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Finally! We do have a native Linux driver for 0bda:f179 RTL8189FTV! The only thing is that it needs some expertise to use (and Internet).

The driver is not mainline, so Ubuntu and derivatives do not have it.

The driver is here. Its called rtl8188fu.

Download the entire repository as zip. Then, in the Makefile, add -Wno-error=date-time as an EXTRA_CFLAGS. Basically, add the line:

EXTRA_CFLAGS += -Wno-error=date-time

Then, compile with make. After successful compile, you will get: 8188fu.ko
then (as root) do:

insmod ./8188fu.ko

That's it. It will work now. I have compiled it for 16.04 LTS (4.4.0-138-generic), so the compatibility of the driver is pretty good.

The situation regarding 18.04 is slightly complicated, as the driver hasn't been updated for over an year.

I have made changes to the driver to work with 18.04 4.15.0-38 kernel, and it works.

Output of uname -a:

Linux theoraxpc01-Veriton-Series 4.15.0-38-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 10 10:59:38 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Output of usb-devices (on 18.04):

T: Bus=02 Lev=02 Prnt=02 Port=03 Cnt=01 Dev#= 3 Spd=480 MxCh= 0 
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1 
P: Vendor=0bda ProdID=f179 Rev=00.00 
S: Manufacturer=Realtek 
S: Product=802.11n 
S: SerialNumber=00E0252CB0BF
C: #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA 
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=rtl8188fu 

I have uploaded both the module and the fixed drivers on my Google Drive. The module will work for 4.15.0-38-generic and this is the kernel against which I have compiled the source.

You can install rtl8188fu driver with dkms via this repo (has install instruction).

@Butterly's answer worked for me. But I will write out the steps here to make it clearer for others (copy/pasted from https://github.com/kelebek333/rtl8188fu):

For Kernel 4.15 ~ 4.20 (Linux Mint or Ubuntu Derivatives)

sudo apt-get install build-essential git dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

git clone https://github.com/kelebek333/rtl8188fu

sudo dkms add ./rtl8188fu

sudo dkms build rtl8188fu/1.0

sudo dkms install rtl8188fu/1.0

sudo cp ./rtl8188fu/firmware/rtl8188fufw.bin /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/

After you are done, reinsert the wifi dongle and if you ifconfig, you should now have a new device present.

As of the date of this answer there is no support for the 0bda:f179 Realtek WiFi adapter. You would likely be better off obtaining a natively supported
device.

There's a list of WiFi adapters supported by the kernel here that you might find useful.

There's also a query page where you can check to see if your device has kernel support.

Edit: Realtek PCI ID is 10ec, their USB ID is 0bda so if you find a driver that supports 10ec:f179 that might be worth trying.

If you have a Windows driver for the device you could also try using ndiswrapper.

Finally The Driver installation process for USB DEVICE 802.11 bgn which looks like Realtek Semiconductor when done lsusb uses RTL8188fu drivers and proper installation procedure is found at rtl8188fu linux driver for wireless bgn device.

There is no need to reboot. Thanks a lot

I've tried in my Debian Strech Kernel 4.9.0-6-amd64 and after the build and install from this repo the dongle can find networks, but can't acomplish connections.

So, in order to fix this issue, I've changed Makefile to disable powersaving and enable monitor mode (because i've needed, not sure if this have something to do with the issue) on lines 40 and 61 like that:

$ ./rtl8188fu/Makefile:

CONFIG_POWER_SAVING = n
CONFIG_WIFI_MONITOR = y

Now works fine.

So, for Debian Strech kernel 4.9.0-6-amd64:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install build-essential git dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

git clone https://github.com/kelebek333/rtl8188fu

sudo dkms add ./rtl8188fu
sudo dkms build rtl8188fu/1.0
sudo dkms install rtl8188fu/1.0
sudo modprobe rtl8188fu

I hope can help someone facing this problem.

Thank you!