Cannot activate/use Archer T4U v3 USB network device

Support Network
1

Scenario: I am trying to install an USB Archer T4U v3 network adapter. I currently have a conventional wifi network card installed, but I wish to switch to this USB device so I can make room inside my case for a new video card.

I am using kernel version 5.15.57-2. It is fully updated.

The output of lsusb is as follows:

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 2357:0115 TP-Link Archer T4U ver.3
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 005: ID 2109:0812 VIA Labs, Inc. VL812 Hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 174c:5106 ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1051 SATA 3Gb/s bridge
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1058:25a1 Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Elements / My Passport
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 2109:0812 VIA Labs, Inc. VL812 Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1038:12ad SteelSeries ApS SteelSeries Arctis 7
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1b1c:0c0b Corsair Lighting Node Pro
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 25a7:fa61 Areson Technology Corp Elecom Co., Ltd MR-K013 Multicard Reader
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 2109:2812 VIA Labs, Inc. VL812 Hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:2812 VIA Labs, Inc. VL812 Hub
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 046d:c341 Logitech, Inc. Logitech Mechanical keyboard
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

So it appears that my computer can generally see the device, but I cannot seem to get the driver to function.

I tried to follow the instructions located in the Wiki. The Wiki said that you need to make sure your proper headers are installed, so I used the following command to install them:

sudo pacman -Syyu linux-header

There were no obvious errors or problems with this step. After this step, I cold-booted my computer.

I then attempted to install the driver using this command:

'sudo pamac build rtl88x2bu-dkms-git'

During this step, the following error was encountered, but it claimed the installation was successfully finished:

Install DKMS modules                                                                                                                     [2/2]
==> dkms install --no-depmod rtl88x2bu/5.13.1.r165.d4cb421 -k 5.10.133-1-MANJARO
==> dkms install --no-depmod rtl88x2bu/5.13.1.r165.d4cb421 -k 5.15.57-2-MANJARO
==> dkms install --no-depmod rtl88x2bu/5.13.1.r165.d4cb421 -k 5.4.207-1-MANJARO
==> depmod 5.10.133-1-MANJARO
==> depmod 5.15.57-2-MANJARO
==> depmod 5.4.207-1-MANJARO
==> ERROR: Missing 5.9.16-1-MANJARO kernel modules tree for module rtl88x2bu/5.13.1.r165.d4cb421.
Transaction successfully finished.

I then cold-booted my machine again and re plugged in the device. It was still not working.

I then tried to activate it using the following command:

sudo modprobe 88x2bu

I got no response back in Terminal, but after unplugging/replugging the device it’s still not working.

Here is the output of inxi -N:

Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi
  Device-3: TP-Link Archer T4U ver.3 type: USB driver: rtl88x2bu

And here is the output of inxi -Fazy --filter:

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.57-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=11885d15-3608-4162-94bb-b24ed4bed50e rw quiet apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: GNOME v: 42.3.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.34 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
    v: 42.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: B450M PRO-VDH PLUS (MS-7A38) v: 7.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 9.00
    date: 01/07/2019
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ gen: 2
    built: 2018-21 process: GF 12nm family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 8 stepping: 2
    microcode: 0x800820D
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 8 tpc: 2 threads: 16 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 768 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x64 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 8x512 KiB
    L3: 16 MiB desc: 2x8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1969 high: 2781 min/max: 2200/3700 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 2781 2: 2416
    3: 1889 4: 1811 5: 1716 6: 1718 7: 1719 8: 1789 9: 1798 10: 1848 11: 1715
    12: 1776 13: 1716 14: 1791 15: 2403 16: 2625 bogomips: 118420
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT vulnerable
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP:
    disabled, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1080] vendor: PNY driver: nvidia
    v: 515.57 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 515.xx+ status: current
    (as of 2022-07) arch: Pascal code: GP10x process: TSMC 16nm built: 2016-21
    pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 1f:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1b80
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.org v: 1.21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.3
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: nvidia gpu: nvidia display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-size: <missing: xdpyinfo>
  Monitor-1: DVI-D-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96
    size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") diag: 584mm (22.99") modes: N/A
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 515.57
    direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: PNY
    driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 1-7:6 v: kernel chip-ID: 1038:12ad pcie:
    gen: 3 class-ID: 0300 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 1f:00.1
    chip-ID: 10de:10f0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 21:00.3 chip-ID: 1022:1457 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: SteelSeries ApS Arctis 7 type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.57-2-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.56 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 1b:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp27s0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    modules: wl pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1d:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:2725 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp29s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-3: TP-Link Archer T4U ver.3 type: USB driver: rtl88x2bu
    bus-ID: 3-1:4 chip-ID: 2357:0115 class-ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
  IF: wlp32s0f3u1 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 6.37 TiB used: 1.01 TiB (15.8%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD10EZEX-00WN4A0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter>
    rev: 1A01 scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD4
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 023 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD10JPVX-22JC3T0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  ID-4: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD
    Elements 25A1 size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B
    type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 1014 scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 915.53 GiB (98.32%) used: 155.45 GiB
    (17.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 280 KiB
    (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 43.2 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 40 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 32%
Info:
  Processes: 399 Uptime: 6m wakeups: 0 Memory: 47 GiB used: 3.16 GiB (6.7%)
  Init: systemd v: 251 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers:
  gcc: 12.1.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: 1844 pacman: 1807 lib: 522 flatpak: 20
  snap: 17 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.20

So to me it looks like the driver is installed, but the interface is still not working. Is there some command that I still need to run that I’ve missed? Please help me. This is driving me nuts and it’s not a long drive.

