rtl8187 based USB wireless adapter?

[Nelson Neves]

Hi,

is it possible to run a USB wireless adapter base on rtl8187 chip?
If so, can anyone please point me in the right directions!

Thanks in advanced,

Nelson.

[Jonathan Roozing]

Hi,

I'm having the same problem.
As far as i know the latest Openwrt trunk has a package for this device.
Current Bifferboard source does not include this package.
I guess the next Bifferboard source will.
I'm just waiting for that.

Regards,
MRX

--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Nelson Neves <nelson....@gmail.com> wrote:

[Sunspot]

For robot etc applications I would be pleased for *any* driver for a
current USB WIFI - and I would even buy a new dongle for it!
(and - for the todo list - i2c write would still be nice!)

On Jul 2, 6:54 am, Jonathan Roozing <jrooz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm having the same problem.
> As far as i know the latest Openwrt trunk has a package for this device.
> Current Bifferboard source does not include this package.
> I guess the next Bifferboard source will.
> I'm just waiting for that.
>
> Regards,
> MRX
>

> --- On Thu, 7/2/09, Nelson Neves <nelson.s.ne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Nelson Neves]

Hum, now I get it! I saw some references to rtl818x on OpenWrt but couldn't find any related package on bifferboard!
Thanks for pointing this out!

Regards,

Nelson.

[Nelson Neves]

Hi Graham,

have you tried your D-Link DWL-G122 that you have used for slug?
I think this one is based on Ralink rt73, just giving a quick pick into
bifferboard source I found this package:

kmod-rt73-usb

Give it a try, I may also try this one latter! I would prefer to use the one with
rtl8187but would have to wait! I'm using this one due the hardware specs:
http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1059934


I2C write issue is not forgotten ... so many things to do right now :(

Regards,

Nelson.

[Sunspot]

I did compile kmod-rt73-usb OK on v1.1 but it failed to compile for v2
- and version magic would not let me try the driver for v1.1.
I wanted to dump version magic to force it a try the old driver but
could not see how to - so I gave up. This was a while ago before the
new net install etc.
Perhaps I am out of date......
Consoling myself with i2c greenhouse control via Sweex router at the
moment!

On Jul 2, 10:41 am, Nelson Neves <nelson.s.ne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Graham,
>
> have you tried your D-Link DWL-G122 that you have used for slug?
> I think this one is based on Ralink rt73, just giving a quick pick into
> bifferboard source I found this package:
>
> kmod-rt73-usb
>
> Give it a try, I may also try this one latter! I would prefer to use the one
> with
> rtl8187but would have to wait! I'm using this one due the hardware specs:http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1059934
>
> I2C write issue is not forgotten ... so many things to do right now :(
>
> Regards,
>
> Nelson.
>

[Nelson Neves]

I've tested the kmod-rt73-usb on bifferboard V14 and it still fails :(

...
make[4]: *** [/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt/bin/packages/target-i386_uClibc-0.9.29/kmod-crypto-core_2.6.27.5-bifferboard-1_i386.ipk] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt/package/kernel'
make[3]: *** [package/kernel/compile] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt'
make[2]: *** [/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt/staging_dir/target-i386_uClibc-0.9.29/stamp/.package_compile] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt'
make[1]: *** [world] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/nelson/bifferboardsvn14/bifferboard/openwrt'
make: *** [remake] Error 2

No luck for your D-Link! It seams there is some problem with the kmod-crypto-core!

[Nelson Neves]

Tried a different one, a Tp-Link TL-WN322G (based on zd1211rw) and got the same problem of the kmod-crypto-core :( ... no more usb wifi  adapters to test! I'm pretty sure that I saw some previous post where somebody mentioned that they had one working!

I forgot to mentioned something, it asked for this question (on both tests):
> Salsa20 stream cipher algorithm (i586) (EXPERIMENTAL) (CRYPTO_SALSA20_586) [N/m/y/?] (NEW)
I have tried m, y, and finally N, but no luck! ...

