Debian installer auf Pinebook (Was: X11 modul for pinebook?)

[Andreas Tille]

Hi Andrei,

See if maybe these pages in the wiki are helpful
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/Pinebook
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/PINEA64

Thank you for these links.

See also this thread (still ongoing) on getting the graphical installer
working on arm64.

I admit I do not mind about the graphical installer - I always use the
test based installer.

My question is rather: Can I simply `dd` the Debian arm64 install disk
to a miniSD card, boot from this and install on the internal emmc of my
pinebook. This was *not* possible when I bought this device and I would
love if somebody would confirm here before I mess up what is now
"somehow working".

Kind regards

Andreas.

PS: It would be nice if you would keep me in CC. I can read
the web archive but this breaks the thread.

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Andreas Tille

See if maybe these pages in the wiki are helpful
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/Pinebook
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/PINE64/PINEA64

Thank you for these links.

See also this thread (still ongoing) on getting the graphical installer
working on arm64.

I admit I do not mind about the graphical installer - I always use the
test based installer.

The "text based installer" may only work over serial console... slightly
more information below.

Post by Andreas Tille
My question is rather: Can I simply `dd` the Debian arm64 install disk
to a miniSD card, boot from this and install on the internal emmc of my
pinebook. This was *not* possible when I bought this device and I would
love if somebody would confirm here before I mess up what is now
"somehow working".

The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work
with *serial console*:

https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images

Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but
you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot
arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the
appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio
archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a
project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching
kernel version.

But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling.


live well,
vagrant

[Andreas Tille]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Andreas Tille
I admit I do not mind about the graphical installer - I always use the
test based installer.

The "text based installer" may only work over serial console... slightly
more information below.

How do I install a serial console (any link to docs)?

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Andreas Tille
My question is rather: Can I simply `dd` the Debian arm64 install disk
to a miniSD card, boot from this and install on the internal emmc of my
pinebook. This was *not* possible when I bought this device and I would
love if somebody would confirm here before I mess up what is now
"somehow working".

The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work
https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images

So I need to

wget https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook.img.gz
wget https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz
zcat firmware.pinebook.img.gz partition.img.gz > complete_image.img

How can I now install this image. If I understand, this

dd if=complete_image.img of=/dev/my_mini_sd_card

is no solution, right?

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but
you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot
arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the
appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio
archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a
project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching
kernel version.

I admit that sounds *way* more complex for a thing that I consider
rather a "toy" than a work horse. Please do not understand me wrong:
I'm currently in a long term Debian Med sprint to fight COVID-19.
Fiddling around with an arm64 box that does not contribute at all to
that important task should not comsume more than 30min and I want to
have a clear view on the real chances that the procedure will succeed
and not end up in endless questions here.

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling.

OK, that makes me just "wait" for more progress and I will ask here
6 month later or so.

Is there any chance to safely bump the kernel on my existing system?
What u-boot should I install to approach this? Or is this idea also
a bit dangerous to break the whole system.

Kind regards

Andreas.

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work
https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images
Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but
you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot
arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the
appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio
archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a
project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching
kernel version.
But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling.

I found this older thread and wanted to check if there have been any
updates on this that I might have missed?

I gave the images from buster a try and the installation process ran
fine on LCD until the network interface wasn't found.

Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye, so I gave its SD card images a
try. However, they launch to a black screen, so I assume that this still
goes out to serial?

Assuming that I figure out how to connect the serial (apparently through
the headphone jack), should installation over serial be routine, or are
there also still gotchas?

Thanks,
Christian

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Christian Kastner

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work
https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images
Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but
you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot
arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the
appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio
archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a
project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching
kernel version.
But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling.

I found this older thread and wanted to check if there have been any
updates on this that I might have missed?
I gave the images from buster a try and the installation process ran
fine on LCD until the network interface wasn't found.

The modules needed since buster has changed, since some accelerated
graphics support was added.

I tried to add the new modules to the kernel .udebs a while back:

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/commit/e6e296b335a7081a1a88c41dae4539f3115da44e

And just tested on a pinebook:

https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/20201031-02:16/netboot/gtk/SD-card-images/

zcat firmware.pinebook.img.gz partition.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/DEVICE bs=4096k

But it isn't working for me either...


