3.2.x/drivers/staging/rtl8712 driver regression

Larry Finger Larry.Finger at lwfinger.net
Wed Jan 18 02:29:07 UTC 2012


On 01/17/2012 05:52 PM, Robert Crawford wrote:
> I run mainly run Gentoo, but have the same rtl8712 driver problem with several
> other distros.
>
> On the gentoo forum, there's a kernel 3.2 thread, and I posted a work-around
> that works, but I guess it really needs an offical patch (beyond my expertise,
> or I'd submit one). http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-901702.html
>
> Anyway, here's some info I posted, which I hope helps. (On the forum, they
> wondered if this info had been passed along upstream):

This information had not previously been passed upstream.

> FWIW, I have a work-around for my wicd and wireless connection failures with all
> 3.2-rc's and 3.2.x's.
>
> I simply copied over the entire linux-3.1.9/drivers/staging/rtl8712/ folder to
> the 3.2.0 kernel source (replacing the newly patched 3.2.0 version with the
> 3.1.9 version), and recompiled 3.2.0 using my current config file, and wicd and
> wireless now work normally.

In that rambling thread from the Gentoo forum, I failed to see the USB ID for 
your device. Use the command lsusb to list it.

I believe there is a regression in r8712u *for your device*; however, v3.2 works 
fine on mine. As you can understand, I do not have an unlimited budget for 
purchasing test devices, which is why your device was not tested earlier. As you 
have seen the source, you know that there are a large number of devices handled 
by this driver. Either your device is not in the USB device tables (unlikely), 
it requires some different coding, or there is something incompatible between 
the new code and your router. I checked to make sure we did not miss any IDs in 
the update. I don't think we did, but there is always the possibility.

If there is something unique to your wifi device, then we may need to bisect the 
code to see what went wrong. As I suspect that bisection is not your strong 
point, I just purchased an RNX-N180UBE on E-bay so that I can trouble shoot this 
problem. Once I get it and do the testing, then we will be able to determine if 
your router is the problem.

Larry



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