Ubuntu newbie

[JacksDad0709]

Hi all,

 

Complete new user to Linux. Decided to give it a go after seeing a few people saying how good it is. I was recommended Ubuntu. I set it up and installed it all with no issues. As a precaution I installed it onto a second HDD so if it all goes wrong, I still have trusty windows. My machine is at the opposite side of the house to the router so I run windows on an external WiFi dongle. I realised the drivers needs to be installed on Ubuntu too. I have the Linux drivers on a USB stick but cannot work out how to install them. It's not quite as easy to start an executable file. I cannot work out how to install them. Any help would be appreciated.

[Sauron]

What adapter are you using? Where did you get the driver?

 

Installing packages in Linux generally goes through the package manager but if it's a driver package from the vendor it might contain a shell script to install it.

[JacksDad0709]

I got the drivers direct from the manufacturer. I checked the package manager but there was nothing there for it. I assumed perhaps I had to put the drivers in a specific location so the manager could see them or something.

 

Shell script? I am a complete newbie, remember. I have used windows for nearly 35 years now. Linux is like speaking Chinese to me.

[JacksDad0709]

I got the drivers direct from the manufacturer. I checked the package manager but there was nothing there for it. I assumed perhaps I had to put the drivers in a specific location so the manager could see them or something.

 

Shell script? I am a complete newbie, remember. I have used windows for nearly 35 years now. Linux is like speaking Chinese to me.

[TudorFinalBosz]

What kind of files are on the USB stick?

[C2dan88]

1 hour ago, JacksDad0709 said:

I have the Linux drivers on a USB stick but cannot work out how to install them.

Crucial bit of info we need to know is what Wifi dongle you are using and the link to the drivers you found.

 

I assume the dongle is usb? and is detected when you run   lssub   in terminal. 

Does it show up as a network device too by running    inxi -Nn    in terminal 

[NoLeafClover]

Worth noting that on Linux things work differently to Windows when it comes to drivers.

 

Drivers for "commonly" used hardware on Linux are mostly built-in or provided as a separate package by the distro's (Ubuntu) package manager. There's rarely a need to use an OEM supplied driver, unless the device is unlikely to be supported (i.e. not "commonly" used) or not yet supported (e.g. too new). Direct OEM drivers may not always be compatible (e.g. distro and kernel version differences) and are usually best avoided in favour of the distro-provided ones when possible.

 

For most wireless adapters drivers should be built-in the kernel. What you may be missing is the microcode for the device - a [usually] small piece of proprietary OEM code that the driver loads onto the device before it can work properly. Choosing the correct firmware package to install will require you to know a bit more about the adapter itself. If you share with us the make + model and the output from "lsusb" we may be able to point you to the right package.

 

 

[ieleja]

wifi adapter manufacture and model?

in terminal (console):

sudo lspci

sudo lsusb

shows all devices un pci or usb

 

what exactly is on your USB drive?

 

[JacksDad0709]

Thanks for your help so far guys. This is the result when I use lsusb. The USB adaptor I am using is an "Asus USB-AC68 Dual Band AC1900". The drivers came from the asus website and it has a linux folder with drivers in. I just copied it to usb as I keep all my vital drivers on a usb stick for ease.

 

I appreciate all the help so far and I hope you can keep helping me with this issue.

[C2dan88]

12 hours ago, JacksDad0709 said:

The drivers came from the asus website and it has a linux folder with drivers in

After downloading the driver from asus

• Unzip DR_USB-AC68_v.2.1.4.7.zip
• Open the Linux folder and unzip AC68_Linux.zip
• Open the Linux/RTL8814AU_Linux_v4.3.21.1_24835.2017103 folder
• Right click empty space in Nautilus and click open in terminal
• Run the  ./install.sh  script

The script will attempt to compile and install the driver for your system

 

If it says make command not found or dependencies not met, you will HAVE to connect your device via Ethernet to your router to be able to install any device drivers on your system. 

 

Any other message post it here in full.

 

 

[JacksDad0709]

I will take a look later and report back. Thanks for the help guys.

[NoLeafClover]

@JacksDad0709 By the looks of it, the ASUS AC68 adapter uses a Realtek 8814 AU chipset.

 

Before attempting the above suggestion from @C2dan88 I would strongly encourage you to try the "rtl8812au-dkms" driver which should be available in Ubuntu under the "universe" repository. It has support for the 8812AU and 8814AU chipsets. You might get a better install experience and installing it from the Ubuntu-provided packages will ensure the driver is kept up to date across OS / kernel updates too:

 

sudo apt install rtl8812au-dkms

 

It will also pull in any required dependencies to build the driver against the kernel, so you won't have to do this manually. You may need to reboot the system in either case.

