Wandboard hostapd support

[Jesse Forgues]

Having some issues getting Hostapd working on my Wandboard using the Broadcom WiFi adapter.

Here is my hostapd.conf. I assume this adapter uses the nl80211 driver?

I see a random SID advertised after I run this called 

varhostname=$(hostname)

varchannel=36

echo ssid=$varhostname > /etc/hostapd.conf

echo channel=$varchannel >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo interface=wlan0 >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo driver=nl80211 >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo hw_mode=a >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo wpa=1 >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo wpa_passphrase=1234567890 >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP >> /etc/hostapd.conf

echo wpa_ptk_rekey=600 >> /etc/hostapd.conf

hostapd /etc/hostapd.conf

[Jesse Forgues]

Oh also I am using the latest Robert Nelson 3.19 debian build: https://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/Wandboard#Wandboard-Debian8(pre-release)

[Alfonso Tamés]

There seems to be some issues with the broadcom drivers and hostapd.

John Weber made a great Yocto Recipe for generating a Linux Image with hostapd enabled:

https://github.com/johnweber/meta-wandboard-ap

Install and bitbake with

$ bitbake wandboard-ap-image-test

Try it out!

Alfonso

[Jesse Forgues]

Thanks Alfonso!

That worked pretty well. That Yocto recipe successfully created a 2.4GHz AP.

Now how do I operate it at 5GHz? It looks like with this Broadcom driver/firmware it only supports 2.4GHz bands...

root@wandboard-quad:~# dmesg | grep Firmware
brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware version = wl0: Jan 23 2013 17:47:42 version 5.90.195.114 FWID 01-73201c1f

 

root@wandboard-quad:~# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  Mode:Master  Tx-Power=1496 dBm
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:on

 

root@wandboard-quad:~# iwlist wlan0 frequency
wlan0     13 channels in total; available frequencies :
          Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz
          Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz
          Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz
          Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz
          Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz
          Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz
          Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz
          Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz
          Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz
          Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz
          Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz
          Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz
          Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz

[Alfonso Tamés]

I don't really know. Try asking in the other Wandboard forum and keep us posted ;)

[John Weber]

On 2/20/15 5:18 PM, Jesse Forgues wrote:
> Thanks Alfonso!
>
> That worked pretty well. That Yocto recipe successfully created a 2.4GHz AP.
>
> Now how do I operate it at 5GHz? It looks like with this Broadcom
> driver/firmware it only supports 2.4GHz bands...
>

Hi Jesse -

I'm fairly certain that the BCM4329/BCM4330 on Wandboard only supports the
2.4GHz band, unfortunately.

John

[Alexander Holler]

Did they've soldered a special version of the BCM4330?

At least the data sheet of the BCM4330 says it can both, just not
simultaneous.

Alexander Holler

[John Weber]

http://www.usish.com/english/products_wm_bn_bm_04.php

This is the module on the board according to the schematic.  Notice no "802.11a" in the description.

Since the module is packaged here I believe that the vendor can choose to not enable/allow the 5ghz bands.