I extracted the initrd used in the installer image, and it contains:

find -name '*.ko' | grep -E 'anx|pwm|panel|sun4i|sun8i|axp'
./kernel/drivers/phy/allwinner/phy-sun4i-usb.ko
./kernel/drivers/pwm/pwm-cros-ec.ko
./kernel/drivers/pwm/pwm-sun4i.ko
./kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/stmicro/stmmac/dwmac-sun8i.ko
./kernel/drivers/video/backlight/pwm_bl.ko
./kernel/drivers/mfd/axp20x-rsb.ko
./kernel/drivers/mfd/axp20x.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/sun4i/sun4i-frontend.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/sun4i/sun8i-mixer.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/sun4i/sun8i_tcon_top.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/sun4i/sun4i-drm.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/sun4i/sun4i-tcon.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/panel/panel-simple.ko
./kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/bridge/analogix/analogix-anx6345.ko
./kernel/drivers/regulator/pwm-regulator.ko
./kernel/drivers/regulator/axp20x-regulator.ko


The patch for initramfs-tools works for me:

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/initramfs-tools/commit/482897b9a6001c69b16c651d4bc5b3a49a28d40f


On a running pinebook with working video acceleration sufficient to run
wayland/sway, lsmod outputs:

Module Size Used by
nls_iso8859_1 16384 1
nls_cp437 20480 1
vfat 28672 1
fat 90112 1 vfat
isofs 53248 0
nls_utf8 16384 0
udf 126976 0
crc_itu_t 16384 1 udf
cdrom 65536 2 udf,isofs
rfkill 36864 1
ecb 16384 0
des_generic 16384 0
libdes 24576 1 des_generic
cbc 16384 0
ghash_ce 24576 0
gf128mul 16384 1 ghash_ce
sha2_ce 20480 0
sha256_arm64 28672 1 sha2_ce
axp20x_adc 20480 0
axp20x_battery 16384 0
axp20x_ac_power 16384 0
sha1_ce 20480 0
industrialio 77824 3 axp20x_battery,axp20x_ac_power,axp20x_adc
axp20x_pek 16384 0
cdc_ether 20480 0
snd_soc_simple_card 24576 0
usbnet 45056 1 cdc_ether
snd_soc_simple_card_utils 24576 1 snd_soc_simple_card
sun50i_codec_analog 28672 1
sun8i_adda_pr_regmap 16384 1 sun50i_codec_analog
sunxi_cedrus 40960 0
r8152 90112 0
v4l2_mem2mem 32768 1 sunxi_cedrus
lima 73728 0
uvcvideo 110592 0
sun4i_i2s 24576 2
sun8i_codec 28672 1
videobuf2_dma_contig 24576 1 sunxi_cedrus
snd_soc_simple_amplifier 16384 1
videobuf2_vmalloc 20480 1 uvcvideo
videobuf2_memops 20480 2 videobuf2_vmalloc,videobuf2_dma_contig
videobuf2_v4l2 28672 3 sunxi_cedrus,uvcvideo,v4l2_mem2mem
mii 20480 2 usbnet,r8152
gpu_sched 40960 1 lima
aes_ce_blk 36864 0
videobuf2_common 53248 4 sunxi_cedrus,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,v4l2_mem2mem
snd_soc_core 221184 6 sun4i_i2s,sun50i_codec_analog,sun8i_codec,snd_soc_simple_amplifier,snd_soc_simple_card_utils,snd_soc_simple_card
crypto_simd 24576 1 aes_ce_blk
cryptd 24576 1 crypto_simd
aes_ce_cipher 20480 1 aes_ce_blk
sun8i_thermal 16384 0
snd_pcm_dmaengine 20480 1 snd_soc_core
videodev 294912 5 sunxi_cedrus,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common,v4l2_mem2mem
libaes 16384 3 aes_ce_cipher,ghash_ce,aes_ce_blk
snd_pcm 126976 4 sun4i_i2s,sun8i_codec,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
sunxi_wdt 20480 0
snd_timer 45056 1 snd_pcm
sun8i_ce 32768 0
snd 102400 3 snd_timer,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm
sun6i_dma 36864 2
mc 53248 6 sunxi_cedrus,videodev,videobuf2_v4l2,uvcvideo,videobuf2_common,v4l2_mem2mem
crypto_engine 20480 1 sun8i_ce
evdev 32768 4
soundcore 20480 1 snd
nvmem_sunxi_sid 16384 1
cpufreq_dt 20480 0
ip_tables 32768 0
x_tables 45056 1 ip_tables
autofs4 53248 2
ext4 745472 1
crc16 16384 1 ext4
mbcache 24576 1 ext4
jbd2 139264 1 ext4
crc32c_generic 16384 2
hid_generic 16384 0
usbhid 61440 0
hid 143360 2 usbhid,hid_generic
axp20x_regulator 49152 16
analogix_anx6345 20480 0
pinctrl_axp209 16384 1
analogix_dp 53248 1 analogix_anx6345
ohci_platform 16384 0
ohci_hcd 57344 1 ohci_platform
ehci_platform 20480 0
sun4i_drm 20480 0
ehci_hcd 94208 1 ehci_platform
sun4i_frontend 20480 1 sun4i_drm
fixed 20480 4
axp20x_rsb 16384 0
axp20x 36864 1 axp20x_rsb
sun8i_mixer 40960 0
i2c_mv64xxx 24576 0
usbcore 294912 9 ohci_platform,ohci_hcd,ehci_platform,usbnet,usbhid,uvcvideo,ehci_hcd,cdc_ether,r8152
sun4i_tcon 40960 1 sun4i_drm
pwm_sun4i 20480 1
sun8i_tcon_top 20480 2 sun4i_tcon,sun4i_drm
drm_kms_helper 217088 8 sun8i_mixer,sun4i_frontend,sun4i_tcon,sun4i_drm,analogix_anx6345,analogix_dp
panel_simple 73728 0
phy_sun4i_usb 28672 4
usb_common 16384 6 ohci_hcd,ehci_platform,phy_sun4i_usb,usbcore,uvcvideo,ehci_hcd
drm 552960 11 gpu_sched,sun8i_mixer,drm_kms_helper,panel_simple,lima,sun4i_frontend,sun4i_tcon,sun4i_drm,analogix_anx6345,analogix_dp
sunxi_mmc 32768 0
pwm_bl 20480 0
gpio_keys 24576 0

