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[2001:b011:380f:14b9:2dec:a462:2693:8ecd]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id a13sm6270608pfj.169.2019.05.15.10.40.02 (version=TLS1_2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128/128); Wed, 15 May 2019 10:40:02 -0700 (PDT) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; delsp=yes; format=flowed Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 12.4 \(3445.104.8\)) Subject: Re: [PATCH] staging: Add rtl8821ce PCIe WiFi driver From: Kai-Heng Feng In-Reply-To: <20190515163945.GA5719@kroah.com> Date: Thu, 16 May 2019 01:40:00 +0800 Cc: devel@driverdev.osuosl.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Larry Finger Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-Id: References: <20190515112401.15373-1-kai.heng.feng@canonical.com> <20190515114022.GA18824@kroah.com> <6D5557B8-8140-48A8-BED7-9587936902D8@canonical.com> <20190515123319.GA435@kroah.com> <63833AA2-AC8B-4EEA-AF36-EF2A9BFD4F9F@canonical.com> <20190515163945.GA5719@kroah.com> To: Greg KH X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3445.104.8) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org at 00:39, Greg KH wrote: > On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 09:06:44PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote: >> at 20:33, Greg KH wrote: >> >>> On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 07:54:58PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote: >>>> at 19:40, Greg KH 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. > > Where did they say that? Any reason their developers are not on this > patch? > >>>>>> 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. > > Well, they try to, it doesn't always work :( > >> That’s why it’s a mess. > > Oh we all know why this is a mess. But they have been saying for > _years_ they would clean up this mess. So push back, I'm not going to > take another 200k lines for a simple wifi driver, again. > > Along those lines, we should probably just delete the other old realtek > drivers that don't seem to be going anywhere from staging as well, > because those are just confusing people. > >>> 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. > > That's not what I asked. > > I want to know why they can't just add support for their new devices to > one of the many existing realtek drivers we already have. That is the > simpler way, and the correct way to do this. We don't do this by adding > 200k lines, again. > >>> 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. > > Device "goes well" please. And when in 2020? And why 2020? Why not > 2022? 2024? > >> 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. > > So who is going to be responsible for "fixing the driver" for all new > kernel api updates? I'm tired of seeing new developers get lost in the > maze of yet-another realtek wifi driver. We've been putting up with > this crud for years, and it has not gotten any better if you want to add > another 200k lines for some unknown amount of time with the hope that a > driver might magically show up one day. I have no idea why they haven’t made everything upstream, and I do hope they did a better job, so I don’t need to cleanup their driver and send it upstream :( So basically I can’t answer any of your questions. As Larry suggested, their driver should be hosted separately and maybe by downstream distro. Kai-Heng > > thanks, > > greg k-h