RealTek 8191SEvB wifi

[Jos Vos]

Hi,

Will F15 (and maybe also newer F14 kernels?) support the RTL8191SEvB
Wireless LAN Controller?  AFAIK at least stock F14 does not support it.

Thx,

--
--    Jos Vos 
--    X/OS Experts in Open Systems BV   |   Phone: [phone]
--    Amsterdam, The Netherlands        |     Fax: [phone]

[Jarod Wilson]

On Mar 3, 2011, at 7:54 AM, Jos Vos wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Will F15 (and maybe also newer F14 kernels?) support the RTL8191SEvB
> Wireless LAN Controller?  AFAIK at least stock F14 does not support it.

Looks like it, based on the addition of the rtl8192ce driver upstream
in 2.6.38, which includes support for multiple 8191 devices as well.

Knowing your PCI device ID would lead to more certainty. Devices the
driver claims to support:

#define RTL_PCI_8192_DID       0x8192  /*8192 PCI-E */
#define RTL_PCI_8192SE_DID     0x8192  /*8192 SE */
#define RTL_PCI_8174_DID       0x8174  /*8192 SE */
#define RTL_PCI_8173_DID       0x8173  /*8191 SE Crab */
#define RTL_PCI_8172_DID       0x8172  /*8191 SE RE */
#define RTL_PCI_8171_DID       0x8171  /*8191 SE Unicron */
#define RTL_PCI_0045_DID       0x0045  /*8190 PCI for Ceraga */
#define RTL_PCI_0046_DID       0x0046  /*8190 Cardbus for Ceraga */
#define RTL_PCI_0044_DID       0x0044  /*8192e PCIE for Ceraga */
#define RTL_PCI_0047_DID       0x0047  /*8192e Express Card for Ceraga */
#define RTL_PCI_700F_DID       0x700F
#define RTL_PCI_701F_DID       0x701F
#define RTL_PCI_DLINK_DID      0x3304
#define RTL_PCI_8192CET_DID    0x8191  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8192CE_DID     0x8178  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8191CE_DID     0x8177  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8188CE_DID     0x8176  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8192CU_DID     0x8191  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8192DE_DID     0x092D  /*8192ce */
#define RTL_PCI_8192DU_DID     0x092D  /*8192ce */

[Jos Vos]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 09:35:12AM -0500, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> Looks like it, based on the addition of the rtl8192ce driver upstream
> in 2.6.38, which includes support for multiple 8191 devices as well.
>
> Knowing your PCI device ID would lead to more certainty. Devices the
> driver claims to support:

Unfortunately I don't have the HW yet (I'll try to investigate *before*
buying), but I'm looking at some Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 15 models, of
which at least some seem to have this chip.  I found this HW profile
of the specific model I'm looking at:

http://smolt.fedoraproject.org/client/show/pub_8de0cb7b-6fb2-4d20-992c-28ce7...

0301-GSG is the exact model number I'm looking at, but I'm not sure
if the model number listed here can be trusted.

Thx,

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 03:53:23PM +0100, Jos Vos wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 09:35:12AM -0500, Jarod Wilson wrote:
> > Looks like it, based on the addition of the rtl8192ce driver upstream
> > in 2.6.38, which includes support for multiple 8191 devices as well.
> >
> > Knowing your PCI device ID would lead to more certainty. Devices the
> > driver claims to support:
>
> Unfortunately I don't have the HW yet (I'll try to investigate *before*
> buying), but I'm looking at some Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 15 models, of
> which at least some seem to have this chip.  I found this HW profile
> of the specific model I'm looking at:
>
> http://smolt.fedoraproject.org/client/show/pub_8de0cb7b-6fb2-4d20-992c-28ce7...
>
> 0301-GSG is the exact model number I'm looking at, but I'm not sure
> if the model number listed here can be trusted.

Actually, there is some confusion here...the pci id references
Jarod foudn are in the rtlwifi infrastructure, but there are not yet
corresponding drivers for all those IDs.

If I correctly interpret the data from smolt (which reports pci ids
in decimal?  really?), it looks like the pci id for the device in
question is 10EC:8172.  Unfortunately, none of the current rtlwifi
sub-drivers claim that ID.

So 2.6.38 will not support that device and 2.6.39 probably won't
either. :-(

John

[Jos Vos]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 10:27:45AM -0500, John W. Linville wrote:
> If I correctly interpret the data from smolt (which reports pci ids
> in decimal?  really?), it looks like the pci id for the device in
> question is 10EC:8172.  Unfortunately, none of the current rtlwifi
> sub-drivers claim that ID.
>
> So 2.6.38 will not support that device and 2.6.39 probably won't
> either. :-(

I found this info:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_11b/g/n_Wireless_LAN_Mini-PCI_Express...

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 05:39:26PM +0100, Jos Vos wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 10:27:45AM -0500, John W. Linville wrote:
> > If I correctly interpret the data from smolt (which reports pci ids
> > in decimal?  really?), it looks like the pci id for the device in
> > question is 10EC:8172.  Unfortunately, none of the current rtlwifi
> > sub-drivers claim that ID.
> >
> > So 2.6.38 will not support that device and 2.6.39 probably won't
> > either. :-(
>
> I found this info:
>
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_11b/g/n_Wireless_LAN_Mini-PCI_Express...

Well, far be it from me to dispute a wiki... :-)

But seriously, the driver as it stands does not support your PCI ID.
Maybe just adding it would make your device work, but maybe not...

John

[John Reiser]

On 03/03/2011 07:27 AM, John W. Linville wrote:
> If I correctly interpret the data from smolt (which reports pci ids
> in decimal?  really?), ...

Yes, using decimal for PCI vendor:product impedes usability.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=494142
which was entered two years ago and re-opened today.

--

[Adam Williamson]

On Thu, 2011-03-03 at 10:27 -0500, John W. Linville wrote:
> If I correctly interpret the data from smolt (which reports pci ids
> in decimal?  really?)

Yes, really. You're not the first to notice this is a huge pile of crack
=)