Linux 6.7 Staging Drops The QLGE Ethernet & rtl8192u WiFi Drivers

[gavron]

That driver was last maintained ages ago. The devices that use that chipset are no longer cutting edge by about 4 generations. New USB WiFI adapters are $10, and with that you get the latest supported Phy and layer-1 stuff.

There's no incentive for anyone to maintain an in-kernel driver for an obsolete devices easily replaced for the cost of a cup of coffee at Starbuck's. To maintain it as an out-of-kernel module is a no-brainer, so likely the few people still using this chipset will have support for a while... just not in kernel.

Definitely $10 and the philosophy is not worthy of the length of time spent discussing it IMHO!

[moriel5]

ohhh... no...

I'm actually using RTL8192U on my wife's laptop (on a tp-link TL-WN822N) because the onboard wifi driver is broken and stops responding every now and then until you restart the thing. (I can't recall the broken wifi module. but it's not the 8192!)

I'll have to get a new one (or replace the one from the laptop, but I think Lenovo whitelists the modules in the BIOS so you can't replace them)

That sounds very weird. How old is the laptop? Lenovo stopped whitelisting WLAN cards with the move to M.2, and depending upon the model, older ones either have community firmwares for them (Libreboot, for example), community modded firmwares, or you could jailbreak it yourself (InsydeH2O).

Also, even if there is a whitelist, it should contain Intel wireless cards that should be rock solid (aside from the WiMax Centrinos) from the laptop's era, and the drivers for those are not broken.

And from what I can find, the TL-WN822N has Atheros WiFi up until hardware revision v2 (with 2 controllers), while hardware revisions v3 and up have variants of the RTL8192U (CU on v3, EU on v4 and v5).

Worst case scenario, you are better off with a Mediatek-based USB WiFi adapter (there are very few, but they exist, on AliExpress) than any Realtek-based WiFi solutions.

[dc740]

That sounds very weird. How old is the laptop? Lenovo stopped whitelisting WLAN cards with the move to M.2, and depending upon the model, older ones either have community firmwares for them (Libreboot, for example), community modded firmwares, or you could jailbreak it yourself (InsydeH2O).

Thanks for the info! A quick google search didn't show any occurrences of whitelisting, so you must be right. It's great to hear. I remember quickly dumping the bios and checking for the common lock strings, and found none. So this must be the case.

I did NOT expect this amount of replies just because of the old usb wifi I was still using. I saw little incentive to change it and just kept using it because it was the one that worked the best (that's why I was surprised with all the negative comments about the module). I'll just replace the internal wifi for the laptop it's rarely used anyway but this is a good excuse to upgrade it.

[Kenta_Hirono]

I don't get why rtl8192u is considered unmantained, a patch with a new firmware was submitted only 3y ago
unless they intend to remove only the '8192u' support, and retain other 8192(cu,e,eu, etc.) firmwares

[moriel5]

Thanks for the info! A quick google search didn't show any occurrences of whitelisting, so you must be right. It's great to hear. I remember quickly dumping the bios and checking for the common lock strings, and found none. So this must be the case.

I did NOT expect this amount of replies just because of the old usb wifi I was still using. I saw little incentive to change it and just kept using it because it was the one that worked the best (that's why I was surprised with all the negative comments about the module). I'll just replace the internal wifi for the laptop it's rarely used anyway but this is a good excuse to upgrade it.

Yeah, I can understand why Realtek was what was working best for you, on Linux Realtek Wi-Fi generally tends to eventually behave (but with reduced performance, both networking and system resource utilization) thanks to the community fixing Realtek's poor driver code, whereas on Windows you don't get that, so it is an unstable mess there (speaking from experience from testing), with Realtek not really caring (I even tried contacting them back in the day about their issues, and while I managed to reach them, they were not exactly a good example of someone who cares about what they do).

Although I do think that it is strange that your WiFi card was not working properly, which model was it? As my IdeaPad 300-15ISK may be from the same timeframe, and if so, you probably had either an Intel 3165-AC, 7260-AC or a Realtek RTL8821 (mine was an RTL8821AE, until I replaced it), with the first two being rock solid and the latter being garbage (not even capable of linking at the speeds it claims to support on 5Ghz, amongst other issues), but later on became bearable on Linux (by then, I had already upgraded multiple time, the 3165-AC, and then to the 7260-AC, and later on to the 9260, AX200, and now it is rocking an AX210, and when I have the budget I intend to order a BE200, now that it is finally available from Fenvi's AliExpress store, but I am also looking at Qualcomm and Mediatek cards in order be able to make comparisons).

I still have my RTL8821AE, but mostly for testing purposes, as there is no point in using it when practically everything else trounces it in every single field, be it performs performance, efficiency, or stability.

From my understanding, the only redeeming quality with Realtek Wi-Fi modules is promiscuous mode, which is very useful for mapping out the area or running diagnostics.

Upgrading your laptop's WiFi card also brings another benefit, newer standards, including Bluetooth (APTx support is of particular interest with Intel and Qualcomm cards).