unable to get wireless interface to show up on dreamplug

[dgencare]

Help! I have a new dreamplug that I have been totally unable to get the wireless working. I've spent countless hours tweaking the kernel and playing with various versions of the firmware without luck. Right now I have a good working kernel booted and have loaded (without error) both the libertas and libertas_sdio kernel modules. What else is there?   

My feeling is there is something wrong with the unit. Everything else appears to be working correctly. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

[leighbb]

Help! I have a new dreamplug that I have been totally unable to get the wireless working. I've spent countless hours tweaking the kernel and playing with various versions of the firmware without luck. Right now I have a good working kernel booted and have loaded (without error) both the libertas and libertas_sdio kernel modules. What else is there?   

My feeling is there is something wrong with the unit. Everything else appears to be working correctly. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Please post the complete dmesg output, thanks.

[dgencare]

The system was sort of a mess from me trying to get the wireless working so I setup a new clean bootable usb keydrive. Ive attached the boot and dmesg output. If there is an image you know for sure will work I'm willing to download and give it a try.

uname -a
Linux debian 2.6.38.8 #1 PREEMPT Tue Jun 14 01:43:26 MDT 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux

[NewIT_James]

Is it wifi client or Access Point you are looking for?

Wifi Access Point configured
http://downloadsnewit.co.uk/SD-images/Dreamplug/NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Squeeze/

Wifi client configured
http://downloadsnewit.co.uk/SD-images/Dreamplug/GuiPlug/v2.7/

[dgencare]

Nope, same thing. Tried both images. No wireless interface. Looking at the loaded modules I dont see the driver loaded at boot.

root@debian:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
sco                     8175  2
bridge                 64366  0
stp                     1290  1 bridge
llc                     3106  2 bridge,stp
bnep                    7660  2
rfcomm                 31963  0
l2cap                  38603  6 bnep,rfcomm
bluetooth              54360  6 sco,bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
rfkill                 14484  2 bluetooth
ipv6                  232392  15 bridge
snd_usb_audio          67474  0
snd_pcm                59273  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_page_alloc          4543  1 snd_pcm
snd_hwdep               4737  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_usbmidi_lib        15530  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_seq_midi            3834  0
snd_seq_midi_event      4634  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi            15659  2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                44726  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              16610  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          4727  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    34422  8 snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
sata_mv                23865  0
soundcore                694  1 snd
mv_cesa                 9202  0


I can manually load the libertas, libertas_sdio, sd8xxx, and uap8xxx without error but still no interface.

looking at the entries in the /sys/devices/platform/mvsdio/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/mmc0:0001:1

device =  0x9119
class = 0x00

This appears to be the device ID for the Marvell SD8787 chip but the class is not set correctly It should be 0x07. Not sure if this helps.

Any suggestions on where to go from here?

[Confusticated]

Is the firmware being loaded ?

[dgencare]

Good question. There is no error message and I have the firmware in the right place.

I've been working on this some more and it looks like the problem is the driver does not support the wifi. Anyone know if there are dreamplugs with different wifi chipsets sold?

[Confusticated]

Taken from 'uap_sdio_mmc.c' source for uap8xxx.ko

Code:

/** Device ID for SD8688 */
#define  SD_DEVICE_ID_8688_UAP 0x9104

Which is what I see in /sys/devices/platform/mvsdio/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/device

[Confusticated]

It looks like the kernel module you need is 'mwifiex_sdio'

./drivers/net/wireless/mwifiex/sdio.c:#define SDIO_DEVICE_ID_MARVELL_8787   (0x9119)

[dgencare]

Thanks to all. I finally got the wireless driver working. Im not sure why Globalscale points customers to a miss matched kernel and modules for the dreamplug. Also, the kernel in the same download area does not include the mwifiex_sdio. There is NO way to get the wifi working with what they give you.

Here is what I did to get it working in case anyone else is having the same issue.

1) Starting point for setting up the system:
http://downloadsnewit.co.uk/SD-images/Dreamplug/GuiPlug/v2.7/

2) Downloaded a 3.1 kernel and the modules from sheeva. Im pretty sure there must be flavors of 2.6 that will also work in the same download area. This is not the OS, just the uImage and it kernel modules.
http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/3/3.1/3.1/

3) Downloaded the firmware for the device and install under /lib/firmware:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware/1.48

4) Reboot to load the new kernel



iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      no wireless extensions.

mlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

pan0      no wireless extensions.

[Confusticated]

Please post the serial number of your DreamPlug to this thread for future reference.

dreamplugs with different wifi chipsets

It will help in diagnosing this issue again in the future, thanks

[Juanjo]

Problem is that the mwifiex driver found on 3.0 up doesn't do AP mode.

I was told by GlobalScale that they'll release 2.6.39.4 uImage with rootfs with the Marvell proprietary driver to allow AP mode that works with uaputl as before.

These new DP do come with a Debian 5.0 image with the new Marvell driver, but that kernel is a bit outdated.

[Confusticated]

Is the driver name still uap8xxx.ko or has it changed ?

[Juanjo]

No. I tried to load the uap8xx with the 8787 firmware but it didn't work.

The new driver calls mlan.ko and the you must load the sd8xxx. I was looking around and indeed the propietary driver is on some of those Linux derivatives, even Android. They are in form of git patches it seems. Also the bluetooth driver changed since the 8787 has WiFi/BT and FM tuner

Check this:

http://cgit.collabora.com/git/chromiumos-kernel.git/plain/chromeos/drivers/mwifiex/

But I found the Kernel patches from Meego on the Oaktrail adaptation to be newer stuff. But those .patch doesn't seem something diff will eat and I'm don't know GIT

http://repo.meego.com/MeeGo/releases/1.2.0/repos/oss/source/kernel-adaptation-oaktrail-2.6.37.6-11.1.src.rpm

[dgencare]

Let me give the meego kernel a look and see if I can get it to compile and load on the dreamplug.