Driver for RealTek RTL8811AU dual-band USB WiFi adapter

Driver for RealTek RTL8811AU dual-band USB WiFi adapter

[Chris Ward]

I recently bought one of these 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C4JQZSP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
;
a dual-band wifi adapter. It came with source for a Linux driver, which 
required some patching to get it to work with the
4.19 kernel. Can I interest a kernel developer to integrate this into 
kernel.org ? It would save me
effort at further patching if someone else kept it current as the kernel 
changes.

The driver from Amazon is here 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AYmjFk2l5jTpnAzLPNpetSGefm4khEBi
and my patch is here 
http://tjcw.freeshell.org/Patches/rawhide-20181031.patch .

The Amazon driver is stated to be GPL, and I am content for my work to 
be GPL also.

If you need further information, please email me (tjcw at cantab.net)

-- 
Chris Ward

Re: Driver for RealTek RTL8811AU dual-band USB WiFi adapter

[Larry Finger]

On 11/4/18 9:43 AM, Chris Ward wrote:
> I recently bought one of these 
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C4JQZSP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
> ;
> a dual-band wifi adapter. It came with source for a Linux driver, which required 
> some patching to get it to work with the
> 4.19 kernel. Can I interest a kernel developer to integrate this into kernel.org 
> ? It would save me
> effort at further patching if someone else kept it current as the kernel changes.
> 
> The driver from Amazon is here 
> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AYmjFk2l5jTpnAzLPNpetSGefm4khEBi
> and my patch is here http://tjcw.freeshell.org/Patches/rawhide-20181031.patch .
> 
> The Amazon driver is stated to be GPL, and I am content for my work to be GPL also.
> 
> If you need further information, please email me (tjcw at cantab.net)

Even though the driver is GPL, it would take roughly 6 months for an experienced 
kernel coder to rewrite the crappy code that Realtek provides, particularly for 
its USB devices, to get it into a form that would be accepted into the kernel. 
If you are offering $10K for the project, you might get some interest. :)

As I offer a number of USB drivers for Realtek USB devices at GitHub, and I keep 
them patched for changes in the kernel API, I might consider adding this one to 
the collection there. It would be useful if someone would provide me with a 
sample device. Without that, I would rely on remote testing. A quick look at 
your patches indicate that you are destroying the ability to build the driver on 
earlier kernels. That is what is done for in-kernel code, but for an external 
driver one needs to keep a lot of flexibility.

Larry

Re: Driver for RealTek RTL8811AU dual-band USB WiFi adapter

[Ferry Toth]

Op 04-11-18 om 17:52 schreef Larry Finger:
> On 11/4/18 9:43 AM, Chris Ward wrote:
>> I recently bought one of these 
>> https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C4JQZSP/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 
>> ;
>> a dual-band wifi adapter. It came with source for a Linux driver, 
>> which required some patching to get it to work with the
>> 4.19 kernel. Can I interest a kernel developer to integrate this into 
>> kernel.org ? It would save me
>> effort at further patching if someone else kept it current as the 
>> kernel changes.
>>
>> The driver from Amazon is here 
>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AYmjFk2l5jTpnAzLPNpetSGefm4khEBi
>> and my patch is here 
>> http://tjcw.freeshell.org/Patches/rawhide-20181031.patch .
>>
>> The Amazon driver is stated to be GPL, and I am content for my work to 
>> be GPL also.
>>
>> If you need further information, please email me (tjcw at cantab.net)
> 
> Even though the driver is GPL, it would take roughly 6 months for an 
> experienced kernel coder to rewrite the crappy code that Realtek 
> provides, particularly for its USB devices, to get it into a form that 
> would be accepted into the kernel. If you are offering $10K for the 
> project, you might get some interest. :)
> 
> As I offer a number of USB drivers for Realtek USB devices at GitHub, 
> and I keep them patched for changes in the kernel API, I might consider 
> adding this one to the collection there. It would be useful if someone 
> would provide me with a sample device. Without that, I would rely on 
> remote testing. A quick look at your patches indicate that you are 
> destroying the ability to build the driver on earlier kernels. That is 
> what is done for in-kernel code, but for an external driver one needs to 
> keep a lot of flexibility.
> 
> Larry
> 
Do I understand correct that the kernel 8821ae also supports 8812? Is 
that not close to 8811?

We found a 8811AU based dongle on Ali Express for €7. I'd be happy to 
make sure you get one.