Checked out the openwrt repo from github, configured (Allwinner A64 / Pine64 Sopine + other stuff) & performed a build. Found that rtl8723bs was in the staging dir of the kernel sources. Did some local shuffling to get rtl8723bs source(s) included in the openwrt build, and to get rtl8723bs firmware blobs out of linux-firmware. Came up w/ a couple of new .ipks, rtl8723bs-firmware & kmod-rtl8723bs. Used imagebuilder to create custom image based off of local build, installed on sd-card, & fired up the pine64 on this build.
The firmware blobs are out there in the /lib/firmware/rtlwifi directory. r8723bs is in /lib/modules. I can insmod/rmmod/modprobe/etc. the r8723bs module. dmesg shows it inits cleanly. But the module/hardware remain a ghost out there somewhere. 'iw list' gives null output...but doesn't error out either.
I'll try attaching a few links showing dmesg output, as well as lsmod results. If someone would like to offer some professional grade opinions, and/or ask questions for clarification, I'd appreciate some help.
Thought I'd also include the output of "systool -a -v -m r8723bs" in case anyone wants to see what parms are available and/or set. This is because I'm leaning toward there being something needs adjusting in the parms.
Also, before anyone asks: I'm confident the hardware works. I've run both an opensuse & xenial/xubuntu image (available from pine64.org) on the box and they both find the 8723bs module, & it can be configured to run in sta mode. But I'd really like to have openwrt w/ AP config on the beast.
Look at dmesg for unresolved symbols, wireless modules are usually from/ and built against the external mac80211/ backports package, if you took rtl8723bs from the kernel's own staging directory, it's probably not going to work.
Well, initially I had been hoping that either rtlwifi or rtl8xxxu would recognize the 8723bs, but neither seems to see it.
And, at this point, I can't honestly recall whether I grabbed rtl8723bs source out of backports or from drivers/net/wireless in the linux tree. I'll try to go back & see if what's in backports can be enabled to suit my needs.
Thanks for the speedy response. If you have any other productive comments, feel free to share. Particularly if it has to do with rtl8723bs out of backports, or rtlwifi/rtl8xxxu recognizing the 8723bs.
Thanks for the speedy response. If you have any other productive comments, feel free to share. Particularly if it has to do with rtl8723bs out of backports, or rtlwifi/rtl8xxxu recognizing the 8723bs.
While I do actually own a device with rtl8723bs, it's unfortunately running android and can't run 'normal' linux or OpenWrt (and it's not the most pleasant or reliable driver to deal with). In general you can't expect to use rtl8723bs as an AP device on OpenWrt, for that full nl80211 compatibility would be a hard requirement - it might be possible to use it as a STA (client-) interface though.