We are told to install gcc, but it's installed by default in Linux Mint, and, I suspect, most distributions.

The instructions tell us to make clean, so I executed it in the same directory as the driver. As you can see, it had three errors, all trying to cd to a non-existent directory. Maybe I can ignore those errors.

In the make, it is stated "please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel." I installed the first and ran it again, but the errors remained the same: there is no hal_ic_cfg.h in include, so it's game over. Clearly no one at TP-Link actually tested these instructions.

If someone knows how to successfully compile it, please let me know. This was my first TP-Link product and it will be my last unless I can get it to work.

mysystem ~/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver $ ls
clean  hal        include  Makefile  wlan0dhcp
core   ifcfg-wlan0  Kconfig  runwpa    wpa_0_8.conf
mysystem ~/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver $ make clean
cd hal/phydm/ ; rm -fr */*.mod.c */*.mod */*.o */.*.cmd */*.ko
cd hal/phydm/ ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
cd hal/led ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
cd hal ; rm -fr */*/*.mod.c */*/*.mod */*/*.o */*/.*.cmd */*/*.ko
cd hal ; rm -fr */*.mod.c */*.mod */*.o */.*.cmd */*.ko
cd hal ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
cd core/efuse ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
cd core ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
cd os_dep/linux ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
/bin/sh: 1: cd: can't cd to os_dep/linux
cd os_dep ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
/bin/sh: 1: cd: can't cd to os_dep
cd platform ; rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko
/bin/sh: 1: cd: can't cd to platform
rm -fr Module.symvers ; rm -fr Module.markers ; rm -fr modules.order
rm -fr *.mod.c *.mod *.o .*.cmd *.ko *~
rm -fr .tmp_versions
mysystem ~/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver $ make
make ARCH=x86_64 CROSS_COMPILE= -C /lib/modules/4.15.0-48-generic/build M=/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver  modules
make[1]: Entering directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.15.0-48-generic'
Makefile:976: "Cannot use CONFIG_STACK_VALIDATION=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel"
  CC [M]  /home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/core/rtw_cmd.o
In file included from /home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/include/drv_types.h:30:0,
                 from /home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/core/rtw_cmd.c:22:
/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/include/drv_conf.h:23:24: fatal error: hal_ic_cfg.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
scripts/Makefile.build:330: recipe for target '/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/core/rtw_cmd.o' failed
make[2]: *** [/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver/core/rtw_cmd.o] Error 1
Makefile:1552: recipe for target '_module_/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver' failed
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/me/Downloads/archerT9UH/linux-driver] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.15.0-48-generic'
Makefile:1699: recipe for target 'modules' failed
make: *** [modules] Error 2