Tenda U1 wireless network adapter works during setup, but afterwards I get "Activation of Network Connection failed"

I recently bought a Tenda U1 USB wifi card for my desktop computer.

I choose this one because it supports Linux systems. I am new to Ubuntu and trying to understand things about the OS.

When I initiated the Ubuntu 20.04 setup, I successfully connected to my home WiFi and it start working perfectly fine. But when setup had ended and after the reboot, when I tried to connect to WiFi, the system raised an error:

Activation of Network Connection failed.

After a couple of weeks, I tried rebooting the computer again, and it started working just fine. But the next day, it stopped working and started giving me the same error. So I looked for solutions, and realized I must install the driver from the product's site.

If I have to install the driver, how come the computer established a connection successfully during setup? And why did it start working after I rebooted?

I visited the product's website, and looked for a driver for my adapter. Adapter's Driver Page

I downloaded the file, but since I don't know how to install it properly, I haven't done anything yet. Should I install it? If so, I need an explanation of how to do that.

I looked at Network Manager's logs using the command: journalctl -u NetworkManager

The specific line of error from logs:

Oca 08 17:29:06 Fulcrum-PC NetworkManager[638]: <warn> [1610116146.2406] device (wlx502b73cb05d1): Activation: (wifi) association took too long, failing activation
Oca 08 17:29:06 Fulcrum-PC NetworkManager[638]: <info> [1610116146.2408] device (wlx502b73cb05d1): state change: config -> failed (reason 'ssid-not-found', sys-iface-state: 'managed')
Oca 08 17:29:06 Fulcrum-PC NetworkManager[638]: <info> [1610116146.2422] manager: NetworkManager state is now DISCONNECTED
Oca 08 17:29:06 Fulcrum-PC NetworkManager[638]: <warn> [1610116146.2452] device (wlx502b73cb05d1): Activation: failed for connection 'Gelincik'
Oca 08 17:29:06 Fulcrum-PC NetworkManager[638]: <info> [1610116146.2463] device (wlx502b73cb05d1): state change: failed -> disconnected (reason 'none', sys-iface-state: 'managed')

This is the output of sudo lsusb -v:

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:818b Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8192EU 802.11b/g/n WLAN Adapter
Device Descriptor: bLength 18 bDescriptorType 1 bcdUSB 2.10 bDeviceClass 0 bDeviceSubClass 0 bDeviceProtocol 0 bMaxPacketSize0 64 idVendor 0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp. idProduct 0x818b RTL8192EU 802.11b/g/n WLAN Adapter bcdDevice 2.00 iManufacturer 1 Realtek iProduct 2 802.lnn NIC iSerial 3 00e04c000001 bNumConfigurations 1 Configuration Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 2 wTotalLength 0x0035 bNumInterfaces 1 bConfigurationValue 1 iConfiguration 0 bmAttributes 0xe0 Self Powered Remote Wakeup MaxPower 500mA Interface Descriptor: bLength 9 bDescriptorType 4 bInterfaceNumber 0 bAlternateSetting 0 bNumEndpoints 5 bInterfaceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class bInterfaceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass bInterfaceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol iInterface 2 802.lnn NIC Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x84 EP 4 IN bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x05 EP 5 OUT bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x06 EP 6 OUT bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x87 EP 7 IN bmAttributes 3 Transfer Type Interrupt Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes bInterval 3 Endpoint Descriptor: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 5 bEndpointAddress 0x08 EP 8 OUT bmAttributes 2 Transfer Type Bulk Synch Type None Usage Type Data wMaxPacketSize 0x0200 1x 512 bytes bInterval 0
Binary Object Store Descriptor: bLength 5 bDescriptorType 15 wTotalLength 0x000c bNumDeviceCaps 1 USB 2.0 Extension Device Capability: bLength 7 bDescriptorType 16 bDevCapabilityType 2 bmAttributes 0x00000002 HIRD Link Power Management (LPM) Supported
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status: 0x0001 Self Powered

This is the ifconfig:

enp2s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether e0:cb:4e:d5:ce:a9 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host> loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback) RX packets 507 bytes 65206 (65.2 KB) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 507 bytes 65206 (65.2 KB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0
wlx502b73cb05d1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 192.168.1.23 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 inet6 fe80::90a0:6042:14ed:9ce9 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> ether 50:2b:73:cb:05:d1 txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 51411 bytes 73180912 (73.1 MB) RX errors 0 dropped 93 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 23814 bytes 2234380 (2.2 MB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

Why is network manager failing? Should I set Network Manager's config or install the proper driver for my Wifi adapter? And if it's the driver, how can I properly install the matching driver for my usbWlan card? Thank you.

1 Answer

I had a same problem but in a different manner. Like, when I connected the tenda U1 with my system, it was picking up the wireless connections and showing the available wifi networks. But when I wanted to connect the wifi and give credentials , it was not connecting and giving the result in failure. So, I used these commands and now it's connecting and working fine with the installed driver.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hanipouspilot/rtlwifi
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8192eu-dkms

I found this solution here:Will Ubuntu 16.04 support the rtl8192eu chipset out of the box?

and it's working fine for me now.

Device: Tenda U1 ,,,OS: ubuntu 20.04