Dennis HilkLinux diagnosticsDE

Wi-Fi adapters

Realtek RTL8723BE

An older Realtek PCIe family using rtlwifi rather than rtw88 or rtw89. Its primary and alternate firmware names are explicitly different.

Editorial source review: Share public profileOpen in the identification tool
On this page
  1. Overview & identity
  2. Driver & binding
  3. Firmware
  4. Read-only diagnostics
  5. Limitations & related issues
  6. References

Overview & identity

The curated PCI pair is 10ec:b723. It identifies the reviewed chip/transport family, not a unique board or advertised product.

Curated identifiers
pci 10ec:b723

A numeric match establishes a candidate family within the reviewed evidence. Marketing names, board variants, subsystem conditions and successful operation remain separate questions.

Driver & binding

rtl8723be has a direct PCI entry and requests the _36 firmware, with an alternate legacy name configured. Do not substitute a firmware file from a similarly named USB chip.

  • rtl8723be — kernel driver/module candidate

Detected, bound, operational: learn the difference

Firmware

Host-loaded firmware required

These are source-declared filenames or a source-backed format pattern. Select the exact request from the host log; no files were tested on hardware.

Checked examples or filename branches, not a complete installation list:

  • rtlwifi/rtl8723befw_36.bin
  • rtlwifi/rtl8723befw.bin

Inspect firmware packaging on your distribution

Read-only diagnostics

Run one displayed command at a time. Replace uppercase placeholders with the affected device, interface or module from your own output. Commands are never executed here. Read-only output can still contain private identifiers.

Read the selected PCI function

lspci -nnk -s BDF

Replace BDF with the address from your report. Compare Kernel driver in use with Kernel modules; only the former records binding. This ordinary query normally needs no root privileges.

Read firmware metadata

modinfo -F firmware MODULE

Replace MODULE with rtl8723be or the actual candidate module in your report. Metadata lists declared filenames; it does not prove a file was loaded. This query needs no root privileges.

Read existing Wi-Fi association

iw dev INTERFACE link

Replace INTERFACE with the wireless interface from iw dev. Association and rate are observations, not a throughput or firmware test. This query normally needs no root privileges.

Limitations & related issues

The source match does not identify the laptop antenna wiring. A module parameter or antenna override should not be inferred from this ID alone.

These guides are linked for relevant observations, not as known defects of every device in this family.

Choose a hardware diagnostic workflow · Inspect a log excerpt in Fix Lab

References

Source review records a checked implementation or document, not a reproduced hardware test. Version-specific tables do not establish a minimum kernel or guaranteed operation.