RTL8723BE Linux driver no longer works for any 5.x kernel and the lwfinger Github repository that had the drivers doesn't exist anymore
All in the title. I'm running Mint 20 Xfce with the older 4.15.109 kernel since that's the only one that supports my wifi adapter, this is my hardware setup -
System: Kernel: 4.15.0-109-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Machine: Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Notebook v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <filter> Mobo: HP model: 80C1 v: 96.31 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: F.11 date: 07/23/2015
Battery: ID-1: BAT1 charge: 35.5 Wh condition: 35.5/41.6 Wh (85%) model: COMPAL PABAS0241231 status: Full
CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-5200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Broadwell rev: 4 L2 cache: 3072 KiB flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 17557 Speed: 897 MHz min/max: 500/2700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 898 2: 898 3: 898 4: 898
Graphics: Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 5500 (BDW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.0.8 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel Broadwell-U Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 Device-2: Intel Wildcat Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-109-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 4000 bus ID: 07:00.0 IF: enp7s0 state: down mac: <filter> Device-2: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: rtl8723be v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 0d:00.0 IF: wlp13s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives: Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 159.29 GiB (34.2%) ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS545050A7E680 size: 465.76 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 453.26 GiB used: 129.10 GiB (28.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 ID-2: /home size: 453.26 GiB used: 129.10 GiB (28.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 ID-3: swap-1 size: 12.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 39.5 C mobo: N/A Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info: Processes: 255 Uptime: 28m Memory: 11.64 GiB used: 2.25 GiB (19.3%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 clang: 10.0.0-4ubuntu1 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38 This is lwconfig for my 4.15.109 kernel -
wlp13s0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:"mySSID" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.417 GHz Access Point: 34:E8:94:66:C5:B6 Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=68/70 Signal level=-42 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:40391 Missed beacon:0
lo no wireless extensions....and this is what I get when I boot into 5.4.0.45 (the latest) -
wlp13s0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off Power Management:onEverywhere I've searched see references to the lwfinger repository on Github, but the specific subproject for RTL8723BE throws a 404.
Is there a way to get my adapter to work with a 5.x kernel or am I stuck on 4.15.109 forever?
2 Reset to default
