Realtek 8812BU Driver for Raspbian

Driver for 802.11ac USB adapter with RTL8812BU chipset, only STA/Monitor mode is supported, no AP mode.

A few known wireless cards that use this driver include:

• Fastoe AC1200 USB Wi-Fi Adapter
• Cudy WU1200 AC1200 High Gain USB Wi-Fi Adapter
• TP-Link Archer T3U
• TP-Link Archer T3U Plus
• TP-Link Archer T4U V3
• Linksys WUSB6400M
• Dlink DWA-181
• Dlink DWA-182

Currently tested with Linux RaspberryPi 5.10.17-v7l+/5.4.51-v7l+/4.19.118-v7+/4.19.97-v7+ on:

• Raspberry Pi 400
• Raspberry Pi 4 B
• Raspberry Pi Zero W
• Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• Raspberry Pi 2 B

Manual installation

To build, you have to retrieve source and run make, do following:

For Raspberry Pi OS kernel 5.10.17, please clone the v5.6.1 branch:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y bc git dkms build-essential raspberrypi-kernel-headers
git clone -b v5.6.1 https://github.com/fastoe/RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian
cd RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian
make
sudo make install
sudo reboot

For Raspberry Pi OS kernel 5.4 & previous versions:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y bc git dkms build-essential raspberrypi-kernel-headers
git clone https://github.com/fastoe/RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian
cd RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian
make
sudo make install
sudo reboot

If fails to compile like /lib/modules/5.x.x-v7+/build: No such file or directory. Stop:

pi@raspberrypi:~/RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian $ make
make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules/5.4.51-v7+/build M=/home/pi/RTL8812BU_for_Raspbian  modules
make[1]: *** /lib/modules/5.4.51-v7+/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make: *** [Makefile:2284: modules] Error 2

please run the rpi-source command to install the kernel headers for kernel:

sudo apt install -y bc git flex bison libssl-dev libncurses5-dev
sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/rpi-source/master/rpi-source -O /usr/local/bin/rpi-source && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/rpi-source && /usr/local/bin/rpi-source -q --tag-update
rpi-source

then, re-make again.

Known Issues

Below are a few known bugs,

• Always required authentication without connect on 5GHz band
• Short disconnects every few seconds on 5GHz band

the above problems are caused by power saving. First, make sure that the power supply of your Raspberry Pi can provide 3A current, then we can disable the 8812bu WiFi adapter power saving.

modprobe -r 88x2bu
modprobe 88x2bu rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_ips_mode=0 rtw_enusbss=0
echo "options 88x2bu rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_ips_mode=0 rtw_enusbss=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/88x2bu.conf

When the current is around 100mA, it never disconnects.

144mA @ full speed download (22MB/s).

Enjoy!