Update: See the installation of the  same driver in Ubuntu 18.04 or other operating systems which use kernel version higher than 4.14 here

GNU/Linux distributions have really matured enough in the last years to be used as a stable desktop operating system. But still there are some nasty WiFi modules and Graphics Cards that won’t work in GNU/Linux out-of-the-box. Today we are going to work on such a WiFi module. Let’s take a look at how to install WiFi driver for RTL8723DE aka RealTek d723.

Some of the newly arrived laptops, especially from HP, come with RealTek network cards such as RTL8723BE or RTL8723DE which may not work in many GNU/Linux distributions out-of-the-box. The Realtek RTL8723DE-CG is an 802.11bgn 2.4G single-chip that integrates Wireless LAN (WLAN) and a network PCIe interface controller with integrated Bluetooth 2.1/4.2 USB interface controller. This chip currently doesn’t have native GNU/Linux support. This puts many people into helpless situation who are desperately looking for how to install WiFi driver for RTL8723DE.

How to Install WiFi Driver for RTL8723DE aka RealTek d723

Most people are not even able to find a solution for this online. Here in AskUbuntu, you can see that the question regarding how to install WiFi Driver for RTL8723DE on GNU/Linux is not properly answered. There’s also an issue in the GitHub repo rtlwifi_new mentioning that this chip isn’t supported. For some it may work while for others it may not be the case. That’s why I got tempted to write this post in order to share an alternate working solution.

If you have already searched about this device then you may have already found this repo. But unfortunately it didn’t work for me. So I did a detailed search and came across another repo from its comments. And this time it worked perfectly.

Steps to install RTL8723DE WiFi Driver

First you need to check whether your Linux kernel version is above 4.10. For that run the following command in terminal:

uname -r

If your Linux kernel version is above 4.10

1. Install required packages for building the driver

sudo apt-get install build-essential git dkms

2. Clone the driver repository

git clone https://github.com/jeremyb31/rtl8723de.git

3. Then follow these steps to install the driver

sudo dkms add ./rtl8723de

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

4. Now reboot your system and you will have your WiFi device working by now

If your Linux kernel is older than 4.10

All steps are same as above except for the step 2. You just need to replace the clone URL in the 2nd step with the one mentioned below.

git clone -b 4.10-down https://github.com/jeremyb31/rtl8723de.git

The post How to Install WiFi driver for RTL8723DE aka RealTek d723 in GNU/Linux Distributions appeared first on IB Computing.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of the Linux kernel 4.15 series on 28th January 2018, the first major version release with patches against the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities.

Linux kernel 4.15 has been in development since the last two months. The new release arrives late by one week than the actual expected date. The kernel developers were under extreme pressure to redesign the kernel against the infamous Meltdown and Spectre attacks which resulted in the slowest Linux kernel release since 2011.

After a release cycle that was unusual in so many (bad) ways, this
last week was really pleasant. Quiet and small, and no last-minute
panics, just small fixes for various issues. I never got a feeling
that I’d need to extend things by yet another week, and 4.15 looks
fine to me.

Linux kernel 4.15 is reportedly the first kernel series that is fully patched against the Meltdown and Spectre hardware security vulnerabilities. But unofrutnately the patches are only available for the x86 and PowerPC (PPC) architectures. Linux kernel 4.15 is expected in the stable repositories of major GNU/Linux distros soon.

Also, it is worth pointing out that it’s not like we’re “done” with
spectre/meltdown.

Linus was so angry with the Intel developers last week such that he didn’t even hesitate to use the F word publicly.

As it is, the patches are COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE.

They do literally insane things. They do things that do not make
sense. That makes all your arguments questionable and suspicious. The
patches do things that are not sane.

WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON?

And that’s actually ignoring the much _worse_ issue, namely that the
whole hardware interface is literally mis-designed by morons.

What’s new in the Linux Kernel 4.15 release

• Meltdown and Spectre patches for the x86 and PowerPC (PPC) architectures.
• Support for RISC-V architecture
• Support for the User-Mode Instruction Prevention feature on Intel CPUs
• A new cgroupv2-enabled CPU controller for better CPU usage restrictions.
• Support for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization
• Improved video support for AMD GPUs.
• Added modesetting to the AMDGPU open-source graphics driver for supported AMD Radeon GPUs.
• Improved power usage for machines with SATA Link Power Management feature.
• Various updates regarding networking, filesystems, grpahics, drivers and more.

