Huge thanks to stevepusser and n_hologram. I think that stevepusser's guess is probably correct, the driver either does not build, or perhaps it builds, but it simply does not work with the 4.9 amd64 kernel.
In answer to n_hologram, the driver was definitely present in a subdirectory of /lib/modules/ - I tried moving it to a couple of different locations under /lib/modules/ to see if that made any difference but without success.
On stevepusser's suggestion, the solution was to install the Liquorix kernel, following the instructions here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Install ... sed-Linux/
I already had the firmware in the correct location, after following the previous instructions:
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebia ... IBY/jessie
Code: Select all
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8723bs_nic.bin
/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8723bs_wowlan.bin
...As a result everything worked perfectly on the first restart after installing the new kernel.
For anyone else with the same issue, exactly what I did is pasted below. Obviously, this is no solution for free software purists. The lesson there is to choose your hardware very carefully before you buy, if you wish to be purist about free software.
Code: Select all
printf "# Liquorix kernel containing non-free drivers \ndeb http://liquorix.net/debian sid main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/liquorix.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt get install apt-transport-https
sudo apt-get install liquorix-keyring
sudo apt-cache search liquorix
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-liquorix-amd64
sudo apt-get install linux-image-liquorix-amd64
sudo update-grub
sudo shutdown -r now
...After re-boot the WiFi worked perfectly with this kernel, no additional messing around necessary.
I am not sure whether update-grub is necessary, but I thought that Grub would probably need to know about a new kernel?
For anyone else with a similar laptop/netbook, note that sound/audio still does not work...
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebia ... IBY/jessie
...suggests that this person never got sound to work.