How do I download RTL8821CE dependencies, install on main machine and install the driver?

I purchased my new laptop a few days ago and currently I am setting everything up, I already have Ubuntu 20.04 running but I need to install the network driver for the RTL8821CE. I don’t have an ethernet port on my laptop. Is there A way I am able to download bc, build-essential, dkms and module-assistant and all its dependencies as .deb files and then install the prebuilt driver?


If you can use USB tethering on a smartphone or some other method of connecting to the Internet, use your tethering to install rtl8821ce-dkms via apt, which will build the driver automatically. You simply reboot once installation complete, and you have Wi-Fi available.

Otherwise, you need to download dkms and your rtl8821ce-dkms packages to another machine running the same Ubuntu live system which does have an Internet connection, and install them manually. It's important to use the same live system as the one you installed Ubuntu with: this is because it will fetch the correct header package for the installed kernel as needed by DKMS.

Follow this guide, but when you get to the line sudo apt --yes --download-only -o Dir::Cache::archives="./" install gcc dkms, you need to add rtl8821ce-dkms to it to also download the DKMS sources for your driver.