Coexistence issue between the 8723ds and 8723du

[o7-machinehum]

Hey!

I'm having issues with wlan0(8723ds) + wlan1(8723du) both being up simultaneously. I suspect this has to do with their drivers. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Maybe I have to start poking around the driver code, of ask the developers of these drivers.

# ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK> mtu 65536 qdisc noop qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: usb0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
    link/ether 4e:e7:e9:7c:30:f2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue qlen 1000
    link/ether 2c:05:47:e7:e1:2e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: wlan1: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue qlen 1000
    link/ether e0:ad:a8:20:21:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
rtw88_8723du           12288  -2
rtw88_usb              20480  -2
rtw88_8723ds           12288  -2
rtw88_8723d            49152  -2
rtw88_sdio             24576  -2
rtw88_core            294912  -2
# airmon-ng start wlan0

Found 4 processes that could cause trouble.
Kill them using 'airmon-ng check kill' before putting
the card in monitor mode, they will interfere by changing channels
and sometimes putting the interface back in managed mode

PID Name

PHY     Interface       Driver          Chipset

null
                ??????          non-mac80211 device? (report this!)
null    wlan0
                ??????          non-mac80211 device? (report this!)
phy1    wlan1           rtw_8723du

# airbase-ng -e HELLO_WIFI_420 -c 11 wlan0
ioctl(SIOCSIWMODE) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
ioctl(SIOCSIWMODE) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Error setting monitor mode on wlan0

## After Fresh Reboot

# modprobe rtw88_8723du
# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
rtw88_8723du           12288  -2
rtw88_usb              20480  -2
rtw88_8723d            49152  -2
rtw88_core            294912  -2
# ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK> mtu 65536 qdisc noop qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: usb0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
    link/ether 62:50:b9:b9:31:8c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue qlen 1000
    link/ether e0:ad:a8:20:21:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
# airmon-ng start wlan0

Found 4 processes that could cause trouble.
Kill them using 'airmon-ng check kill' before putting
the card in monitor mode, they will interfere by changing channels
and sometimes putting the interface back in managed mode

PID Name

PHY     Interface       Driver          Chipset

null
                ??????          non-mac80211 device? (report this!)
phy0    wlan0           rtw_8723du
                (monitor mode enabled)

# airbase-ng -e HI -c 11 wlan0
01:25:31  Created tap interface at0
01:25:31  Trying to set MTU on at0 to 1500
01:25:31  Trying to set MTU on wlan0 to 1800
01:25:31  Access Point with BSSID E0:AD:A8:20:21:42 started.
Error: Got channel -1, expected a value > 0.

[Mister-X-]

In the first instance, wlan0 refers to the rtl8723ds. In the second instance you're using the 8723du.

The solution is to make sure to use the interface that has the 8723du driver.

As for the -1 issue, you forgot to kill the network managers as mentioned in the airmon-ng warning earlier.

[o7-machinehum]

So rtl8723ds isn't supported?

[Mister-X-]

With the kernel and that version of the drivers you currently have, no. It may be supported later on.

[o7-machinehum]

Ah, thanks. BTW how did you know which Kernel I'm running?

[Mister-X-]

I don't know. Kernel modules are compiled against a specific kernel version.

[o7-machinehum]

Thanks for your help, if there is any work that needs to be done for supporting the rtl8723ds I would be happy to help.

[Mister-X-]

You'd have to figure out who the maintainers are and contact them. Sometimes you can find it by using modinfo against the module in question.