Post by Christian Kastner
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,

That's interesting news!

Post by Christian Kastner
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye, so I gave its SD card images a
try. However, they launch to a black screen, so I assume that this still
goes out to serial?

Hrm. It should be going out to both... or at least, whichever responds
first.

Post by Christian Kastner
Assuming that I figure out how to connect the serial (apparently through
the headphone jack), should installation over serial be routine, or are
there also still gotchas?

You'll probably need to toggle a switch inside the case:

https://linux-sunxi.org/Pine_Pinebook#Adding_a_serial_port


I'll boot to serial console and see if I can't identify the missing
modules...


live well,
vagrant

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/commit/e6e296b335a7081a1a88c41dae4539f3115da44e
https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/20201031-02:16/netboot/gtk/SD-card-images/
zcat firmware.pinebook.img.gz partition.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/DEVICE bs=4096k
But it isn't working for me either...

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
On a running pinebook with working video acceleration sufficient to run
Module Size Used by

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
lima 73728 0

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
drm 552960 11 gpu_sched,sun8i_mixer,drm_kms_helper,panel_simple,lima,sun4i_frontend,sun4i_tcon,sun4i_drm,analogix_anx6345,analogix_dp

So far I've tracked down that "lima" is missing from the installer
images, and it's dependency "gpu_sched". There might be more needed, but
those definitely are a starting point.


live well,
vagrant

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/20201031-02:16/netboot/gtk/SD-card-images/
zcat firmware.pinebook.img.gz partition.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/DEVICE bs=4096k
But it isn't working for me either...

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
On a running pinebook with working video acceleration sufficient to run
Module Size Used by

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
lima 73728 0

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
drm 552960 11 gpu_sched,sun8i_mixer,drm_kms_helper,panel_simple,lima,sun4i_frontend,sun4i_tcon,sun4i_drm,analogix_anx6345,analogix_dp

So far I've tracked down that "lima" is missing from the installer
images, and it's dependency "gpu_sched". There might be more needed, but
those definitely are a starting point.

Well, lima wasn't actually necessary.

Turned out to need i2c_mv64xx for the console video on the LCD.

Also needed to add pinctrl_axp209 to get the usb keyboard to work.

