RTL8723b Kernel driver not loading on normal boot. [kernel-bug-exists-upstream]

[SB]

I use a very low end laptop with a built in rtl8723b wifi card. I always used the driver from lwfinger on github and that one worked well.

But now Ubuntu comes with a driver for this card but that does not work on normal boot.
Strange thing is this driver is initialised after resume from suspend.

So i blacklisted the kernel module with:
echo "blacklist rtl8xxxu" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8xxxu.conf

and used the lwfinger driver from github again.

So with rtl8xxu driver wifi card does not work on normal boot but does work when recovering from suspend to ram.

Thank you. Bye.
---
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: X-Cinnamon
DistroRelease: Linux 18.1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-12-23 (79 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Linux Mint 18.1 "Serena" - Release amd64 20161213
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Tags: serena
Uname: Linux 4.9.10-040910-generic x86_64
UnreportableReason: The running kernel is not an Ubuntu kernel
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. It seems that your bug report is not filed about a specific source package though, rather it is just filed against Ubuntu in general. It is important that bug reports be filed about source packages so that people interested in the package can find the bugs about it. You can find some hints about determining what package your bug might be about at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. You might also ask for help in the #ubuntu-bugs irc channel on Freenode.

To change the source package that this bug is filed about visit https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1672198/+editstatus and add the package name in the text box next to the word Package.

[This is an automated message. I apologize if it reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1672198

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[SB (lumumba)]

apport information

[SB (lumumba)]

Because I do not have access to the machine running Ubuntu now i ran apport from my machine which is identical and has the identical problem with RTL8723 just it runs Linux Mint. As you can see I tried various Kernel up to 4.9 and the problem is the same with any kernel.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.11 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.11-rc2

[SB (lumumba)]

It did start as I had to use kernel 4.8 in order to get my multimedia keys and suspend to ram working on that machine. With Kernel 4.4 I had to compile the the driver from lwfinger in order to use wifi.

I will test kernel 4.11 tomorrow and report.

[SB (lumumba)]

Bug still present with Kernel 4.11 Rc2.

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

Can you boot with "rtl8xxxu.debug=0xffff" and attach the dmesg?

[Kai-Heng Feng (kaihengfeng)]

In addition, please attach the output of `rfkill list`, thanks.

[Yoshiba (yoshibatora)]

Same issue here. Please checkout my posted bug report for details.

[SB (lumumba)]

Works since 2019