BBBW Ubuntu Wi-Fi: wlcore: ERROR Your WiFi FW version (8.9.0.0.39) is invalid.

[Christopher Wilson]

I'm having some issues setting up the Wi-Fi on BBBW with BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-16.04.2-console-armhf-2017-04-07-2gb.img.xz image from http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#All_BeagleBone_Varients

After the image was installed onto the eMMC, I upgraded the kernel:

$ cd /opt/scripts/tools/
$ git pull
$ sudo ./update_kernel.sh --ti-kernel --lts-4_9

After upgrading the kernel to v4.9, I couldn't get the Wi-Fi to connect, and the following error messages were printed out on the console at the end of the boot process:

[   24.915588] wlcore: ERROR error getting static data
[   25.380198] wlcore: ERROR Your WiFi FW version (8.9.0.0.39) is invalid.
[   25.380198] Please use at least FW 8.9.*.*.58.
[   25.380198] You can get the latest firmwares at:
[   25.380198] git://git.ti.com/wilink8-wlan/wl18xx_fw.git
[   25.401435] wlcore: ERROR error getting static data
[   25.409231] wlcore: ERROR firmware boot failed despite 3 retries
[   26.028516] wlcore: ERROR Your WiFi FW version (8.9.0.0.39) is invalid.
[   26.028516] Please use at least FW 8.9.*.*.58.
[   26.028516] You can get the latest firmwares at:
[   26.028516] git://git.ti.com/wilink8-wlan/wl18xx_fw.git
[   26.049583] wlcore: ERROR error getting static data
[   26.512322] wlcore: ERROR Your WiFi FW version (8.9.0.0.39) is invalid.
[   26.512322] Please use at least FW 8.9.*.*.58.
[   26.512322] You can get the latest firmwares at:
[   26.512322] git://git.ti.com/wilink8-wlan/wl18xx_fw.git
[   26.533368] wlcore: ERROR error getting static data
[   26.999724] wlcore: ERROR Your WiFi FW version (8.9.0.0.39) is invalid.
[   26.999724] Please use at least FW 8.9.*.*.58.
[   26.999724] You can get the latest firmwares at:
[   26.999724] git://git.ti.com/wilink8-wlan/wl18xx_fw.git
[   27.021019] wlcore: ERROR error getting static data
[   27.028754] wlcore: ERROR firmware boot failed despite 3 retries

However, it looks like I've got the latest firmware package installed:

ubuntu@arm:~$ sudo apt-get install bb-wl18xx-firmware
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
bb-wl18xx-firmware is already the newest version (1.20170406-0rcnee0~bpo1604+20170406).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 14 not upgraded.

More version info:

ubuntu@arm:/opt/scripts/tools$ sudo ./version.sh
git:/opt/scripts/:[65bfaaf97e1bb09517752b717ce29882dc99efda]
eeprom:[A335BNLTBWA51652BBWG0552]
dogtag:[rcn-ee.net console Ubuntu Image 2017-04-07]
bootloader:[eMMC-(default)]:[/dev/mmcblk1]:[U-Boot 2017.05-rc1-00002-g35aecb]
kernel:[4.9.21-ti-r30]

Following the instructions in the error messages, I cloned git://git.ti.com/wilink8-wlan/wl18xx_fw.git and copied wl18xx-fw-4.bin into /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/

Rebooted the system and the firmware version error messages disappeared.

However, getting the Wi-Fi to connect on reboot still seems to be a bit flaky.  After each reboot, Wi-Fi doesn't work until I run "agent on", "disable wifi", "enable wifi", and then "scan wifi".  This magic incantation seems to work each time...

See the sequence below for the steps I tried to get the (previously configured/working) Wi-Fi to re-connect after reboot:

ubuntu@arm:/opt/scripts/tools$ ping google.com
connect: Network is unreachable
ubuntu@arm:/opt/scripts/tools$ sudo connmanctl
connmanctl> disable wifi
Disabled wifi
connmanctl> enable wifi
Enabled wifi
connmanctl> scan wifi
Error /net/connman/technology/wifi: No carrier
connmanctl> agent on
Agent registered
connmanctl> scan wifi
Error /net/connman/technology/wifi: No carrier
connmanctl> disable wifi
Disabled wifi
connmanctl> enable wifi
Enabled wifi
connmanctl> scan wifi
Scan completed for wifi
connmanctl> services
*** I removed the list of services ***
connmanctl> technologies
/net/connman/technology/wifi
  Name = WiFi
  Type = wifi
  Powered = True
  Connected = True
  Tethering = False
/net/connman/technology/bluetooth
  Name = Bluetooth
  Type = bluetooth
  Powered = True
  Connected = False
  Tethering = False
connmanctl> quit

Is there a better way to get the Wi-Fi working reliably on the Ubuntu 16.04 image?  I'm totally new to BeagleBone (just bought one yesterday), so I'm not sure if I goofed some part of the setup...  any advice on the Wi-Fi configuration in Ubuntu would be welcome!

[Robert Nelson]

this must be a recent change, haven't ran into that yet..

So we are still shipping v4.4.x-ti by default, v4.9.x only lightly
tested, looks like ti changed something with the firmware again..

So the firmware was generated by the command shown here:

https://github.com/beagleboard/beaglebone-black-wireless/tree/master/firmware

Grab that WL1835MOD_INI_C2PC.ini and give it shot again.

Regards,


--
Robert Nelson
https://rcn-ee.com/

[Christopher Wilson]

Hi Robert,

Sorry, I failed to mention earlier that the only reason why I tried upgrading from v4.4 --> v4.9 was because I was seeing the same flaky behavior (no network connection on reboot) with a brand new install of BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-16.04.2-console-armhf-2017-04-07-2gb.img.xz.  I thought maybe the newer kernel might fix things, but instead it introduced the new firmware error messages I posted above.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me to try in the above post.  If I'm reading it correctly, the github link you sent shows how to generate wl18xx-conf.bin (I'm assuming this is some kind of config binary???), but the only file I replaced in my v4.9 experiment was the wl18xx-fw-4.bin (which I'm assuming is the firmware binary???).  Wouldn't the wl18xx-conf.bin I re-generate from WL1835MOD_INI_C2PC.ini be exactly the same as the one already included in BBB-eMMC-flasher-ubuntu-16.04.2-console-armhf-2017-04-07-2gb.img.xz?  It seems like the error messages were complaining about the firmware version, rather than an issue with the config binary.

Thanks,
Chris