thanks for the answer :)
I just tried to remove and insert the wifi adapter, and now the dmesg has a message about loading a driver :)
[ 503.972087] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 6 using ehci-pci
[ 504.050778] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=1a2b, bcdDevice= 2.00
[ 504.050785] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 504.050786] usb 1-1.1: Product: DISK
[ 504.050788] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Realtek
[ 504.051140] usb-storage 1-1.1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 504.051798] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.1:1.0
[ 504.824569] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 6
[ 504.996877] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci
[ 505.075654] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=c811, bcdDevice= 2.00
[ 505.075666] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 505.075670] usb 1-1.1: Product: 802.11ac NIC
[ 505.075672] usb 1-1.1: Manufacturer: Realtek
[ 505.075675] usb 1-1.1: SerialNumber: 123456
[ 505.078252] rtw_8821cu 1-1.1:1.0: Firmware version 24.8.0, H2C version 12
[ 505.474619] rtw_8821cu 1-1.1:1.0 wlxa0d7683022a3: renamed from wlan0
for some reason, it loads the old driver still. rtw_8821cu instead of rtw_8821au. I'm a tad confused, but I'm happy it's working :)
thanks a lot for the help :)
that's a good idea - it certainly would have saved me from a lot of work :)