will rtl8192su driver work for 64-bit kernel 3.2.0-23-generic?

will rtl8192su driver work for 64-bit kernel 3.2.0-23-generic?

[Scott S]

Hi,

I'm no guru or developer, so please bear with me.

I'm looking for a better driver for a Rosewill RNX-N180UBE USB wifi on
64-bit Linux Mint 13 (Ubuntu 12LTS Kernel 3.2.0-23) the Ubuntu driver
is junk+10.

I found your site from here:

http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Rosewill_RNX-N180UBE

it says your driver is under development... ??

but you have a compile ready source...?

Just wonder if you can tell me if it will work, or should I use the
older one listed there? (r8712u)

Or what?

any help greatly appreciated.

Scott Stetsman

Re: will rtl8192su driver work for 64-bit kernel 3.2.0-23-generic?

[Christian Lamparter]

Hello,

On Sunday, December 22, 2013 05:58:12 PM Scott S wrote:
> I'm no guru or developer, so please bear with me.
That's fine.

> I'm looking for a better driver for a Rosewill RNX-N180UBE USB wifi on
> 64-bit Linux Mint 13 (Ubuntu 12LTS Kernel 3.2.0-23) the Ubuntu driver
> is junk+10.
in what way is it junk? Is it crashing/misbehaving, does it lack important
features, is the wifi connection unstable, or is something else bothering
you?

> I found your site from here:
> 
> http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Rosewill_RNX-N180UBE
> it says your driver is under development... ??
Yes, you are referring to "r92su".

> but you have a compile ready source...?
Yes, the source is available from <https://github.com/chunkeey/rtl8192su>.
However this driver is for 3.10+ kernels. AFICT there are no ready
[plans for] backports of the driver for an older kernel version. 

If you are interested in the state and future of r92su you can find some
information in this thread:
<http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wireless/msg114213.html>
<http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-wireless/msg114215.html>
TL;DR: r92su is doomed too.

> Just wonder if you can tell me if it will work, or should I use the
> older one listed there? (r8712u)
>
> Or what?
Oh, you can help with the rtl8192su-mac80211 driver rewrite. This would 
certainly make a difference :-D. Anything other than that: no, not that I
know.

Regards,
Christian

Re: will rtl8192su driver work for 64-bit kernel 3.2.0-23-generic?

[Christian Lamparter]

On Tuesday, December 24, 2013 03:59:19 PM Scott S wrote:
> >>> I'm looking for a better driver for a Rosewill RNX-N180UBE USB wifi on
> >>> 64-bit Linux Mint 13 (Ubuntu 12LTS Kernel 3.2.0-23) the Ubuntu driver
> >>> is junk+10.
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> >in what way is it junk? Is it crashing/misbehaving, does it lack important
> >features, is the wifi connection unstable, or is something else bothering
> >you?
> 
> Well, let's see, this is a new USB antenna, but this is what I've
> noticed so far:
> 
> Sometimes I get a "black screen of death" crash when watching hi-speed
> streaming videos on Amazon or NFL.com, or during shut-down , but not
> sure, because sometimes the message is Kernel BUG: xxxxxxx whatever
> and  ---cut here------ and other messages... but I only get those
> messages when this one is plugged in. (I have 2 other USB antennas
> that I can't get to work well either, but of the 3, this one works the
> best) hahaha :)
> 
> Here's some of the other problems I've noticed:
> 
> It doesn't turn-off from the applet (the signal strength indicator
> always stays on, then it's locked up. Won't do jack on/off)
> Suspend wake-up problems.
> Crashes when uplugged, but not all the time...
> 
> System won't completely shutdown when plugged in or after unplugged,
> and more error messages.
> 
> (I've had some success using using CTRL+ALT+PrnScr REISUB sometimes
> for a complete shutdown.)
> 
> Other than that, it works great! No, really. Better than my other 2.
> When it works, it's fast.

This is great data (do you think you could capture a few of those error
messages?). Since all this sounds like "just" driver problems... and they
can be fixed (or are already fixed, after all 3.2 was releases almost two
years ago). Do you know the module name of the driver you are currently
using? ("lsmod" can tell you that, it should be something like r8712u, 
rtl8190n or rtl8192su). Maybe there is already an intermediate solution.

> > Oh, you can help with the rtl8192su-mac80211 driver rewrite. This would
> > certainly make a difference :-D
> 
> I really wish I could. I love Linux.
> 
> But wait a minute, if it's doomed anyway. :/
Wait a minute ;-).  r92su is "doomed" since it doesn't provide any major
improvements over r8712u (apart from the cfg80211 interface). However,
the rtl8192su-mac80211 driver is not doomed, but it needs "free hands".

> Thanks for the response and Merry Christmas Happy New Year
Thank you, the same to you.
 
Christian