aic8800d80/INSTALL_ARCH.md

Arch Linux / CachyOS install notes

Notes for installing the AIC8800D80 driver on Arch-based distributions. The repository's quick installer already supports pacman and DKMS, including automatic rebuilds for kernel updates. This page also covers the AUR package, manual installation, and device setup.

Choose the hardware branch described in the README first. Adapters reporting chip_mcu_id=1 need the matched legacy-mcu1 driver and firmware. The AUR package inspected for these notes tracks main; use the repository installer or manual method from legacy-mcu1 for MCU1 hardware.

Tested device

• Lukton DQ-211 — USB Wi-Fi 6 adapter, AICSEMI AIC8800D80 chipset.
• Ships in CD mode as 1111:1111 (Pandora International Ltd. 88M80, bcdDevice=10.01, SCSI model LGX WIFI6, manufacturer AIC).
• The bundled virtual CD contains only Wifi Driver install.exe (a NSIS Windows installer); the vendor provides no Linux driver.
• After the Pandora F3+F2 mode switch it re-enumerates as a69c:8d80 aicsemi AIC Wlan.

Contributor-reported testing

• CachyOS, kernel 7.2.0-1-cachyos and 6.18.42-1-cachyos-lts.
• Wi-Fi 6 (HE) association and traffic confirmed; Bluetooth bound to btusb.

These results describe one Lukton DQ-211 unit, not all adapters sold as 88M80.

Prerequisites

Update the system before installing build dependencies. Reboot first if the update replaces the running kernel, so its matching headers are available:

sudo pacman -Syu

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel dkms git usb_modeswitch usbutils iw

Install headers for each kernel that should receive a DKMS build. Examples:

Kernel package	Header package
linux	linux-headers
linux-lts	linux-lts-headers
linux-cachyos	linux-cachyos-headers

For example, on the standard Arch linux kernel:

sudo pacman -S --needed linux-headers

Choose the corresponding package for other CachyOS or custom kernels; installing linux-headers alone does not provide headers for those kernels. See the Arch DKMS instructions. Confirm the running kernel has a build tree before continuing:

uname -r
test -r "/usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/Makefile"

If the check fails, install the matching headers or reboot into the kernel whose headers are installed. Use one installation method below to keep package ownership and DKMS registration consistent.

Option A: AUR package (recommended on Arch)

The aic8800d80-dkms package in the AUR packages this driver and its firmware with DKMS, rebuilding automatically for installed kernels with matching headers. With an already installed AUR helper such as yay, run as your normal user:

yay -S --needed aic8800d80-dkms

The package installs the firmware under /lib/firmware/aic8800D80/ and installs aic.rules to /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/.

Check the mode-switch config file

aic.rules runs usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111, but that config file must exist or the switch fails. The inspected AUR package (pkgrel=6, 2026-10-19) does not install it. If the file is missing, obtain it from the repository (note the colon in the destination filename):

git clone https://github.com/shenmintao/aic8800d80.git
cd aic8800d80
sudo install -Dm644 usb_modeswitch/1111_1111 "/etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111"
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Unplug and reconnect the adapter after installing the file. Without it, this rule cannot switch the reported unit out of CD mode (1111:1111).

Refresh the module index

DKMS normally refreshes the module index during installation. If modprobe aic8800_fdrv reports Module not found, first check that DKMS reports the module as installed for the running kernel:

dkms status
uname -r

If that kernel has no installed module, resolve its headers/build failure; depmod does not build missing modules. If the module is already installed, refresh the index and retry:

sudo depmod -a "$(uname -r)"
sudo modprobe aic8800_fdrv

Option B: manual install from this repository

After the prerequisites above, build first. For MCU1 hardware, replace --branch main with --branch legacy-mcu1 in the clone command:

git clone --branch main https://github.com/shenmintao/aic8800d80.git
cd aic8800d80
make -C drivers/aic8800

Only after the build succeeds, install from the same repository directory:

# remove any previous AIC firmware first — a mismatched version can freeze the system
sudo rm -rf /lib/firmware/aic8800*

sudo cp -r ./fw/aic8800* /lib/firmware/
sudo install -Dm644 aic.rules /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/aic.rules
sudo install -Dm644 usb_modeswitch/1111_1111 "/etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111"
sudo make -C drivers/aic8800 install
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo modprobe aic8800_fdrv

Unplug and reconnect the adapter. The manual path has no DKMS: after kernel updates, install matching headers and rerun these commands from the repository:

make -C drivers/aic8800 clean
make -C drivers/aic8800
sudo make -C drivers/aic8800 install

The install target runs depmod itself. Prefer a DKMS method for automatic rebuilds on rolling-release distributions.

Why the driver loads automatically after the switch

aic_load_fw carries the USB alias usb:vA69Cp8D80d*, so once the adapter re-enumerates as a69c:8d80 the kernel loads the driver on its own — no modules-load.d entry is needed. The full plug sequence is:

1111:1111 → aic.rules → usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111 → a69c:8d80 → kernel autoloads aic_load_fw → firmware upload → operational USB identity → aic8800_fdrv → wireless interface.

a69c:8d80 is the firmware-loader identity; reaching it alone does not mean Wi-Fi initialization succeeded.

Connecting and route priority (NetworkManager)

The following commands assume NetworkManager is installed and managing Wi-Fi. Find the adapter's interface name first (wlan1 is only an example):

nmcli device status
nmcli device wifi connect "<SSID>" ifname wlan1 password "<PSK>"

To prefer the adapter over the onboard radio, give it a lower route metric:

sudo nmcli con mod "<SSID> 1" ipv4.route-metric 300 ipv6.route-metric 300
sudo nmcli con up "<SSID> 1"

NetworkManager can add a 20000 route-metric penalty when an interface fails its global connectivity check, which can explain an observed 300 → 20300. Check connectivity before treating this as a driver or metric-setting failure; see the NetworkManager connectivity documentation.

nmcli networking connectivity check

If you intentionally want only the adapter's connection active, disable autoconnect on the onboard profile and disconnect it:

sudo nmcli con mod "<onboard-profile>" connection.autoconnect no
sudo nmcli con down "<onboard-profile>"

Verification

lsusb | grep -iE "1111:1111|a69c|368b"
lsmod | grep -E "aic8800_fdrv|aic_load_fw"
iw dev
nmcli device status
ip route show default
sudo dmesg | grep -i aic

The log line HE supp 1 indicates HE capability. Use iw dev <interface> link and actual network traffic to check the active connection.

Notes

• The onboard-vs-adapter interface names are not fixed; confirm with iw dev.
• The reported unit used the vendor F3+F2 sequence. Other adapters sold under similar names can require different switching or firmware profiles; see issue #79.