open source realtek driver for 8180

open source realtek driver for 8180

[tuxrocks]

Hello all.  I posted to the list in July concerning the possible importance of the infamous 8180 chipset specifications in developing an open-source (and more complete) driver.  Jeff Garzik replied that a driver was forthcoming by late August.  I was just curious as to where I should be keeping an eye out for the driver (there are currently two projects at sourceforge developing drivers for this chipset, was Jeff refering to one of these?) and if development was getting close to completion.  Please cc me any replies.
Thanks for your time, and thanks to all of the developers!
--Wayne

Re: open source realtek driver for 8180

[David Hollis]

On Wed, 2004-09-15 at 12:11 -0400, tuxrocks@cox.net wrote:
> Hello all.  I posted to the list in July concerning the possible importance of the infamous 8180 chipset specifications in developing an open-source (and more complete) driver.  Jeff Garzik replied that a driver was forthcoming by late August.  I was just curious as to where I should be keeping an eye out for the driver (there are currently two projects at sourceforge developing drivers for this chipset, was Jeff refering to one of these?) and if development was getting close to completion.  Please cc me any replies.
> Thanks for your time, and thanks to all of the developers!
> --Wayne
> 

I'm quite interested in this driver as well.  At the moment I'm stuck
using the ndiswrapper to make the card work but it's not how I would
like to do things long term.  I looked at the rtl8180+sa2400 driver at
sourceforge and it seems to be the most promising but the code is in
pretty bad shape.  It won't compile against a recent kernel using gcc
3.4 without a load of warnings and errors due to the coding style.  I
also found a project (forget where exactly) that is focused on making
the existing Realtek drivers work under 2.6 kernels.  The Realtek
drivers do the typical link-to-precompiled-object bit and are designed
for 2.4.  I haven't played with them myself so I don't know if they work
or not.  I would really prefer a standard, well-written fully open
driver (wouldn't we all!) that at worst requires a firmware binary to be
loaded.  The prism54 and ipw2x00 drivers come to mind...

-- 
David Hollis <dhollis@davehollis.com>

Re: open source realtek driver for 8180

[tuxrocks]

The realtek drivers have worked for me, but only (as you said) for 2.4.  They 
also don't support monitor mode, which I would like to use.
I had similar experiences with the sourceforge projects mentioned.  The 
rtl8180+sa2400 bailed with numerous warnings.  The project you mention might 
be the other one on sourceforge, rtl-ddp.  Things seemed to be moving, but 
then stalled.  It compiles and insmods but doesn't have the wireless 
extensions supported yet.  I'm sure everyone involved in the projects is 
busy, but I'm just trying to see if going out and buying a 20 or 30 dollar 
card that is supported would be my best bet.
On Wednesday 15 September 2004 12:14 pm, David Hollis wrote:
> I'm quite interested in this driver as well.  At the moment I'm stuck
> using the ndiswrapper to make the card work but it's not how I would
> like to do things long term.  I looked at the rtl8180+sa2400 driver at
> sourceforge and it seems to be the most promising but the code is in
> pretty bad shape.  It won't compile against a recent kernel using gcc
> 3.4 without a load of warnings and errors due to the coding style.  I
> also found a project (forget where exactly) that is focused on making
> the existing Realtek drivers work under 2.6 kernels.  The Realtek
> drivers do the typical link-to-precompiled-object bit and are designed
> for 2.4.  I haven't played with them myself so I don't know if they work
> or not.  I would really prefer a standard, well-written fully open
> driver (wouldn't we all!) that at worst requires a firmware binary to be
> loaded.  The prism54 and ipw2x00 drivers come to mind...

Re: open source realtek driver for 8180

[Marcelo Tosatti]

In my experience the realtek binary driver is crap - it brings up the card 
and transfers data correctly - but stops communication after some period of time, 
sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 1 hour.

It oopses on card removal, doenst handle anything other than normal 
operation for more than 1 hour.

On RH's 2.4.20-8, all of that.

On Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 07:54:18PM -0500, tuxrocks@cox.net wrote:
> The realtek drivers have worked for me, but only (as you said) for 2.4.  They 
> also don't support monitor mode, which I would like to use.
> I had similar experiences with the sourceforge projects mentioned.  The 
> rtl8180+sa2400 bailed with numerous warnings.  The project you mention might 
> be the other one on sourceforge, rtl-ddp.  Things seemed to be moving, but 
> then stalled.  It compiles and insmods but doesn't have the wireless 
> extensions supported yet.  I'm sure everyone involved in the projects is 
> busy, but I'm just trying to see if going out and buying a 20 or 30 dollar 
> card that is supported would be my best bet.

Re: open source realtek driver for 8180

[David Hollis]

On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 21:29 -0300, Marcelo Tosatti wrote:
> In my experience the realtek binary driver is crap - it brings up the card 
> and transfers data correctly - but stops communication after some period of time, 
> sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 1 hour.
> 
> It oopses on card removal, doenst handle anything other than normal 
> operation for more than 1 hour.
> 
> On RH's 2.4.20-8, all of that.

I'm dabbling with the rtl8180-sa2400 code to see if I can make it do
anything.  Right now most of my time is spent making it compile and
remotely legible.  The coding style is quite far from graceful.
Hopefully I can get it to at least transfer some packets and make more
use of the community to get into something of quality.  

I haven't worked with wireless drivers yet so thats a learning
experience but at least there are plenty of examples at this point.

-- 
David Hollis <dhollis@davehollis.com>