I bought a new WiFi card for my laptop that was listed as working on hnode, but it doesn't work in Trisquel. :(

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newq
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 07/26/2020

I bought a RTL8723BE from eBay hoping that it would enable my laptop to work with Trisquel. I tested that it does indeed work in mainline Ubuntu (which is still on the hard drive) but when I boot into Trisquel from a USB drive, it still won't see my WiFi hardware. :( This card was listed on hnode as able to work with free software, so I really thought it'd work.

If it turns out I misunderstood hnode and actually bought a card that doesn't play with free software, what recommendations do you have for one that does?

chaosmonk

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I am a translator!

Hors ligne
A rejoint: 07/07/2017

I think this must be the h-node page you found: https://h-node.org/wifi/view/en/1725/Realtek-Semiconductor-Co---Ltd--RTL8723BE-PCIe-Wireless-Network-Adapter

It says "tested with the following kernel libre:5.5.10-gnu", which is much newer than Trisquel's default kernel. I would start by installing a newer kernel from jxself's repo: https://jxself.org/linux-libre/

The description on the h-node page provides further instructions. Read them through, and if you don't understand them ask for help here.

newq
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 07/26/2020

Thanks!

I suppose I should have elaborated a bit more because I did read that, but the github in question no longer exists. I don't know where to go from here.

chaosmonk

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Hors ligne
A rejoint: 07/07/2017

Have you upgraded to the latest linux-libre using jxself's repo yet? Try that first. It is possible that the WiFi card is supported by the kernel now and an external repo is no longer necessary. If that doesn't work, let us know and we'll try something else.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

Why not ath9k-htc (e.g. AR9271)?

Save Nature
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 07/19/2020

On Tue, 28 Jul 2020 00:24:48 +0200 (CEST)
name at domain wrote:

> I bought a RTL8723BE from eBay hoping that it would enable my laptop

I have been reading the Debian Installation manual and according to it
[vendorID:ProductID] is the most reliable way to to identify
devices[1].

"For USB and PCI/PCI-Express/ExpressCard devices, a good way to find
out on which chipset they are based is to look at their device
IDs. All USB/PCI/PCI-Express/ExpressCard devices have so called
“vendor” and “product” IDs, and the combination of these two is
usually the same for any product based on the same chipset."

For example if I execute this command in the terminal

$ lspci -nnk

Then the output I get is:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell

06:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 \
Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:020c]
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Kernel modules: ath9k

#+END_SRC

So my [VendorID:ProductID] is: [168c:0036].

[1]: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch03s03.en.html#idm525

Regards!
Starfish