Does AP w/ hostapd with official wifi dongle work?

[Arsiesys]

Hello,

I am seriously thinking to buy a rock64 with the official wifi dongle antenna :
https://www.pine64.org/?product=rock64-u...au-adapter

Can I build a stable WIFI AP in 5Ghz with this one and the rock64 ?
I am mainly worried about hostapd AP chipset support and kernel driver for the chipset RTL8812AU used by the adapter.

Thanks in advance !

Regards,
Arsiesys

[Luke]

Hello,

I am seriously thinking to buy a rock64 with the official wifi dongle antenna :
https://www.pine64.org/?product=rock64-u...au-adapter

Can I build a stable WIFI AP in 5Ghz with this one and the rock64 ?
I am mainly worried about hostapd AP chipset support and kernel driver for the chipset RTL8812AU used by the adapter.

Thanks in advance !

Regards,
Arsiesys

Funny you should ask, as I spent quite some time trying to get an RTL8812AU dongle to work in AP mode just recently. It ought to work (does on Android without issues) but even after getting all the required patches and setting for hostapd I still didn't get it to work (even in 2.4Ghz). I tried it on the Rock64, as well as other boards and my stationary computer running linux with the same result. 
If you decide to proceed and try it out please do let me know. Also, I have now all the resources to get the driver to work, build custom rtl_hostapd and apply patches - so that would save you some time looking for all this info.

[CriticalJeff]

Hello,

I am seriously thinking to buy a rock64 with the official wifi dongle antenna :
https://www.pine64.org/?product=rock64-u...au-adapter

Can I build a stable WIFI AP in 5Ghz with this one and the rock64 ?
I am mainly worried about hostapd AP chipset support and kernel driver for the chipset RTL8812AU used by the adapter.

Thanks in advance !

Regards,
Arsiesys

Funny you should ask, as I spent quite some time trying to get an RTL8812AU dongle to work in AP mode just recently. It ought to work (does on Android without issues) but even after getting all the required patches and setting for hostapd I still didn't get it to work (even in 2.4Ghz). I tried it on the Rock64, as well as other boards and my stationary computer running linux with the same result. 
If you decide to proceed and try it out please do let me know. Also, I have now all the resources to get the driver to work, build custom rtl_hostapd and apply patches - so that would save you some time looking for all this info.

How did you finally manage to get the driver installed?  I'm interested in doing the same thing, and for a wireless dongle that is advertised to be compatible with the Rock64, I can find very little info on loading the drivers.  dmesg shows a Realtek wireless device, but I am unable to successfully load the drivers to use it.  I expected "modprobe rtlwifi" or something similar to work, but the driver is not listed under /lib/modules/kernel; at least no where I can find.

[Luke]

Code:

git clone https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au.git
cd rtl8812au/
ARCH=arm64 make
sudo ARCH=arm64 make install

That builds the driver, so its pretty straightforward.

As for hostapd I suggest you read for a start:
https://forum.armbian.com/topic/144-prob...wusc036ac/
https://www.max2play.com/en/forums/topic...rtl8812au/

Please let me know if you get anywhere with hostapd using the rtl8812au

[guy]

I was thinking of buying one of these to use on a CentOS 7 router/AP system I built running an x86 processor so this thread caught my eye.  Since I haven't bought it yet I can't test it myself, so maybe I could make the suggestion to try the driver from Larry Finger: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8812au.  He's worked on Realtek drivers for RedHat and CentOS that have fixed issues I've experienced with other chipsets.  Maybe try it and let us know if you can get the adapter into AP mode?

[Luke]

I was thinking of buying one of these to use on a CentOS 7 router/AP system I built running an x86 processor so this thread caught my eye.  Since I haven't bought it yet I can't test it myself, so maybe I could make the suggestion to try the driver from Larry Finger: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtl8812au.  He's worked on Realtek drivers for RedHat and CentOS that have fixed issues I've experienced with other chipsets.  Maybe try it and let us know if you can get the adapter into AP mode?

Thanks guy. I kind of gave up on it - wasted too much time trying to get it to work. 

But if someone manages to get the dodgy Realtek drivers to work in AP mode and writes-up how they did it, I'd be happy to pick it up again and try.