rtl8180 driver in master/ad-hoc mode
Subsystems (2)
Hi,
I noticed that the rtl8180 (Realtek wireless PCI adapter) driver for Linux
doesn't support master or ad-hoc mode. However the rtl-wifi driver from http://rtl-wifi.sourceforge.net does support these modes.
After a bit of investigation, I found out that the driver from the kernel is
not maintained by its original author anymore (no changes since 2007), while rtl-wifi development is active.
My question is if rtl-wifi will make it into the kernel? rtl-wifi is actually a
fork of the old driver, but with a lot of added functionality. I'm sure that a lot of folks would like to use their hardware to its full potential.
Thank you,
Radu Potop
Quoted 6 lines · Radu Potop
I noticed that the rtl8180 (Realtek wireless PCI adapter) driver for
Linux doesn't support master or ad-hoc mode. However the rtl-wifi driver from http://rtl-wifi.sourceforge.net does support these modes.
After a bit of investigation, I found out that the driver from the
kernel is not maintained by its original author anymore (no changes since 2007), while rtl-wifi development is active.
A bit too little investigation, it seems. The rtl8180 driver doesn't get lots of attention, but it has been hit several times since 2007. As for master and ad-hoc modes, I've recently taken interest there and expect to be adding patches shortly.
Quoted 4 lines
My question is if rtl-wifi will make it into the kernel? rtl-wifi is
actually a fork of the old driver, but with a lot of added functionality. I'm sure that a lot of folks would like to use their hardware to its full potential.
No it will not. For one, svn indicates rtl-wifi is nowhere near as active as you indicate:
/home/linville/svn/rtl-wifi [linville-t400.local]:> svn log ------------------------------------------------------------------------ r83 | falmouth | 2008-07-09 08:52:33 -0400 (Wed, 09 Jul 2008) | 1 line our CCMP, TKIP and WEP modules names end in -rtl
Beyond that, no one from there is posting any patches and in any case it is rather rare to simply drop one more-or-less working driver in favor of another one simply because it appears from nowhere.
Anyway, as I indicated I have been taking more interest in rtl8180 lately and I expect it to be greatly improved at least in time for 2.6.35 (since the 2.6.34 development cycle will be ending soon).
Hth!
John
Signature · 2 lines
John W. Linville Someday the world will need a hero, and you [email protected] might be all we have. Be ready.
I contacted Markus Gothe from rtl-wifi and he was interested in updating the
driver/providing patches. It would be nice to collaborate with him on this one.
I'll keep you updated if he posts anything on the rtl-wifi mailing list.
-Radu
Quoted 40 lines · John W. Linville
Quoted 6 lines · Radu Potop
I noticed that the rtl8180 (Realtek wireless PCI adapter) driver for
Linux doesn't support master or ad-hoc mode. However the rtl-wifi driver from http://rtl-wifi.sourceforge.net does support these modes.
After a bit of investigation, I found out that the driver from the
kernel is not maintained by its original author anymore (no changes since 2007), while rtl-wifi development is active.A bit too little investigation, it seems. The rtl8180 driver doesn't get lots of attention, but it has been hit several times since 2007. As for master and ad-hoc modes, I've recently taken interest there and expect to be adding patches shortly.
Quoted 4 lines
My question is if rtl-wifi will make it into the kernel? rtl-wifi is
actually a fork of the old driver, but with a lot of added functionality. I'm sure that a lot of folks would like to use their hardware to its full potential.No it will not. For one, svn indicates rtl-wifi is nowhere near as active as you indicate:
/home/linville/svn/rtl-wifi [linville-t400.local]:> svn log ------------------------------------------------------------------------ r83 | falmouth | 2008-07-09 08:52:33 -0400 (Wed, 09 Jul 2008) | 1 line our CCMP, TKIP and WEP modules names end in -rtlBeyond that, no one from there is posting any patches and in any case it is rather rare to simply drop one more-or-less working driver in favor of another one simply because it appears from nowhere.
Anyway, as I indicated I have been taking more interest in rtl8180 lately and I expect it to be greatly improved at least in time for 2.6.35 (since the 2.6.34 development cycle will be ending soon).
Hth!
John