2

That is not how to do it. Also there is no such thing as linux-header package … This is how you install the linux-headers for your installed kernels:

sudo pacman -S $(pacman -Qsq "^linux" | grep "^linux[0-9]*[-rt]*$" | awk '{print $1"-headers"}' ORS=' ')

Then you will not get

when you will run

No need for sudo as is using polkit …

Also, you should read the note about the 5.18 kernel on the project page, in case you will want at some point to deal with it, and the fact that you have to balcklist the one included in the kernel …

Also, also - you should remove the 5.9 kernel as is EOL for some time now …

3

As in my original post, I am using kernel 5.15.57-2. Kernel 5.9 is not even installed on my system as a backup, much less as the one in use.

I reinstalled the headers as per your instructions:

sudo pacman -S $(pacman -Qsq "^linux" | grep "^linux[0-9]*[-rt]*$" | awk '{print $1"-headers"}' ORS=' ')

Then cold-booted my machine again. Still no luck.

I re-ran the command:

pamac build rtl88x2bu-dkms-git

And received the same 5.9-related error message:

==> ERROR: Missing 5.9.16-1-MANJARO kernel modules tree for module rtl88x2bu/5.13.1.r165.d4cb421.
Transaction successfully finished.

I looked at the GitHub article you gave, and it states “Check the currently loaded module using lsmod . If you see rtw88_core , rtw88_usb , or any name beginning with rtw88_ then you are using the RTW88 driver. If you see 88x2bu then you are using this RTW88x2BU driver.”

Even though I am using the 5.15 kernel, I checked the currently loaded module using lsmod anyway. Here is the output:

Module                  Size  Used by
ip6table_filter        16384  0
ip6_tables             36864  1 ip6table_filter
iptable_filter         16384  0
ccm                    20480  6
ntfs3                 274432  0
mousedev               24576  0
joydev                 28672  0
snd_usb_audio         389120  3
snd_usbmidi_lib        45056  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            53248  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device         16384  1 snd_rawmidi
mc                     73728  1 snd_usb_audio
usbhid                 77824  0
uas                    32768  0
usb_storage            81920  3 uas
qrtr                   24576  4
ns                     36864  1 qrtr
uinput                 20480  0
nvidia_uvm           2760704  0
88x2bu               4644864  0
nvidia_drm             73728  8
nvidia_modeset       1146880  9 nvidia_drm
intel_rapl_msr         20480  0
ppdev                  24576  0
wmi_bmof               16384  0
iwlmvm                503808  0
snd_hda_codec_realtek   167936  1
vfat                   24576  1
intel_rapl_common      32768  1 intel_rapl_msr
snd_hda_codec_generic    98304  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
fat                    90112  1 vfat
nvidia              40857600  342 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_modeset
wl                   6533120  0
mac80211             1249280  1 iwlmvm
ledtrig_audio          16384  1 snd_hda_codec_generic
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     86016  1
edac_mce_amd           53248  0
snd_hda_intel          61440  3
kvm_amd               163840  0
libarc4                16384  1 mac80211
snd_intel_dspcfg       32768  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_intel_sdw_acpi     20480  1 snd_intel_dspcfg
kvm                  1105920  1 kvm_amd
iwlwifi               454656  1 iwlmvm
snd_hda_codec         184320  4 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek
irqbypass              16384  1 kvm
crct10dif_pclmul       16384  1
snd_hda_core          118784  5 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek
crc32_pclmul           16384  0
ghash_clmulni_intel    16384  0
snd_hwdep              20480  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
cfg80211             1081344  5 wl,iwlmvm,88x2bu,iwlwifi,mac80211
snd_pcm               163840  5 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core
aesni_intel           380928  4
r8169                 110592  0
crypto_simd            16384  1 aesni_intel
snd_timer              49152  1 snd_pcm
cryptd                 28672  2 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel
parport_pc             69632  0
realtek                36864  1
snd                   126976  24 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_usb_audio,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
ccp                   131072  1 kvm_amd
sp5100_tco             20480  0
mdio_devres            16384  1 r8169
rapl                   16384  0
pcspkr                 16384  0
k10temp                16384  0
rfkill                 32768  7 cfg80211
libphy                163840  3 r8169,mdio_devres,realtek
soundcore              16384  1 snd
i2c_piix4              36864  0
rng_core               16384  1 ccp
parport                81920  2 parport_pc,ppdev
mac_hid                16384  0
gpio_amdpt             20480  0
pinctrl_amd            32768  0
gpio_generic           20480  1 gpio_amdpt
wmi                    45056  1 wmi_bmof
acpi_cpufreq           32768  0
squashfs               77824  26
loop                   40960  52
fuse                  176128  9
crypto_user            24576  0
ip_tables              36864  1 iptable_filter
x_tables               57344  4 ip6table_filter,iptable_filter,ip6_tables,ip_tables
ext4                 1011712  1
crc32c_generic         16384  0
crc16                  16384  1 ext4
mbcache                16384  1 ext4
jbd2                  192512  1 ext4
crc32c_intel           24576  2
xhci_pci               20480  0

The list shows 88x2bu, which per that Github article seems to be the the correct driver.

The issue persists. Should I try upgrading to the 5.18 kernel, or …?

4

Remove the old outdated kernel.

5

I now removed the two old kernels I had lurking around, v’s 5.4 and 5.10 (I’m not sure why it was coming up with 5.9 from somewhere, as it wasn’t even on the list in Manjaro Settings Manager.)

There appears to be some progress; now when I plug in the USB device it says that the wireless is not connected, and it cannot detect any wireless networks in range. There is a working wireless network in range, of course, as the other installed card is currently connected to my network.

Now what should I do? I appreciate this help, fwiw.