aic8800d80/INSTALL_ARCH.md

Arch Linux / CachyOS install notes

Notes for installing the AIC8800D80 driver on Arch-based distributions, where the install.sh helper (written for Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora and derivatives) is not the most convenient path or cannot manage DKMS rebuilds for rolling kernels.

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.

Tested on

• 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.

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 each installed kernel:

sudo pacman -S --needed dkms base-devel
yay -S --needed aic8800d80-dkms

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

The mode-switch config file is not shipped by the AUR package

aic.rules runs usb_modeswitch -c /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111, but that config file must exist or the switch is a no-op. Copy it from the repository (note the colon in the filename on Linux):

sudo cp usb_modeswitch/1111_1111 "/etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111"
sudo udevadm control --reload

Without this file the adapter stays in CD mode (1111:1111) and no interface appears.

Refresh the module index

The DKMS modules land in updates/dkms/, which the kernel only finds after depmod. If modprobe aic8800_fdrv reports Module not found right after installation:

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

Option B: manual install from this repository

git clone https://github.com/shenmintao/aic8800d80.git
cd aic8800d80

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

sudo cp aic.rules /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/
sudo cp -r ./fw/aic8800* /lib/firmware/
sudo cp usb_modeswitch/1111_1111 "/etc/usb_modeswitch.d/1111:1111"
sudo udevadm control --reload

cd drivers/aic8800
make
sudo make install
sudo depmod -a "$(uname -r)"
sudo modprobe aic8800_fdrv

The manual path has no DKMS: after every kernel update you must rerun make clean && make && sudo make install. Prefer Option A 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 → wlanX.

Connecting and route priority (NetworkManager)

The adapter shows up as a second wireless interface (for example wlan1, next to an onboard wlan0):

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"

Note: on some NetworkManager versions the effective DHCP route metric ends up offset (observed 300 → 20300), which still leaves the onboard radio preferred. If that happens, disable autoconnect on the onboard profile so the adapter owns the default route:

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

Verification

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

A successful bring-up shows HE supp 1 in the driver log (802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6) and a new wlanX interface.

Notes

• The onboard-vs-adapter interface names are not fixed; confirm with iw dev.
• As with other Pandora clones, usb_modeswitch -K/-J and eject do not perform the switch — only the vendor F3+F2 CDBs do.