Realtek RTL8192DE/RTL8188DE Dual-band 802.11n PCIe Wi-Fi
Realtek's RTL8192DE and RTL8188DE chips are dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) 802.11n Wi-Fi adapters, typically shipped as PCIe half-mini-cards inside laptops from roughly 2011 to the mid-2010s. They were a common factory-fit wireless option in budget and mid-range notebooks of that era.
recommendation
Worth keeping but flagging as a legacy chipset, because the hardware dates to 2011-2012 and is now mostly found in older laptops and repair stock rather than new machines. Upstream activity through 2024 and 2025 has been routine cleanup and refactoring rather than removal work, so the driver is still being maintained alongside the rest of the rtlwifi family and there is no replacement driver for the same silicon.
repository signals
sources
- lore.kernel.org
The driver saw substantial linux-wireless work in 2024, including a large code-move/refactor touching rtl8192de rather than a removal series.
- lore.kernel.org
The driver was still being touched upstream in 2025 as part of rtlwifi maintenance/cleanup work.
- cateee.net
LKDDb identifies CONFIG_RTL8192DE as the in-tree driver for Realtek RTL8192DE/RTL8188DE PCIe wireless adapters and shows it remains present in current kernel releases.
- usermanual.wiki
Realtek's RTL8192DE mini-card user manual is dated 2011 and describes the part as a PCIe 802.11a/b/g/n half mini-card client device, indicating an early-2010s product generation.
- deviwiki.com
DeviWiki mirrors show RTL8192DE reference designs and associated devices with FCC dates in 2011-2012, consistent with legacy laptop-era deployment rather than new mainstream deployments.
codex reasoning notes (technical)
Real driver directory: local code inspection via exec_command showed MODULE_DESCRIPTION 'Realtek 8192DE 802.11n Dual Mac PCI wireless' and PCI IDs in sw.c, confirming a PCIe Wi-Fi driver. Upstream activity was checked with lore_file_timeline on rtl8192de/sw.c, which showed 2023-2025 touches and produced the cited lore URLs; the visible traffic is cleanup/refactor/maintenance, not a removal series, so removal/deprecate is not supported. Deployment evidence came from web search: LKDDb confirms current kernel support, while the 2011 Realtek manual and DeviWiki mirror place the hardware in the early-2010s 802.11n half-mini-PCIe era. I infer the hardware is still present mostly in legacy laptops/repair stock, with low current deployments and no clear same-hardware replacement driver upstream; exact 'last widely available year' is too uncertain to state confidently, so null.