rtl8xxxu: Fix for agressive power saving by rtl8723bu wireless IC

The rtl8723bu wireless IC shows evidence of a more agressive approach to power saving, powering down its RF side when there is no wireless interfacing but leaving USB interfacing intact. This makes the wireless IC more suitable for use in devices which need to keep their power use as low as practical, such as tablets and Surface Pro type devices.

In effect this means that a full initialisation must be performed whenever a wireless interface is brought up. It also means that interpretations of power status from general wireless registers should not be relied on to influence an init sequence.

The patch works by forcing a fuller initialisation and forcing it to occur more often in code paths (such as occurs during a low level authentication that initiates wireless interfacing).

The initialisation sequence is now more consistent with code based directly on vendor code. For example while the vendor derived code interprets a register as indcating a particular powered state, it does not use this information to influence its init sequence.

Only devices that use the rtl8723bu driver are affected by this patch.

With this patch wpa_supplicant reliably and consistently connects with an AP. Before a workaround such as executing rmmod and modprobe before each call to wpa_supplicant worked with some distributions.

Signed-off-by John Heenan <[email protected]>

---
 drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl8xxxu/rtl8xxxu_core.c | 16 ++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl8xxxu/rtl8xxxu_core.c +12 -4

index 04141e5..ab2f2ef 100644
@@ -3900,7 +3900,7 @@ static int rtl8xxxu_init_device(struct ieee80211_hw *hw)
 	 * Fix 92DU-VC S3 hang with the reason is that secondary mac is not
 	 * initialized. First MAC returns 0xea, second MAC returns 0x00
 	 */
-	if (val8 == 0xea)
+	if (val8 == 0xea || priv->fops == &rtl8723bu_fops)
 		macpower = false;
 	else
 		macpower = true;

@@ -5779,6 +5779,12 @@ static int rtl8xxxu_start(struct ieee80211_hw *hw)
 
 	ret = 0;
 
+	if(priv->fops == &rtl8723bu_fops) {
+		ret = rtl8xxxu_init_device(hw);
+		if (ret)
+			goto error_out;
+	}
+
 	init_usb_anchor(&priv->rx_anchor);
 	init_usb_anchor(&priv->tx_anchor);
 	init_usb_anchor(&priv->int_anchor);

@@ -6080,9 +6086,11 @@ static int rtl8xxxu_probe(struct usb_interface *interface,
 		goto exit;
 	}
 
-	ret = rtl8xxxu_init_device(hw);
-	if (ret)
-		goto exit;
+	if(priv->fops != &rtl8723bu_fops) {
+		ret = rtl8xxxu_init_device(hw);
+		if (ret)
+			goto exit;
+	}
 
 	hw->wiphy->max_scan_ssids = 1;
 	hw->wiphy->max_scan_ie_len = IEEE80211_MAX_DATA_LEN;

Signature · 1 line

2.10.1

The rtl8723bu wireless IC shows evidence of a more agressive approach to power saving, powering down its RF side when there is no wireless interfacing but leaving USB interfacing intact. This makes the wireless IC more suitable for use in devices which need to keep their power use as low as practical, such as tablets and Surface Pro type devices.

In effect this means that a full initialisation must be performed whenever a wireless interface is brought up. It also means that interpretations of power status from general wireless registers should not be relied on to influence an init sequence.

The patch works by forcing a fuller initialisation and forcing it to occur more often in code paths (such as occurs during a low level authentication that initiates wireless interfacing).

The initialisation sequence is now more consistent with code based directly on vendor code. For example while the vendor derived code interprets a register as indcating a particular powered state, it does not use this information to influence its init sequence.

Only devices that use the rtl8723bu driver are affected by this patch.

With this patch wpa_supplicant reliably and consistently connects with an AP. Before a workaround such as executing rmmod and modprobe before each call to wpa_supplicant worked with some distributions.

Signed-off-by John Heenan <[email protected]>

---
 drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl8xxxu/rtl8xxxu_core.c | 16 ++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtl8xxxu/rtl8xxxu_core.c +0 -1

@@ -6080,9 +6086,11 @@ static int rtl8xxxu_probe(struct usb_interface *interface,
 		goto exit;
 	}
 
-	ret = rtl8xxxu_init_device(hw);