Home Linux Networking Install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB Adapter In Linux

Install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB Adapter In Linux

By sk
Published: Last Updated on 75.4K views

In this brief guide, I will explain how to install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in Fedora, Ubuntu and openSUSE Linux distributions and how to connect to 5G Wireless Internet connection in Linux.

Introduction

A few days ago, I switched to Jio Fiber 5G broadband connection. The Internet provider gave me a dual band router that supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channel.

Unfortunately, the built-in WiFi network interface in my Laptop doesn't support 5 GHz channel. It is a bit old Dell Laptop that supports 2.4 GHz channel only.

After doing a lot of web search, I bought TP-Link AC600 USB WiFi Adapter (Archer T2U Nano) from Amazon.

Compared to other WiFi USB network adapters, the TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U model has many advantages. It is tiny, compact and high speed WiFi adapter that supports 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band.

It is capable to provide 433 Mbps speed on 5GHz (ideal for HD streaming and online gaming) and 200Mbps on 2.4GHz (perfect for normal web browsing).

Archer T2U nano adapter supports 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK encryption standards. So your wireless connections are safe from intruders.

Another notable advantage of Archer T2U nano WiFi USB adapter is it supports WiFi roaming. It automatically connects to the suitable WiFi network near you.

If you are ever looking for a dual-band WiFi router for faster speed and extended range, TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter is undoubtedly good choice.

Even though Archer T2U nano adapter has some good features, it has one drawback. It supports Windows and Mac OS only. There is no official drivers for Linux.

Fortunately, I came across an unofficial driver for Archer T2U Nano on GitHub and it works out of the box on Fedora and Ubuntu systems.

As stated already, Archer T2U nano works well on Fedora, Ubuntu and openSUSE Linux distributions. First, we will see how to install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano wifi adapter on Fedora.

First, check if the TP-Link Archer T2U is detected on your Fedora system by listing the USB devices using command:

$ lsusb

Sample output:

 Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0138 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 001 Device 005: ID 064e:8123 Suyin Corp. 
 Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0cf3:3005 Qualcomm Atheros Communications AR3011 Bluetooth
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver
 Bus 001 Device 007: ID 2357:011e TP-Link AC600 wireless Realtek RTL8811AU [Archer T2U Nano]
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
List USB devices in Linux
List USB devices in Linux

As you can see, TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U nano model wireless card is detected. Let us go ahead and install Archer T2U nano driver in Linux.

Before installing the Archer T2U nano driver, make sure you have installed the correct Kernel header files using command:

$ sudo dnf install "kernel-devel-uname-r == $(uname -r)"

If your Kernel and Kernel headers' version are different, the TP-Link WiFi card driver will not work. So it is mandatory to install the correct Kernel header files.

Next install the dkms package which is used automatically recompile and install a kernel module when a new kernel gets installed or updated.

To install dkms in Fedora, run:

$ sudo dnf install dkms

Since we are going to compile the drivers from source, we need to install make and git:

$ sudo dnf install make git

Next, git clone the rtl8812au GitHub repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git

Sample output:

 Cloning into 'rtl8812au'…
 remote: Enumerating objects: 11047, done.
 remote: Counting objects: 100% (85/85), done.
 remote: Compressing objects: 100% (57/57), done.
 remote: Total 11047 (delta 31), reused 51 (delta 26), pack-reused 10962
 Receiving objects: 100% (11047/11047), 70.94 MiB | 2.37 MiB/s, done.
 Resolving deltas: 100% (7695/7695), done.

The rtl8812au GitHub repository contains RTL8812AU/21AU and RTL8814AU drivers with monitor mode and frame injection.

