Supported distributions

We try to support as many Linux distributions as possible. But there are so many that it’s impossible to test all of them. Also, some do not provide the required kernel headers and build tools, or target exotic hardware that we don’t have access to.

The following table lists some of the the distributions where we have successfully tested our installation process. The meaning of the remarks column is:

• apt: our driver repository is added to your sources and you won’t have to re-run our installer unless you reinstall your OS from scratch
• apt-rpm, dnf, pacman, ppm, swupd, yum, xbps, zypper: no driver repository; you’ll have to re-run our installer manually after major kernel version updates (e.g. from 5.8 to 5.11)
• eopkg, pkgtool: no dkms; you’ll have to re-run our installer manually after even minor kernel version updates (e.g. from 5.10.1 to 5.10.2)

Notes

📝 Note that if you are not satisfied with the level of support that we are able to offer for your distribution, you may return the adapter back to Amazon for a refund, as it comes with a 2 year warranty.

1. AntiX Linux has a broken pkexec, so our installation command should use sudo instead:

    sh -c 'wget deb.trendtechcn.com/install -O /tmp/install && sudo sh /tmp/install'
   

2. CentOS and RHEL backport some new features to older kernels, confusing the Realtek driver. Currently the driver can only work by installing the kernel-lt and kernel-lt-devel packages, which upgrade to the 5.4 long term support kernel (or the -ml ones which upgrade to the mainline 5.11 kernel). Additionally, dkms isn’t included in their stock repositories. Our driver can work without it, but it’s best if you make it available.

    # Add the repository for dkms
    sudo rpm -ivh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
    # Add the repository for the -lt kernels
    sudo rpm -ivh https://www.elrepo.org/elrepo-release-8.el8.elrepo.noarch.rpm
    # Install the -lt kernels
    sudo dnf install -y --enablerepo=elrepo-kernel kernel-lt kernel-lt-devel
    # Then reboot, then run our installer
   

3. Manjaro Linux shows a prompt about which kernel headers to install; please select the matching one, for example if your kernel is 5.10 then choose the linux510-headers package.

4. Slackware doesn’t include dkms in its stock repositories; if you’re frequently changing kernels, you can optionally install it

See also the unsupported distributions list.