From: Grzegorz Szymaszek <gszymaszek@short.pl>
To: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>,
Phillip Potter <phil@philpotter.co.uk>
Cc: Grzegorz Szymaszek <gszymaszek@short.pl>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-staging@lists.linux.dev
Subject: The r8188eu kernel module does not depend on the rtlwifi/rtl8188eufw.bin firmware file
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2022 15:17:58 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <YukkBu3TNODO3or9@nx64de-df6d00> (raw)
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Dear r8188eu Maintainers,
The old rtl8188eu kernel module, removed in v5.15[1][2], indicated that
it requires the rtlwifi/rtl8188eufw.bin firmware file[3]. The new
r8188eu driver no longer does so.
I don’t know if it should be considered a regression or just a different
behaviour of the two drivers. I’ve noticed it[4] when I tried to use an
RTL8188EU‐based card in the initramfs of two different Ubuntu kernels:
v5.4 and v5.15. In v5.4, the firmware would be automatically included
when the (old) driver was included, whereas in v5.15 I would have to add
it manually so that the card actually worked. (One can verify the active
driver’s requirements using “modinfo -F firmware r8188eu”.)
If there are cards the new driver supports that do not need that
firmware file, it makes sense to not automatically include it. In
general, I don’t know the kernel policy on such dependencies.
[1]: commit 55dfa29b43d23bab37d98f087615ff46d38241df
[2]: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210731133809.196681-1-phil@philpotter.co.uk/
[3]: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/staging/rtl8188eu/os_dep/os_intfs.c?id=06889446a78fb9655332954a2288ecbacc7f0ff8#n22
[4]: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-meta-hwe-5.15/+question/702611
Best regards
--
Grzegorz Szymaszek
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next reply other threads:[~2022-08-02 13:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-08-02 13:17 Grzegorz Szymaszek [this message]
2022-08-02 14:07 ` The r8188eu kernel module does not depend on the rtlwifi/rtl8188eufw.bin firmware file Greg KH
2022-08-02 14:17 ` Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-02 15:01 ` Larry Finger
2022-08-02 17:18 ` [PATCH] staging: r8188eu: add firmware dependency Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-02 18:03 ` Larry Finger
2022-08-02 19:02 ` Phillip Potter
2022-08-03 6:08 ` Greg KH
2022-08-03 6:33 ` Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-03 6:37 ` Greg KH
2022-08-03 22:28 ` [PATCH 1/3] staging: r8188eu: set firmware path in a macro Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-03 22:29 ` [PATCH 2/3] staging: r8188eu: make use of the DRV_NAME macro Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-05 6:40 ` Greg KH
2022-08-03 22:29 ` [PATCH 3/3] staging: r8188eu: make driver metadata macro names more consistent Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-05 6:39 ` Greg KH
2022-08-04 20:11 ` [PATCH 1/3] staging: r8188eu: set firmware path in a macro Philipp Hortmann
2022-08-04 22:23 ` Grzegorz Szymaszek
2022-08-05 4:13 ` Greg KH
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