Should be in the next kernel upload:

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/6b3763e98d3d5d6856d131d6a1ad246b57981fd8
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/9c5c235ae023ff521bcbad740f8ba1efb9d0b9cc


live well,
vagrant

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Well, lima wasn't actually necessary.
Turned out to need i2c_mv64xx for the console video on the LCD.
Also needed to add pinctrl_axp209 to get the usb keyboard to work.
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/6b3763e98d3d5d6856d131d6a1ad246b57981fd8
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/9c5c235ae023ff521bcbad740f8ba1efb9d0b9cc

Thank you *very* much for looking into this! I'll give it a try as soon
as the kernel is available, and will report back then.

[Alan Corey]

I'm wondering when it will be available. Is this in the daily builds?

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Well, lima wasn't actually necessary.
Turned out to need i2c_mv64xx for the console video on the LCD.
Also needed to add pinctrl_axp209 to get the usb keyboard to work.

https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/6b3763e98d3d5d6856d131d6a1ad246b57981fd8
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/9c5c235ae023ff521bcbad740f8ba1efb9d0b9cc
Thank you *very* much for looking into this! I'll give it a try as soon
as the kernel is available, and will report back then.

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Turned out to need i2c_mv64xx for the console video on the LCD.
Also needed to add pinctrl_axp209 to get the usb keyboard to work.
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/6b3763e98d3d5d6856d131d6a1ad246b57981fd8
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/9c5c235ae023ff521bcbad740f8ba1efb9d0b9cc

I finally got around to trying this again, and I'm happy to confirm that
this solved the issue for me. Using the new SD card images and an USB
ethernet adapter, installation proceeded fine (although I did not
complete it yet, as I need to read up on full disk encryption again).

Thanks, again!

Best,
Christian

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Christian Kastner

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Turned out to need i2c_mv64xx for the console video on the LCD.
Also needed to add pinctrl_axp209 to get the usb keyboard to work.
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/6b3763e98d3d5d6856d131d6a1ad246b57981fd8
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/9c5c235ae023ff521bcbad740f8ba1efb9d0b9cc

I finally got around to trying this again, and I'm happy to confirm that
this solved the issue for me. Using the new SD card images and an USB
ethernet adapter, installation proceeded fine (although I did not
complete it yet, as I need to read up on full disk encryption again).

My attempts at installing with full disk encryption all failed at boot
time (same effect: blank screen after the loading kernel message).

I then tried an installation without FDE. Again the blank screen, but
eventually a lightdm appeared (I chose XFCE at installation time).

This made me realize: the FDE installation probably worked fine, too,
it's just that where I was seeing a blank screen, the system was
prompting me for a password to decrypt the drive.

Can anyone advise me on how to fix this, ie get the console video on the
LCD back during early boot? I'm sure there is a simple solution, but I'm
not familiar enough with non-GRUB systems.

I tried adding the above two modules to /etc/modules (including
update-initramfs -u), but that didn't solve the problem, unfortunately.

Best,
Christian

[Alper Nebi Yasak]

Post by Christian Kastner
My attempts at installing with full disk encryption all failed at boot
time (same effect: blank screen after the loading kernel message).
I then tried an installation without FDE. Again the blank screen, but
eventually a lightdm appeared (I chose XFCE at installation time).
This made me realize: the FDE installation probably worked fine, too,
it's just that where I was seeing a blank screen, the system was
prompting me for a password to decrypt the drive.

I had experienced almost the same thing, and trying it in QEMU I found
it was prompting for the password over the serial connection. Check
/proc/consoles to see if serial is the "preferred" console.

Post by Christian Kastner
Can anyone advise me on how to fix this, ie get the console video on the
LCD back during early boot? I'm sure there is a simple solution, but I'm
not familiar enough with non-GRUB systems.

If so, adding "console=tty0" to the kernel cmdline (as the last console=
value) would fix that.

Also, IIRC installing plymouth works around that as it asks for the
password on all consoles (as opposed to initramfs-tools asking on only
the preferred one).

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Alper Nebi Yasak
I had experienced almost the same thing, and trying it in QEMU I found
it was prompting for the password over the serial connection. Check
/proc/consoles to see if serial is the "preferred" console.
If so, adding "console=tty0" to the kernel cmdline (as the last console=
value) would fix that.

