[SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

_lex_1234 · 2025-08-15 16:18:53

All,

After upgrading the system, my RTL8852BE wifi started malfunctioning (dropping connection after a couple of minutes).. The update included a firmware update to

linux-firmware-realtek-20250808-1

After this update, my wifi connection was unstable and was interrupted repeatedly after a couple of minutes of usage.
I could restart iwd and the connection, solving it for some time before it got interrupted again.

My journalctl:
http://0x0.st/Krmk.txt

Downgrading the firmware to the previous versions using the following has solved this.

pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-realtek-20250708-1-any.pkg.tar.zst
pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-20250708-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

( To verify: after this, I once again updated the firmware to the latest version, the problems reoccurred...)

Mainly posting this to see if anyone has similar issues.

Alex.

Last edited by _lex_1234 (2025-09-21 07:48:03)

coolans · 2025-08-18 06:44:43

just downgrading this package is enough, I am thinking of holding back this package in pacman conf.

pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux-firmware-realtek-20250708-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

seth · 2025-08-18 08:40:03

Mainly posting this to see if anyone has similar issues.

This dude: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 9#p2256719

oldherl · 2025-08-19 14:31:30

Me too. Is there a bug reported to upstream? And where should I report to?

seth · 2025-08-19 14:42:18

Is the offending firmware https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linu … type=heads ?
Does https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linu … type=heads still work when you remove the former file?

_lex_1234 · 2025-08-20 18:45:19

seth wrote:

Is the offending firmware https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linu … type=heads ?
Does https://gitlab.com/kernel-firmware/linu … type=heads still work when you remove the former file?

Yes, it is that firmware file that is loaded (see last line):

[root@alexarch alex]# dmesg | grep firmware
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=7c36495b-3393-4af4-a40c-41301c38e98c rw loglevel=3 drm.edid_firmware=edid/edidcard1-eDP-2
[    0.043686] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=7c36495b-3393-4af4-a40c-41301c38e98c rw loglevel=3 drm.edid_firmware=edid/edidcard1-eDP-2
[    0.115726] Spectre V2 : Enabling Restricted Speculation for firmware calls
[    2.986310] amdgpu 0000:36:00.0: amdgpu: [drm] Loading DMUB firmware via PSP: version=0x04000045
[    2.986908] amdgpu 0000:36:00.0: amdgpu: Found VCN firmware Version ENC: 1.33 DEC: 4 VEP: 0 Revision: 3
[    4.043901] systemd[1]: Clear Stale Hibernate Storage Info was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionPathExists=/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/HibernateLocation-8cf2644b-4b0b-428f-9387-6d876050dc67).
[    4.885859] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[    5.109640] rtw89_8852be 0000:04:00.0: loaded firmware rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin

Is there a way to ckeck the actual version from the package I installed/used?
( like in your question, rtw89: 8852b: v0.29.128.0 vs rtw89: 8852b: rv0.27.32.1 ?)

Last edited by _lex_1234 (2025-08-20 19:11:03)

seth · 2025-08-20 20:36:50

It should™ be sufficient to move /usr/lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin.zst away (eg. into /usr/lib.bak/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin.zst, but you can also delete it - re-installing linux-firmware-realtek will restore it)
rtw8852b_fw.bin.zst will then hopefully be used and work and then you best ping the individual at realtek (see the gitlab link) about this. The firmware is a binary blob of black magic.

_lex_1234 · 2025-08-21 19:15:22

seth wrote:

It should™ be sufficient to move /usr/lib/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin.zst away (eg. into /usr/lib.bak/firmware/rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin.zst, but you can also delete it - re-installing linux-firmware-realtek will restore it)
rtw8852b_fw.bin.zst will then hopefully be used and work and then you best ping the individual at realtek (see the gitlab link) about this. The firmware is a binary blob of black magic.

Thanks, I did as you proposed and indeed, using the rtw8852b_fw-1.bin version made the wifi fail.
Removing it and rebooting made the system load the other one (dmesg):

[    4.796520] rtw89_8852be 0000:04:00.0: Direct firmware load for rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin failed with error -2
[    4.800003] rtw89_8852be 0000:04:00.0: loaded firmware rtw89/rtw8852b_fw.bin
[root@alexarch alex]#

I just sent a message to the person on gitlab submittig that latest version.

Alex.

Last edited by _lex_1234 (2025-08-21 19:15:40)

bnicolae · 2025-08-21 19:45:36

[deleted] (wrong topic)

Last edited by bnicolae (2025-08-21 19:48:48)

n6v26r · 2025-08-23 22:18:15

I also have issues with the latest realtek firmware update.
See: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220485

_lex_1234 · 2025-09-20 06:40:44

As an update, this morning I tried the new version of the realtek firmware:

linux-firmware-realtek-20250917-1

However, problems reoccured, i.e. this firmware is also broken.
So I reverted back to inux-firmware-realtek-20250708-1-any.pkg.tar.zst.

Last edited by _lex_1234 (2025-09-20 06:41:13)

seth · 2025-09-20 07:56:33

According to https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=220485#c15 you'd also need a 6.17 (>= rc3) kernel, see eg. https://pkgbuild.com/\~gromit/linux-bisection-kernels/ if you want to try one.

_lex_1234 · 2025-09-20 19:41:36

Thanks Seth!

Indeed a newer kernel with the latest firmware seems to work !
(admitting, note that I didn't read/understand the whole story of ' why' , I just followed the advice for updating the kernel) :

[alex@alexarch ~]$ pacman --query linux-firmware-realtek
linux-firmware-realtek 20250917-1
[alex@alexarch ~]$ uname -a
Linux alexarch 6.17.0-rc6handmatig2025 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat Sep 20 19:01:33 CEST 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux

And wifi works seemlesly so far, using the september version of the realtek-firmware.

seth · 2025-09-20 21:21:03

\o/
Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

(you might have to shorten the present subject a bit)

_lex_1234 · 2025-09-21 07:48:38

Done, allthough I would probably classify this as a temporary workaround more than a truly solved problem.

seth · 2025-09-21 08:22:22

We expect this to be fully resolved with pending updates, no?

_lex_1234 · 2025-09-21 09:05:04

Agreed :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-08-15 16:18:53

[SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#2 2025-08-18 06:44:43

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#3 2025-08-18 08:40:03

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#4 2025-08-19 14:31:30

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#5 2025-08-19 14:42:18

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#6 2025-08-20 18:45:19

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#7 2025-08-20 20:36:50

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#8 2025-08-21 19:15:22

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#9 2025-08-21 19:45:36

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#10 2025-08-23 22:18:15

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#11 2025-09-20 06:40:44

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#12 2025-09-20 07:56:33

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#13 2025-09-20 19:41:36

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#14 2025-09-20 21:21:03

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#15 2025-09-21 07:48:38

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#16 2025-09-21 08:22:22

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

#17 2025-09-21 09:05:04

Re: [SOLVED] Realtek RTL8852Wifi broke by linux-firmware-realtek-20250808

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