On Wed, 28 Jul 2021 at 08:46, Martin Kaiser <martin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi Philipp and all, > > Thus wrote Phillip Potter (phil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx): > > > The driver currently in staging is older and less functional than the > > version on Larry Finger's GitHub account, based upon v4.1.4_6773.20130222. > > This series of patches therefore: > > [...] > > > V4: don't remove old driver now, just mark as deprecated and modify to > > allow building alongside the new driver. > > Basically, you're suggesting to put aside all the fixes and cleanup > that was done since the rtl8188eu driver was imported into the kernel > tree. The TODO file says > > - merge Realtek's bugfixes and new features into the driver > > Why aren't we going down this route? > > Edimax offer a realtek driver linux_v5.7.6.1_36803.20200602 for > rtl8188eu as a .zip file for download on their website > > https://www.edimax.com/edimax/mw/cufiles/files/download/Driver_Utility/EW-7811Un_V2/EW-7811Un_V2_Linux_Driver_1.0.1.2.zip > > If we integrate and fix the v4.1.4_6773.20130222 driver, are we running > the risk that someone else will come along and propose another replacement? > > Thanks, > Martin Dear Martin, I see what you are saying for sure - I think we've both sunk a fair few patches into the existing driver :-) That said, from what Larry has mentioned, this newer driver would still be a better bet overall due to the additional work that has already happened on it out-of-tree. The Realtek driver you reference probably has no CFG80211 support etc. would be my guess, but I am going off what others have suggested in terms of proposing this patchset. I can't honestly say what the risk of this happening again would be, but minimal I'd imagine. Regards, Phil
