Possibly missing device id whitelisting?

[UltraSalem]

Apologies if I am asking too much. My bodgy half-half ubuntu 20.10/Pop_OS! install seems to not want to play nicely with my new wifi dongle, and your drivers have gotten me the furthest so far over a few days of mucking about and swapping wifi dongles over to get onto the internet using my old slow dongle that works, searching up solutions, switching over to the new dongle, reboot, still not working, repeat.

$ uname -r
5.8.0-7630-generic

this is the cheap amazon wifi dongle https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B07YBS7C4R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL88x2bu [AC1200 Techkey]

Serial number is 123456 so I am pretty sure it's a dodgy knock-off of some sort?

Your install works well (much better than the dodgy files included in the url in the amazon listing) and actually goes through cleanly. I can see the driver loaded in lsmod

$ lsmod | grep 88x
88x2bu 3031040 0
cfg80211 782336 1 88x2bu

I've followed the wifi setup hints (set my AP to split 2.4 and 5ghz into different SSIDs, set the channels and widths as recommended). But I am variously getting NetworkManager asking for the password over and over again, or spinning circle endlessly, or a "failed to activate network device" error.

I did get a solid connection briefly before I split my 2.4 and 5ghz wifi, but it was slow and DNS intermittently resolving. Lasted all of 20 seconds or so.

[UltraSalem]

USB wifi dongle

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:b812 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL88x2bu [AC1200 Techkey]
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.10
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0xb812 RTL88x2bu [AC1200 Techkey]
  bcdDevice            2.10
  iManufacturer           1 Realtek
  iProduct                2 USB3.0 802.11ac 1200M Adapter
  iSerial                 3 123456
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0035
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0x80
      (Bus Powered)
    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 USB3.0 802.11ac 1200M Adapter
      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       0x0016
  bNumDeviceCaps          2
  USB 2.0 Extension Device Capability:
    bLength                 7
    bDescriptorType        16
    bDevCapabilityType      2
    bmAttributes   0x00000002
      HIRD Link Power Management (LPM) Supported
  SuperSpeed USB Device Capability:
    bLength                10
    bDescriptorType        16
    bDevCapabilityType      3
    bmAttributes         0x00
    wSpeedsSupported   0x0006
      Device can operate at Full Speed (12Mbps)
      Device can operate at High Speed (480Mbps)
    bFunctionalitySupport   1
      Lowest fully-functional device speed is Full Speed (12Mbps)
    bU1DevExitLat          10 micro seconds
    bU2DevExitLat        1023 micro seconds
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)`

[UltraSalem]

Well I just checked your device ID file and I have the basic standard one so I have no idea what my problem is now. :(

[UltraSalem]

OK so after days mucking about with this dongle..... set your driver to switch from usb2 to usb3 and inserted it in a rear usb3 port (was previously using front usb2 and usb3 ports through various troubleshooting attempts) and it worked so well the wifi even came up before my NFS mounts!