Nighthawk AC1900 Wi-Fi USB Adapter issue (0846:9054 NetGear) on 18.04

Question

I'm running a 18.04 server and recently my Netgear AC1900 wifi card stopped working. I'm not quite sure what happened, but after digging through things, there's something going on with the driver.

I have tried removing and reinstalling the driver several times but it's still giving me trouble. Here's where I am:

I've tried installing this driver (https://github.com/zebulon2/rtl8814au.git) through dkms. When the add and build go fine, but when I go to install, it says there's a newer version already installed: "WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!"

It's showing up as 0846:9054 NetGear from lusb, but nothing when from ifconig.

I'm sure I just need to properly remove whatever older driver is in there, then reinstall but I'm not sure how to do that. I've been searching posts/online to no avail.

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

---

update: dkms status output:

ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-39-generic, x86_64: installed
ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-42-generic, x86_64: installed
ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-43-generic, x86_64: installed
realtek-rtl188xxau, 5.2.20.2~20190128: added
rtl8814au, 4.3.21, 4.15.0-43-generic, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)

lshw -C network output:

*-network
   description: Ethernet interface
   product: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
   vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
   logical name: enp4s0
   version: 01
   serial: 00:1d:7d:d9:5f:24
   size: 10Mbit/s
   capacity: 1Gbit/s
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
   configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=half latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=MII speed=10Mbit/s
   resources: irq:24 ioport:d000(size=256) memory:fa000000-fa000fff memory:f9000000-f901ffff



*-network
       description: Wireless interface
       physical id: 1
       bus info: usb@2:1
       logical name: wlx00026f79d295
       serial: 00:02:6f:79:d2:95
       capabilities: ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rt2800usb driverversion=4.15.0-43-generic firmware=0.36 ip=192.168.0.182 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11

Update 2:

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel. Skipping…

Building module:
Cleaning build area
‘make’ KVER=4.1.5.0.43-generic KSCR= /lib/modules//build... (bad exit status: 2)
ERROR: (dkms apart): binary package for rtl8814au: 4.3.21 not found
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 4.1.5.0-43-generic (x86_64)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/rtl8814au/4.3.21/build/make.log for more information 

Build log:

    DKMS make.log for rtl8814au-4.3.21 for kernel 4.15.0-43-generic (x86_64)
Fri Feb  1 11:17:08 PST 2019
make ARCH=x86_64 CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules//build M=/var/lib/dkms/rtl8814au/4.3.21/build  modules
make[1]: *** /lib/modules//build: No such file or directory.  Stop.
Makefile:1699: recipe for target 'modules' failed
make: *** [modules] Error 2

dkms.conf:

MAKE="'make' KVER=${kernelver}"
CLEAN="'make' clean"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME="8814au"
BUILT_MODULE_LOCATION=.
PACKAGE_NAME=rtl8814au
PACKAGE_VERSION=4.3.21
REMAKE_INITRD=yes
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION="/updates/dkms"
AUTOINSTALL=yes

Update 3: dkms status output

ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-39-generic, x86_64: installed
ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-42-generic, x86_64: installed
ndiswrapper, 1.60, 4.15.0-43-generic, x86_64: installed
realtek-rtl88xxau, 5.2.20.2~20190128: added
rtl8814au, 4.3.21, 4.15.0-43-generic, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)

ls -al output:

total 2916
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    4096 Jan 30 11:58 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    4096 Dec 20 06:45 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2496480 Dec 20 06:48 8814au.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  475488 Dec 20 06:45 ndiswrapper.ko

modinfo 8814au | grep ver output:

version:        v4.3.21_17997.20160531
description:    Realtek Wireless Lan Driver
srcversion:     116E23DCCBE75715C266328
vermagic:       4.15.0-39-generic SMP mod_unload 
parm:           rtw_chip_version:int

/var/lib/dkms/rtl.... modinfo ./8814au.ko | grep ver output:

version:        v4.3.21_17997.20160531
description:    Realtek Wireless Lan Driver
srcversion:     086375719088E1DFA1D1B6E
vermagic:       4.15.0-43-generic SMP mod_unload 
parm:           rtw_chip_version:int

Answer 1

In terminal...

modinfo 8814au | grep ver # check the installed module

and look at the vermagic number. It should match your current kernel version.

---

Now...

cd /var/lib/dkms/rtl8814au/kernel-4.18.0-13-generic-x86_64/module

only change the kernel-4.18.0-13-generic-x86_64 part to match what's on your system.

Then do...

modinfo ./8814au.ko | grep ver # check the built module

again, check the vermagic number, and it probably doesn't match your current kernel, and/or the vermagic from the installed module (from above).

---

Then...

cd /usr/src/rtl8814au-4.3.21 # change the exact directory path to match what you have

sudo pico dkms.conf # edit this file

and alter/replace the MAKE line to look like this...

MAKE="'make' KVER=${kernelver} KSRC=/lib/modules/${kernelver}/build"

MAKE="'make' KVER=${kernelver}"

---

Then do your dkms build... command again, and recheck the vermagic value, and if it looks good, then do the dkms install... command.

dkms status # check the status of the dkms modules

It should show something similar to this...

rtl8814au, 4.3.21, 4.18.0-13-generic, x86_64: installed

---

If for some reason that doesn't fix your problem, we'll have to add a few steps to the process.

Update #1:

We'll have to do this the long way... and it may fight us a little bit... but here goes...

In terminal...

cd # home directory

sudo dkms remove rtl8814au/4.3.21 --all # remove installed drivers

dkms status # should NOT show any rtl8814au drivers

modinfo 8814au # should show nothing

Make sure that the mod to /usr/src/rtl8814au-4.3.21/dkms.conf is done.

sudo dkms add rtl8814au/4.3.21 # re-add driver to /var/lib/dkms

sudo dkms build rtl8814au/4.3.21 # build the driver again

Check the vermagic value, and it should show 4.15.0-43-generic

sudo dkms install rtl8814au/4.3.21 # reinstall driver

dkms status # should show as installed

sudo lshw -C network # show me the updated info

cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml # show me the .yaml file

Update #2:

The dkms remove command didn't fully do its job, and there was an old 8814au driver from Dec 20, and vermagic 4.15.0-39-generic, sitting in /lib/modules/4.15.0-43-generic/updates/dkms/8814au.ko that was tripping things up. We deleted it, and then we could dkms build/install/status.