Arch Linux

Xavion

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2010-03-13

Posts: 41

[SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

Hi Guys,

I've got the following USB stick Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapter:

$ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 013: ID 7392:a611 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7611ULB 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter

It used to work out of the box (i.e. plug and play) in Arch Linux, using kernel drivers.  That's no longer the case.

When plugging it in, I get the following errors:

$ sudo dmesg | tail -50
[169977.337764] usb 3-12: new high-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
[169977.478335] usb 3-12: New USB device found, idVendor=7392, idProduct=a611, bcdDevice= 2.00
[169977.478348] usb 3-12: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[169977.478353] usb 3-12: Product: Edimax Wi-Fi N150 Bluetooth4.0 USB Adapter
[169977.478358] usb 3-12: Manufacturer: Realtek
[169977.478362] usb 3-12: SerialNumber: 00e04c000001
[169977.485827] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: examining hci_ver=06 hci_rev=000b lmp_ver=06 lmp_subver=8723
[169977.486836] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: rom_version status=0 version=1
[169977.486842] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: loading rtl_bt/rtl8723b_fw.bin
[169977.486926] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for rtl_bt/rtl8723b_fw.bin failed with error -2
[169977.486934] Bluetooth: hci0: RTL: firmware file rtl_bt/rtl8723b_fw not found
[169977.558039] usb 3-12: RTL8723BU rev E (SMIC) romver 0, 1T1R, TX queues 3, WiFi=1, BT=1, GPS=0, HI PA=0
[169977.558043] usb 3-12: RTL8723BU MAC: 08:be:ac:1c:35:7a
[169977.558044] usb 3-12: rtl8xxxu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin
[169977.558061] usb 3-12: Direct firmware load for rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin failed with error -2
[169977.558062] usb 3-12: request_firmware(rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin) failed
[169977.558063] usb 3-12: Fatal - failed to load firmware
[169977.558067] rtl8xxxu: probe of 3-12:1.2 failed with error -11

I'm running Linux LTS kernel v6.6.72-1 from [core].  According to this webpage, the driver exists in kernels up to v6.12.

I know there's the rtl8723bu-dkms-git package, but I would prefer to have this working out of the box again (if possible).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Last edited by Xavion (2025-01-21 02:36:31)

mackin_cheese

Member

Registered: 2025-01-07

Posts: 477

Re: [SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

when did you update the lts kernel and did you reboot since that update?

Xavion

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2010-03-13

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

Thanks for the reply.

The LTS kernel was last upgraded on Sunday (19 Jan 2025), and I rebooted immediately afterwards.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,868

Re: [SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

[169977.558044] usb 3-12: rtl8xxxu: Loading firmware rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin
[169977.558061] usb 3-12: Direct firmware load for rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin failed with error -2
[169977.558062] usb 3-12: request_firmware(rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin) failed
[169977.558063] usb 3-12: Fatal - failed to load firmware

Is linux-firmware installed on the affected system?

pacman -Fx rtl8723bu_nic.bin
core/linux-firmware 20250109.7673dffd-1
    usr/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8723bu_nic.bin.zst

Xavion

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2010-03-13

Posts: 41

Re: [SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

Silly me, I had to uninstall a bunch of packages recently to get my drive usage (well) below 90%.  It looks like 'linux-firmware' is one of the packages that got removed.

I have reinstalled it and the problem is now fixed: 'wlan0' shows up in the list of network adapters, and 'bluetoothctl' recognises my Bluetooth controller.

Thanks very much for your help.  I'm glad it was such a simple fix!

Do I need to mark this thread as solved somehow?  I can't seem to find a way to add '[SOLVED]' to the topic/subject line.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 18,868

Re: [SOLVED] My Wi-Fi/Bluetooth USB stick no longer works (PnP) in Linux

Do I need to mark this thread as solved somehow?  I can't seem to find a way to add '[SOLVED]' to the topic/subject line.

You can do that by editing your first post which will allow you to change the title. If it is too long to prepend [SOLVED] you may need to shorten it.