[thar001]

Hi,

In case you haven't seen it, I have also tried to use the rt73usb
driver and copied some informations on the way I used to compile it on
a previous
thread, here: http://groups.google.com/group/bifferboard/browse_thread/thread/da2f31bf9a4539d3.
The problem is that this process allows the compilation of the driver,
but leads to the creation of a module which makes the system crash
(reboot) after the first attempts to use the iwlist or iwconfig
commands.

I have not already tried it, but maybe it could be possible to obtain
better results by including the rt73usb driver inside the kernel (make
kernel_menuconfig), instead of compiling it as a module via the
openwrt process (make menuconfig).

Thierry

[Nelson Neves]

Hi Thierry,

thanks for the thread, I was looking into the old group, forgot completely to search here!
I found that the previous discussion is related to both of my USB dongles, I'll give it another try tomorrow with the 'make kernel_menuconfig' instead.

Regards,

Nelson.

[thar001]

Hi,

For the first time, the DWL-G122 adapter seems to be useable on my
board !

I haven't tried yet to connect to the network over encrypted modes
(only tried the managed open mode), but I can now ping and ssh the
board from my laptop, without the unstability problems (system
crashes) that I encoutered during my previous attempts.

For this, I compiled everything related to the rt73usb driver, and
more generally to wireless networking, directly into the kernel, using
the "make kernel_menuconfig" command.

As I mentionned it in a previous message, one important point related
to the rt73usb driver is that it needs to be used in conjunction with
the rt73.bin file, which contains the firmware of the adapter (you can
take a look to the thread mentionned above to see where you can get
it, and what are the questions arised by its use inside the kernel).
For my part, I obtained this file under Ubuntu via the command apt-get
install linux-
firmware, and copied it into a directory (/home/thierry/
rt73usb_firmware/) which must be specified during the kernel
configuration.

So here is how I proceeded, starting from an already built toolchain
via the standard bb-src-1.4 process :

$ cd openwrt

$ make kernel_menuconfig

----------------------------------------------

Networking support > Wireless > Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack
(mac80211) ---> y (built-in)

Networking support > Wireless > Enable LED triggers ---> y

Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN
(IEEE 802.11) ---> y

Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN
(IEEE 802.11) > Ralink driver support ---> y

Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN
(IEEE 802.11) > Ralink driver support > Ralink rt2501/rt73 (USB)--->
y

Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN
(IEEE 802.11) > Ralink driver support > Ralink rt2501/rt73 (USB) >
Ralink rt2501/rt73 leds support ---> y

Cryptographic API > Deflate compression algorithm ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Userspace firmware loading
support ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Include in-kernel firmware
blobs in kernel binary ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > External firmware blobs to
build into the kernel binary ---> rt73.bin

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Firmware blobs root
directory ---> /home/thierry/rt73usb_firmware/

----------------------------------------------

$ make menuconfig


----------------------------------------------

Base system > wireless-tools ---> y

(no further references to kmod-rt73-usb, because, of course,
everything related to the driver is now embedded in the kernel)

----------------------------------------------

make V=99


After the upload of the new kernel and the first boot, I can now do :

# cat /proc/net/wireless



# ifconfig wlan0 up



# iwlist wlan0 scan



# iwconfig wlan0 essid "linksys" mode managed key open

# ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.110

# ping 192.168.2.100

without the crashes I previously encountered when I tried to use the
kmod-rt73-usb module compiled via the openwrt process (make
menuconfig).

I hope that this process will be useable for other adapters, and that
we will be soon able to use fully (including over wpa_supplicant) some
wireless adapters on the bifferboard.

Greetings,

Thierry

[Nelson Neves]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, I was supposed to try this tonight but had some problems on other parallel test that I was doing with BB. I will also test this with my DWL-G122.

Regards,

Nelson.

[Sunspot]

Looking good! - but lots to do and lots of "gotchas" for *users*
rather than *developers*!

