How do I get a realtek wifi dongle to work

[Bret Busby]

On 27/10/22 08:47, Aaron Rainbolt wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 7:37 PM Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hello.
>>
>> I have a computer with a wifi dongle.
>>
>> It shows as being a Realtek 802.11ac.
>>
>> I have searched on the World Wide Web, and have consequently, installed
>> multiple Realtek drivers, from the 22.04 repository, and, from the kali
>> linux repository, that are supposed to get the dongle working, but, none
>> of them have. I have had to download then to a USB thumb drive on one
>> computer, transfer the drive to the target computer, and, install the
>> driver from that, in each attempt.
>>
>> Because the installation iso's do not include needed networking drivers,
>> I cannot use the computer upon which, I am attempting installation, to
>> connect to the Internet, to find applicable drivers, and, whilst lsusb
>> finds the device, it is unusable, because I cannot install a driver for
>> it, from the iso, or, from the searches that I have done.
>>
>> So, how do I get this USB wifi dongle working, to connect to the
>> Internet, so I can find and download its driver?
>>
>> It is unfortunate that the iso's contain applications software, but, not
>> the network device drivers needed to complete an installation.
>>
>> ..
>> Bret Busby
>> Armadale
>> West Australia
>> (UTC+0800)
>> ..............
> 
> Is Secure Boot enabled on your system? That might be causing the
> drivers to not work. That would be my first guess, otherwise I guess
> keep trying drivers until one works. Please be careful and only
> download drivers from trusted sources.
> 

No, secure boot is not enabled.

One of the how-to's included the commands for detecting that. But, also, 
in rearranging the boot order, to boot from the iso, it showed that 
secure boot was not enabled, at the BIOS/UEFI level.

> If there's any additional info you can give about the particular WiFi
> dongle you are using, that might help us to find the right driver. If
> all else fails, this page has a ton of info on WiFi drivers that
> should work with Linux (which likely includes Ubuntu) out of the box:
> https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi You might be able to buy a WiFi
> dongle recommended here.
> 

"
Device: Realtek 802.11ac NIC type:  USB driver: N/A bus-id: 3-7:4 
chip-ID: odba:c911
"
..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............