 

Edit:

Also worth noting that Linux kernel >= 6.15 has added^[1][2] built-in support for the Realtek 8814AU chipset, so if/when you run kernel that is at least or newer than 6.15 you shouldn't need to install anything else (except perhaps a microcode package as previously mentioned) and both suggested methods would be obsolete. Ubuntu 25.10 ships with kernel 6.17 so should have out of the box support for your dongle. If you're running an older version of Ubuntu, it might be worth upgrading to the latest.

[JacksDad0709]

11 hours ago, C2dan88 said:

After downloading the driver from asus

• Unzip DR_USB-AC68_v.2.1.4.7.zip
• Open the Linux folder and unzip AC68_Linux.zip
• Open the Linux/RTL8814AU_Linux_v4.3.21.1_24835.2017103 folder
• Right click empty space in Nautilus and click open in terminal
• Run the  ./install.sh  script

The script will attempt to compile and install the driver for your system

 

If it says make command not found or dependencies not met, you will HAVE to connect your device via Ethernet to your router to be able to install any device drivers on your system. 

 

Any other message post it here in full.

 

 

After following the above steps I get the response "Permission Denied". I don't what I am being denied permission to as this is my machine and I should have full access rights surely.

[NoLeafClover]

1 hour ago, JacksDad0709 said:

I don't what I am being denied permission to as this is my machine and I should have full access rights surely.

You will need elevated privileges in this case. Not all scripts will ask. You can try with sudo, which will temporarily elevate your privileges for the duration of the command, e.g.:

sudo ./install.sh

 

Did you get a chance to try the driver I suggested? If it works, it would be a much cleaner and better approach.

[JacksDad0709]

Honestly, I tried, but I couldn't make sense of it. Sorry, I am struggling with this more than I thought I would. I will try the sudo command tomorrow and see what happens.

[JacksDad0709]

OMG! Now It is saying "sudo: ./install.sh: command not found". At this point I think I may just move my rig and hard wire it. Problem is though, if I do that, I still wont have my dongle installed so I wont be able to use it in its usual place. I am ripping my hair out here.

[C2dan88]

1 hour ago, JacksDad0709 said:

Now It is saying "sudo: ./install.sh: command not found".

Need to set permission to mark it as executable and then run it

chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

 

1 hour ago, JacksDad0709 said:

Problem is though, if I do that, I still wont have my dongle installed so I wont be able to use it in its usual place

If you can temporary move it to a location you can hook upto ethernet. You can install the driver via package manger alot easier. When you are "offline" attempting to install drivers/software you usually run into dependency hell - if you dont have the right dependencies installed already, you'll run into complications.

[NoLeafClover]

44 minutes ago, C2dan88 said:

If you can temporary move it to a location you can hook upto ethernet. You can install the driver via package manger alot easier. When you are "offline" attempting to install drivers/software you usually run into dependency hell - if you dont have the right dependencies installed already, you'll run into complications.

Indeed. And most likely not all required packages will be already installed to compile the module.

 

OP, I hadn't realised the PC has no other possible source for an internet connection. If you don't have internet you won't be able to install the package I recommended anyway either.

 

If you can't be bothered moving the PC to hard-wire it, an alternative option is to connect your phone via USB and enable USB tethering to share its internet connection (which may be your WiFi) with the PC. Should be pretty straightforward on Android, not sure about Apple/iOS. On the PC it will pop up as a wired Ethernet adapter and should hopefully autoconnect - no need for any special drivers. Once online you can try installing the "rtl8812au-dkms" package.

[JacksDad0709]

On 11/3/2025 at 6:57 PM, C2dan88 said:

Need to set permission to mark it as executable and then run it

chmod +x install.sh
sudo ./install.sh

 

If you can temporary move it to a location you can hook upto ethernet. You can install the driver via package manger alot easier. When you are "offline" attempting to install drivers/software you usually run into dependency hell - if you dont have the right dependencies installed already, you'll run into complications.

After trying the above, which seemed to work, I was told

 

"Compile make driver error: 127

Please check error mesg"

 

At this point, I am going to unplumb my pc from my setup and drag it across the house, unless anyone has a better idea?

[NoLeafClover]

12 hours ago, JacksDad0709 said:

Compile make driver error: 127

Difficult to tell without the log. If you post the output we may be able to tell. You can use the "tee" command to store it in a file, e.g.

sudo ./install.sh | tee output.txt

Then you can share the contents of "output.txt". Note it can be very large, suggest using a paste service and linking to it.

 

In either case, I still think you should not be using this driver when there is one, newer even, already available from your distro. It's not the Linux way, especially for newcomers. Installing applications and drivers from an install script, whether it has to compile or not, is not a good way as it can leave your system in a messy state. Especially if it doesn't have an "uninstall" option, which is common for random drivers. And you will have to do it again when a new kernel is released. This should be last resort for when all else fails.

 

12 hours ago, JacksDad0709 said:

unless anyone has a better idea?

The USB tethering I mentioned should be the closest to an easy hack to get internet on the machine. Otherwise, I'm afraid you will have to connect it some other way. Then update the OS and install the driver package.