How to install drivers for TP-LINK TL-WN722N on 16.04?

Question

I'm new to Ubuntu and I'm trying to make my wi-fi adapter work.

I tried different threads, in the end got the furthest with ¿How to install TP-LINK TL-WN722N on Ubuntu? thread. I see my device correctly with lsusb.

sudo modprobe ath9k_htc

creates no wireless interface, checked with

iwconfig

and there was no wlan0.

dmesg | grep -e wlan -e ath9k

returns this:

[   81.482869] usb 1-3: ath9k_htc: Firmware ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw requested
[   81.482945] usbcore: registered new interface driver ath9k_htc
[   81.768805] usb 1-3: ath9k_htc: Firmware - ath9k_htc/htc_9271-1.4.0.fw download failed
[   81.768956] usb 1-3: ath9k_htc: USB layer deinitialized

I can see that tells me something, but I was unable to find how do I force the firmware reinstall. I tried what was hinted in the thread above:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall linux-firmware

which appears to run smoothly. But nothing changes.

Can I get a hand, please? How do I update the firmware and make the adapter work in the end?

Answer 1

I suggest, as a start, that you update the firmware. From the terminal:

wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_1.161_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux*.deb

Reboot and test.