Re: [PATCH] staging: rtl8712: Remove driver using deprecated API wext

[Christian Lamparter <chunkeey@gmail.com>]

On 10/30/24 10:38 AM, Nam Cao wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 20, 2024 at 04:49:29PM +0200, Philipp Hortmann wrote:
>> This driver is in the staging area since 2010.
>>
>> The following reasons lead to the removal:
>> - This driver generates maintenance workload for itself and for API wext
>> - A MAC80211 driver was available in 2016 time frame; This driver does
>>    not compile anymore but would be a better starting point than the
>>    current driver. Here the note from the TODO file:
>>    A replacement for this driver with MAC80211 support is available
>>    at https://github.com/chunkeey/rtl8192su
>> - no progress changing to mac80211
>> - Using this hardware is security wise not state of the art as WPA3 is
>>    not supported.
>>
>> The longterm kernels will still support this hardware for years.
>>
>> Find further discussions in the Link below.
>>
>> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-staging/a02e3e0b-8a9b-47d5-87cf-2c957a474daa@gmail.com/T/#t
> 
> I added owner of that "replacement driver" to CC:
> Christian Lamparter <chunkeey@gmail.com>
> 
> I vaguely remembered that he mentioned the replacement driver doesn't work
> very well. But can't find that email again.

... and neither did r8712u. what lives on is the OpenBSD port:
<https://man.openbsd.org/rsu.4> and the firmware: rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin
in linux-firmware.git:
<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/rtlwifi/rtl8712u.bin>

Cheers,
Christian