Why has this so widely used driver not yet been submitted to the Linux kernel?

aircrack-ng / rtl8812au

RTL8812AU/21AU and RTL8814AU driver with monitor mode and frame injection

GNU General Public License v2.0

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Why has this so widely used driver not yet been submitted to the Linux kernel? #1141

Open manuelpaulo opened 5 months ago

manuelpaulo commented 5 months ago

Any particular reason why not? How can the community help? Thanks.

manuelpaulo commented 5 months ago

2024-01-13 - added generic Realtek rtl8812bu adapter (AC1200) to rtl8812bu chipset section :(

dubhater commented 4 months ago

The kernel maintainers don't like this code, for good reason:

It has its own 802.11 stack. The kernel maintainers want drivers to use the kernel's own 802.11 stack (cfg80211, mac80211). You know, don't reinvent the wheel. It's a lot of code, many opportunities for bugs to appear, big maintenance burden.
It doesn't comply with the kernel's coding style standards.
It duplicates a lot of code found in other Realtek drivers. If they accept one driver, they should accept others, but there are so, so many duplicated files with smaller or bigger differences.

These are the reasons I remember right now. Even if someone were to send the driver to the Linux maintainers, they would not accept it.

The good news is the rtlwifi driver, which has been in the kernel for many years now, supports the PCI version of this chip. Making it support the USB version as well is not that hard. You can help me do that by sending/buying me a device with this chip in it.

LLH-l commented 4 months ago

They in working support Linux kernel, https://github.com/morrownr/8812au-20210629/issues/114

dubhater commented 4 months ago

@LLH-l What they're discussing in that issue is another version of the driver you see in this repository. It has all the same problems I mentioned above, it's just a little newer.

chewitt commented 4 months ago

The good news is the rtlwifi driver, which has been in the kernel for many years now, supports the PCI version of this chip. Making it support the USB version as well is not that hard. You can help me do that by sending/buying me a device with this chip in it.

@dubhater If you're serious about pushing USB support upstream feel free to acquire the missing device and expense the cost to (claim a remibursement from) the LibreELEC distro here https://opencollective.com/libreelec - Just link/ref. this conversation in the claim.

dubhater commented 4 months ago

Oh, that's interesting. Hey, I noticed you have packages/linux-drivers/RTL8192DU. I'm currently cleaning up a new rtl8192du driver for inclusion in rtlwifi. Can I claim a reimbursement for that device too? It was 7.44 USD.

chewitt commented 4 months ago

Can I claim a reimbursement for that device too? It was 7.44 USD.

Sure. Just submit the purchase receipt with the title "Purchase of RTL8192DU hardware to support upstream development" or similar and reference this thread somewhere.

dubhater commented 4 months ago

Cool! I will do that.