Sender: Larry Finger <larry.finger@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5fff6faf-87a0-673e-0fda-853eb0391797@lwfinger.net>
Date:   Mon, 29 Nov 2021 19:44:12 -0600
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Subject: Re: USB for rtw89 driver?
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To:     James <bjlockie@lockie.ca>
Cc:     linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
References: <5bdf4393-273f-2ad2-40e0-556ec7dc6817@lockie.ca>
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From:   Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
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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