Anyway, while spectre/meltdown has obviously been the big news this
release cycle, it’s worth noting that we obviously had all the
*normal* updates going on too, and the work everywhere else didn’t
just magically stop, even if some developers have been distracted by
CPU issues. In the *big* picture, 4.15 looks perfectly normal, with
two thirds of the full 4.15 patch being about drivers, and even the
arch updates are dominated by the arm DTS diffs, not by CPU bug
mitigation.

So the news cycle notwithstanding, the bulk of the 4.15 work is all
the regular plodding “boring” stuff. And I mean that in the best
possible way. It may not be glamorous and get the headlines, but it’s
the bread and butter of kernel development, and is in many ways the
really important stuff.

Download Linux Kernel 4.15

Those who aren’t patient enough can download Linux Kernel 4.15 from kernel.org and compile the sources right now. Otherwise you can wait until the new release arrives in your GNULinux distro’s official repository which is expected soon in the light of Spectre and Meltdown hardware security vulnerabilites.

The post Linux Kernel 4.15 Released With Spectre & Meltdown Patches appeared first on IB Computing.

Or is Intel basically saying “we are committed to selling you shit
forever and ever, and never fixing anything”?

Because if that’s the case, maybe we should start looking towards the
ARM64 people more.

Here’s the official announcement from Linus Torvalds, regarding the delay in new Linux Kernel release, through the mailing list:

I really really wanted to just release 4.15 today, but things haven’t
calmed down enough for me to feel comfy about it, and Davem tells me
he still has some networking fixes pending. Laura Abbott found and
fixed a very subtle boot bug introduced this development cycle only
yesterday, and it just didn’t feel right to say that we’re done.

So I’m doing an rc9 instead. I don’t particularly like to, but I like
it even less releasing something that doesn’t seem baked enough.

Some people have already started sending me pull requests for 4.16
(generally because they aren’t expecting to be online next week and
expected the merge window to open). I appreciate it, and I’ll keep
them queued up, I just won’t start applying them quite yet.

Anyway, rc9 is mostly arch updates (x86, arm, powerpc, mips) and
drivers (gpu, networking and md). And some core networking. And then
there’s various random misc fallout (tracing, bpf, and new selftests)

I really expect no more delays after this. We’ve had rc9’s before, but
they have been pretty rare (the last one was 3.1-rc9 back in 2011 –
that release went all the way to rc10, and I really don’t think we’ll
do that this time _despite_ all the CPU bug mitigation craziness).

Linus

As Linus already mentioned, the last Linux kernel release with more than eight Release Candidates was Linux 3.1 in 2011. Linux 3.1 even got a tenth RC. But since Linus said that there won’t be more delay, let’s hope that Linux 4.15 won’t reach the tenth RC and will release the final version on January 28th. Meanwhile, Linux kernel 4.15 RC9 is now available for download and testing.

The post Spectre and Meltdown Delaying New Linux Kernel Release appeared first on IB Computing.

Booting Fucshia is not an easy task. Unlike the GNU/Linux distros out there, you can’t expect to simply download, burn, boot and start the installation. Instead of that, you will have to make a bootable device using Zedboot. Zedboot is basically a network bootloader.

According to the initial testing from Ars Technica the touchscreen, trackpad, and keyboard and USB ports are reported to be working fine. Regarding network, Wi-Fi didn’t work but the USB Ethernet adapter worked just fine. But again don’t expect it to be stable because it crashes a lot, a lot of things don’t even work. Fuchsia still got a long way to go in order to be called stable.

What’s working and what’s not in the all-new Fuchsia OS from Google

It is noted that Google still hasn’t made any serious announcements regarding the stable release or exclusive features of Fuchsia. Let’s take a look at what’s working and what’s not according to the latest and extensive testing by Ars Technica.

• Google bar at the bottom will do local search and shows launchable apps
• Browser is unfinished and can’t render most sites except google.com
• Recent apps work fine and swiping the thumbnails will close the app just like in Android
• Hidden settings on the home screen such as tapping on the time will allow you to pick timezone
• Navigation bar appears in apps with a centered home button and a right-aligned functioning battery icon
• Long-press on the home button will bring up the non-functional quick settings panel
• Swiping up from the bottom will bring up the Google search bar
• Infinite scrolling list of demo apps including non-functional video player, chat app and music player

The post First Look at all new Fuchsia OS from Google appeared first on IB Computing.