Realtek RTL8723BS SDIO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo chip
A low-cost single-chip 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 combo radio that connects over SDIO, widely used from the mid-2010s onward in cheap Windows tablets, Intel Bay Trail / Cherry Trail mini-PCs, single-board computers, and various embedded and industrial modules. It is still offered today, but mostly for legacy-style designs rather than new mainstream products.
recommendation
Worth keeping but worth labelling as a legacy staging driver, because the RTL8723BS is still the only in-tree option for a chip that ships in many older tablets and SBCs and is even still sold by distributors and module vendors in 2025-2026. Upstream activity through 2025 has been bug fixes and cleanups rather than any move to remove it, and no replacement driver covers this SDIO part, so pulling it would strand real users despite the modest install base.
repository signals
sources
- git.kernel.org
Upstream tree still shows active rtl8723bs maintenance in 2025-2026; recent work is bug-fix and cleanup oriented rather than removal-oriented.
- cateee.net
CONFIG_RTL8723BS remains present through 7.0-rc+HEAD, builds module r8723bs, and matches Realtek RTL8723BS SDIO IDs including 024c:b723.
- jotrin.com
RTL8723BS chips were still being offered by distributors in 2025/2026, indicating some new-parts availability.
- wandisplay.com
A vendor was still listing an RTL8723BS-based SDIO Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module in 2026, suggesting continuing embedded/industrial niche deployments.
- deviwiki.com
The chipset is associated with older embedded designs such as SDIO combo modules and first-generation low-cost x86/ARM devices, supporting a legacy-but-still-deployed profile.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
`hal/` is not a standalone module entrypoint, but it is substantive hardware-specific code inside the rtl8723bs driver, so treated as the driver's HAL slice rather than filtered as not-a-driver. Activity evidence came from local shell inspection (`git -c safe.directory=... log --since=2023-01-01 -- drivers/staging/rtl8723bs`), which showed many 2025-2026 fixes/cleanups and no obvious removal series; the kernel.org log URL was added by canonical recall to anchor that claim. LKDDb URL was obtained via web search and confirms the driver is still in current kernel series. Jotrin and Wandisplay URLs were obtained via web search and used only as market signals that RTL8723BS silicon/modules were still commercially listed in 2025/2026. DeviWiki URL was obtained via web search and supports the conclusion that present-day use is mostly legacy embedded/tablet/SBC niches. Because upstream attention is active and there is no clear in-tree replacement covering RTL8723BS SDIO specifically, removal is not justified; annotate as legacy/staging hardware with low modern deployment.