A point I keep making - what is the chance of ending up with a
"distro"?
1) a binary to burn in to the board
2) files for the memory stick

Due to the hated "Version Magic" it would be necessary to include a
full set of kmod files accepted by the particular board binary.
webcam/i2c/sound etc.

Might we get there in the end? I get loads of downloads by users from
my Sweex/Edimax router "distro" page.

I am sure there are many hardware builders who just want a distro that
works - more Bifferboard sales guaranteed!



http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/sweexproject.htm

[Nelson Neves]

Opened a new topic for this discussion:
http://groups.google.com/group/bifferboard/browse_thread/thread/40c2eb20e6a23f93#

[Nelson Neves]

Getting back to the original post objective!

I decided to give it a try and run Thierry test, but while I was inside the make kernel_menuconfig I have spotted Realtek 8187 package related and so my curiosity took me to test it!

This are my steps:

$ cd openwrt
$ make kernel_menuconfig
----------------------------------------------
 Networking support > Wireless > Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack
(mac80211) ---> y (built-in)

 Networking support > Wireless > Enable LED triggers ---> y

 Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN
(IEEE 802.11)  ---> y

Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN

(IEEE 802.11) >  Realtek 8187 and 8187B USB Support  ---> y

--- (no more options available)

--- (no more options available)

Cryptographic API > Deflate compression algorithm ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Userspace firmware loading
support ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Include in-kernel firmware
blobs in kernel binary ---> y

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > External firmware blobs to

build into the kernel binary ---> ??? (not assigned)

Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Firmware blobs root

directory ---> ??? (not assigned)

----------------------------------------------
$ make menuconfig
----------------------------------------------
Base system > wireless-tools ---> y

----------------------------------------------
$ make remake V=99


After flashing BB and rootfs my system now recognizes my ALFA NETWORK USB wifi dongle based on RTL8187 but I can find any .bin on my Linux Ubuntu that is related to this device (from Ubuntu repository I can only get the source code, from ALFA NETWORK CD-ROM also have source code but it fails to compile ... sure I'm making something wrong!)

Question: will this model also require firmware.bin to work ? If so, how can I get this?

I also made this tests:

After the upload of the new kernel and the first boot, I can now do :
# cat /proc/net/wireless
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwlist wlan0 scan

# iwconfig wlan0 essid "MyNetwork" mode managed key open
# ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.166

It doesn't give any error, but I'm not able to get it to work (since I'm configuring the wifi IP similar to ethernet they may be confused on the route - the router for eth0 and wifi is the same and I can't change the IP range at the moment).

Well, just a preliminary test, hope to get this working soon! I'll post my feedback (as always),

Once again thanks to Thierry for the detailed how to!

Regards,

Nelson.

[thar001]

Hi Nelson,

I don't know if the rtl8187 driver really needs to be used in
conjunction with a firmware file, but I suppose that this is not the
case because the system would return an error such as "Failed to
request Firmware" when you do ifconfig wlan0 up (the firmware beeing
loaded at this stage, either from a file located on the root file
system, via hotplug, or as a "blob" embedded inside the kernel).

Greetings, and good luck,

Thierry

> On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 11:11 AM, Nelson Neves <nelson.s.ne...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
> > Opened a new topic for this discussion:
>

> >http://groups.google.com/group/bifferboard/browse_thread/thread/40c2e...

[Nelson Neves]

Hurray, It's working!

It was really a problem related with IP! I have configured the wireless router with the IP 192.168.2.253 and wifi interface Open, BB connected successfully to the wireless network.

Thanks! Will post steps on wiki ;)

[thar001]

Hi Nelson,

I'm happy to learn that you've also suceeded in your attempts. What a
joy to be able to communicate with this tiny board without any wire,
using low-cost adapters such as the ones we experimented ! Of course,
security will have to be one of our major concerns with these
equipments, and the next step for us will be to master the
communication over encrypted modes using the tools provided by
openwrt...

