(04-21-2020, 10:36 AM)wibble Wrote: I hope I'm aiming this at the right level - lower than you get to in most distros but not poking about in kernel drivers or sysfs. WiFi doesn't seem much different to any other linux - load the kernel module for the wifi hardware (8723cs in this case) if it isn't autoloaded, then use the standard tools to configure it. There are a few choices when it comes to the tools to use, and most distros pick one or other as their preference. The Gentoo Handbook's WiFi Introduction gives a bit more overview than most, although it doesn't mention connman as an alternative to NetworkManager or wicd. In fact doing a gentoo install following the process in the handbook will give you a good overview of the various bits that go into making a linux system, and some of the choices that distros make. I don't think that's an option on a pinephone, but should be fine on a spare pc or a virtual machine. Arch may give you a similar level of choice, but I've not tried it.

(04-21-2020, 01:03 PM)wibble Wrote: In that gentoo link, once you get past the introduction into the bits about editing /etc/conf.d/net that's OpenRC's network configuration format, so won't be directly applicable. It was more about showing the tools available. I'm not familiar with how buildroot does things, or whether it depends on which init you pick. It seems odd that the wireless tools aren't recognising the device. It's possible there's a step I'm not aware of because the OS versions I've tried are all doing it in the background.

(04-22-2020, 05:08 AM)wibble Wrote: The driver should try to load the required file from a path under /lib/firmware. In pmOS I have /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/ and /lib/firmware/rtl_bt/ containing a number of firmware files, supplied by packages linux-firmware-rtlwifi and linux-firmware-rtl_bt respectively. I don't know exactly which ones are used by this driver, or whether there's an interaction between the wifi and bluetooth drivers. You may need to check the distro bug trackers to see if there were any fixes for wifi problems in case there's something unusual they have to do to make it work reliably.