The above command clones the contents of rtl8812au GitHub repository in a local directory named rtl8812au. Cd into the cloned directory:

$ cd rtl8812au/

Run the following command to compile and install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in your Fedora system:

$ sudo make dkms_install

Sample output:

mkdir -p /usr/src/8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 cp -r * /usr/src/8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 dkms add -m 8812au -v 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/8812au/5.6.4.2_35491.20191025/source ->
                  /usr/src/8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 DKMS: add completed.
 dkms build -m 8812au -v 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping…
 Building module:
 cleaning build area…
 'make' -j4 KVER=5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64 KSRC=/lib/modules/5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64/build……………………………
 cleaning build area…
 DKMS: build completed.
 dkms install -m 8812au -v 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
 88XXau.ko.xz:
 Running module version sanity check.
 Original module
 No original module exists within this kernel
 Installation
 Installing to /lib/modules/5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64/extra/
 Adding any weak-modules 
 depmod…..
 DKMS: install completed.
 dkms status
 8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64, x86_64: installed
Install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in Fedora Linux
Install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in Fedora Linux

Once the driver is installed, remove the USB adapter and plug in again. The LED in the Archer T2U nano adapter will start to blink.

You can verify if the Archer T2U nano driver (i.e. RTL8812AU) is installed and loaded with command:

$ sudo dkms status

If you see an output like below, congratulations! TP-Link AC600 (Archer T2U Nano) Wireless adapter has been successfully installed!

 8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64, x86_64: installed

Installing TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U nano wifi USB adapter in Ubuntu is same as above.

Install the necessary dependencies and Kernel headers in Ubuntu Linux with command:

$ sudo apt install dkms git build-essential libelf-dev linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Git clone the rtl8812au GitHub repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git

Cd into the cloned directory:

$ cd rtl8812au/

Finally, install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in Ubuntu using command:

$ sudo make dkms_install

Unplug the TP-Link Archer T2U nano adapter and plug it again. The LED will start to blink. Verify if the driver is installed and loaded using command:

$ sudo dkms status

If the TP-Link AC600 WiFi USB adapter is installed, you will see the following output:

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.11.15-1-default, x86_64: installed

Install Kernel headers and all necessary prerequisites on your openSUSE machine:

$ sudo zypper install kernel-source
$ sudo zypper install git dkms

Git clone the rtl8812au GitHub repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git

Cd into the cloned directory:

$ cd rtl8812au/

Run the following command to install TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in openSUSE:

$ sudo make dkms_install

Remove he TP-Link Archer T2U nano adapter and plug it again. The LED will start to blink. Verify if the driver is installed and loaded using command:

$ sudo dkms status

If the TP-Link AC600 WiFi USB adapter is installed correctly, you will see the following output:

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.11.15-1-default, x86_64: installed

Connect to 5G Wireless network in Linux

Open System Settings in your Linux machine. Under WiFi section, you will see there are two WiFi adapters listed. One is built-in WiFi interface and another one is TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U nano USB WiFi adapter.

Click the TP-Link card and you will see the list of available 5G wireless connections. Choose a 5G network in the list and click Connect.

Connect to 5G Wireless network in Linux
Connect to 5G Wireless network in Linux

Alternatively, you can connect to 5G WiFi network from the Gnome Top bar menu as well. Open the pop out menu from the Top bar, and click "Select Network" option.

Select WiFi network from topbar menu in Linux
Select WiFi network from topbar menu in Linux

Choose the 5G wifi network in the list and click Connect.

Connect to 5G wifi network
Connect to 5G wifi network

That's it. Start using High Speed 5G Internet connection in your laptop/desktop.

To view the list of WiFi connections from the command line, run:

$ nmcli device wifi list

Here is my Internet speed on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wireless adapters.

Internet speed on 2.4 GHz (onboard WiFi):

Internet speed on 2.4 GHz WiFi in Linux
Internet speed on 2.4 GHz WiFi in Linux

Internet speed on 5 GHz (TP-Link AC600 Archer 2TU Nano WiFi USB adapter):

Internet speed on 5 GHz (TP-Link AC600 Archer 2TU Nano) WiFi in Linux
Internet speed on 5 GHz (TP-Link AC600 Archer 2TU Nano) WiFi in Linux

I have been using TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter in my Dell Laptop for the past few days. So far it works just fine and I don't have any issues with it.

Uninstall driver

To remove the driver from your system, cd into the directory that contains the source code and execute the following command:

$ sudo make dkms_remove

Conclusion

If you want to connect to 5G networks in your legacy Laptop or Desktop, just buy TP-Link AC600 Archer T2U Nano WiFi USB adapter or any other 5G supported WiFi adapter and enjoy High Speed Internet connectivity.

Resource:

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41 comments

Kuroashi July 9, 2021 - 12:43 am

Thank you !

Reply
Avishek July 24, 2021 - 11:56 am

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.11.0-16-generic, x86_64: installed

not default
how to do that

Reply
sk July 24, 2021 - 1:05 pm

Can you elaborate your question? I couldn’t understand.

Reply
Lucas Ozonio August 6, 2021 - 8:00 am

Hi dear! Can u help me? I have a problem in Ubuntu 20.04

when I enter with “sudo make dkms_install”:

[…]
cleaning build area…
‘make’ -j4 KVER=5.8.0-63-generic KSRC=/lib/modules/5.8.0-63-generic/build…(bad exit status: 2)
ERROR (dkms apport): binary package for 8812au: 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025 not found
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 5.8.0-63-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/8812au/5.6.4.2_35491.20191025/build/make.log for more information.
make: *** [Makefile:2304: dkms_install] Erro 10

$ dkms status

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025: added

$ uname -r

5.8.0-63-generic

Reply
sk August 6, 2021 - 12:18 pm

That’s odd. It should work in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and newer versions. A few users have the same issue as yours. But they got it working. Please take a look here -> https://gist.github.com/electron0zero/de0eaa13336042bad347f4dbd8749609

Make sure you have installed the Kernel headers and try again. If it doesn’t help, try in a newly installed system. If none of these helps, you may need o file the issue in GitHub. Good luck!

Reply
Annie Jones August 7, 2021 - 1:37 am

Thank you x 100.
Bought this wifi adapter about a year ago to use on a 14 year old Samsung laptop running Linux Mint 18.3 xfce and had a devil of a job getting it to connect (did not plug and play) and still can’t recall how I did it other than copying commands willy nilly into the terminal until something worked.
Had to upgrade O/S to Mint 20.2 xfce and knew it would be the same horrendous saga getting it to work. Tried copy and pasting commands found on various websites without any success. Found your website today, followed the instructions at Point 2 and way hey it worked.
I have just one question: Should the adapter be plugged in to the PC when you input the commands?
Or am I just stupid girlie and that’s why my other attempts didn’t work? (OK two questions or even three)
Whatever, thanks for this.

Reply
sk August 7, 2021 - 11:43 am

>> I have just one question: Should the adapter be plugged in to the PC when you input the commands?

Yes, the Adapter should be plugged in to the PC.

Reply
smark_dev August 15, 2021 - 3:26 am

Thank you. Worked fine on Mint 20.02 Cinnamon. You’re my new hero.

Reply
sk August 15, 2021 - 12:11 pm

Glad it worked out for you. Happy to help.

Reply
Gordon Guest August 31, 2021 - 9:01 am

Been searching for a drive for sometime now tried others instructions couldn’t get it to work. Finally my search brought me to page and instructions. Installed perfectly clear step by step instructions. I am using openSuSe 15.3 Tumbleweed.

Reply
sk August 31, 2021 - 10:39 am

Glad it worked out for you. Happy to help.

Reply
Adrian Rosoga November 7, 2021 - 6:12 pm

Worked for me like a charm for Fedora 35! Great post!

Reply
Alain Rodriguez December 2, 2021 - 8:05 pm

How should I “rebuild” the driver after kernel upgrade? I keep getting this error message after sudo make dkms_install:

mkdir -p /usr/src/8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
cp -r * /usr/src/8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
dkms add -m 8812au -v 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
Error! DKMS tree already contains: 8812au-5.6.4.2_35491.20191025
You cannot add the same module/version combo more than once.
make: *** [Makefile:2303: dkms_install] Error 3

Reply
Christian Rene Rieder March 18, 2022 - 1:19 am

Hello,

I had the same problem.
I don’t know, what definetely solved my problem, but here are the steps, that I did:
I ran from the terminal “sudo zypper dist-upgrade” (as I use openSUSE Tumbleweed), and, as I do come from the Microsoft world, too, I rebooted my laptop.

