rtw_8723de Realtek driver issue in Debian 11.5 Bullseye Kernel version 5.10.0-18-amd64

rtw_8723de Realtek driver issue in Debian 11.5 Bullseye Kernel version 5.10.0-18-amd64

[Mariano Vedovato]

Hi, 
A few months ago I updated the system from Debian 10 to 11. Always in Debian I had to do the Wifi driver installation manually, the last one that did works I downloaded from https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88. 

But, a few days ago, I had to do a clean install. So I downloaded Debian 11.5 and again I did the manual installation of the driver.
In this case, when I reboot the laptop the operating system loading is stuck in "Started Display Manager".
But, if I login in rescue mode, and of course uninstall the driver, the I can logon normally to the system but without WiFi!

I was investigating a lot, but it seems there is a problem with that kernel version and my driver (there is not a new version of the driver for my wifi card rtl8723de) because if I do the installation again, but before rebooting I try what the README of driver says:

sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723de         #This unloads the module
sudo modprobe -r rtw_core

Due to some pecularities in the modprobe utility, two steps are required.

sudo modprobe rtw_8723de            #This loads the module

Only a single modprobe call is required to load.

I can use Wifi (in fact I am writing right now this email with WiFi working smoothly!), but again in the next reboot the initializing is stuck. No errors I could read in logs.

So, I think that my workaround: "poweroff - poweron, system loading stuck - force poweroff - poweron in rescue mode - uninstall driver - reboot - logon on system - install driver again and use WiFi like a normal person"
is not enough efficiently.

Kindly ask to you (it  indicates from instructions README of driver) if there is a solution for this issue?

BTW, I tried to install Ubuntu 22.04 with Kernel 5.16.xx and the WiFi works fine, but I'm a Debian user since Debian 5 and I don't think to leave it and I have no money to buy another Laptop for the moment!

If you need something from my side to do a deeper investigation, please ask me.

BR

Mariano Vedovato 

Re: rtw_8723de Realtek driver issue in Debian 11.5 Bullseye Kernel version 5.10.0-18-amd64

[Larry Finger]

On 9/28/22 08:46, Mariano Vedovato wrote:
> Hi,
> A few months ago I updated the system from Debian 10 to 11. Always in Debian I had to do the Wifi driver installation manually, the last one that did works I downloaded from https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw88.
> 
> But, a few days ago, I had to do a clean install. So I downloaded Debian 11.5 and again I did the manual installation of the driver.
> In this case, when I reboot the laptop the operating system loading is stuck in "Started Display Manager".
> But, if I login in rescue mode, and of course uninstall the driver, the I can logon normally to the system but without WiFi!
> 
> I was investigating a lot, but it seems there is a problem with that kernel version and my driver (there is not a new version of the driver for my wifi card rtl8723de) because if I do the installation again, but before rebooting I try what the README of driver says:
> 
> sudo modprobe -r rtw_8723de         #This unloads the module
> sudo modprobe -r rtw_core
> 
> Due to some pecularities in the modprobe utility, two steps are required.
> 
> sudo modprobe rtw_8723de            #This loads the module
> 
> Only a single modprobe call is required to load.
> 
> I can use Wifi (in fact I am writing right now this email with WiFi working smoothly!), but again in the next reboot the initializing is stuck. No errors I could read in logs.
> 
> So, I think that my workaround: "poweroff - poweron, system loading stuck - force poweroff - poweron in rescue mode - uninstall driver - reboot - logon on system - install driver again and use WiFi like a normal person"
> is not enough efficiently.
> 
> Kindly ask to you (it  indicates from instructions README of driver) if there is a solution for this issue?
> 
> BTW, I tried to install Ubuntu 22.04 with Kernel 5.16.xx and the WiFi works fine, but I'm a Debian user since Debian 5 and I don't think to leave it and I have no money to buy another Laptop for the moment!
> 
> If you need something from my side to do a deeper investigation, please ask me.

If you want the external driver rather than the one built into the kernel, you 
need to blacklist the kernel version. The names of the drivers were carefully 
chosen to allow this.

Search for "Linux blacklist" to see how to do this. By the way, this  sort of 
question should have been asked in a GitHub issue rather than by way of this 
mailing list.

Larry

Re: rtw_8723de Realtek driver issue in Debian 11.5 Bullseye Kernel version 5.10.0-18-amd64

[Kalle Valo]

Mariano Vedovato <marianovedovato@hotmail.com> writes:

> BTW, I tried to install Ubuntu 22.04 with Kernel 5.16.xx and the WiFi
> works fine, but I'm a Debian user since Debian 5 and I don't think to
> leave it and I have no money to buy another Laptop for the moment!

Do you know Debian backports have packaged more recent kernels which are
relatively easy to install, Debian 11 (bullseye) backports seems to have
v5.18 right now. More info here:

https://backports.debian.org/

-- 
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/developers/documentation/submittingpatches