linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] staging: Add rtl8821ce PCIe WiFi driver

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Message-Id: <63833AA2-AC8B-4EEA-AF36-EF2A9BFD4F9F@canonical.com>
Date:   Wed, 15 May 2019 21:06:44 +0800
From:   Kai-Heng Feng <kai.heng.feng@...onical.com>
To:     Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
Cc:     devel@...verdev.osuosl.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@...inger.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] staging: Add rtl8821ce PCIe WiFi driver

at 20:33, Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org> wrote:

> On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 07:54:58PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote:
>> at 19:40, Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 07:24:01PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote:
>>>> The rtl8821ce can be found on many HP and Lenovo laptops.
>>>> Users have been using out-of-tree module for a while,
>>>>
>>>> The new Realtek WiFi driver, rtw88, will support rtl8821ce in 2020 or
>>>> later.
>>>
>>> Where is that driver, and why is it going to take so long to get merged?
>>
>> rtw88 is in 5.2 now, but it doesn’t support 8821ce yet.
>>
>> They plan to add the support in 2020.
>
> Who is "they" and what is needed to support this device and why wait a
> full year?

“They” refers to Realtek.
It’s their plan so I can’t really answer that on behalf of Realtek.

>
>>>> 296 files changed, 206166 insertions(+)
>>>
>>> Ugh, why do we keep having to add the whole mess for every single one of
>>> these devices?
>>
>> Because Realtek devices are unfortunately ubiquitous so the support is
>> better come from kernel.
>
> That's not the issue here.  The issue is that we keep adding the same
> huge driver files to the kernel tree, over and over, with no real change
> at all.  We have seen almost all of these files in other realtek
> drivers, right?

Yes. They use one single driver to support different SoCs, different  
architectures and even different OSes.
That’s why it’s a mess.

> Why not use the ones we already have?

It’s virtually impossible because Realtek’s mega wifi driver uses tons of  
#ifdefs, only one chip can be selected to be supported at compile time.

>
> But better yet, why not add proper support for this hardware and not use
> a staging driver?

Realtek plans to add the support in 2020, if everything goes well.
Meanwhile, many users of HP and Lenovo laptops are using out-of-tree  
driver, some of them are stuck to older kernels because they don’t know how  
to fix the driver. So I strongly think having this in kernel is beneficial  
to many users, even it’s only for a year.

Kai-Heng

>
> thanks,
>
> greg k-h