Arch Linux

Filip98

Member

Registered: 2018-06-20

Posts: 6

Driver question(bluetooth)

Hello, i'm very new to arch linux tho i've been using lubuntu for some time.
I have the rtl8723be wifi chip, it's been known to make some problems on linux systems
e.g on ubuntu and kali it would never work without lwfinger's repu and the bluetooth was broken  too(i heard it received support on linux 4.17, i really dont remember did it work on ubuntu  and with what driver but on kali it didnt)

So after finally installing arch sucessfully i make the assumption that my wifi is broken and set it up via ethernet and later find out i have excellent signal strenght out of the box but nonetheless i clone lwfinger's repu so i dont stay on the generic driver but the signal strenght isnt noticably better.
I also set up bluetooth and am using blueman as the gui frontend and i managed to connect it to my amplifier but even when my laptop is right next to the amplifier blueman says "Received signal strenght 47% (optimal)", this reminds me a lot of what the wifi used to be on stock ubuntu(non existant unless you're next to the router).

This was a long intro but i guess now everyone will know what im asking and why:
Should i be looking for a device specific driver for my bluetooth chip?
Did i do the correct thing with the wifi or did arch already have everything that was needed and i shouldnt have bothered(e.g dont fix it if its not broken)?

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,192

Re: Driver question(bluetooth)

The 4.17 kernel should already have the most recent version of the driver. It may even be better than the lwfinger version. You should first try to get wifi and blueooth working with the kernel driver. Only if you get problems, try external ones.
You may have to choose the correct antenna with ant_sel= 0 , 1 or 2 if bluetooth is not working well. That behaviour is common on HP laptops which only install one of the two antennae.

# /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf
# choose correct antenna for bluetooth and wifi.
# Possible values: 0, 1, 2
options rtl8723be ant_sel=1

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wi … Frtl8723be
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=208472

Last edited by progandy (2018-06-20 15:48:23)

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Filip98

Member

Registered: 2018-06-20

Posts: 6

Re: Driver question(bluetooth)

Ah i see, i tested out ant_sel=1 and ant_sel=2 but only for wifi, it seems that the signal is far better with ant_sel 2 for wifi.. i'll see what the situation is for the bluetooth. My laptop is HP indeed, really would have been better if they had both the antennas
All in all thanks, i'll check it out as is and then just rebuild the kernel and not install the lwfinger driver and see what's going on then

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,192

Re: Driver question(bluetooth)

If ant_sel=2 is better for wifi, then the same should be the case for bluetooth as well.

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