Can't Get Kubuntu or any linux to find my Asus USB-AC53

[1sm-brad]

I've looked all over this forum for a problem similar to mine but nothing exact so I was wondering if someone could help?

The HDMI connector was accidentally crammed into the ETH port a couple of years ago on this laptop it broke the pins in the ETH port... Been stuck with wireless only ever since.

I've seen some good help articles on ask ubuntu but all been from the standpoint of doing a wget or some sort of download then installing a file from another wireless with a/c and then changing the parameters to the ASUS AC53 but when you don't have wireless because Kubuntu isn't seeing the wireless and the ETH port is FUBAR'd you have a Catch-22 conundrum

I just downloaded Kubuntu 19.10 and I'm not a total Newb with Kubuntu but I'm not a CLI wiz by any means either, so I'm not even going to bother going from live-usb to full install in dual boot if I can't even get Wireless to work.

I'm getting ready to switch to VPS hosting service again and I'm going to need Linux to do SSH because I hate Windows SSH options with a passion and I can't afford to buy Mac OS (like I'd want to)

Anyone wanna take a stab at helping figure this out? I guess I could download a file in Windows and then save it to the desktop in Kubuntu but I wouldn't know what to do from there and since ASUS doesn't have any ***&&&^^%%%((()))))$$** bleepin drivers for LInux, I wouldn't know what to download anyway.

PS as a reminder I haven't installed Kubuntu 19.10 yet so I can't do any CLI to pull up info on my laptop parameters...

Thank you hopefully in advance

[jlittle]

I suspect you'd have to compile a driver for it. this project on github has been updated for a 5.3 kernel recently and it would be my first choice, but its instructions are for Fedora, and don't really apply to Ubuntu. I did get it to compile, on 19.10, but I compile a driver for an Intel NIC so my Kubuntu is set up for doing that.

I first looked at another project, because I found posts saying it worked for them, but it needed a couple of tweaks to even compile, and was last updated 8 months ago.

If you venture down the compile a driver route, you'll get friendly support from this forum; other forums might not be so encouraging to a "new guy" who hasn't done this stuff before. It will be a pain having to boot to windows to communicate until you get it to work, and there'll be ongoing recompilation every time a new kernel arrives (unless you get DKMS to work smoothly).

[1sm-brad]

Thank you John

I suspect you'd have to compile a driver for it. this project on github has been updated for a 5.3 kernel recently and it would be my first choice, but its instructions are for Fedora, and don't really apply to Ubuntu. I did get it to compile, on 19.10, but I compile a driver for an Intel NIC so my Kubuntu is set up for doing that.

I first looked at another project, because I found posts saying it worked for them, but it needed a couple of tweaks to even compile, and was last updated 8 months ago.

If you venture down the compile a driver route, you'll get friendly support from this forum; other forums might not be so encouraging to a "new guy" who hasn't done this stuff before. It will be a pain having to boot to windows to communicate until you get it to work, and there'll be ongoing recompilation every time a new kernel arrives (unless you get DKMS to work smoothly).

Sounds like too much of a pain, I'll have to figure something else. I'm doing too much to devote to trying to figure out how to compile something. I've never tackled compiling before.

The built in wireless isn't working either. Any other wireless dongle that works out of the box with Linux? Anyone

[GreyGeek]

.....

PS as a reminder I haven't installed Kubuntu 19.10 yet so I can't do any CLI to pull up info on my laptop parameters...

Seeing that the next LTS release, 20.04, is only a few months away, is there a driving reason to install 19.04?


Regardless, I was faced with your dilemma a few years ago when my ETH0 mobo chip was disabled by lightening. It was then that I discovered that my wifi chip wasn't supported by Kubuntu. So, I went to Amazon and purchased two dongles. The first was one similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cudy-Adapter-...282054583&th=1

and the second was an Eth0 to USB dongle:
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Ethe...tronics&sr=1-4

Also, I've had many folks ask me to install Kubuntu over Windows on their laptop and one of those devices always guaranteed that I have an internet connection which will enable me to dl & install a wifi driver for that laptop. For my own needs I used to run a Cat-5 cable from my office, out into the hallway, down the hallway and through the dining room wall into the living room, where I had a LazyBoy with a computer table over it. (My wifi wouldn't reach that far at the time because the distance, the number off walls and metal foiled insulation in the walls - one could heat my house with a candle and cool it with an ice cube), so 100' of cable was necessary to make the connection. Now that I've sold the house and moved into an apartment (landlord fixes all the appliances and does the maintenance) I'm back to wifi again because I can't drill holes in the walls. But, I'm only 15' from the wifi router so it doesn't matter. And, 300Mb/s is sweet.

[jglen490]

There are dongles that work well with Linux. I have a dual antenna Panda (PAU08, if I remember - I'm not at home right now) and it just works, in both 16.04 and 18.04 upon connecting to USB. It should work on 19.10, also. Mine sits on top of my desktop case with a USB extension cable. Great, stable connection to the router which is in another room.

[1sm-brad]

no pressing reason to go to 19.10

Seeing that the next LTS release, 20.04, is only a few months away, is there a driving reason to install 19.04?

Regardless, I was faced with your dilemma a few years ago when my ETH0 mobo chip was disabled by lightening. It was then that I discovered that my wifi chip wasn't supported by Kubuntu. So, I went to Amazon and purchased two dongles. The first was one similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cudy-Adapter-...282054583&th=1

and the second was an Eth0 to USB dongle:
https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Ethe...tronics&sr=1-4

Also, I've had many folks ask me to install Kubuntu over Windows on their laptop and one of those devices always guaranteed that I have an internet connection which will enable me to dl & install a wifi driver for that laptop. For my own needs I used to run a Cat-5 cable from my office, out into the hallway, down the hallway and through the dining room wall into the living room, where I had a LazyBoy with a computer table over it. (My wifi wouldn't reach that far at the time because the distance, the number off walls and metal foiled insulation in the walls - one could heat my house with a candle and cool it with an ice cube), so 100' of cable was necessary to make the connection. Now that I've sold the house and moved into an apartment (landlord fixes all the appliances and does the maintenance) I'm back to wifi again because I can't drill holes in the walls. But, I'm only 15' from the wifi router so it doesn't matter. And, 300Mb/s is sweet.

No pressing reason to go to 19.10 but I don't have any linux on my laptop so I just grabbed it. However does it matter? I've read articles about people having problems with my asus wireless since 2017 so it's not like it's just the new version of Kubuntu having problems with it. Sigh I'm off the job hurt and waiting for my disability to start paying so I'll just have to stick with windows and wait on getting an ethernet dongle then I won't need to worry about wireless arggggggggggggggh

[jlittle]

I've read articles about people having problems with my asus wireless since 2017 so it's not like it's just the new version of Kubuntu having problems with it.

I agree, but I don't understand why after 2 years it still doesn't work. Sometimes there's new hardware and it takes a while, usually a few months, for support to get into mainstream Linux. I had an oddball logitech mouse with weird windows 8 specific buttons that got supported like that. Maybe there's un-free proprietary code being used in the implementations of the drivers; one of the sources that had a compile error has a Realtek (the dongle uses a Realtek chip) copyright notice.

I bought a cheap wireless N dongle once (the existing wireless in a desktop was only 32-bit) that "just worked" in every distro and hardware I tried it with. In fact it was problematic in Windows XP, and eventually stopped working on it after some Windows update.