USB for rtw89 driver?

USB for rtw89 driver?

[James]

Are there any plans to support the USB interface with this driver?
Specifically for the DLink DWA-X1850 and other wifi6 USB devices based 
on this chipset?

Also,
Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B 
(Arm)?

RE: USB for rtw89 driver?

[Pkshih]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James <bjlockie@lockie.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2021 6:23 AM
> To: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: USB for rtw89 driver?
> 
> Are there any plans to support the USB interface with this driver?
> Specifically for the DLink DWA-X1850 and other wifi6 USB devices based
> on this chipset?

The architecture of rtw89 can support USB interface, but we don't have a
clear plan yet.

The DWA-X1850 is a Windows specific dongle, because it runs in a special
mode that user can install driver from itself without downloading driver
from internet.

> 
> Also,
> Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B
> (Arm)?

Don't have a proprietary driver neither.

--
Ping-Ke

RE: USB for rtw89 driver?

[James]

>> Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B
>> (Arm)?
>
> Don't have a proprietary driver neither.

Dlink seems to have added USB support.
I assumed that is proprietary but I guess that is only x86.

https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DWA-181-US

There is also an open source USB driver on github  but I don't think it is getting fixes like the lfinger github one.
https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[Larry Finger]

On 11/29/21 08:24, James wrote:
> 
>>> Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B
>>> (Arm)?
>>
>> Don't have a proprietary driver neither.
> 
> Dlink seems to have added USB support.
> I assumed that is proprietary but I guess that is only x86.
> 
> https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DWA-181-US
> 
> There is also an open source USB driver on github  but I don't think it is getting fixes like the lfinger github one.
> https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb

The D-Link driver is for the rtl8822bu, not an rtl8852au. That would make it for 
rtw88, not rtw89. BTW, it will not compile under kernel 5.16.0-rc3, but the 
fixes would be minor.

That driver is the usual collection of junk code published by the Realtek USB 
group for years. That code base is used to generate drivers for Windows, Linux, 
and FreeBSD.

A group is currently modifying the rtl8188eu driver in staging to convert it 
into reasonable Linux shape. This one would take the same effort to make it 
suitable.

The basic USB driver in the neojou repo should work, but I do not have an 
rtl8852au device.

Larry

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[James]

On 2021-11-29 16:42, Larry Finger wrote:
> On 11/29/21 08:24, James wrote:
>>
>>>> Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B
>>>> (Arm)?
>>>
>>> Don't have a proprietary driver neither.
>>
>> Dlink seems to have added USB support.
>> I assumed that is proprietary but I guess that is only x86.
>>
>> https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DWA-181-US
>>
>> There is also an open source USB driver on github  but I don't think 
>> it is getting fixes like the lfinger github one.
>> https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb
>
> The D-Link driver is for the rtl8822bu, not an rtl8852au. That would 
> make it for rtw88, not rtw89. BTW, it will not compile under kernel 
> 5.16.0-rc3, but the fixes would be minor.
>
Is this statement in the readme of neojou not correct?
"This driver is based on Realtek's rtw89 driver 
<https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89> 
in Linux main trunk. Or can refer to this lwfinger's github [rtw89] 
(https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89)"

I checked the dlink link and it is for a wifi5 device.
I don't know how I got there. :-(
There is no linux driver from dlink for the USB wifi6 device. :-(
Oh well, maybe in 10 years. :-)
>
> That driver is the usual collection of junk code published by the 
> Realtek USB group for years. That code base is used to generate 
> drivers for Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD.
>
> A group is currently modifying the rtl8188eu driver in staging to 
> convert it into reasonable Linux shape. This one would take the same 
> effort to make it suitable.
"Chipset:/RTL8188EU/ Standard: IEEE 802.11n"
Would a good 8188eu driver make it easier to support wifi5 and wifi6 
devices?
>
> The basic USB driver in the neojou repo should work, but I do not have 
> an rtl8852au device.
Maybe it'll be in kernel eventually. :-)

> Larry
>

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[James]

Does anyone know what this is?
The releasenotes pdf says it came from Realtek.

https://github.com/shiqishao/RTL8852AU_WiFi_linux_v1.15.0.1-0-g487ee886.20210714

What are the roadblocks to getting USB support in the kernel driver?

Is it possible to have a USB part of the driver that uses the kernel 
part of the driver?

