My computer does not recognize the USB adapter as a wifi card, the drivers do not work. I downloaded the 8821uc and 8821au drivers from github, but they did not work.
I am loading drivers as modules, but even then, no wireless interface shows up and iw list gives me an empty output.
(list and nothing shows)

https://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Wirele.../dp/B00CL58JYQ

Hi & Welcome to LQ.

Have a look at these. They work with Linux.

https://www.wirelesshack.org/top-lin...-adapters.html

Likely, the linux kernel supports that adapter, it's just the kernel module is not compiled or configured to load the proper module. 99% of device drivers are coded in the kernel as modules which you can download from www.kernel.org. Linux isn't like windows where you simply install device drivers.

lsusb will tell you whether or not linux even sees the device. This guy: https://unix.stackexchange.com/quest...t-not-iwconfig has an interesting work around, if you're brave. Try it at your own risk.

hi
x86 version , beta driver from realtek (it worked for me) https://dtrack.dlink.com.tw/file/cas...116171507).zip
i386 version, ftp://ftp2.dlink.com/PRODUCTS/DWA-17...11CU_LINUX.zip
br
A.

A DWA-171 revC became available in 2018, and is marked as such on the dongle label. The revA is a straightforward wifi dongle -- with the correct Linux driver installed, plug in the dongle and you're off to the races. But the revC first enumerates as USB Storage, and as such contains a Setup.exe to install Windows drivers.

I believe (test to follow) that once installed on Windows, that driver rewrites the 171 USB firmware so that it will enumerate as a network device in the future. I do not yet know if there is a way to do this without involving the Windows driver, exclusively from Linux.

[Edit]: Even after Windows installation and functional test of the dongle, it continues to appear as USB Storage when plugged into a different PC. At this point I don't know how a revC would be used with Linux.

[Edit #2]: OKAY! I'm finally up to speed: usb-modeswitch