RE: [PATCH v3] wifi: rtl8xxxu: Support new chip RTL8710BU aka RTL8188GU

[Ping-Ke Shih <pkshih@realtek.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bitterblue Smith <rtl8821cerfe2@gmail.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 13, 2023 9:58 PM
> To: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: Jes Sorensen <Jes.Sorensen@gmail.com>; Ping-Ke Shih <pkshih@realtek.com>; Jiajie Chen <c@jia.je>
> Subject: [PATCH v3] wifi: rtl8xxxu: Support new chip RTL8710BU aka RTL8188GU
> 
> This chip is found in cheap "free driver" USB adapters from Aliexpress.
> Initially they pretend to be a CD-ROM containing the driver for Windows.
> "Ejecting" switches the device to wifi mode.
> 
> Features: 2.4 GHz, b/g/n mode, 1T1R, 150 Mbps.
> 
> This chip is more unique than other Realtek chips:
> 
> * The registers at addresses 0x0-0xff, which all the other chips use,
>   can't be used here. New registers at 0x8000-0x80ff must be used
>   instead. And it's not a simple matter of adding 0x8000: 0x2
>   (REG_SYS_FUNC) became 0x8004, 0x80 (REG_MCU_FW_DL) became 0x8090,
>   etc.
> 
> * Also there are a few new registers which must be accessed indirectly
>   because their addresses don't fit in 16 bits. No other chips seem to
>   have these.
> 
> * The vendor driver compiles to 8188gu.ko, but the code calls the chip
>   RTL8710B(U) pretty much everywhere, including messages visible to the
>   user.
> 
> Another difference compared to the other chips supported by rtl8xxxu is
> that it has a new PHY status struct, or three of them actually, from
> which we extract the RSSI, among other things. This is not unique,
> though, just new. The chips supported by rtw88 also use it.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Bitterblue Smith <rtl8821cerfe2@gmail.com>

Thanks for this nice work.

Reviewed-by: Ping-Ke Shih <pkshih@realtek.com>