Newest Realtek Firmware Woes

[paxmark1]

This is going to be go to post for me to deal with Realtek problems.  Others can post here any help sites on Realtek issues for Realtek wifi or bt gear that is not supported by firmware-realtek      Maybe a wiki entry someday

Distro-hopping to find another linux distro to fix Realtek problems is probably not going to work - it will always involve taking Realtek sources and hoping for the best in the terminal to build kernel modules and possibly blacklisting things. And then there is a need for the sources to keep up with kernel develpments. 

Sparky defaults to installing the newest propriertary firmware-realtek put out by Debian.  Info always at   (drop one versions down from sid - Buster till about July 2019)  As you can see, the latest update was performed on Jan 11th, 2019.   
https://packages.debian.org/sid/firmware-realtek
Check there to see if your gear is listed to work.

1.  If you are having problems with Realtek wifi  gear that involves using dkms to build and maintain kernel modules and this is more technical than you are capable of - your first step is to get ethernet cable to plug into a router to get your system up to date and keep it that way.  Your first step even if you are competent.

2.  Your next step if you are not comfortable in command line in a termnal is to get a usb wifi dongle that is not Realtek and that others who use linux say works for them. You will then have internet access.   Realtek is basically evil as far as Free Operating Source Systems go, and that is what Linux and Debian and Sparky is about.  For usage without using the terminal you will have to wait until it is reverse engineered.  The reverse engineering will come to Debian, Ubuntu, Centos. etc., etc., etc. about the same time from upstream.

3.  Others can jump in and help you and and will probably not  require you to post in a technical manner.  I will require close to what is expected on irc forums, but not as much as say #debian-next or others.  I will only answer people who post using inxi, who can copy from a terminal and who can highlight their code. There are youtube videos that can guide you to learn this. 



A.  Once you are connected via ethernet install inxi, via aptus or by command line.  It is as simple as typing "sudo apt install aptus"  in the command line.  In linux - where "blah bleh blue -xf"    the "" means type or paste whatever is in between the "   "  into the terminal and hit enter.

B.  Input "inxi -brx"  into terminal.  Highlight the output.  Copy from terminal via  Ctl-Shift-C   - the extra Shift key is needed for terminals.

C. Hit the # button for the body of the message  Paste (Ctl-v) your input between the xml tags so it is easier to view.

This is a work in process. 

For the rtl8812au  - this is the best site I have found.  Note - he already has support for kernels up to 5.1 
https://github.com/gordboy/rtl8812au

For the rtl8812bu

For the rtl8812eu