Re: staging: rtl8723bs: questions on TODO list

[Fabio Aiuto <fabioaiuto83@gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 14, 2021 at 11:15:42AM +0200, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi Fabio,
> 
> On 5/14/21 10:38 AM, Fabio Aiuto wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > I'd like to have some clarifications about rtl8723bs driver.
> > In order to make this driver ready for moving out of staging
> > I would like to know:
> > 
> > - find and remove remaining code valid only for 5 GHz. Most of the obvious
> >   ones have been removed, but things like channel > 14 still exist.
> > 
> > is it possible to remove all 5g code, even the one related to power
> > regulation when on band 5g? As far as I know about this card is that
> > it doesn't support 5g, so may I just delete all 5g code or there are some
> > constraints I'd take care of?
> 
> These cards are 2.4G only so any code of which you are sure it is for
> 5G only can be removed.
> 
> > - find and remove any code for other chips that is left over
> > 
> > Ok this seems clear, are there some suggestion to do it safely?
> 
> Get some hardware and test that things still work, preferably
> against multiple access-points.
> 
> > - convert any remaining unusual variable types
> > 
> > Ok (but feel free to suggest anything)
> > 
> > - find codes that can use %pM and %Nph formatting
> > 
> > Ok (but feel free to suggest anything)
> > 
> > - checkpatch.pl fixes - most of the remaining ones are lines too long. Many
> >   of them will require refactoring
> > 
> > Ok
> > 
> > - merge Realtek's bugfixes and new features into the driver
> > 
> > Please, can you explain what one could do that?
> 
> I know that "youling 257 <youling257@gmail.com>" is using a different
> version of the original (out-of-tree, non cleaned-up) Realtek driver
> code for the Android-X86 kernels he works on. You should probably
> ask youling why that version is being used and try to get a copy of
> the original Realtek sources on which the staging driver is based
> and do a "diff -ur" between them and see what is different.
> 
> > - switch to use LIB80211
> > - switch to use MAC80211
> > 
> > I think I need a few details for these last points as well.
> 
> I'm afraid I cannot help there, you should ask for help with this
> on the linux wireless email list.
> 
> > Do you think that one will need real hardware to complete
> > these tasks? I don't have rtl8723bs card at the moment, so
> > I think I will focus on those TODO activities which
> > don't need it.
> 
> Yes you really do need hardware, even simple coding style
> cleanups are known to (accidentally) break driver functionality,
> so you really should ensure that you are capable of testing your
> changes on real hardware.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Hans
> 
> 

thank you for your answer Hans,

fabio