Then I removed the driver, as written above (sudo make dkms_remove)

Then I followed those instructions:
https://docs.alfa.com.tw/Support/Linux/RTL8811AU/

point “Ubuntu”, from Step 3, with following commands:

git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git
cd rtl8812au
make
sudo make install

as written, at that link, I checked, if the driver is loaded (find /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ -name “88XXau.ko”), and it was found:-). I plugged the WLAN-Stick out, and in, and a green light appeared, and the 5GHz-WLANs in my surroundings were found, and I could connect, to mine ..

Kind Regards

Reply
Sean December 14, 2021 - 11:33 am

HI,

This worked great until an OS update killed it. How do you uninstall the driver to see if reinstall would fix it.

Reply
sk December 14, 2021 - 11:43 am

In order to remove the driver from your system, open a terminal in the directory with the source code and execute the following command:

$ sudo make dkms_remove

Good luck!

Reply
Natalie December 23, 2021 - 3:43 am

I got as far as “8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.11.15-1-default, x86_64: installed” but still can’t find my adapter on this computer. Are there any more steps to try?

Reply
sk December 23, 2021 - 10:49 am

If the driver is installed successfully, you should be able to find the wifi adapter under Network Settings -> Wifi section. You can also check the list of available interfaces using the following command:

nmcli device status

Please share the output of the above command, so I can can help further.

Reply
Guillermo December 29, 2021 - 12:19 pm

Thank you, worked for me on Zorin 16. Excellent Post.

Reply
sk December 29, 2021 - 12:37 pm

Glad it worked out for you. Happy to help.

Reply
Yury January 4, 2022 - 3:55 am

Incredibly helpful, everything worked for OpenSUSE, thank you so much!

Reply
GiddyBiddy February 22, 2022 - 2:25 pm

I had no idea other people were having issues with this. I just bought it for my desktop, found this article, and it worked perfectly! Fedora 35. Thank you! 🙂

Reply
sk February 22, 2022 - 9:19 pm

Glad it worked out for you. Happy to help.

Reply
Daniel Rodríguez July 3, 2022 - 3:06 am

Hi, I tried to prove it on Debian by following Ubuntu’s guide you wrote, but my computer doesn’t recognize the device, is there a particular repository for Debian?

Reply
sk July 3, 2022 - 3:17 pm

No. I guess the instructions should work on Debian. I haven’t personally tried though.

Reply
Jagan August 1, 2022 - 5:12 pm

Hi,
I am trying to use the TP Link T2U Nano in my raspberry pi which uses Debian, (Linux raspberrypi 5.15.32-v7+ #1538 SMP Thu Mar 31 19:38:48 BST 2022 armv7l GNU/Linux) by following the Ubuntu’s steps but facing issue.

USB adapter is getting detected but facing issue, receiving error as

E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-5.15.32-v7
E: Couldn’t find any package by glob ‘linux-headers-5.15.32-v7’

Reply
sk August 1, 2022 - 7:38 pm

"E: Unable to locate package linux-headers-5.15.32-v7
E: Couldn’t find any package by glob ‘linux-headers-5.15.32-v7’"

It means the linux headers package is not available in the repositories. So we can’t install TP-link under Debian.

Reply
rios August 16, 2022 - 11:30 pm

thanks! first option worked well on manjaro too.

Reply
robin August 18, 2022 - 10:34 pm

green light appears but 5g networks not showing, but able to connect to 2g
5.15 jammy jellyfish ubuntu, not working after new update. plz help

Reply
sk August 19, 2022 - 11:51 am

I guess it doesn’t support the new Kernel. Please uninstall the driver and reinstall it once again. It should work.

Reply
Jonathan December 26, 2022 - 9:03 pm

I followed the steps but when I check the status this is what I see and the TP-Link is not recognized.
8812au/5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.15.0-56-generic, x86_64: installed

Is this because of the built in 2.4 G wify adapter on my laptop. Do I need to uninstall or disable that first?

