Re: Fwd: User-level question: on wil6210

Re: Fwd: User-level question: on wil6210

[Vladimir Kondratiev]

On Monday, July 01, 2013 12:07:59 PM John W. Linville wrote:
> Chang,
> 
> It looks to me like you should be using the ath9k driver.  What makes
> you think that you have a wil6210?
> 
> In any case, I've Cc'ed Vladimir and Sujith -- hopefully one of them
> can be more helpful. :-)
> 
> John

John,

Thanks for forwarding. Indeed, it is for me.

> 
> On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 10:41:20AM +0200, Chang Liu wrote:
> > Dear John,
> > 
> > My name is Chang, currently a student. I have a problem when I try to use
> > wil6210 as driver. Sorry to bother you with this letter here. I read the
> > notice on wireless.kernel.org and asked the same question on IRC but got no
> > reply. I subscribed the mailing list and I know you are respected in this
> > field. So I am here for help. I hope this doesn't bother you much.
> > 
> > The thing is: I have a laptop Dell 6430u, which has wil6210 inside. I
> > downloaded the driver "compat driver-3.8.3-2-snp" and later run *make
> > install* and *modprobe wil6210*. No error returned. When I check iw
> > --version, it shows iw version 3.2.
> > 
> > Now I want to check whether or not I have installed the driver correctly
> > and whether it works. I have no docking station (the access point) at hand
> > right now. First I run* lspci -nn*, which returns:
> > 
<skip>
> > 02:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0101] (rev 03)
> > 03:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0200] (rev 03)
> > 03:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0201] (rev 13)
> > 03:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0201] (rev 13)
> > 04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9462
> > Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0034] (rev 01)

Yes, these 5 devices above are from wil6210, so you definetely have wil6210
card on your laptop.
This card is composite device. For details, see wiki
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/wil6210
On this card, there is firmware that is stored in the on-card flash memory, and
is not loaded by the driver. Unfortunately, firmware on your laptop (and all
laptops like this) flashed with device 1ae9:0301 disabled. This firmware support
only so called WBE, that is essentially PCIE over 60g, for wireless docking.
Wireless docking stations that are used with WBE are NOT access points; as far as I
know there is no 60g access points available at this moment. You can run AP on another
Linux laptop with wil6210.

In order to support wifi, appropriate firmware need to be flashed on this card,
and then you will see wi-fi device 1ae9:0301.
To flash firmware, you need to contact Wilocity (adding Erez).

> > 
> > Now comes the question:
> > 1. I saw on the website that the device 6210 should be "wil6210 device,
> > 1ae9:0301" (from linux wireless wil6210 page
> > http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/wil6210), which I cannot see
> > now. How should I find where the device is?
> > 
> > 2. About the driver, I have no idea how to check whether it works.
> > 
> > I use Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS, and uname -a give information as follows:
> > Linux george-Latitude-6430U 3.5.0-23-generic #35~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri
> > Jan 25 17:13:26 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
You better use latest kernels since support for 60g band was integrated to versions
3.7 (some initial bits) to 3.10; and even some more patches are in the pipe for
inclusion in next versions.
> > 
<skip
> > 
> > 
> > I am not familiar with linux, please help me with this. My id on the IRC
> > channel #linux-wireless is george_.I have tried google but not much
> > found.  I really hope you could help me with this. Thank you in advance!
In general, 60g technology is in very early stages; wil6210 is 1-st commercially
available device. For now, I'd say it is better to have good knowledge in Linux
and wireless to experiment with this matter. You will also need to compile latest
wpa_supplicant and iw from git, released with Ubuntu 12.10 versions are not
good for 60g.
> > 
> > Best regards!
> > Chang

Thanks, Vladimir

Re: Fwd: User-level question: on wil6210

[Vladimir Kondratiev]

> On Friday, July 05, 2013 12:38:39 PM Chang Liu wrote:
> 
> Dear Vladimir, and also John, Sujith and Vladimir,
> 
> Thanks, thanks you all for such a kind help! I was wondering you are too
> busy to deal with this, but you do help a lot! I wish you could help me
> through this when you get a little free time. Currently I am a student and
> I am doing a project related with 60GHz communication. Now I have got the
> DELL 5000 Wireless Dock (WIFIg)  and a Dell 6430u laptop, and I am trying
> to build up the 60GHz WIFI link (not the WIFI on 2.4G or 5G, and to make it
> clear, i will just call it 60G link) between the Dock and the laptop.
> 
> 
> This week I got all the devices and I find that, with the driver Dell
> offers, the link is successfully built in win7 platform. Dell offers a
> software to automatically detects the Dock and build the link. A snapshot
> of the link status is as follows:
> 
> 
> Status: SSID: D5000_C5907B; Channel: 2(60.48GHz); Security Mode: open;
> Firmware Version: 0.0.1.2989; BSSID: 04:ce:14:04:98:26
This is for WBE (not WiFi) link. It uses same infrastructure, but you can't
get WiFi connection.

