MT7610U Driver Guide (AWUS036ACHM)

一句話定位（One-liner）: The MediaTek MT7610U is the 1T1R (one stream) dual-band chipset inside the AWUS036ACHM — a budget-friendly AC433 adapter whose mt76x0u driver is in the Linux kernel since 4.19. Like its big brother the MT7612U, it is plug-and-play on any modern Linux.

Concept: the "little brother" chipset

Where the MT7612U is a 2×2 radio, the MT7610U is a 1×1 — one spatial stream, so 433 Mbps max on 5 GHz instead of 867. That is exactly the AC433 spec of the AWUS036ACHM. What you lose in speed you gain in simplicity and price: it is the cheapest ALFA adapter that still gives you in-kernel driver + dual-band + working monitor mode.

The driver lives in the same mainline mt76 family (drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt76x0/), so the experience is identical to the MT7612U:

• Plug in → interface appears. No installation.
• No DKMS → nothing to maintain across kernel updates.
• Monitor mode + injection via standard mac80211 tooling.

Prerequisites

• Linux with kernel 4.19 or newer
• sudo access
• AWUS036ACHM (or any MT7610U dongle)

Step 1: Verify the driver

lsusb | grep -i mediatek
lsmod | grep mt76x0

Expected output:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0e8d:7610 MediaTek Inc. MT7610U
mt76x0u                20480  0
mt76x02_common         49152  2 mt76x0u
mt76                   94208  2 mt76x0u,mt76x02_common

If lsmod is empty but lsusb sees the device: sudo modprobe mt76x0u.

Step 2: Confirm the interface

iw dev

Expected output:

phy#0
	Interface wlan0
		ifindex 3
		addr 00:c0:ca:xx:xx:xx
		type managed

Step 3: Connect

nmcli device wifi connect "MySSID" password "my-passphrase"

Expected output: Device 'wlan0' successfully activated with 'MySSID'.

Expect roughly half the throughput of an AWUS036ACM at the same distance — that is the 1×1 radio. For class exercises, note-taking, and light captures it is completely fine.

Step 4: Monitor mode

sudo ip link set wlan0 down
sudo iw wlan0 set monitor none
sudo ip link set wlan0 up
iw dev

Expected output: type monitor. Or use Aircrack-ng's helper:

sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

Injection check:

sudo aireplay-ng --test wlan0mon

Expected output: 30/30: 100% and Injection is working!

Step 5: Back to normal

sudo airmon-ng stop wlan0mon
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Not in lsusb	Power / cable	Different port, powered hub — troubleshooting index
No interface	Driver not loaded	sudo modprobe mt76x0u; check dmesg | grep mt76
Throughput caps at ~150 Mbps on 5 GHz	That is the 1×1 hardware limit	Not a bug — AC433 class means ~300–400 Mbps link, ~150–250 real-world
Monitor mode refused	Kernel < 4.19	Upgrade kernel / OS
Injection test fails	Dead channel / RF zone	sudo iw wlan0mon set channel 6, test near an AP

References

• AWUS036ACHM product page
• Ubuntu setup guide and Kali setup guide
• Compatibility matrix
• Mainline driver source: drivers/net/wireless/mediatek/mt76/mt76x0/ in the Linux kernel tree