RTL8187SE staging Linux driver

RTL8187SE staging Linux driver

[Andrea Merello]

Hello,

As you probably know, in the current Linux kernel there is a staging
driver for the RTL8187SE device (based on my older RTL8180/RTL8185
Linux driver), while there also a regular (not staging) driver
supporting older RTL8185 and RTL8180 devices
(net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8180) .

As far as I can see, the RTL8187SE device seems not so much different
from an RTL8185 device.
I would like to try (in my spare time) to add support for RTL8187SE
device in the current RTL818x driver, in order to avoid code
duplication, remove a driver from staging, and make RTL8187SE using
mac80211.

Do any one of you have any comment/objection/suggestions about this ?

Is it possible to get the RTL8187SE documentation to make things easier?

For now I will probably keep different RF code for the two cards even
if the RTL8225 (zebra 2) radio is used by both RTL8187SE and some
RTL8185 devices, however if I could get enough documentation about it,
it would be great to try to merge also RF code..

Thank you,
Andrea

Re: RTL8187SE staging Linux driver

[John W. Linville]

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 05:59:54PM +0200, Andrea Merello wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> As you probably know, in the current Linux kernel there is a staging
> driver for the RTL8187SE device (based on my older RTL8180/RTL8185
> Linux driver), while there also a regular (not staging) driver
> supporting older RTL8185 and RTL8180 devices
> (net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8180) .
> 
> As far as I can see, the RTL8187SE device seems not so much different
> from an RTL8185 device.
> I would like to try (in my spare time) to add support for RTL8187SE
> device in the current RTL818x driver, in order to avoid code
> duplication, remove a driver from staging, and make RTL8187SE using
> mac80211.
> 
> Do any one of you have any comment/objection/suggestions about this ?

I would be extremely happy for you to tackle this.

> Is it possible to get the RTL8187SE documentation to make things easier?

This info used to be readily available.  If you can't find a source, I
probably still have a (mildly useful) datasheet somewhere in my heap...

> For now I will probably keep different RF code for the two cards even
> if the RTL8225 (zebra 2) radio is used by both RTL8187SE and some
> RTL8185 devices, however if I could get enough documentation about it,
> it would be great to try to merge also RF code..
> 
> Thank you,
> Andrea

Seems reasonable...

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Someday the world will need a hero, and you
linville@tuxdriver.com			might be all we have.  Be ready.

Re: RTL8187SE staging Linux driver

[Andrea Merello]

Thanks for your code and for documentation!

I see you did your work in a new net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8187se
directory and you produced a new driver.
Now I have to evaluate whether to keep doing it in this way, trying to
continue your work, or to merge support in
net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8180 code, that was my original idea..
Now that I have documentation I can better evaluate how much the two
boards are similar..

Andrea

On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> wrote:
> On 09/10/2013 10:59 AM, Andrea Merello wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> As you probably know, in the current Linux kernel there is a staging
>> driver for the RTL8187SE device (based on my older RTL8180/RTL8185
>> Linux driver), while there also a regular (not staging) driver
>> supporting older RTL8185 and RTL8180 devices
>> (net/wireless/rtl818x/rtl8180) .
>>
>> As far as I can see, the RTL8187SE device seems not so much different
>> from an RTL8185 device.
>> I would like to try (in my spare time) to add support for RTL8187SE
>> device in the current RTL818x driver, in order to avoid code
>> duplication, remove a driver from staging, and make RTL8187SE using
>> mac80211.
>>
>> Do any one of you have any comment/objection/suggestions about this ?
>>
>> Is it possible to get the RTL8187SE documentation to make things easier?
>>
>> For now I will probably keep different RF code for the two cards even
>> if the RTL8225 (zebra 2) radio is used by both RTL8187SE and some
>> RTL8185 devices, however if I could get enough documentation about it,
>> it would be great to try to merge also RF code..
>
>
> I too would be very happy for you to do this. At one point, I was trying to
> do this and I had a version that very nearly worked. The driver was
> receiving data and transmitting short packets but failing on longer ones.
> Length 42 was OK, but 68 failed. At that point, the chip locked up and
> needed to be power cycled. It seems that I got the DMA wrong, but I could
> never find it, and eventually, I had to move on.
>
> At the moment, I am working at getting it to build on the current kernel.
> When I finish that, I will send the code to you. Even if you decide to scrap
> it, it may help you a little.
>
> Attached is the datasheet, which is the only documentation I have.
>
> Larry
>
>