Notice: the text in red has been deleted from the previous revision, the text in green has been added in this revision and the text in gray has not been changed.
differences in the entry: vendor
Realtek-Semiconductor-Co.-Ltd.
differences in the entry: model name
Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter
differences in the entry: possible other names of the device
RTL8723BE
differences in the entry: VendorID:ProductID code of the device
10ec:b723
differences in the entry: year of commercialization
not-specified
differences in the entry: interface
mini-PCI-E
differences in the entry: GNU/Linux distribution used for the test
parabola , trisquel_7_0
differences in the entry: tested with the following kernel libre
differences in the entry: does it work with free software?
no
differences in the entry: free driver used
rtl8723be
differences in the entry: Description
[p]A bit of nuance for this device,[/p]
[i]> e.g. '.alt_fw_name = "rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin"' then wifi on this device will correctly work[/i]
[p]Some cards can ship non-free firmware embedded, using the actual firmware name required by the driver will give the same result as actually providing the firmware.[/p]
[p]Due to policies on firmware loading, [b]FSFLA's linux-libre[/b] will reject the load of any non-free firmware even provided by the device, on the other hand, Trisquel's kernel policy is to [u]not recommend nor advertise it's use[/u] while hands the user the responsibility and technical labor to add load certain firmware if the user chooses to[1].[/p]
[p]If this card does not work while running a copy of the linux-libre kernel as [u]as distributed by the FSFLA[2], FSFLA[/u][2], this card should be marked as requiring non-free firmware.[/p]
[p]While deciding if a firmware shipped via the ROM device, can be seen as free or non-free due the impossibility to be changed is part of a broader discussion and not necessary for this particular device.[/p]
[p]The h-node mailing list [3] or linux-libre mailing list[4], would make a good place for such discussion.[/p]
[p][1] [a]https://gitlab.trisquel.org/trisquel/package-helpers/-/blob/nabia/helpers/DATA/linux/silent-accept-firmware.patch#L1[/a][/p]
[p][2] [a]http://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/[/a][/p]
[p][3] [a]https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/h-source-users[/a][/p]
[p][4] [a]http://www.fsfla.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-libre[/a][/p]
---
[p]Worked on Parabola/Linux-libre, module was loaded without the firmware blob and it just worked. In the module source the path to firmware binary can be dummy. It only takes a bit longer to connect/search. Needs adaptation in source.[/p]
[p]Previous description about Trisquel:
Non-free firmware is required.[/p]
More info:
[list]
[*] https://wiki.debian.org/rtl819x[/*]
[*] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTL8723AE[/*]
[/list]
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