making a wifi driver

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 07:49:28 -0400

elmussol

elmussol@elsmussols.net

I have never used make, but have need now. I am doing a Windows to Debian Testing reinstall on a friend's HP laptop.

So I need a wifi driver, lspci tells me:
03:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723DE 802.11b/g/n PCIe Adapter

I find this on the HP support forum:
#^Realtek 8723DE wifi module & Bluetooth Linux driver available

The info is slightly out of date, but I ended up at this on github:
#santoshchaurasiyacs / lwfinger-rtlwifi_new

Running make the end of the output is:

  CC [M]  /home/geode/src/lwfinger-rtlwifi_new/rc.o
/home/geode/src/lwfinger-rtlwifi_new/rc.c:336:11: error: initialization of ‘void * (*)(struct ieee80211_hw *)’ from incompatible pointer type ‘void * (*)(struct ieee80211_hw *, struct dentry *)’ [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
  336 |  .alloc = rtl_rate_alloc,
      |           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/geode/src/lwfinger-rtlwifi_new/rc.c:336:11: note: (near initialization for ‘rtl_rate_ops.alloc’)
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[3]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-5.7.0-1-common/scripts/Makefile.build:272: /home/geode/src/lwfinger-rtlwifi_new/rc.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-5.7.0-1-common/Makefile:1745: /home/geode/src/lwfinger-rtlwifi_new] Error 2
make[1]: *** [/usr/src/linux-headers-5.7.0-1-common/Makefile:180: sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/linux-headers-5.7.0-1-amd64'
make: *** [Makefile:85: all] Error 2

I have not a clue. Pointers welcome.

santoshchaurasiyacs linux

show all 8 comments

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 10:13:05 -0400

Harald Eilertsen

harald@hub.volse.no

@elmussol This is a bug in the driver source code. It tries to assign a function pointer to a field meant to hold a function pointer with a slightly different signature (an extra function argument.) There's nothing you can do about this except fix the offending code or simply report it on their bugtracker.

My guess is that there's a version conflict, the linux wifi stack has possibly changed one of it's function signatures, and the code is not yet updated to reflect this change.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 10:19:17 -0400

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

parlehaakon@elsmussols.net

In the old days, it usually meant the kernel source code version was a different version to the one expected by the driver source code. I cannot recall how one figures out which matches which.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 10:20:58 -0400

Adam Robertson

adam@z.digio.space

Did you see the note on the README:

Note: If your kernel is 4.17 or newer, AND your card is not an RTL8723DE, then you should NOT be using the external driver. The built-in one is the same.

Some of those HP's have a physical toggle on the side of the keyboard to turn wifi on or off. I have seen one that had a keyboard Function Key for it..

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 10:52:26 -0400

elmussol

elmussol@elsmussols.net

Thanks all. @Harald Eilertsen I will file on github and see.

@Adam Robertson I did, but I don't fulfil both sides if AND, and so I do need.

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 12:34:55 -0400

Adam Robertson

adam@z.digio.space

I try to keep on-hand some extra USB wifi plugs as well as wifi mini-pci cards that are linux compatible. It seems like it is an issue that pops up often enough.

Interestingly: I have been working on several computers lately switching them to linux. I attribute the sudden interest to EOL of Windows 7 and dread of Windows 10

Sun, 12 Jul 2020 12:39:05 -0400

elmussol

elmussol@elsmussols.net

Issues filed:

#^make fail
and
#^README.md update required

@Adam Robertson I think you are spot on with your Win7/10 hypothesis.

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 03:30:17 -0400

elmussol

elmussol@elsmussols.net

The closed issue seems to be the same problem:

#^make command throws error

The poster says:

It worked after removing **struct dentry** from structure initialization

Off to do more research on that.

Mon, 13 Jul 2020 17:27:33 -0400

elmussol

elmussol@elsmussols.net

Fixed. See #^make command throws error.