Greetings,

Thierry

On 6 juil, 20:40, Nelson Neves <nelson.s.ne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hurray, It's working!
>
> It was really a problem related with IP! I have configured the wireless
> router with the IP 192.168.2.253 and wifi interface Open, BB connected
> successfully to the wireless network.
>
> Thanks! Will post steps on wiki ;)
>

[Nelson Neves]

Thank you Thierry for your insistence and for showing me the way!
Most of the times I just need a small push, them I just go with the flow!

I will post a wiki as soon as my tests are finished (trying to access WEP or WPA network, don't even now if possible). Think that I will also post the DWL-G122 how, may be useful!

Regards,

Nelson.

[bifferos]

On Jul 6, 10:53 pm, Nelson Neves <nelson.s.ne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I will post a wiki as soon as my tests are finished (trying to access WEP or
> WPA network, don't even now if possible). Think that I will also post the
> DWL-G122 how, may be useful!

Perhaps WPA will work with wpa_supplicant (http://hostap.epitest.fi/
wpa_supplicant/), set the driver to 'wext', which may well be
supported by your wifi device. It's worth a try.

cheers,
Biff.

[thar001]

Hi,

I just wanted to confirm that the connection over WPA / PSK, using
wpa_supplicant, seems to work without problems with my DWL-G122
adapter.

For people interested in this test, here is the process I followed :

- Configure the kernel as stated above

- Configure openwrt so you get as "built-in", the packages "wireless
tools" and "wpa-supplicant"

- Once the board has started, do :

vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

network={
ssid="mynet"
scan_ssid=1
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
psk="2a62bf5a5f2e76c85...."
}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

followed by :

wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B

and

ifconfig wlan0 192.168.1.110


To get back with this config at the next boot, I made :


vi /etc/config/network

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...


config interface wlan
option ifname "wlan0"
option proto static
option ipaddr 192.168.1.110
option netmask 255.255.255.0

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


vi /etc/init.d/wlan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

START=75

start() {
echo "wlan going up..."
wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -B
}

stop() {
echo "wlan going down..."
}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

chmod +x /etc/init.d/wlan

ln -s /etc/init.d/wlan /etc/rc.d/S75wlan

The delay before beeing able to communicate wirelessly with the board,
after powering it, is then of about 55 seconds.

As I'm just a beginner with openwrt, I suppose that all these things
may be done here in a much more cleaner way...

Greetings,

Thierry

[Nelson Neves]

Hi,

nice to now that WPA works fine on BB with DWL-G122!

Iv'e being testing the Alfa Network based on rtl8187 (I will have to return this adapater to my friend very soon :(  ), Opened and WEP wireless mode are working fine. Did some rougth test only with command line:

wireless router IP = 192.168.2.253

1-
# Wireless network - Opened encryption
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "Seven" mode managed key open
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.166 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add -net default gw 192.168.2.253

2-
# Wireless network - WEP64 encryption
ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "Seven" mode managed key 4B024A99E7
ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.166 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add -net default gw 192.168.2.253

3-
# Wireless network - WPA-PSK/TKIP
ifconfig wlan0 down
iwconfig wlan0 essid "SevenNetwork"
ifconfig wlan0 up
wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -dd

#/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
network={
  ssid="SevenNetwork"
  scan_ssid=1
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  proto=WPA
  pairwise=TKIP
  group=TKIP
  psk="mypasswd1"
}


but still having some problems with WPA-PSK/TIK:

socket(PF_UNIX): Address family not supported by protocol
Failed to initialize control interface '/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant'.
You may have another wpa_supplicant process already running or the file was
left by an unclean termination of wpa_supplicant in which case you will need
to manually remove this file before starting wpa_supplicant again.

... almost there! ;)

Regards,

Nelson.

[Nelson Neves]

Hurray, it works!

