linux-drivers/
drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/core

Realtek RTL8723BS SDIO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chip

A low-cost 802.11n Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth combo chip that connects over SDIO, widely used in budget Bay Trail and Cherry Trail Windows tablets, cheap 2-in-1 laptops, and ARM single-board computers from roughly 2014 through 2018. It still turns up in older HP Stream tablets, various Pine64 devkits, and similar low-end devices that distros like Debian and postmarketOS continue to support.

keep-annotate conf=0.79 last_sold=2018 deploy=low replacement=none subsystem=staging category=networking-wireless
79%

recommendation

Worth keeping but flagging its niche: although the chip is no longer sold in new hardware and the code has lived in staging for years, it still receives real bug-fix work upstream (a substantive fix landed in early 2026) and there is no in-tree replacement for the SDIO variant specifically. Hardware probes and distro install guides confirm people are still running it on aging tablets and hobbyist ARM boards, so removing it would strand those users.

repository signals

15 files
24,702 source lines
348 commits, 5y
+3,769 / −6,049 lines added / removed, 5y
96 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 348 total · active in 39/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 38 commits · +292 −370 2021-05: 26 commits · +260 −894 2021-06: 12 commits · +161 −571 2021-07: 17 commits · +574 −577 2021-08: 9 commits · +184 −348 2021-09: 6 commits · +67 −83 2021-10: 8 commits · +47 −78 2021-11: 3 commits · +5 −12 2021-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-01: 2 commits · +34 −31 2022-02: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-03: 11 commits · +117 −143 2022-04: 11 commits · +85 −151 2022-05: 1 commit · +13 −11 2022-06: 1 commit · +1 −1 2022-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2022-08: 7 commits · +1 −101 2022-09: 8 commits · +23 −254 2022-10: 8 commits · +35 −36 2022-11: 1 commit · +4 −8 2022-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-02: 3 commits · +4 −13 2023-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-04: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-05: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-06: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-08: 3 commits · +36 −42 2023-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-10: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-11: 0 commits · +0 −0 2023-12: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-01: 2 commits · +3 −4 2024-02: 2 commits · +3 −6 2024-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-04: 1 commit · +5 −87 2024-05: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-06: 1 commit · +2 −2 2024-07: 0 commits · +0 −0 2024-08: 2 commits · +30 −28 2024-09: 22 commits · +12 −221 2024-10: 3 commits · +8 −7 2024-11: 11 commits · +13 −99 2024-12: 2 commits · +5 −6 2025-01: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-02: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-03: 5 commits · +63 −66 2025-04: 7 commits · +35 −44 2025-05: 3 commits · +14 −15 2025-06: 2 commits · +22 −58 2025-07: 7 commits · +74 −96 2025-08: 35 commits · +505 −403 2025-09: 0 commits · +0 −0 2025-10: 10 commits · +214 −267 2025-11: 6 commits · +147 −199 2025-12: 11 commits · +155 −160 2026-01: 30 commits · +320 −358 2026-02: 11 commits · +196 −199 2026-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. git.kernel.org

    Substantive rtl8723bs fix landed on 2026-02-24, showing current upstream maintenance rather than abandonment.

  2. git.kernel.org

    Upstream still exposes RTL8723BS as a staging SDIO WLAN driver, confirming the hardware/driver scope.

  3. linux-hardware.org

    Recent hardware probe shows RTL8723BS still appearing in real machines, indicating ongoing legacy deployments.

  4. wiki.debian.org

    Debian Bookworm-era install notes still mention Realtek RTL8723BS on older consumer hardware, supporting continued legacy use.

  5. wiki.postmarketos.org

    Recent postmarketOS device page shows RTL8723BS use on niche ARM hardware/devkits, indicating residual embedded hobbyist deployment.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

This is real driver code: local shell inspection found RTL8723BS SDIO module entry in drivers/staging/rtl8723bs/os_dep/sdio_intf.c and Kconfig names the chipset. Lore-first fallback: `lei` was unavailable, so I used local kernel history via shell (`git log`) and canonical kernel.org commit/tree URLs by canonical recall to ground maintenance status; recent 2026 fixes indicate active bug-fix/refactor traffic, not removal. Web search found current deployment evidence on linux-hardware and distro/device wikis (tool: web search). I found no concrete removal series in available searches, so despite old/staging status and likely no meaningful new 2025 retail presence, active upstream work argues against deprecate/remove. Best fit is keep-annotate: legacy hardware, low present-day deployment, no clear in-tree replacement for RTL8723BS SDIO specifically.