Re: RTL8723BS driver doesn't work for,me but I can help testing

[Martin Blumenstingl <martin.blumenstingl@googlemail.com>]

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Hi Tobias,

On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 10:57 AM Tobias Baumann <017623705678@o2online.de> wrote:
>
> Hello Community
>
> I was referred to you by Martin. I have an older Android TV box that
> runs for over 3 years with Armbian Linux (Debian Jessie Headless Kernel
> 3.10.99). I'm looking forward to the new kernels and I'm glad that older
> hardware is still supported.
> Together with Oleg(balbes150) and Martin(xdarklight) I am testing the
> new kernel 5.x for ARM ( Amlogic S812 / Meson8m2 ) . Martin has written
> a patch for the SDIO controller in the last days so that also Wifi
> module and MMC are recognized. I could now successfully load the driver
> module RTLWIFI from the kernel. But unfortunately the card is only
> listed on the desktop as "not ready" or in the terminal (iwlist) as "no
> scan result". In the dmesg/lsmod RTLWIFI->RTL8723bs is loaded and the
> module is loaded with version v4.3.5.5_12290.20140916_BTCOEX20140507-4E40 .
>
>
> I would like to ask you to check the driver because even in kernel
> 3.10.99 a newer version (v4.3.16_13854.20150410_BTCOEX20150119-5844) is
> loaded and also at github are hard kernels ( version 2017 Kernel 4.9>)
> and ap17 and thirdyouth (v5.2.17.1_26955.20180307_COEX20180201-6f52).
> More recent ones can also be found - these have already been
> successfully tested with Debian 10. i hope that this may solve the
> problem with my Linux box.
>
> I would appreciate feedback on this request or information about
> debugging . My Linux box is also available for testing purposes
I just tried this on one of my Meson8b boards to see if it's some
problem with the MMC controller driver (meson-mx-sdio).
Here are my steps:
- (boot the board)
- ip link set up dev wlan0
- (wait until that finishes, it takes a while because it seems to load
the wifi firmware)
- iw dev wlan0 scan
- (wait a few seconds, then it shows many 2.4GHz wifi networks)
- wpa_passphrase MY_24GHz_WIFI_SSID > /tmp/wpa_supplicant_conf
- (enter the passphrase and press CTRL-D)
- wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/tmp/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dnl80211 &
- (wait a couple more seconds for it to connect)
- dhcpcd wlan0
- then I ran iperf3, see the attached result
- then I ran dmesg | grep -Ei "(rtl8723bs|wlan0)", see the attached result

with these commands wifi is working "fine" for me.
my definition of fine: it connects to my AP and traffic can flow.
transfer speeds are on the low side (with 15Mbit/s and 5Mbit/s) but I
have no reference (for example from a vendor kernel) so I can't say if
that's to be expected.

I am not sure about any "desktop" tools and their behavior because I
don't use these.
can you please try the steps above and attach the output of the
"failing" commands (together with the dmesg output)?


Best regards,
Martin

[-- Attachment #2: iperf3.txt --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 2511 bytes --]

# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.100
Connecting to host 192.168.1.100, port 5201
[  5] local 192.168.1.175 port 50082 connected to 192.168.1.100 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   922 KBytes  7.55 Mbits/sec    0    105 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.01   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.32 Mbits/sec    0    153 KBytes       
[  5]   2.01-3.00   sec  1.18 MBytes  9.95 Mbits/sec    0    206 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.18   sec  1.43 MBytes  10.2 Mbits/sec    0    270 KBytes       
[  5]   4.18-5.00   sec  1.68 MBytes  17.1 Mbits/sec    0    342 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.10   sec  1.93 MBytes  14.6 Mbits/sec    0    426 KBytes       
[  5]   6.10-7.00   sec  1.86 MBytes  17.4 Mbits/sec    0    433 KBytes       
[  5]   7.00-8.00   sec  2.73 MBytes  22.9 Mbits/sec    0    433 KBytes       
[  5]   8.00-9.00   sec  2.80 MBytes  23.5 Mbits/sec    0    433 KBytes       
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec  2.80 MBytes  23.5 Mbits/sec    0    433 KBytes       
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  18.4 MBytes  15.5 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.22  sec  17.5 MBytes  14.4 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
# iperf3 -c 192.168.1.100 -R
Connecting to host 192.168.1.100, port 5201
Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.1.100 is sending
[  5] local 192.168.1.175 port 50086 connected to 192.168.1.100 port 5201
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec   584 KBytes  4.76 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   1.00-2.04   sec   509 KBytes  4.02 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   2.04-3.00   sec   549 KBytes  4.68 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec   962 KBytes  7.88 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec   749 KBytes  6.15 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.29 MBytes  10.8 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   6.00-7.00   sec   427 KBytes  3.51 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   7.00-8.01   sec   451 KBytes  3.65 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   8.01-9.00   sec   601 KBytes  5.00 Mbits/sec                  
[  5]   9.00-10.00  sec   638 KBytes  5.20 Mbits/sec                  
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-10.27  sec  6.90 MBytes  5.64 Mbits/sec    8             sender
[  5]   0.00-10.00  sec  6.63 MBytes  5.56 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf Done.
#

[-- Attachment #3: dmesg.txt --]
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[    2.441488] RTL8723BS: module init start
[    2.442185] RTL8723BS: rtl8723bs v4.3.5.5_12290.20140916_BTCOEX20140507-4E40
[    2.451163] RTL8723BS: rtl8723bs BT-Coex version = BTCOEX20140507-4E40
[    2.455802] RTL8723BS: module init ret =0
[   16.478830] RTL8723BS: rtw_ndev_init(wlan0)
[   37.209857] rtl8723bs: acquire FW from file:rtlwifi/rtl8723bs_nic.bin
[  337.807664] RTL8723BS: rtw_set_802_11_connect(wlan0)  fw_state = 0x00000008
[  338.346190] RTL8723BS: start auth
[  338.377146] RTL8723BS: auth success, start assoc
[  338.389241] RTL8723BS: rtw_cfg80211_indicate_connect(wlan0) BSS not found !!
[  338.395555] RTL8723BS: assoc success
[  338.733671] RTL8723BS: send eapol packet
[  338.754114] RTL8723BS: send eapol packet
[  338.758611] RTL8723BS: set pairwise key camid:4, addr:de:ad:be:ee:ff:00, kid:0, type:AES
[  338.768897] RTL8723BS: set group key camid:5, addr:de:ad:be:ee:ff:00, kid:1, type:AES
[  339.103764] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready