7 ms·

Solution to Wi-Fi problems on HP laptops with Realtek RTL8723BE NICs (2016)

34 points by tbking 9y ago

LeonM 9y ago
This should have a [2016] tag, also wondering why this pops up on HN all of a sudden? It's been a long known issue with some WiFi cards (not just the RTL cards) that some manufacturers don't connect both antennae on some models of portables, so you should update your configuration accordingly (on Linux), or use the driver supplied by the machine manufacturer (with the correct config) rather than downloading the driver from the RTL website.
DiabloD3 9y ago
I don't know what the bug is, but if it's a hardware problem, can't HP be forced to fix it under warranty?
- f4stjack 9y ago
  The "bug" is HP only connects one of the antennae input of the wifi card. So, linux can use the card in theory (it has the drivers), but in practice it doesn't work unless the wifi ap is very close. The solution is to force its conf file to use the other antennae. (ant_sel = 2). In ubuntu you had to download a driver sourcecode, compile it and modprobe it to the system but to my surprise latest fedora core worked when I did the conf magic I mentioned, so maybe the updated versions use the rtlwifi package.
- tbking 9y ago
  It's just incompatibility between hardware and software. HP's official drivers for Windows work perfectly, but no such privilege to Linux users.
sschueller 9y ago
Great, already replaced that laptop with a thinkpad. Never buying or recommending an HP laptop ever again.
- fullstackhuman 9y ago
  What if you need to heat your house?
- dahauns 9y ago
  There are Lenovo notebooks with exactly the same problem. By your logic, you should sell the Thinkpad as well...
  - HowardMei 9y ago
    HP has another problem: https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-your-hp-laptop-has-the-conexant-keylogger/ https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-your-hp-lap... The Lenovo has ruined the good old IBM Thinkpad but it's still better than HP in any sense. Dell and Asus are producing top notch laptop these days.
    - dahauns 9y ago
      Yeah, and Lenovo had Superfish and LSE. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huuuge Thinkpad fanboy. But the argument "it's still better than HP in any sense" just doesn't hold water in its generality. What is "it" in this context? Lenovo makes lots of laptops, from lowest end consumer to high end business models that have very little in common build-wise, same as HP. You can't just compare a Thinkpad with a low-end Pavilion, just as it doesnt make sense to compare an entry level Ideapad with a ZBook or EliteBook.
dz0ny 9y ago
This is not only for HP(see it in Acer, Lenovo... ). They leave the one ANT connector disconnected on cheap laptops because there is no antenna for it. Drivers will default to a mixed mode where both antennas work(one receiving one transmitting), now if you install drivers on Windows from official driver package it will work as intended because install will configure drivers to only user ANT1. And you can do it manually if you chose not to install drivers, "the official" way. I'm not making an apology for mentioned companies just clarifying that this is known thing for cheap laptops.
- tbking 9y ago
  I haven't noticed that pattern. for example my ₹30,000 Lenovo works fine but ₹50,000 HP doesn't.
  - zeusk 9y ago
    $465 and $775 aren't exactly cheap and premium. Premium lines usually start at $1000 ~ $1200.
    - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
      That would correspond to HP's ZBook or EliteBook lines. They do have genuine 2x2 multi-antenna setups. There's nothing "Pro" about a $775 "ProBook". Lenovo makes more business-oriented laptops in general, but the Ideapads are definitely their low-end (and come with 1x1 antennas - found at least one with a single antenna and dual-band wireless chip [1]). The Thinkpad T-series portables or W- (now P-series) workstations are definitely the way you want to go. And they do have genuine multi-channel Wifi solutions. [1] - http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/ideapad%20300%2014%20single%20model%20201707101104.pdf http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/id...
gbrown_ 9y ago
The title/ synopsis is somewhat misleading. While it may have been a HP problem there's no mention of the specific fault. Indeed it's just a script to download and install the latest rtlwifi drivers. Also given that apt is mentioned in the script I guess this seen on Debian/ Ubuntu distros (unsure of version), but who knows other distros that may ship later drivers may be fine. TL;DR Vague repo is vague.
- tyingq 9y ago
  It points to another repo[1] that says this: "Added March 16, 2016: All branches of this repo now support the ant_sel module option for rtl8723be. In addition, patches to implement this feature have been submitted to the linux-wireless repo. If accepted, they should appear in kernel 4.7; however, they will be backported to kernels 4.0 and newer when they reach mainline." It's the antenna selection that fixes the problem. [1] https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new
sizzzzlerz 9y ago
I have a 3-year old HP LT which, when Windows 8 was installed, never had wifi issues. When Windows 10 came on, it started dropping the connection. Some times, I could reconnect but usually, it had to be rebooted. I tried new drivers and suggestions I found but nothing solved the problem. Finally, I bought one of those USB WiFi dongles, configured the system to use it, and my network issues went away. I have no idea if this is a solution to the original problem but I'll stick with the dongle as long as its working.
- tbking 9y ago
  This solution works on Linux. Official HP drivers are usually the best way on Windows.
Theodores 9y ago
I thought this was never going to be fixed on my Lenovo Yoga laptop. Many wifi-dongles later I went wired ethernet with a crossover cable to a Chromebook that may not have niceties like a CPU but it does stay locked on to the weakest wifi signal in a highly congested area. I rate the likelihood of this fixing anything as highly unlikely - compiled, installed, rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still somewhat deaf.
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still somewhat deaf. Hmm. Laptop wifi antenna cables run through the hinges into the screen. Which means it's very well possible they're damaged or torn (and given your description, since manufacture).
lucb1e 9y ago
Readme is extremely brief. Looking in install.sh, it's just a wrapper around another repository: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new
- tbking 9y ago
  I don't think it's just a wrapper. It's a script which does 'n' tasks in 1 command. One of the command is applying those drivers, but the critical part is the configuration to select the second antenna.
snarfy 9y ago
My solution was to replace the realtek with a $16 intel based wifi card. I spent some time trying to fix the realtek but ultimately my time is money.
milankragujevic 9y ago
I actually noticed this on most newer cheap laptops. It's annoying, but can be fixed (I think, I haven't tried) by buying a cheap (less than $1) Drone antenna from China (2.4G models) and plugging it into the other port.
oregontechninja 9y ago
My HP x360 had a little wifi trouble at first on every linux distribution. I actually had a bash script on USB to fix the issue until there was better support. In the past few months, Ubuntu and OpenSuSE have worked out of the box.

34 points by tbking 9y ago

This should have a [2016] tag, also wondering why this pops up on HN all of a sudden? It's been a long known issue with some WiFi cards (not just the RTL cards) that some manufacturers don't connect both antennae on some models of portables, so you should update your configuration accordingly (on Linux), or use the driver supplied by the machine manufacturer (with the correct config) rather than downloading the driver from the RTL website.

DiabloD3 9y ago

I don't know what the bug is, but if it's a hardware problem, can't HP be forced to fix it under warranty?

f4stjack 9y ago
The "bug" is HP only connects one of the antennae input of the wifi card. So, linux can use the card in theory (it has the drivers), but in practice it doesn't work unless the wifi ap is very close. The solution is to force its conf file to use the other antennae. (ant_sel = 2). In ubuntu you had to download a driver sourcecode, compile it and modprobe it to the system but to my surprise latest fedora core worked when I did the conf magic I mentioned, so maybe the updated versions use the rtlwifi package.
tbking 9y ago
It's just incompatibility between hardware and software. HP's official drivers for Windows work perfectly, but no such privilege to Linux users.

sschueller 9y ago

Great, already replaced that laptop with a thinkpad. Never buying or recommending an HP laptop ever again.

fullstackhuman 9y ago
What if you need to heat your house?
dahauns 9y ago
There are Lenovo notebooks with exactly the same problem. By your logic, you should sell the Thinkpad as well...
- HowardMei 9y ago
  HP has another problem: https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-your-hp-laptop-has-the-conexant-keylogger/ https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-your-hp-lap... The Lenovo has ruined the good old IBM Thinkpad but it's still better than HP in any sense. Dell and Asus are producing top notch laptop these days.
  - dahauns 9y ago
    Yeah, and Lenovo had Superfish and LSE. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huuuge Thinkpad fanboy. But the argument "it's still better than HP in any sense" just doesn't hold water in its generality. What is "it" in this context? Lenovo makes lots of laptops, from lowest end consumer to high end business models that have very little in common build-wise, same as HP. You can't just compare a Thinkpad with a low-end Pavilion, just as it doesnt make sense to compare an entry level Ideapad with a ZBook or EliteBook.

dz0ny 9y ago

This is not only for HP(see it in Acer, Lenovo... ). They leave the one ANT connector disconnected on cheap laptops because there is no antenna for it. Drivers will default to a mixed mode where both antennas work(one receiving one transmitting), now if you install drivers on Windows from official driver package it will work as intended because install will configure drivers to only user ANT1. And you can do it manually if you chose not to install drivers, "the official" way. I'm not making an apology for mentioned companies just clarifying that this is known thing for cheap laptops.

tbking 9y ago
I haven't noticed that pattern. for example my ₹30,000 Lenovo works fine but ₹50,000 HP doesn't.
- zeusk 9y ago
  $465 and $775 aren't exactly cheap and premium. Premium lines usually start at $1000 ~ $1200.
  - LeifCarrotson 9y ago
    That would correspond to HP's ZBook or EliteBook lines. They do have genuine 2x2 multi-antenna setups. There's nothing "Pro" about a $775 "ProBook". Lenovo makes more business-oriented laptops in general, but the Ideapads are definitely their low-end (and come with 1x1 antennas - found at least one with a single antenna and dual-band wireless chip [1]). The Thinkpad T-series portables or W- (now P-series) workstations are definitely the way you want to go. And they do have genuine multi-channel Wifi solutions. [1] - http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/ideapad%20300%2014%20single%20model%20201707101104.pdf http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/id...

gbrown_ 9y ago

The title/ synopsis is somewhat misleading. While it may have been a HP problem there's no mention of the specific fault. Indeed it's just a script to download and install the latest rtlwifi drivers. Also given that apt is mentioned in the script I guess this seen on Debian/ Ubuntu distros (unsure of version), but who knows other distros that may ship later drivers may be fine. TL;DR Vague repo is vague.

tyingq 9y ago
It points to another repo[1] that says this: "Added March 16, 2016: All branches of this repo now support the ant_sel module option for rtl8723be. In addition, patches to implement this feature have been submitted to the linux-wireless repo. If accepted, they should appear in kernel 4.7; however, they will be backported to kernels 4.0 and newer when they reach mainline." It's the antenna selection that fixes the problem. [1] https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new

sizzzzlerz 9y ago

I have a 3-year old HP LT which, when Windows 8 was installed, never had wifi issues. When Windows 10 came on, it started dropping the connection. Some times, I could reconnect but usually, it had to be rebooted. I tried new drivers and suggestions I found but nothing solved the problem. Finally, I bought one of those USB WiFi dongles, configured the system to use it, and my network issues went away. I have no idea if this is a solution to the original problem but I'll stick with the dongle as long as its working.

tbking 9y ago
This solution works on Linux. Official HP drivers are usually the best way on Windows.

Theodores 9y ago

I thought this was never going to be fixed on my Lenovo Yoga laptop. Many wifi-dongles later I went wired ethernet with a crossover cable to a Chromebook that may not have niceties like a CPU but it does stay locked on to the weakest wifi signal in a highly congested area. I rate the likelihood of this fixing anything as highly unlikely - compiled, installed, rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still somewhat deaf.

mschuster91 9y ago
> rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still somewhat deaf. Hmm. Laptop wifi antenna cables run through the hinges into the screen. Which means it's very well possible they're damaged or torn (and given your description, since manufacture).

lucb1e 9y ago

Readme is extremely brief. Looking in install.sh, it's just a wrapper around another repository: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new

tbking 9y ago
I don't think it's just a wrapper. It's a script which does 'n' tasks in 1 command. One of the command is applying those drivers, but the critical part is the configuration to select the second antenna.

snarfy 9y ago

My solution was to replace the realtek with a $16 intel based wifi card. I spent some time trying to fix the realtek but ultimately my time is money.

milankragujevic 9y ago

I actually noticed this on most newer cheap laptops. It's annoying, but can be fixed (I think, I haven't tried) by buying a cheap (less than $1) Drone antenna from China (2.4G models) and plugging it into the other port.

oregontechninja 9y ago

My HP x360 had a little wifi trouble at first on every linux distribution. I actually had a bash script on USB to fix the issue until there was better support. In the past few months, Ubuntu and OpenSuSE have worked out of the box.