Looking for Realtek 8852BE driver

Help
1

Hi all!

I need help to make the wifi work on a HP ProBook 455 G9, which ships a Realtek 8852BE network controller.

This task has been addressed at this post but with no success.

Also I’ve installed rtw88 and rtw89 packages using nix-shell and nix-env -iA

Please, give me some guidance.

  1. Does anybody know how to achieve this?

  2. Should an environment created after install a driver package with nix-shell allowed the system to use the wifi inmediatelly? Or would any additional steps be required to do so?

Update: I’ll leave my current configuration file here so anyone who has a minute may check for any mistake.

Thanks in advance!

2

I need help to make the wifi work on a HP ProBook 455 G9, which ships a Realtek 8852BE network controller.

This task has been addressed at this post but with no success.

Also I’ve installed rtw88 and rtw89 packages using nix-shell and nix-env -iA

  1. first of all, neither nix-shell nor nix-env are the correct tools for this.
  2. nix-env is never the correct solution for anything

You need something like this:

{
  boot = {
    # I have no idea if these are the correct extra modules for your specific controller,
    # but this is how you make them available
    extraModulePackages = with config.boot.kernelPackages; [ rtw88 rtw89 ];
  };
}

2 Should an environment created after install a driver package with nix-shell allowed the system to use the wifi inmediatelly?

No, because that is not what nix-shell is for.

3

Hi Peter!

Thanks for your response.

Unfortunely, it doesn’t work out.

rtw89 is the driver for the realtek 8852BE

This is the boot section at my current configuration.nix:

boot = {
    loader.systemd-boot.enable = true;
    loader.efi.canTouchEfiVariables = true;
    loader.efi.efiSysMountPoint = "/boot/efi";
    kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_5_15;
    extraModulePackages = with config.boot.kernelPackages; [ rtw89 ];
  };

And I’ve also added:

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [

        linuxPackages_5_15.rtw89
        // ..
];

In a humble try.

4

Unfortunely, it doesn’t work out.

  1. Are there any built-in modules that you may have to blacklist via boot.blacklistedKernelModules = [ "foo" ]; in order for the new module to take effect?
  2. Have you tried with the latest kernel instead of forcing 5.15?

It would also be helpful with some kernel logs.

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ linuxPackages_5_15.rtw89 ];

this has no effect on what you are trying to achieve.

5

Looks like rtw89 is included since 5.16 and you’re using 5.15 for some reason.
Add boot.kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxPackages_6_1;, remove boot.extraModulePackages and do sudo nixos-rebuild boot && sudo reboot and it should work.

6
  1. According to the rtw89 package repo:

This branch was created from the version merged into the wireless-drivers-next repo, which is in the 5.16 kernel. IF YOU USE DRIVERS FROM THIS REPO FOR KERNELS 5.16+, YOU MUST BLACKLIST THE KERNEL VERSIONS!!! FAILING TO DO THIS WILL RESULT IN ALL MANNER OF STRANGE ERRORS.

  1. Yes, I have. I guess something else is required, maybe the blacklist step.

Thanks for the clarification on my useless humble try.

By the way the repo states to enable the kernel module, with:

sudo modprobe -v rtw_8852ae #This loads the module

but when Im going with:
sudo modprobe -v

and press TAB to check available options it outputs:

sudo modprobe -v
_modutils:102: no such file or directory: /lib/modules/6.0.15/modules.alias

and

sudo modprobe -v rtw_8852be
modprobe: FATAL: Module rtw_8852be not found in directory /run/booted-system/kernel-modules/lib/modules/6.0.15
7

Hi !

Thanks for you reply!
I have tried this but with no success.

I’m going to keep the kernel version at 6^

Please, check my response to peterhoeg’s second comment.

8

Couple of things:

  1. try with the latest kernel instead of 6.0. Assuming you’re on NixOS 23.05, you have 6.3 available
  2. is there any reason you cannot then try with the in-kernel driver rather than using the 3rd party option?
  3. with the latest kernel, you don’t need any specific config regd additional modules

I’m currently booted with kernel 6.3.7 and I see a module available named rtw89_8852be. I don’t have the hardware, so I cannot test it, but what does journalctl -k -f show you when you modprobe the module?

9

Hey !

Thanks Peter!
The first one did the job automatically.
I updated NixOS and so the kernel.

No need to enable the driver.
I only rebooted it and worked.

Thank you very much for the support !!