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[Larry Finger]

On 11/29/21 16:22, James wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2021-11-29 16:42, Larry Finger wrote:
>> On 11/29/21 08:24, James wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Does anyone know if the proprietary driver works on the Raspberry Pi4B
>>>>> (Arm)?
>>>>
>>>> Don't have a proprietary driver neither.
>>>
>>> Dlink seems to have added USB support.
>>> I assumed that is proprietary but I guess that is only x86.
>>>
>>> https://support.dlink.com/ProductInfo.aspx?m=DWA-181-US
>>>
>>> There is also an open source USB driver on github  but I don't think it is 
>>> getting fixes like the lfinger github one.
>>> https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb
>>
>> The D-Link driver is for the rtl8822bu, not an rtl8852au. That would make it 
>> for rtw88, not rtw89. BTW, it will not compile under kernel 5.16.0-rc3, but 
>> the fixes would be minor.
>>
> Is this statement in the readme of neojou not correct?
> "This driver is based on Realtek's rtw89 driver 
> <https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89> 
> in Linux main trunk. Or can refer to this lwfinger's github [rtw89] 
> (https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89)"

That is correct. What has been done there, and in the equivalent rtw88-usb 
version, is replace the PCI I/O calls with the equivalent USB library calls. 
What cannot be determined outside the Realtek halls is whether there are changes 
in the NIC chip itself between the two versions. Certainly, there are 
differences between the setup of the rtl8192ce and the rtl8192cu. I would expect 
the same here.
> 
> I checked the dlink link and it is for a wifi5 device.
> I don't know how I got there. :-(
> There is no linux driver from dlink for the USB wifi6 device. :-(
> Oh well, maybe in 10 years. :-)
>>
>> That driver is the usual collection of junk code published by the Realtek USB 
>> group for years. That code base is used to generate drivers for Windows, 
>> Linux, and FreeBSD.
>>
>> A group is currently modifying the rtl8188eu driver in staging to convert it 
>> into reasonable Linux shape. This one would take the same effort to make it 
>> suitable.
> "Chipset:/RTL8188EU/ Standard: IEEE 802.11n"
> Would a good 8188eu driver make it easier to support wifi5 and wifi6 devices?

Not really. That hardware is wifi4 (802.11n) and has no higher capabilities. The 
basic silicon and firmware could not handle the higher protocols.
>>
>> The basic USB driver in the neojou repo should work, but I do not have an 
>> rtl8852au device.
> Maybe it'll be in kernel eventually. :-)

Perhaps. That will depend on the PCI group from Realtek deciding to tackle that 
project.

Larry

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[Larry Finger]

On 11/29/21 17:37, James wrote:
> Does anyone know what this is?
> The releasenotes pdf says it came from Realtek.
> 
> https://github.com/shiqishao/RTL8852AU_WiFi_linux_v1.15.0.1-0-g487ee886.20210714
> 
> What are the roadblocks to getting USB support in the kernel driver?
> 
> Is it possible to have a USB part of the driver that uses the kernel part of the 
> driver?
> 

The file structure indicates that it is a variation of the USB driver from the 
Realtek group. As such, it will have all the flaws of that family of drivers.

I have previously estimated that it would take about 6 months of work to get 
such a driver into shape to be submitted into staging. The approach taken in 
https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb will take a lot less time; however, without 
the cooperation of Realtek, it will take a lot of USB dumps to compare the 
communication with the chip to discover what differences there are between the 
PCI and USB versions, other than the obvious base platform data flow.

Have you tried either the shiqishao or the neojou driver? If you are willing to 
provide me with a device, I could probably give you some help getting the neojou 
driver into kernel shape.

Larry

Re: USB for rtw89 driver?

[James]

On 2021-11-29 20:44, Larry Finger wrote:
> On 11/29/21 17:37, James wrote:
>> Does anyone know what this is?
>> The releasenotes pdf says it came from Realtek.
>>
>> https://github.com/shiqishao/RTL8852AU_WiFi_linux_v1.15.0.1-0-g487ee886.20210714 
>>
>>
>> What are the roadblocks to getting USB support in the kernel driver?
>>
>> Is it possible to have a USB part of the driver that uses the kernel 
>> part of the driver?
>>
>
> The file structure indicates that it is a variation of the USB driver 
> from the Realtek group. As such, it will have all the flaws of that 
> family of drivers.

That is unfortunate but not surprising.
>
> I have previously estimated that it would take about 6 months of work 
> to get such a driver into shape to be submitted into staging. The 
> approach taken in https://github.com/neojou/rtw89-usb will take a lot 
> less time; however, without the cooperation of Realtek, it will take a 
> lot of USB dumps to compare the communication with the chip to 
> discover what differences there are between the PCI and USB versions, 
> other than the obvious base platform data flow.

>
> Have you tried either the shiqishao or the neojou driver? If you are 
> willing to provide me with a device, I could probably give you some 
> help getting the neojou driver into kernel shape.
>
> Larry
>
I don't have the adapter but I do want a wifi6 one.
I have a mediatek wifi5 one and that is pretty decent.

It is unlikely the neojou driver with work by replacing the PCI with 
corresponding USB calls?
I tried to compile it (to see if it even compiles :-)) but there are 
tons of "unused-*" warnings.

I've been reading about the lwfinger repo for the rtw89 PCI driver.
I'm guessing at one point the code between neojou and lwfinger was similar?
Do I have this right, the rtw89 driver will compile on ubuntu but not work?
What distro do you use for development?
Maybe Realtek will help to add the USB support. :-)

Can you provide me with a link to a local store that has the DLink 
DWA-X1850?
I'm not opposed to buying you one but it wouldn't be until next year. :-)