News: New Linux Standards Compliant drivers for adapters with rtl8821/11au and rtl8812au chips to be upstreamed soon.

[morrownr]

An effort was started late last year to greatly improve Realtek WiFi 5 support for USB WiFi adapters. The original team consisted of Larry Finger, Bitterblue Smith and myself. We each had different skill sets and it seemed to work. We first worked on the rtw8821c driver that has been in-kernel since kernel 6.1. Many users had reported problems with this chip and the rtw88 driver. I got the reports in my out-of-kernel repo for the same chip. After a lot of work and testing, 5 patches were sent in to linux-wireless and then on to be in kernel 6.7. Those five patches greatly improved the usability of rtw88 for that specific chip in managed mode.

The next project was to ADD a new set of drivers for the rtl8821/11au and rtl8812au chips. These chips are around 10 years old but are still available and are the best WiFi 5 chips Realtek has released in my opinion. Work began on the rtw8821au driver and a few months later it was working so well that I stated at the time that when this driver goes into the kernel, it will likely be the single best in-kernel we have ever seen in the kernel. I and others have tested the following mode at length: managed, AP, monitor, P2P and IBSS. The driver is solid. Work then began on the rtw8812au driver. It is currently stable but AP mode is not perfect yet we are waiting for help from Realtek regarding some core issues.

Other additions and patches have been developed along the way. We think it is time to upstream what we have in an effort to get the code in kernel 6.12.

Sadly, Larry Finger passed away recently. The dev repo was provided by Larry. We call it rtw88 downstream and you can install what we have right now. You need to pay attention to the README as the installation is manual for now and you need to know to blacklist existing drivers that could conflict. Please report issues in the rtw88 downstream repo.

As the dev team is only 2 of us now, we could use help to continue. If you have skills to help keep the README updated or if you want to be a tester or if you have programming skills and wish to dig into the code, please let us know.

For now, the next project is planned to be adding a new driver for the rtl8814au chip.

Let me hear from you and please pass the word to others that may have interest in rtw88 downstream which is located at:

https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88

FYI: My advice for Linux users to avoid usb wifi adapters with Realtek WiFi 6 chips still stands. Your best bet for good USB WiFi adapters is to take a look at the Plug and Play List. Hopefully we will be able to add numerous Realtek WiFi 5 adapters to that list over the next year.

@morrownr