Sorry guys, to sleepy to see some Copy+Paste errors:

3- run from command line

# Wireless network - WPA-PSK/TKIP
ifconfig wlan0 down

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 essid "SevenNetwork"
wpa_supplicant -iwlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf -Dwext -B

ifconfig wlan0 192.168.2.166 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add -net default gw 192.168.2.253

#/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

# This line enables the use of wpa_cli which is used by rc.wireless
# if possible (to check for successful association)
#ctrl_interface=/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant # NEEDS TO BE COMMENTED
# By default, only root (group 0) may use wpa_cli

network={
  ssid="SevenNetwork"
  scan_ssid=1
  key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
  proto=WPA
  pairwise=TKIP
  group=TKIP
  psk="mypasswd1"
}

Not as clean as it should be, but it gets the job done! (just for testing purposes)

Once again thanks to Biff and Thierry for all the help!

Will try to test with my other USB wifi adapter Tp-Link TL-WN322G (based on zd1211rw).

BB rocks ;)

[MRX]

I'm quite pleased to see this progress !!
I'm going to try this and see if i can get my dongle working.
This will make my networked audio player wirreless,
that's one step closer to the final coal: the hardware mp3 decoder.

[Tomi Hautakoski]

On Wed, 8 Jul 2009, Nelson Neves wrote:

Hi,

> Will try to test with my other USB wifi adapter Tp-Link TL-WN322G (based on
> zd1211rw).

Its very nice to see that you have successfully enabled WLAN. Please, when
you get to test that zd1211rw, share with us how did it go because I
experienced kernel crashes with an adapter based on the same chipset when
trying to use it with a WPA2.

++Tomi

Tomi Hautakoski
tha...@iki.fi
Oxymoron: Vacant Dwelling.

[Nelson Neves]

Hi Tomi,

I was testing USB wifi adapter Tp-Link TL-WN322G (based on zd1211rw) but a problem with my pc forced me to re-compile BB source from scratch :(, will lose a couple of hours!

Will try again tomorrow, sorry about that!

[MRX]

Happy wireless everybody :-)

I can confirm that wireless is working with my Netgear WG111v3
(Rtl8187usb).
I followed the guides in this topic.
Thanks everybody for the efforts!.

I seem to have some problems with reception. I'll try to find out what
the problem is.

Regards,

MRX

[Nelson Neves]

I was trying my Tp-Link TL-WN322G (zd1211rw) with BB but still not luck!
It seams that this wifi usb dongle will require extra firmware to manage device, just like Thierry made with is D-Link. So, if anyone has a clue, please say so!


Here are my steps (NO SUCCESS YET - NEED ZD1211 FIRMWARE):

$ cd openwrt
$ make kernel_menuconfig

* Networking support > Wireless > Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211) ---> y (built-in)
* Networking support > Wireless > Enable LED triggers ---> y

* Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN  (IEEE 802.11)  ---> y
* Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) >  ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B Usb Wireless Support ---> y

# * Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11) >  ??? NA ---> y

* Cryptographic API > Deflate compression algorithm ---> y

* Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Userspace firmware loading support ---> y
* Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary ---> y
# * Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > External firmware blobs to build into the kernel binary ---> ??? NA
# * Device Drivers > Generic Driver Options > Firmware blobs root directory ---> ??? NA

----------------------------------------------
$ make menuconfig
----------------------------------------------
Base system > wireless-tools ---> y
----------------------------------------------

make V=99


you know the rest ...
This are some debug messages where it says that can not load firmware:

