Re: [PATCH 2/2] rtl8xxxu: Fix for bogus data used to determine macpower

John Heenan [off-list ref] writes:

Thanks for your reply.

The code was tested on a Cube i9 which has an internal rtl8723bu.

No other devices were tested.

I am happy to accept in an ideal context hard coding macpower is
undesirable, the comment is undesirable and it is wrong to assume the
issue is not unique to the rtl8723bu.

Your reply is idealistic. What can I do now?  I should of course have
factored out other untested devices in my patches. The apparent
concern you have with process over outcome is a useful lesson.

We are not in an ideal situation. The comment is of course relevant
and useful to starting a process to fixing a real bug I do not have
sufficient information to refine any further for and others do. In the
circumstances nothing really more can be expected.

Well you should start by reporting the issue and either providing a
patch that only affects 8723bu, or work on a generic solution. I
appreciate patches, but I do not appreciate patches that will make
something work for one person and break for everyone else - I spent a
lot of time making sure the driver works across the different devices.

The comment violates all Linux standards - first rule when modifying
code is to respect the style of the code you are dealing with.

Code is 80 characters wide, and comments are /* */ never the ugly C++
crap.

My patch cover letter, [PATCH 0/2] provides evidence of a mess with
regard to determining macpower for the rtl8723bu and what is
subsequently required. This is important.

The kernel driver code is very poorly documented and there is not a
single source reference to device documentation. For example macpower
is noting more than a setting that is true or false according to
whether a read of a particular register return 0xef or not. Such value
was never obtained so a full init sequence was never performed.

The kernel driver is documented with the information I have - there is
NO device documentation because Realtek refuses to provide any. I have
written the driver based on what I have retried by reading the vendor
drivers. If you can provide better documentation, I certainly would love
to get it.

It would be helpful if you could provide a link to device references.
As it is, how am I supposed to revise the patch without relevant
information?

Look at the USB device table, it shows you which devices are supported.

My patch code works with the Cube i9, as is, despite a lack of
adequate information. Before it did not. That is a powerful statement

The driver works with a lot of different devices in itself that is a
powerful statement!

Yes I want to see it work with as many devices as possible, but just
moving things around without balancing it and not explaining why is not
a fix. If we move more of the init sequence to _start() you also have to
move matching pieces to _stop().

Jes