STA, not AP, right ?
is it ?
dd:ing the x86 image to the storage requires more work than UL:ing the right openwrt image through the stock UI, but yes, it's not very complicated.
we're getting side tracked, feel free to use your hw in whatever way you like, it's a bad idea though, imho.
I tested quite a few MT7612U based devices (you can check previous comments in this thread) and I never see any kind of overheating, not sure why you are worrying about it.
If your WiFi is generally for IoTs only probably it's ok to use USB solution, for home PC/laptop usage normal router/AP is better.
Note that WiFI card is just a general term, most of them on market are designed as "client" so running as AP mode might not get you very good result, AP targeted WiFi card exists like MT7915 but expensive.
dap-x1860, covr-x1860, wsm20 are cheap options that can fill this use case better in every dimension. x86_64 is great, as wired-only router, as server, as client, even via PCIe WLAN in STA/ client mode, but shoehorning it into AP uses is not a good idea (it's possible, but you pay dearly for it, to get the right hardware and make it fit (cooling, power delivery, 2+ PCIe/ M.2 slots, …).
Comfast CF-7500AC V2 the only downside is the usb reset that takes place to switch from the driver disk to the actual wireless device, I guess i'm also not 100% on whether the mesh support is good, but it is supported.
I have setup Mesh (802.11s) in OpenWRT with the following usb-adapters: Edup EP-AC1691, Comfast CF-WU782AC V2, Comfast CF-922AC (links to their official aliexpress listings) using the same Mediatek MT7612U chipset. Im having other more recent cards/usb-adapters as AP in the same device (6GHz and even Wifi7) and use the MT7612U only as a Mesh backhaul and it seems to be working 
Nanopi R5S with a Qualcomm NCM865/WCN7850 Wifi7 M.2 card (Ath12K) and Comfast CF-WU782AC V2 as Mesh backhaul.
Edit: picture
Looks like CF-7500AC v2 is also a MT7612U? Then I believe circuit layout should be very similar to CF-782AC v2 & CF-785AC, if you can do some soldering work then you can scroll up and check my previous comment, I own 782AC v2 & 785AC and de-soldered 3 resistors to mod it back to single state (no more USB modswitch needed)
Hmmm, that's interesting.
Let's say, if I have 2x X86 Fujitsu Futro s920 ( around 30 Euro and less) and I buy 2x of these aliexpress dongles ( 20-25 Euro), I can do Wi-fi 7 or Wi-fi 6E wds connection for around 100 Euro altogether.., than it is something to think about.
Thanks
Edit: I am thinking loudly for cheapest wifi 6e solution:
As Fujitsu has only 1 lan/wan port- you will need, either additional lan card and pci-e riser + 15 Euro, or Usb lan card + 10-15 Euro, or old gigabit openwrt router - let's say Tp-link wdr3600 +5-10 Euro or you use your existing router - nothing.
Enery: + Futro S920 - seems around 5-10 watts per hour.
Another thought - do these aliexpress dongles support vlan?
Enery: + Futro S920 - seems around 5-10 watts per hour.
There's stuff that's super low power I think an Odroid N2 is like 2 watts even with 1 usb adapter plugged in, all the arm stuff is pretty good really, rk3588s etc. I've been looking at something like this lately, if only there was a case for it and it had no wireless.
(edited wrong info out) I kinda get why no one makes a great usb adapter that's 4x AX/BE with good antennas and AP/MESH they obviously don't want to eat into router profits and there's probably some security concerns or something but it obviously would sell well even if it was like $100+.
Nice, so neat too 
There is no USB WiFi that can perform "dual concurrent", how can you setup 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi at the same time with just 1 dongle?
Even for internal PCI-E WiFi card, there is no more than 2T2R since the introduction of 802.11ax, the antennae design would just make the whole thing big, not really possible for USB one. Also with extra overheads in USB bus, making 4T4R 802.11ax is simply a waste (same as the 5GbE USB ethernet, it can only run up to 3.4Gbps), not to mention that nowadays most computer comes with WiFi so that the market of USB WiFi is small.
woops you're right I got that totally wrong, it lets me make the network and select the other frequency in Luci but it doesn't actually load up.
Well, there's 10gbps USB these days but then you'd need a soc that supports it. With 5gbps you're basically right I guess, though you could possibly argue it's not a waste, I mean 3.4gbps is more than 2.35gbps afterall. A drawback of those adapters is they tend to run a little hot and use 2 watts just to run that's actually the main drawback of using them instead of a 2.5gbps.
5GbE USB ethernet price is >3x of 2.5GbE and you only get 3.4Gbps from it, it's definitely a failure and I can see that the manufacturer already stopped updating driver (so latest MacOS can't use it anymore).
Up to 10G thunderbolt is employed here for absolute speed and stability, that's how the USB 10G NIC working, they are actually thunderbolt 3 10G NIC.
And back to my point, those USB WiFi are designed to be client device which lacks many features you can find on AP (some can't even work in AP mode properly), and I doubt USB port can supply stable power for 4T4R WiFi, not to mention the heat.
Did this work for you?
Realtek USB Wi-Fi adapters were added with this PR.
What is the mesh performance like ?
use the other bat0 interface mac address with batctl tp
batctl tp xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
10 posts were split to a new topic: WDS on an orange Pi Zero 3 + Asus AC51?
Am i right that the kernel used in v 24.10 is v6.6? Has that allowed for further compatability in OpenWRT?
In addition to thoese listed above, i came across this [Linux - USB -WIFI compatability](https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/tree/main .) that some might find useful.
Newer drivers should have been back ported, but it's safter so assume 6.6, or run a snapshot, which is 6.12.
seems rtw88 got backported from 6.16, but I'd still stay away from Realtek.
I've been using this one successfully with my RPI