Is there a standard WiFi driver for the Edimax EW-7811Un?

I have this WiFI dongle (Edimax EW-7811Un)

Is there an Ubuntu package I can use to get it working? If not, how can I get this WiFi to work?

Solution 1:

This worked on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 14.10 (tested and works)

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git build-essential linux-headers-generic dkms

git clone https://github.com/dz0ny/rt8192cu.git --depth 1

Currently, as of 22/04/15, there is a bug when installing this with GCC 4.9 or newer. To fix this bug remove line 1580 from rt8192cu/os_dep/linux/usb_intf.c This line should read:

DBG_871X("build time: %s %s\n", __DATE__, __TIME__);

Lastly run

cd rt8192cu

sudo make dkms

Reboot and you are done.

Source

Solution 2:

For later kernels ( 3.9 + ) this article on the Edimax site was very helpful... Paraphrased below

If you have issue(s) with the built-in driver, you can try this open source driver from github.

Plug in the EW-7811Un to your system's USB port (2.0 preferred), making sure your system has temporary Internet connection

Open a Terminal program and make sure your system is up-to-date

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade 

Note: You may need to restart your system if a kernel update has been installed.

Install the necessary packages to compile a device driver:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic build-essential dkms git

Reboot, then clone the github repository:

git clone https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes.git

Note: Right after "rt", it is a letter "l" (like Larry), not a number "1" (like 1980.)

Set up as DKMS module:

sudo dkms add ./rtl8192cu-fixes 

Build and install the rtl8192cu driver:

Fix per Patric - new version is 1.11

sudo dkms install 8192cu/1.11  

Refresh modules list:

sudo depmod -a 

Blacklist the native kernel driver:

sudo cp ./rtl8192cu-fixes/blacklist-native-rtl8192.conf /etc/modprobe.d/ 

Disable power management:

sudo cp ./rtl8192cu-fixes/8192cu-disable-power-management.conf /etc/modprobe.d/ 

Restart your system to use the new driver.

That's it!

For removal, you can use the following commands.

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-native-rtl8192.conf
sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu-disable-power-management.conf

#Updated version

sudo dkms remove 8192cu/1.11 --all

Please note the newer kernels should not need this update. 3.9-4.4 older kernels may need it