[lvc-project] On brcm80211 maintenance and support

[Arend Van Spriel]

On 10/6/2023 2:21 PM, Kalle Valo wrote:
> Julian Calaby <julian.calaby at gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Hi Dmitry,
>>
>> (relevant people and lists CC'd)
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 6, 2023 at 3:16 AM Dmitry Antipov <dmantipov at yandex.ru> wrote:
>>>
>>> Kalle,
>>>
>>> what's an actual status of brcm80211 driver? It seems
>>> that the relevant MAINTAINERS entries are no longer
>>> useful, and [1] states that Broadcom is just "disappeared".
>>
>> Arend hasn't posted since February:
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/63f72045-e51d-d9a4-a0ed-c221bcdcee03@gmail.com/
>>
>> Franky is still reviewing things as of early August:
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/CA+8PC_evb-6Y3dKnAN4BN=ODEVxY5-cDb6Lc72u0j1WBtx7p1A@mail.gmail.com/
>>
>> Hante hasn't posted since 2018:
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/4f6223b8083ed69432493a37d4f45b69@mail.gmail.com/
>>
>> Hector Martin has a bunch of Apple-specific patches downstream in the
>> Asahi Linux kernel and has been looking for guidance on how to
>> upstream it without any real answers:
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-wireless/181af6e9-799d-b730-dc14-ee2de2541f35@marcan.st/
>>
>> There's also speculation that the Raspberry Pi people have downstream
>> patches too, but I haven't been able to find anything concrete in a
>> very brief search.
> 
> Thanks for the research, that is helpful.
> 
>> Finally, the Cypress / Infineon people appear to be uninterested in
>> discussing the driver.
>>
>> I think it's pretty safe to say that this driver is nearly
>> unmaintained by Broadcom, definitely unmaintained by Cypress /
>> Infineon and Arend is unable to answer questions relating to anything
>> beyond the code as-written.
>>
>> Kalle, should this driver get orphaned?
> 
> We definitely need to consider that but let's first wait for Arend to
> comment.

Using my personal email account to comment. Broadcom has pulled away 
most resources from the brcm80211 drivers as there is no business 
interest for it and it turned into a one-fifth man show as I was granted 
to work one day a week on brcm80211. Nice theory but in practice other 
work always takes priority. So "nearly unmaintained" is no exaggeration. 
I probably can not meet the expectations some people in the community 
have regarding driver maintainers, but I can still review patch 
submissions although I should keep a better eye on the list to do that. 
It would not be my choice to abandon brcm80211, but if my contributions 
are considered insufficient than I will accept that fact.

Ever since Infineon took over Cypress wifi business things turned quiet 
soon. Their website still claims brcmfmac is the driver to use. Earlier 
this year I did have contact with them to hear whether they were 
committed to the driver. At least I got an answer, but not much more 
than that.

Regards,
Arend