Indeed, /dev/ttyS0 was listed as the preferred console, and modifying
/etc/default/flash-kernel by adding console=tty0 to the kernel command
line solved the issue.

Post by Alper Nebi Yasak
Also, IIRC installing plymouth works around that as it asks for the
password on all consoles (as opposed to initramfs-tools asking on only
the preferred one).

I tried this as well (after removing console=tty0), and this did not
work, unfortunately. But the above is sufficient anyway.

Thanks!
Christian

[Christian Kastner]

Thank you both for replying so quickly, and Vagrant for all the
information! arm64 is still quite the blackbox for me, and it seems that
every device out there is a bit "special" ;-)

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Christian Kastner
Assuming that I figure out how to connect the serial (apparently through
the headphone jack), should installation over serial be routine, or are
there also still gotchas?

https://linux-sunxi.org/Pine_Pinebook#Adding_a_serial_port
I'll boot to serial console and see if I can't identify the missing
modules...

I'll also give it a try as soon as I have another time window open
(which won't be that soon though, unfortunately...)

By the way, for any considering using this as an airgapped system (as I
will, at some point), I found this useful description on how to
permanently disable the WiFi chip. All it requires is removing one resistor:

https://www.coreforge.com/blog/2019/06/removing-pinebook-wifi/

[Alan Corey]

Serial is through the headphone jack but there's a switch inside to change
it from headphone to serial. So 10 screws or so.

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work

https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but
you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot
arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the
appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio
archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a
project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching
kernel version.
But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling.

I found this older thread and wanted to check if there have been any
updates on this that I might have missed?
I gave the images from buster a try and the installation process ran
fine on LCD until the network interface wasn't found.
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye, so I gave its SD card images a
try. However, they launch to a black screen, so I assume that this still
goes out to serial?
Assuming that I figure out how to connect the serial (apparently through
the headphone jack), should installation over serial be routine, or are
there also still gotchas?
Thanks,
Christian

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Christian Kastner
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye, so I gave its SD card images a
try. However, they launch to a black screen, so I assume that this still
goes out to serial?

I don't see anything regarding RTL8723cs support specifically in 5.9 (or
in linux master or next), other than a mention of a compatible in the
pinebook device tree. That compatible is not referenced by any drivers,
so probably not actually used.

It is also mentioned in the bluetooth documentation, but again, not
referenced by any drivers.

Maybe there's a proposed patchset somewhere or an out-of-tree driver?


Also don't see any firmware specific to rtl8723cs ... but *maybe* it
could in theory use firmware from one of the other numerous rtl8723*
variants...


Looks like I'll be sticking to usb ethernet and wifi adapters for the
near future, which works well enough...


live well,
vagrant

[Vagrant Cascadian]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Christian Kastner
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
I don't see anything regarding RTL8723cs support specifically in 5.9

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Maybe there's a proposed patchset somewhere or an out-of-tree driver?

Nothing was ever proposed:

https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=*&q=rtl8723cs

This looks promising, though:

https://github.com/Icenowy/rtl8723cs


live well,
vagrant

[Alan Corey]

It's in Daniel Thompson's Bulleye package for the Pinebook Pro. I see
a few variants like 8723ae,be,com

https://github.com/daniel-thompson/pinebook-pro-debian-installer

I'm not using it right now, it has Manjaro stuff in it that I don't like.

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Christian Kastner
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
I don't see anything regarding RTL8723cs support specifically in 5.9

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Maybe there's a proposed patchset somewhere or an out-of-tree driver?

https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=*&q=rtl8723cs
https://github.com/Icenowy/rtl8723cs
live well,
vagrant

[Christian Kastner]

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Vagrant Cascadian

Post by Christian Kastner
Apparently the WIFI is a RTL8723cs device and support landed in 5.9,
coincidentally the kernel in bullseye

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
I don't see anything regarding RTL8723cs support specifically in 5.9

...

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
Maybe there's a proposed patchset somewhere or an out-of-tree driver?

I'm terribly sorry, I mixed up product codes in my head.

Checking my browser history, what was added in 5.9 was not RTL8723CS,
but RTL8125B.

RTL8125B is ethernet and I guess it's present in some device I either I
was considering to acquire.

Post by Vagrant Cascadian
https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?state=*&q=rtl8723cs
https://github.com/Icenowy/rtl8723cs