Re: [PATCH] staging: Add rtl8821ce PCIe WiFi driver

[Greg KH]

On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 07:54:58PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote:
> at 19:40, Greg KH <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 07:24:01PM +0800, Kai-Heng Feng wrote:
> > > The rtl8821ce can be found on many HP and Lenovo laptops.
> > > Users have been using out-of-tree module for a while,
> > > 
> > > The new Realtek WiFi driver, rtw88, will support rtl8821ce in 2020 or
> > > later.
> > 
> > Where is that driver, and why is it going to take so long to get merged?
> 
> rtw88 is in 5.2 now, but it doesnât support 8821ce yet.
> 
> They plan to add the support in 2020.

Who is "they" and what is needed to support this device and why wait a
full year?

> > > 296 files changed, 206166 insertions(+)
> > 
> > Ugh, why do we keep having to add the whole mess for every single one of
> > these devices?
> 
> Because Realtek devices are unfortunately ubiquitous so the support is
> better come from kernel.

That's not the issue here.  The issue is that we keep adding the same
huge driver files to the kernel tree, over and over, with no real change
at all.  We have seen almost all of these files in other realtek
drivers, right?  Why not use the ones we already have?

But better yet, why not add proper support for this hardware and not use
a staging driver?

thanks,

greg k-h