknown interface wlan0

root@meu-debian:/home/eu# ifdown wlx74da3874dfae
Killed old client process
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.4.1
Copyright 2004-2018 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit https://www.isc.org/software/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlx74da3874dfae/74:da:38:74:df:ae
Sending on LPF/wlx74da3874dfae/74:da:38:74:df:ae
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPRELEASE of 192.168.1.112 on wlx74da3874dfae to 192.168.1.1 port 67
After command ifdown wlx74da3874dfae the wireless connection displayed in Gnome's Network Manager Windows was supposed to be undone, but that didn't happen. The wireless connection remains working and being displayed in Gnome's Network manager Window. So, it must be using the onboard network card. Another precise indicator of that is the strength of the wifi signal. It's weak, just like what is typical from the onboard card. The USB adapter captures a much stronger wifi signal.

In resume, settings in /etc/network/interfaces.d/setup are not working as expected.
I don't know much about the specifics of this file, but I'm pretty sure the solution is there and something is missing there.