Completely new to Kubuntu. Newly installed, no WiFi access at all

[hubris]

Update on my device: it’s a Vivobook Go E1504FA_E1504FA

and yes, it’s the one you linked, I might get it and test it soon

[claydoh]

I have one arriving here on Monday. lol $13AUD, delivered.
A useful tool for the tech toolbox

[claydoh]

I'd hold off on the tplink, for the moment.

It will work, but needs some extra steps - the kernel module needs building. Will document - it is not difficult, but the included script does not work correctly.

And it won't work in 6.17 at this point, such as *buntu 25.10 (and coming to 24.04.-whatever-number in February), and likely won't work in the next LTS, 26.04. At least not without a future update/patching.

[hubris]

If possible, I’d like to see the documentation. This has all been very helpful to me

[claydoh]

There really isn't any.

What I have seen as that though there are a number of dongles from different brands, the drivers are not interchangeable (as far as I can tell/test).
Kernel version is important as well.

Now, the EU version of the drivers from TPlink has the source code as well as the required firmware, and a udev rule to keep the pesky storage device in the dongle from being used (it holds the Windows driver exe).


But building the driver IS easy, despite the number of steps. Easier done than said.

1. Extract the files from the zip
2. Dive into the folder that you get, to /drivers/aic8800
3. Hit alt-f4 to open a terminal panel
4. Install the basic compiler tools:
   

   sudo apt install build-essential

5. Build and install the driver:
   

   make

   sudo make install

6. Go back to the top level of the extracted files (aic8800_linux_drvier No, that is not a typo lolol)
7. Copy the firmware files to the correct place:
   

   sudo cp -rf ./fw/aic8800DC/ /lib/firmware

8. Copy the udev rule:
   

   sudo cp ./tools/aic.rules /etc/udev/rules.d

9. Reload some things:
   

   sudo udevadm trigger

   sudo udevadm control --reload

Plug in the dongle and see. It should NOT offer a removable storage popup, and should work as a wifi dongle.

Now, the bad side is that you will need to extract a fresh copy of the drivers and redo step 5 often, possibly for each and every kernel security update with 6.14. It will NOT compile on 25.10's 6.17. 24.04 will be getting this kernel in February.

Hopefully a new version will be released, or patches made. if we are lucky.

Now, DKMS could be used to automatically rebuild this with each kernel update. I am not sure how to set this up.

There are a number of third party git repos with driver code of varying vintages, and none of them work for this dongle - a number are for very specific brands/kernels.

Arch has a dkms version of as driver in the AUR with a number of patches created, and supposedly supports the Tplink dongle. I have no idea if these patches work for Ubuntu kernel configs, or if it works in general. Arch's AUR can be a wild west once in a while.