[  143.529490] usb 1-1.1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[  143.611054] usb 1-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[  143.627062] usb 1-1.1: print_id() 0ace:1215 v4810 high
[  143.694081] usb 1-1.1: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
[  143.784108] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: zd_chip_read_mac_addr_fw()
[  143.802111] phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'pid'
[  143.816118] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: probe() successful
[  143.816118] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: phy0
[  171.402964] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: zd_usb_init_hw()
[  171.402964] usb 1-1.1: request_fw_file() fw name zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  171.402964] firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  231.424205] usb 1-1.1: Could not load firmware file zd1211/zd1211b_ub. Error number -2
[  231.425879] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -2
[  233.520870] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: zd_usb_init_hw()
[  233.520870] usb 1-1.1: request_fw_file() fw name zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  233.520870] firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  293.541116] usb 1-1.1: Could not load firmware file zd1211/zd1211b_ub. Error number -2
[  293.542787] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -2
[  293.620135] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: zd_usb_init_hw()
[  293.620135] usb 1-1.1: request_fw_file() fw name zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  293.620135] firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211b_ub
[  353.640380] usb 1-1.1: Could not load firmware file zd1211/zd1211b_ub. Error number -2
[  353.642046] zd1211rw 1-1.1:1.0: couldn't load firmware. Error number -2

Regards,

Nelson.

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Tomi Hautakoski <tha...@iki.fi> wrote:

[Jonathan Roozing]

Usualy the firmware is included in the windows drivers.
maybe you can extract this from your driver.

If you send your driver i will take a look.

Regards,

mrx

--- On Fri, 7/10/09, Nelson Neves <nelson....@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Nelson Neves <nelson....@gmail.com>

[Tomi Hautakoski]

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009, Nelson Neves wrote:

Hi,

> I was trying my Tp-Link TL-WN322G (zd1211rw) with BB but still not luck!

> It seams that this wifi usb dongle will require extra firmware to manage
> device, just like Thierry made with is D-Link. So, if anyone has a clue,
> please say so!
>

Yes, it does need the firmware and one can copy those files from a regular
linux distro (e.g. /lib/firmware/ or from openwrt package). Just as a note
that I was able to get dynamic loading of both wireless network kernel
modules as well as the device firmware to work. So its not mandatory to
build them into kernel statically =)

Sorry I dont have my notes available right now but I try to check them on
Sunday...

++Tomi

Tomi Hautakoski
tha...@iki.fi
I saw Elvis. He sat between me and Bigfoot on the UFO.

[Nelson Neves]

Just pulling up this again!

I'm trying to get the same wifi usb device Tp-Link TL-WN322G (zd1211rw)
to run with Bifferboard new system On-Board Flash (kernel 2.6.30.5).
Biff already has the support activated for the kernel on his .config file,
Hardware is acknowledge by the SO but still have the same problem for
the firmware:

firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211b_ub

I insist on this model because it is very cheap, I can buy one of this for less
then 12€ on my local store, which is quite nice for me!

Tomi?

Regards,
Nelson.

[Nelson Neves]

Just found this: http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/zd1211rw

So, getting a zd1211rw usb wifi dongle based chip-set should work out-
of-the shell, I suppose!

I've checked the kernel configuration and it already includes:
Device Driver->Network Device Support->Wireless Lan:
[*] Zydas ZD1211/ZD1211B UUB-wireless support

Also searching on the compilation directory of my BB On-Board-Flash
system I'm able to find:
./linux-2.6.30.5/drivers/net/wireless/zd1211rw/zd1211rw.o
./linux-2.6.30.5/include/config/zd1211rw

When connecting the device to bifferboard it will complain about:
> firmware: requesting zd1211/zd1211b_ub

trying to hammering it, I copied the zd1211_ub from my ubuntu here:
/lib/firmware/zd1211/zd1211_ub

(I don't quite recall here I've putted in BB, probably in /sbin)
It stop complaining as previous but then said that it could not find
zd1211rw :(

I'm I going the right way ??? Seems a bit far-fetched !!!

[bifferos]

You already have this working on your desktop machine right? (If you
haven't you need to do that first).
In that case it's simply a matter of making sure you have the same
modules compiled, and the firmware in the right place. From what I
understand the kernel loads it automatically, and you don't need a
firmware 'helper' service or anything running in the background. I
think there is also the opportunity to compile firmware into the
kernel as binary 'blobs', but I don't know if the zd1211rw driver
supports that.

Don't you need the whole zd1211rw directory of firmware files?

regards,
Biff.