Realtek 8723DE wifi module & Bluetooth Linux driver available now - Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch users*

[COE2k14]

EDIT:

it is recommended to use the official driver hosted at the rtlwifi-new git repsitory maintained by Larry Fingers.

Well, at last, RTL8723DE officially supported driver is made available in the rtlwifi-new git extended branch. What is left to do is, Bluetooth support for this laptop. Bluetooth share the same RTL8723DE hardware?  Bluetooth is working with kernel 4.17 and above.

Before installing RTL8723DE driver, you have to make sure that Linux kernel headers for your respective distros are installed. For example: In Debian/Ubuntu the package name sounds like "linux-headers-4.xx-generic". In Fedora/RedHat, it will be kernel-headers-4.xx-x86_64 etc.

For installing from git sources in Ubuntu:

Either download a ".zip" copy of the git sources for RTL8723DE driver from https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new/archive/extended.zip , extract it and follow step (2) below

OR

1. Make sure you have git installed. You can install git using apt install git or through synaptic/software manager. If you want to use dkms to make and install the driver, make sure that dkms also is installed. You can download and install using below commands, in a terminal:

:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install git dkms

2. The RTL8723DE driver is in the git extended branch. So,

Open a terminal:

:~$ cd Downloads

:~$ git clone -b extended --single-branch https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new.git
unofficial
:~$ cd rtlwifi_new

Now, either you can run:
:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ make 
:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ sudo make install

OR use dkms to build and manage the modules:

:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ sudo dkms add ../rtlwifi_new
:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ sudo dkms build rtlwifi-new/0.6 
:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ sudo dkms install rtlwifi-new/0.6
:~/Downloads/rtl-new/rtlwifi_new$ sudo modprobe -v rtl8723de ant_sel=2

^^ That should work. If firmware error is shown, reboot and will work. Make sure, you have linux-headers for the respective kernel(s) and build-essential packages installed.

For me, ant_sel=2 shows the maximum WiFi signal gain. So, I've added below lines in a separate conf file:

:~$ sudo /bin/sh -c 'echo "options rtl8723de ant_sel=2" >> /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723de.conf'

Hope this helps. If it does not build, use :

:~/Downloads/rtlwifi_new$ sudo dkms install rtlwifi-new/0.6 --force

UPDATE:

RTL8723D Bluetooth works now. You need Kernel 4.17 or newer to get Bluetooth working with RTL8723DE.

The steps are elaborately explained in this post: https://superuser.com/a/1322067/850732

RTL8723D Bluetooth Firmware is available in Linux firmware git directory as committed by Larry Fingers (rtlwifi-new) :

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/commit/?id=6d5131107f2ba...

Firmware file names:

/lib/firmware/rtl_bt/rtl8723d_fw.bin
/lib/firmware/rtl_bt/rtl8723d_config.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8723defw.bin

You have to git clone the directory to get the firmware  and place the specific rtl8723d firmware  in /lib/firmware/rtl_bt folder.

git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git

EDIT: Now, Bluetooth for RTL8723DE works with kernel Linux-4.17-rc2 and newer. Here is the dmesg log, in my case:

[   12.936188] usbcore: registered new interface driver btusb
[   12.937754] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: examining hci_ver=08 hci_rev=000d lmp_ver=08 lmp_subver=8723
[   12.937756] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723d_config.bin
[   13.015200] Bluetooth: hci0: rtl: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723d_fw.bin
[   13.018801] Bluetooth: hci0: rom_version status=0 version=2
[   13.018852] Bluetooth: hci0: cfg_sz 10, total size 28214
[   25.492045] Bluetooth: BNEP (Ethernet Emulation) ver 1.3
[   25.492047] Bluetooth: BNEP filters: protocol multicast
[   25.492050] Bluetooth: BNEP socket layer initialized
[   61.169130] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
[   61.169139] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
[   61.169147] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11

Hopefully, this is helpful.

[jeremy31]

I would suggest using DKMS support so the driver will be built for a new kernel while the kernel is installed, now that the dkms.conf is fixed, for all users, check terminal, command uname -r to determine kernel version

For 4.10 and older 

sudo apt-get install build-essential git dkms

git clone -b 4.10-down https://github.com/smlinux/rtl8723de.git

sudo dkms add ./rtl8723de

sudo dkms install rtl8723de/5.1.1.8_21285.20171026_COEX20170111-1414

Reboot

For kernel 4.11 and newer

sudo apt-get install build-essential git dkms

git clone https://github.com/smlinux/rtl8723de.git

sudo dkms add ./rtl8723de

sudo dkms install rtl8723de/5.1.1.8_21285.20171026_COEX20170111-1414

Reboot

[COE2k14]

rtlwifi maintainer Larry Fingers has the officially released driver for RTL8723DE WiFi module in Linux. Presently, the driver is getting added into his repository. When I tried, repository was missing rtl8723defw.bin firmware. That will be available by tomorrow (hopefully).

---

The driver for RTL8723DE at https://github.com/smlinux/rtl8723de is not the version that will end up in the Linux kernel. It uses cfg80211 for network support, but NOT mac80211. If you want to test the kernel version, my contact at Realtek has made it available. It is now in the "extended" branch of rtlwifi_new. Do a "git pull" and follow the instructions in README.md.

---

 This is the repo. https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new/tree/extended . The driver is available as of now in "extended" branch. I will update with steps to install after confirming this is working for me.

[COE2k14]

So, the official driver from Realtek which is available in https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new/ is working great. You Thave to download the zip file from the "extended" branch of the git repo. or use git command to clone the repository locally. Then, open the terminal inside rtlwifi_new  directory and run "make" followed by "sudo make install".

With my HP-15-BS576TX laptop, the signal strength is satisfactory with a "modprobe -v rtl8723de ant_sel=2". I have added "options rtl8723de ant_sel=2" in a file /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723de.conf.

Now, only Bluetooth support remaining. From whatever I understand, bluetooth and wifi shares the same RTL8723DE hardware. Hope the support will be available soon.

[jeremy31]

You don't need to download a zip file, just do

git clone -b extended https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new.git

[Lucky518]

Please help me to resolve weak signal problem. Whatever I have done till now is unable to help me.

[prshnt24]

I am using linux kernel 4.11 and it worked for me. Thanks very much!

[prshnt24]

Change "cd rtlwifi-new" to "cd rtlwifi_new" in the second step.

[Lucky518]

Ok, it is working fine now after restart

Thank you for the info.

[poliferroso]

same problem here