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Eric Mather
Asked: 2020-09-04 21:35:22 +0800 CST

How to install driver for D-Link DWA-181 AC1300 Wifi USB adaptor?

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Today I decided to purchase a wireless USB adaptor because my operating system, Kubuntu 18.04, is no longer detecting my wifi card. When I purchased it, I thought it would be the type of Wifi USB adaptor that you simply need to plug and it works right away, but when I unpacked it I unfortunately realized that it would be a little more complex to get it to work.

I was able to find and download the zip file of the driver for Linux (DWA-181_REVA_DRIVERS_v5.8.7.1_LINUX.zip) on the website of D-Link, but they don't provide any guidelines on how to install it.

Would anyone be able to provide some easy to follow steps that would allow me to install the driver?

Thanks in advance,

Eric

wireless drivers usb d-link

2 Answers

  1. I dont have this specific wifi module to test it out myself, but just building driver from source should work.

    First install dependencies depending on your package manager this can be done on Debian/Ubuntu using apt:

    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install build-essential

    Next unzip the downloaded folder, and unzip the file in there, and there should be a folder called driver with a driver tarball, with the name rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.8.7.1_*.tar.gz, decompress in whatever fashion you see fit, I simply right clicked in dolphin and extracted, open the newly decompressed folder and open a terminal to this location.

    Now run:

    sudo make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe DWA_181

    And your local Network Manager should pick up the wireless card from there.

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  2. could you please check if its detected in lsusb. These might be helpful but
    https://github.com/cilynx/rtl88x2bu https://github.com/cilynx/rtl88x2BU_WiFi_linux_v5.2.4.4_26334.20180126_COEX20171012-5044
    There seems to be a similar issue with this adapter for 14.04 answered Install DWA-131 WiFi dongle driver under Ubuntu 14.04.4 so you can try with that solution first and then check the others.

    This is the third thing i found that might work

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hanipouspilot/rtlwifi
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8192eu-dkms

    And if nothing works search for errors regarding the device in /var/log/syslog (less /var/log/syslog | grep error).

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