3

We have Verizon FiOS, and are slated to get 75/75, according to our plan. I understand that we may not always get these numbers, but between Windows and Xubuntu there is a huge discrepancy.

Also, FWIW, when I log into Xubuntu, the Wifi connects, but does not work initially. I need to disconnect the Wifi then reconnect for it to actually work. And when I do this, I get error popups saying there was a system issue, and whether I'd like to report. (Presumably about the network manager stalling.)

UPDATED Snapshot of my wireless-info

Speedtest.net results

Output from sudo lspci

03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8821AE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0c)

More updates

  • Another FWIW, I've ran apt-get update a few times throughout today. Each time, only 1000+ kb were downloaded in 1.5 minutes.
  • tx power set to max (20), no power save, kernel 4.2
  • At this point, my workflow is being affected. I tried to upload a 2.1 MB PNG file to a Github issue comment, but it failed after 3 minutes of waiting. During this time, I could not visit other webpages -- they stalled.

2 Answers2

4

After a couple weeks of research, I've found that my wireless card is simply not supported. There are plenty of other questions on AskUbuntu about the RTL8821AE card, or even just RealTek.

Here is what I found did not help:

  • No difference: Disabling BlueTooth or IPv6
  • No difference: Using the unofficial drivers from Github
  • Unavailable: official drivers from RealTek for RTL88xx series

Since this was disrupting my workflow far too much, I decided to purchase the following item. I like this option, because I can utilize dual-band wifi (see stats in question).

NETGEAR Universal N600 Dual Band Wi-Fi to Ethernet Adapter

While I did not try them, other options include:

  • Use a USB Wifi Adapter (best for laptops or micro PCs)
  • Install a new wireless card (best for the regular desktop)

As mentioned in the question, I was getting poor speeds on Ubuntu, compared to Windows. Now, on the 5.0 GHz network (through adapter), I get 80/80 on both Windows, Ubuntu 15.10, and Ubuntu 16.04.

-1

Debian supports your driver but the firmware is non-free. (I know this is Ubuntu, but it's built on Debian and can use its packages.)

Execute the following:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the file:

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

Install the Debain package firmware:

sudo apt-get update && apt-get install firmware-realtek

UPDATE: Let me know if this works.

Make a temp directory (TARGET_DIR) for now-uncompiled package:

dpkg-deb -x linux-firmware_1.149.3_all.deb TARGET_DIR

Edit the Debian/control file. The most important part of any source package, it holds the dependencies.

dpkg-deb --control linux-firmware_1.149.3_all.deb TARGET_DIR/DEBIAN

Edit the depends field, and add firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb. Then save your changes and repack

nano TEMP_DIR/DEBIAN/control

Install package:

dpkg -b TEMP_DIR newdriver.deb
sudo dpkg -i newdriver.deb

Install firmware-realtek

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
nebulon
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