Re: [PATCH RFC] remove custom Michael MIC implementation

From: "Tobin C. Harding" <me@tobin.cc>
To: Wolfram Sang <wsa@the-dreams.de>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	devel@linuxdriverproject.org, Tycho Andersen <tycho@tycho.ws>
Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC] remove custom Michael MIC implementation
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2017 09:23:09 +1000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20170426232309.GH18468@eros> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20170331104222.GA2873@katana>

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On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 12:42:22PM +0200, Wolfram Sang wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> > The card I have is a Spectec FCC ID: S2Y-WLAN-11B-G which I believe is
> > a SDW-823 and should use the ks7010 driver.
> 
> Sorry, likely not. It is an early SDW-821 and has a MediaTek chipset for
> which no driver is known:
> https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Spectec_SDW-821_%28MediaTek%29
> 
> For SDW-821 (SD size) and KS7010, you'd need a "S2Y-WLAN-11G-K" (but I
> have never seen one yet):
> https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Spectec_SDW-821_%28KeyStream%29
> 
> One can find an SDW-823 (microSD) "S2Y-MWLAN-11B-G" once in a while:
> https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Spectec_SDW-823
> 
> > > Without the CFG80211 conversion, replacing the Michael custom
> > > implementation with the in-kernel one makes the driver a tad better and
> > > is good exercise. However, it will sadly not help to get the driver out
> > > of staging.
> > 
> > I'll drop it then. Could you please tell me, is there any thing else
> > more I need to do to let LKML know that this RFC is dropped? Or is
> > this reply enough. I don't want to use any ones time unnecessarily.
> 
> That should do.
> 
> > Let's go for a CFG80211 driver and get out of staging :) So next step
> > is I guess study the ath6kl driver, learn how CFG80211 is done and
> > implement that interface in ks7010? Oh, and test that it works.
> 
> Yes, have a look around and check if you like that task. I might have a
> spare SDW-823 lying around if you are up to it. But check first, it is
> not a trivial task. On the pro side, there are tons of interesting
> things about WiFI and kernel development to learn on the way :)

Hi Wolfram,

After receiving this email a while back I spent a day or two trying to
get started on the cfg80211 conversion. I was unable to make progress
so I decided to spend some time cleaning up the WEXT interface and
learning more about the driver (and wifi in general). As you may have
seen, a series was just merged refactoring the SDIO code, and there
is a series in flight refactoring the host interface code. I started
working on ks_wlan_net.c and will likely put together a patch set next
week if the hostif series gets merged. 

At this stage, I think I have a fair handle on how the ks7010 driver
functions. I have two ideas on how to continue. First, I think it may
be time to do some testing and fix all of the bugs I have introduced
over this last month :). This is the reason for this email. Can I
please take you up on the offer of the SDW-823 card, if you can find
it? Secondly, I think I should spend some time studying the mwifiex
(SoftMAC) and ath6kl (FullMAC) drivers to get a handle on cfg80211.

Then I can have another crack at the ks7010 cfg80211 conversion.

Do you have any other data on the chipset? Have you had any
interaction with Renesas?

Sorry to write you such a long email. Thanks for taking the time to
read it.

Regards,
Tobin.

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