Reply
Jonathan December 26, 2022 - 9:15 pm

This is related to my previous question above. When I type “lsusb” command this is the output I get:

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0cf3:e005 Qualcomm Atheros Communications
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 04f3:24dd Elan Microelectronics Corp. Touchscreen
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129 Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0bda:5689 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Integrated Webcam
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:011e TP-Link AC600 wireless Realtek RTL8811AU [Archer T2U Nano]

I’m posting it here in case it is helpful. Thank you in advance!

Reply
sk December 27, 2022 - 11:16 am

Hi Jonathan, it appears to be the network adapter is installed and recognized. I see the following line in your output:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:011e TP-Link AC600 wireless Realtek RTL8811AU [Archer T2U Nano]

It means the adapter is installed. You can now connect to the WiFi networks.

Reply
Jonathan December 28, 2022 - 2:18 am

Hi SK, thank you very much for the quick reply! So the TP-Link adapter showed up in the “lsusb” output even before installing any drivers, just like you said in the beginning of the article above. I went through all the steps and looks like the install process worked fine but the new adapter is not showing up in the settings. In the System Settings in my Ubantu machine. Under WiFi section only one adapter is showing up same as before. Any thoughts on what I might be missing?

Reply
sk December 28, 2022 - 1:31 pm

Hi, please make sure the following:

1. Remove and re-plug the adapter after installing it. Or, a clean reboot is better.
2. Run “sudo dkms status” command to verify if the Tp-link driver is installed and loaded. You should see an output like below:

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.8.15-301.fc33.x86_64, x86_64: installed

If you see the above output, the driver is installed and loaded. You’re good to go!

3. If the above steps didn’t work, please try installing TP-link in a freshly installed system.

Good luck.

Reply
Cyndi Roether January 17, 2023 - 2:47 am

Hi SK –
Thank You for posting this driver. I already had the TP-Link AC600 to allow my Dell All-in-One to access 5G WiFi while running Windows. Then I converted to Ubuntu [22.04.1 LTS] and of course 5G no longer worked.
I followed your install directions without problem (unusual for me as I am totally new to Linux and the Command Line) until I got to dkms install and then Terminal complained about the fact that rtl8812au already existed and was not empty.
I moved rtl8812au to downloads and added backup to the name in order to preserve it and then deleted rtl8812au from Home and started over with your instructions. This time it progressed further but complained about the dkms tree already existing and containing 8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491 or something like that. [I apologize, I thought I had copied the terminal process and could paste it here for you but it did not work.]
Do I need to delete rtl8812au again and start over doing something differently?
Thank You for your help.

Reply
sk January 17, 2023 - 11:19 am

You don’t need to delete the “rtl8812au” directory. Just continue the rest of the installation steps. Upon successful installation, you might see an output like below.

8812au, 5.6.4.2_35491.20191025, 5.11.15-1-default, x86_64: installed

If you got the above output, the driver is installed and you should be able to connect to 5G networks. If not, you might have either missed some installation steps or it could be other issue. In that case, I suggest you to start over by deleting the rtl8812au directory. If it still doesn’t help, reinstall your OS and try again in a freshly installed system. Good luck.

Reply
Steve B January 20, 2023 - 12:36 am

Thank you for the very clear instructions! I had an old unused AC600 High Gain and was able to quickly resurrect an old desktop that had been sitting in the basement for years. I followed the Ubuntu instructions on Linux Mint 21.1 and now get 200 Mbps download speed. With the aid of a $15 SSD, the computer is running far better than new.

Reply
Jon February 6, 2023 - 9:05 pm

Work for me on Pop! OS 22.04 – LTS

Although I was fooled at first due to the output of “lsusb”

I only got the first part without the description:

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 2357:011e

Lots of other entries but one description was blank. That was the TP-link

All is well that ends well! Cheers!

Reply
Arman February 16, 2023 - 9:44 pm

Does the TP-Link AC600 Nano support Packet Injection, or does it only support Monitor Mode?

Reply
sk February 17, 2023 - 2:09 pm

I don’t know because I never checked it. Please check the product’s manual.

Reply

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