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Linux preparing to disable drivers for Microsoft’s RNDIS protocol

• rolph 4y ago
  Multiple revisions of a partial RNDIS specification are available from Microsoft, but Windows implementations have been observed to issue requests not included in that specification, and to have undocumented constraints. [3] [1] https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/net/usb/rndis_host.c https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/net/us... [2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/network/overview-of-remote-ndis--rndis- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/n... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNDIS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNDIS
  • silon42 4y ago
    Last paragraph in 3 has me worried. Android USB Ethernet is tremendously useful.
    • rolph 4y ago
      CDC or EEP is to be the replacement, so i dont think it would be a hobbling. it looks like RNDIS skulks about. the rndis use case for "reverse keep alives" are something to examine for sure.
• mgdm 4y ago
  I was concerned that this might remove USB Ethernet support entirely, but I believe that the protocol prefered for this on Linux is called CDC-ECM: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65321405/linux-cdc-ecm-driver-vs-rndis-driver https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65321405/linux-cdc-ecm-d... This may not help if the objective is to connect to a Windows host, though.
  • bsder 4y ago
    I was going to ask if Microsoft finally supported CDC-ECM in Windows 11. Your comment seems to indicate that the answer is still "No".
• suprjami 4y ago
  Citation needed? All the Hyper-V and Azure drivers use RNDIS. I can't see Linux just excluding those platforms with no alternative. Edit: found https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Disabling-RNDIS-Drivers https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Disabling-RNDIS-Drivers