> 
> According to this, the hardware is working well. I tried this after I sent
> you the mail last time, so I didn't have chance to mention it.
> 
> 
> When I turn to Linux environment, I got problems building up the same link.
> My idea is to install the driver wil6210 as stated in
> (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/wil6210) and follow the
> instructions on the page to set up the link between the laptop and the
> Dock.
> 
> 
> 0. Here comes the first question.
> In the webpage it also says
> 
>  "Chip consists of the root bridge 1ae9:0101, with 4 ports 1ae9:0201. One
>  port routed to separate Atheros card 168c:0034, it is handled by the ath9k
>  driver. Another port connected to the wil6210 device 1ae9:0301, that is on
>  the same chip. 2 empty ports may be populated when connecting in WBE
>  (PCIE-over-60g) mode. "> 
> Does this mean that the wil6210 1ae9:0301 is actually for 60Gwifi while the
> atheros card 168c:0034 is for 2.4G/5G wifi?
Yes, exactly

> Since I can build the link in
> Windows platform, I believe I have the device wil6210 1ae9:0301 inside the
> laptop.
No. Device 1ae9:0301 may be hidden by firmware. Run "lspci -d 1ae9:0301"
to see whether device is present.

> Also you mentioned last time:
> 
> On this card, there is firmware that is stored in the on-card flash memory,
> and is not loaded by the driver. Unfortunately, firmware on your laptop
> (and all laptops like this) flashed with device 1ae9:0301 disabled. This
> firmware support only so called WBE, that is essentially PCIE over 60g, for
> wireless docking. Wireless docking stations that are used with WBE are NOT
> access points; as far as I know there is no 60g access points available at
> this moment. You can run AP on another Linux laptop with wil6210.
> 
> In order to support wifi, appropriate firmware need to be flashed on this
> card, and then you will see wi-fi device 1ae9:0301. To flash firmware, you
> need to contact Wilocity (adding Erez).
> 
> 
> 
> You emphasized that the Dock is NOT an access point. You mean it's not an AP
> for 2.4GWIFI or 5GWIFI connection, right?
No, I mean it is not AP for 60g connection. Again, WBE is _NOT_ WiFi, and WBE
dock is not 60g AP.

> If I just want to build the 60G
> link, or WBE(do you mean wireless bus extension?), I don't need to ask for
> a new firmware, is it what you mean? With the current device (I mean the
> Dock and the laptop), I can build the 60G link between the laptop and the
> Dock as long as I get the driver (wil6210) installed in the laptop while do
> nothing to the Dock itself, is it right?
With your current firmware, you can establish WBE link; on Windows only since
WBE is not supported on Linux yet. You can not establish WiFi link with your
firmware with neither Linux nor Windows.
> 
> 1. Have I installed the driver correctly?
I'd suggest to use latest kernel. At this moment, 3.10. I am not working on
back-porting, it is not tested. You are on your own if you want to use backport.

<skip>

> Does this mean that I have installed the driver wil6210 correctly?
Looks like it is compiled without errors. Without device present, I can't say
whether it works properly.

> (I didn't
> reload the module iwl4965, for I don't want WIFI, just 60G link).
> 
> 
> 2. About the network interface name and physical name <devname><phyname>.
> I assumed I installed the driver correctly. so I tried to build the link. My
> plan was to follow the webpage I mentioned above. First as I said in last
> letter, the identity (1ae9:0301) representing wil6210 is not shown with the
> command lspci -nn:
> 
> 
> root@george:/home/george# lspci -nn
<skip>
> [8086:1e22] (rev 04) 02:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0101] (rev 03)
> 03:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0200] (rev 03)
> 03:02.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0201] (rev 13)
> 03:03.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [1ae9:0201] (rev 13)
> 04:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9462
> Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0034] (rev 01) 07:00.0 SD Host controller
> [0805]: O2 Micro, Inc. Device [1217:8221] (rev 05)
you have no 1ae9:301 device
> 
> 
> You mentioned the reason is because the firmware. We are contacting Wilocity
> now to get the firmware.
> 
> 
> What confuses me most now is the "network interface name". As shown on the
> page (http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/wil6210), I need to find
> the network interface name to execute the commands, which it represents
> with $WLAN. I cannot find where the interface comes from. I think it should
> be something like wlan*, when I tried ifconfig, it shows:
It comes from driver when it initializes its device. Without device, you will
not see network interface. Name will be like wlan0.

<skip>

> so there is no wlan*. Also these commands with iw shows nothing:
> 
> 
> root@george:/home/george# iw --version
> iw version 3.4
> root@george:/home/george# iw list
> root@george:/home/george# iw phy
> root@george:/home/george# iw dev
> 
> 
> So my biggest problem, what is the <phyname> , and what is the <devname>?
> Could you give me an example of the format? Where could I find it, or
> should set it myself? I searched google and they say wlan0 for 2.4G/5Gwifi
> will show up as long as the device and the driver are installed correctly.
> Is it the same situation for this case? If so, is the reason that I cannot
> see the interface the firmware you mentioned?
Yes, you have WBE-only firmware, so you have no device. No device - driver
don't bind to it - no network interface registered.

> Another little request is about the configuration instruction. Could you
> gave me some links on how to configure the driver wil6210? The only source
> I have now is the webpage I mentioned above and the help file for iw,
> wpa_supplicant. I lack experience, and I'm glad to learn more.
Read wiki for wpa_supplicant and iw

> 
> 
> Also, you mentioned I should download the latest iw and wpa_supplicant from
> Git, but I found a lot of folders I have no idea which could be a preferred
> choice. Could I beg you to give me a little more clue?
wpa_supplicant:
git clone git://w1.fi/srv/git/hostap.git
iw:
git clone http://git.sipsolutions.net/iw.git
> About the kernel, I
> would prefer to compile it and add it to the kernel because I may need to
> look inside the code later, so i keep the kernel version as 3.5 now.
Exactly for this reason, you better get kernel 3.10; then you have driver merged
into the kernel.

Thanks, Vladimir