Re: rtl8192su driver compatibility with a rtl8188su device

On Tue, Aug 26, 2014 at 8:19 AM, Christian Lamparter
[off-list ref] wrote:

The rtl8192su.git comes with two sets of firmware (for two different
driver architectures).

The rtl8712u firmware is much more integrated and can performs several
high-level procedures (high-level for firmware) like scanning, link setup
(auth, assoc, reassoc, deassoc, deauth), link monitoring, rate control,
crypto, erp, beacon generation, etc... with little to no help from the
driver. This firmware is used by the (staging) rtl8712u, v2.6.6.0.20120405
and (abandoned) r92su driver.

the rtl8192su* firmware can't do any of those. The driver +
mac80211-stack has to perform the all the necessary procedures
(starting from the phy/rf setup). This firmware is used by rtl8192su,
AR-7284WnAB, windows and mac osx drivers.

Thanks for the clarifications on the differing firmwares.  I think
this is likely my first issue (using an incorrect firmware with
rtl8192su driver stack).

The monitor mode of the rtl8712/r92su driver is limited by the firmware
too. For example it is not possible to set the channel bandwidth to 40MHz.
If that is not a problem and you don't need injection, you can try to get
the abandoned r92su driver to work. It uses cfg80211 (not the old wireless
extension) and has support for the monitor mode.

Thanks for the pointer to the r92su driver.  I think this may address
my immediate needs (basic RX monitoring).

quoted

If not I would be interested in helping out with porting/testing/debugging
to aid in getting the chipset functional.

That would be: figuring out why the device dies after a random amount of time.
This could be caused by a missing watchdog check or the firmware detected a
problem and needs a reset. I think this will probably require someone taking
USB traffic dumps from both the mac os x or windows driver and check what they
do differently. [Not very trivial]

If I can get the device working I should be able to get the traces
(though analyzing them is another story).

Thanks for the help.

--
David Madsen