--- title: Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Graduates Out Of Staging Area... description: The Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver has moved out of the Linux kernel's staging area in Linux 7.4. It was added to staging back in Linux 4.12 in 2017 and spent... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-driver-graduates-out-of-staging-area-in-linux-7-4-ckeewuv2g twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Graduates Out Of Staging Area In Linux 7.4 | daily.dev og:description: The Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver has moved out of the Linux kernel's staging area in Linux 7.4. It was added to staging back in Linux 4.12 in 2017 and spent... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-driver-graduates-out-of-staging-area-in-linux-7-4-ckeewuv2g og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CKeEwUV2G.png og:image:alt: Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Graduates Out Of Staging Area In Linux 7.4 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Graduates Out Of Staging Area In Linux 7.4 **[Phoronix](https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver has moved out of the Linux kernel's staging area in Linux 7.4. It was added to staging back in Linux 4.12 in 2017 and spent nearly a decade there. The driver covers the 802.11 b/g/n SDIO WiFi/WLAN and Bluetooth chipset. Greg Kroah-Hartman notes the huge majority of changes were to the driver, which ended up being deleted entirely through the wifi driver tree, calling it 'a solid working and sane driver in the real part of the tree now'. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What happened to the Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver in Linux 7.4? It graduated out of the kernel's staging area and moved into the networking subsystem proper. The driver, covering 802.11 b/g/n SDIO WiFi/WLAN and Bluetooth chipsets, was added to staging in Linux 4.12 back in 2017. Greg Kroah-Hartman noted it was deleted from staging and replaced by a version from the wifi driver tree, now considered solid and sane. _Kernel contributors tracking driver maturity milestones like this follow Linux subsystem changes on daily.dev._ ### Why was the rtl8723bs driver considered a messy staging driver for so long? It was described as 'a beast of a driver' due to originally messy code that needed extensive cleanup to meet upstream kernel standards, including fixes for issues like handling malicious WiFi access points. For many kernel cycles it was the most active staging driver for changes, making it a popular target for new kernel developers to get experience with easy changes. _Developers curious about kernel contribution paths can follow driver cleanup stories like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Linux 7.2 Staging Still Working To Tame The Realtek RTL8723BS "Beast Of A Driver"](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-2-staging-still-working-to-tame-the-realtek-rtl8723bs-beast-of-a-driver--rwccqvotq) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux Still Working To Clean Up The Realtek RTL8723BS 802.11b/g/n WiFi Driver In 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-still-working-to-clean-up-the-realtek-rtl8723bs-802-11b-g-n-wifi-driver-in-2026-hcfjeu3kx) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [RTL8723BS Driver Continues Dominating The Staging Area Activity For Linux 7.3](https://daily.dev/posts/rtl8723bs-driver-continues-dominating-the-staging-area-activity-for-linux-7-3-gg0yiqjhh) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Realtek RTL8723B/RTL8723BS Trying To Be Tacked On To The RTW88 Linux Driver](https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723b-rtl8723bs-trying-to-be-tacked-on-to-the-rtw88-linux-driver-gfzh2icdg) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Realtek RTL8723BS WiFi Linux Driver Hardened Against Malicious WiFi Access Points](https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-wifi-linux-driver-hardened-against-malicious-wifi-access-points-bwsdszwux) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-driver-graduates-out-of-staging-area-in-linux-7-4-ckeewuv2g) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Realtek rtl8723bs Driver Graduates Out Of Staging Area In Linux 7.4","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-driver-graduates-out-of-staging-area-in-linux-7-4-ckeewuv2g","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/realtek-rtl8723bs-driver-graduates-out-of-staging-area-in-linux-7-4-ckeewuv2g"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T10:34:04.051Z","dateModified":"2026-10-25T10:34:41.116Z","description":"The Realtek rtl8723bs WiFi driver has moved out of the Linux kernel's staging area in Linux 7.4. 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