Linux 5.15 Staging Replaces Its Realtek RTL8188EU WiFi Driver

The staging updates for Linux 5.15 continue to have a lot of code churn including some drivers being promoted while one Realtek WiFi driver has been replaced.

Linux has long had the "rtl8188eu" driver as part of the kernel's staging area for supporting this Realtek RTL8188EU 802.11 b/g/n WiFi chip for USB adapters. The RTL8188EU can be found in a number of different USB WiFi adapters including some still available via retail channels while now its Linux staging driver has been replaced.

The "rtl8188eu" driver has been replaced by the "r8188eu" driver. This new driver has been maintained for a while out-of-tree by developer Larry Finger and is in better shape than the prior staging code. This out-of-tree driver has been maintained better and carries better chances of moving out of staging, so now it's become the de facto new driver.

Larry has been maintaining the out-of-tree kernel module via this development repository while now is mainline with Linux 5.15.

More details on that Realtek WiFi driver update along with the other staging changes for this new kernel via this pull request that has already been merged to mainline.