I'm using an RTL8812BU wifi adapter which is behaving suspiciously.
When signal strengths and throughput deteriorate the USB subsystem,
including the keyboard and pointing device, become unreliable.

This is on an old RPi2B, so armv7.

Is there a way to search for and install updates relevant to that
specific device? It's already known that a general update will break
support for a needed peripheral, an Owon USB oscilloscope. It's
necessary to be at least somewhat choosy

From what I can tell the RTL8812BU isn't very widely supported,
FreeBSD doesn't even try. I'm hopeful RasPiOS does somewhat better.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:51:15 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

Is there a way to search for and install updates relevant to that
specific device? It's already known that a general update will break
support for a needed peripheral, an Owon USB oscilloscope. It's
necessary to be at least somewhat choosy

What exactly are these ?updates?? Kernel modules? Userland drivers?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> wrote:

On 11/01/2026 14:51, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

I'm using an RTL8812BU wifi adapter which is behaving suspiciously.
When signal strengths and throughput deteriorate the USB subsystem,
including the keyboard and pointing device, become unreliable.

This is on an old RPi2B, so armv7.

Is there a way to search for and install updates relevant to that
specific device? It's already known that a general update will break
support for a needed peripheral, an Owon USB oscilloscope. It's
necessary to be at least somewhat choosy

From what I can tell the RTL8812BU isn't very widely supported,
FreeBSD doesn't even try. I'm hopeful RasPiOS does somewhat better.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Unless you are after the intellectual satisfaction of solving the
problem, don't waste valuable minutes you will never get back, just buy something that is better supported and works well.

What do you suggest?

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 11/01/2026 14:51, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

I'm using an RTL8812BU wifi adapter which is behaving suspiciously.
When signal strengths and throughput deteriorate the USB subsystem,
including the keyboard and pointing device, become unreliable.

This is on an old RPi2B, so armv7.

Is there a way to search for and install updates relevant to that
specific device? It's already known that a general update will break
support for a needed peripheral, an Owon USB oscilloscope. It's
necessary to be at least somewhat choosy

From what I can tell the RTL8812BU isn't very widely supported,
FreeBSD doesn't even try. I'm hopeful RasPiOS does somewhat better.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

Unless you are after the intellectual satisfaction of solving the
problem, don't waste valuable minutes you will never get back, just buy something that is better supported and works well.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Lawrence D?Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:51:15 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

Is there a way to search for and install updates relevant to that
specific device? It's already known that a general update will break
support for a needed peripheral, an Owon USB oscilloscope. It's
necessary to be at least somewhat choosy

What exactly are these ?updates?? Kernel modules? Userland drivers?

Probably kernel modules. Right now lsusb identifies the wifi device as
Bus 001 Device 040: ID 2357:012d TP-Link Archer T3U [Realtek RTL8812BU]

Running dmesg through grep wlan0 finds
[1549933.629235] rtw_8822bu 1-1.5.2:1.0 wlan0: disabling HT/VHT/HE as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP

The wifi dongle works but not well. When the wireless connection gets
dodgy the entire USB system, including keyboard and trackpad, slow to
the point that the machine can't be controlled and must be power-cycled.

If I try
bob@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt search rtw_8822bu
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done

nothing is found, not even the existing driver.

Am I looking with the wrong tool?

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

Check if you have rtw88 drivers already installed:
cd /lib/modules
find -name 'rtw88*'

If so, maybe you just need to blacklist the rtw_8822bu driver to
use them? Unless the rtw88 driver is used already and it wrongly
logs as "rtw_8822bu", in which case the "modinfo rtw_8822bu"
command will fail, and look at the output of "lsmod" to see
exactly which "rtw" module/s are being used.

Also make sure you have the package "firmware-realtek" installed
and up to date.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Probably kernel modules. Right now lsusb identifies the wifi device as
Bus 001 Device 040: ID 2357:012d TP-Link Archer T3U [Realtek RTL8812BU]

Running dmesg through grep wlan0 finds
[1549933.629235] rtw_8822bu 1-1.5.2:1.0 wlan0: disabling HT/VHT/HE as WMM/QoS is not supported by the AP

The wifi dongle works but not well. When the wireless connection gets
dodgy the entire USB system, including keyboard and trackpad, slow to
the point that the machine can't be controlled and must be power-cycled.

If I try
bob@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt search rtw_8822bu
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done

nothing is found, not even the existing driver.

Am I looking with the wrong tool?

"modinfo rtw_8822bu" will give you some info on the driver, though
no direct info on how it was installed. On Debian (not RPiOS) I see
there are similar modules starting with "rtw88_" installed with the
base, but no "rtw_8822bu.ko". rtw88 apparantly supports your
TP-Link Archer T3U RTL8812BU device:

https://deepwiki.com/lwfinger/rtw88/1.1-supported-hardware

Check if you have rtw88 drivers already installed:
cd /lib/modules
find -name 'rtw88*'

If so, maybe you just need to blacklist the rtw_8822bu driver to
use them? Unless the rtw88 driver is used already and it wrongly
logs as "rtw_8822bu", in which case the "modinfo rtw_8822bu"
command will fail, and look at the output of "lsmod" to see
exactly which "rtw" module/s are being used.

--
__ __
#_ < |\| |< _#

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

bp@www.zefox.net writes:

The wifi dongle works but not well. When the wireless connection gets
dodgy the entire USB system, including keyboard and trackpad, slow to
the point that the machine can't be controlled and must be power-cycled.

Could that be more of a power issue? Dongle draws more power and your
PSU can't keep up? I remember the early Pis had some questionable design
WRT power, basically you'd want your PSU to be able to provide something
like 5.2 volts.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

bp@www.zefox.net writes:

The wifi dongle works but not well. When the wireless connection gets
dodgy the entire USB system, including keyboard and trackpad, slow to
the point that the machine can't be controlled and must be power-cycled.

Could that be more of a power issue? Dongle draws more power and your
PSU can't keep up? I remember the early Pis had some questionable design
WRT power, basically you'd want your PSU to be able to provide something
like 5.2 volts.

From what I gather the 5.2 volt requirement applies to Pi5 with
internal WiFi. This is a Pi2B with no internal WiFi.

The dongle is on a powered hub (part of a Dell monitor with a built-in
hub). The hub is putting out 5.12 volts with the WiFi dongle active.
The WiFi dongle is on a short USB-A extension cable to allow positioning
for best reception, which varies wildly over a few inches.

There's a fairly clear correlation between WiFi signal quality declining
and the keyboar/trackpad becoming unresponsive. It tends to happen in the evening and I'm guessing it's interference with neighbor's access points,
which are abundant.

It does appear that the firmware-realtek package can be upgraded, but trying sudo apt upgrade realtek-firmware
reported that upgrade does not take arguments.

It appears that I need to use
sudo apt install --only-upgrade firmware-realtek
but I haven't tried it yet. Can anybody confirm this is the correct command? I'd rather not alter anything else right now.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:13:35 -0000 (UTC), bp wrote:

There's a fairly clear correlation between WiFi signal quality
declining and the keyboar/trackpad becoming unresponsive. It tends
to happen in the evening and I'm guessing it's interference with
neighbor's access points, which are abundant.

The obvious way to narrow this down would be to try a wired keyboard
and mouse, as alternatives to your wireless ones.

Alway try to reduce the number of variables involved.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)