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Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:00 am
by JChristensen
I have a new HP laptop with a Realtek d723 wireless adapter that is not recognized but my question is not how to fix it.

I see several other threads for the same (or similar) issue and many of them point to installing drivers from https://github.com/lwfinger (or one or two others, e.g. smlinux). I can go ahead and try that but first I have to ask who is this person and where did the code come from? I haven't been able to find any answers so I hope someone can clue me in.

I certainly don't want to cast false aspersions; more than likely everything is on the up-and-up but I feel some need to understand a little more before blindly installing these drivers.

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:41 am
by thx-1138

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:58 am
by JChristensen
Thank you! That's probably as good an answer as I could have hoped for. I imagine it also means these drivers may make their way into the kernel at some point.

I do have one more question. lspci -knn reports the wifi adapter as

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02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:d723]
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:8319]
I think another name for this device is RTL8723DE. Is that correct? How could I have known that?

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:19 am
by Pjotr
JChristensen wrote: Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:58 am Thank you! That's probably as good an answer as I could have hoped for. I imagine it also means these drivers may make their way into the kernel at some point.

I do have one question. lspci -knn reports the wifi adapter as

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02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device [10ec:d723]
	Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:8319]
I think another name for this device is RTL8723DE. Is that correct? How could I have known that?
You can Google the device ID:
https://www.google.com/search?q=10ec%3Ad723

Note that you need to install the extended edition of lwfinger's driver. Here's a how-to that I've written for installing it:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... d-edition-
(item 8, right column)

As it's an HP laptop, you might also need to fix the antenna selection:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... -selection
(item 2, left column)

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 8:37 am
by JChristensen
@Pjotr, TYVM! I did notice that extended branch. I think I've found three repos with this driver, lwfinger, smlinux and jeremyb31. I'm not sure what the differences might be, or if there is a preference.

Thanks again, I really appreciate all the work you and other folks put into this. I've used your site a fair amount!

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:34 am
by JeremyB
I am fairly certain that my code for rtl8723de will not work with the 4.15 kernel and I know lwfinger's does work

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:49 pm
by JChristensen
@JeremyB, I've just installed LM18.3 Cinnamon and updated to the 4.15 kernel. I'll try lwfinger's driver next and will report back. Thank you!

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:26 pm
by JChristensen
All went well and wifi is working now, but I think I need to check the antenna options. I'm only seeing my SSIDs and usually I see several others here in the neighborhood. I also only see my 2.4GHz SSIDs, no 5GHz. That's not a show stopper for me but 5GHz would be nice.

When doing the make, I noticed the message

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Makefile:976: "Cannot use CONFIG_STACK_VALIDATION=y, please install libelf-dev, libelf-devel or elfutils-libelf-devel"
but none of these packages seem to be in the Mint Software Manager. Do I need to install one of them?

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:50 pm
by JeremyB
Those errors can be ignored

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:54 pm
by JChristensen
Can't see 5GHz networks from Windows either, so maybe the RTL8723DE is only capable of 2.4GHz?
Edit: I see that according to the Realtek web site it is 2.4GHz only.

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:09 pm
by JChristensen
Larry Finger's driver and ant_sel=2 did the trick (used Pjotr's instructions), things are looking very good. Not a bad little machine (inxi below). On sale at Staples for $349. My wife was looking for something smaller and lighter. Just a Core i3 but it seems plenty fast. Next step will be to ditch Windows completely and make it a Linux only machine ;-) Thanks again for all your help, you guys rock!

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System:    Host: hp14 Kernel: 4.15.0-29-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) dm: lightdm
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: HP (portable) product: HP Laptop 14-ck0xxx v: Type1ProductConfigId
           Mobo: HP model: 849A v: KBC Version 74.19
           Bios: Insyde v: F.05 date: 04/09/2018
           Chassis: type: 10
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i3-8130U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 8832
           clock speeds: min/max: 400/3400 MHz 1: 1028 MHz 2: 1399 MHz
           3: 952 MHz 4: 1388 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 5917 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:5917
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.07hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Kabylake GT2)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel Device 9d71
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9d71
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-29-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 4000
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek Device d723
           driver: rtl8723de port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:d723
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (2.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: HGST_HTS541010B7 size: 1000.2GB serial: WXH1AB70Z3UY
Partition: ID-1: / size: 24G used: 6.5G (29%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
           ID-2: /home size: 118G used: 229M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 17.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
           Unused Devices: none
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0C mobo: 0.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 193 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 523.3/7860.8MB
           Init: systemd v: 229 runlevel: 5 default: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481 running in gnome-terminal-) inxi: 2.2.35

Re: Wireless drivers on GitHub

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:08 pm
by JChristensen
Contrary to the advice on Pjotr's website :oops: I installed a new kernel, upgrading from 4.15.0-29 to -30.

I thought just reinstalling the driver (sudo make install) might be enough. It was not, but the following worked:

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make clean
make
sudo make install
So really not too bad :D