Troublesome Installation of Realtek WiFi Driver

I recently installed Kubuntu 20.04 on my desktop PC and encountered difficulties in setting up my Realtek WiFi driver. The process was more complicated than expected, especially since I didn't have an Ethernet connection available.

Once I connected my Ethernet cable, Windows automatically recognized it as a network interface, thinking the other end of the Ethernet cable is the router/modem. However, when I attempted to enable 'Network Sharing' in the Windows Settings app, it didn't work.

My next attempt was to use Window Laptop's Network Sharing, but that also failed. After some research, I discovered that I needed to install ipheth-utils, which allowed Ubuntu to detect the device as a wired connection. However, this solution did not provide internet access.

Without WiFi or Bluetooth capabilities on my Ubuntu PC, my only option was to connect my iPhone to the PC using USB and use its Personal Hotspot feature. Unfortunately, my newly installed Ubuntu didn't have the necessary tools like gcc and make, which were required for installing the Realtek driver.

I tried downloading the RTL8811CU chipset from Realtek's website on my MacBook, copying it to a USB flash drive, ejecting it, plugging it into my Linux desktop, and attempting to install it. However, this approach was counter-productive since I needed an internet connection in the first place.

After researching online forums and articles, including those on Stack Exchange and Ubuntu forums, I realized that the 'proper' way to install essential drivers like the Realtek WiFi driver is to have an existing internet connection and use apt install to install more packages. This solution was not applicable to my situation since I didn't have an internet connection.

To resolve this issue, I decided to purchase a cheap USB WiFi adapter from Amazon. Unfortunately, my PC motherboard (Gigabyte Z370) does not have built-in wireless or Bluetooth capabilities, making the process even more challenging.

In the next section, I will detail the exact steps I took to get internet working on my Ubuntu PC using the Realtek WiFi driver.

Realtek wifi driver