Mesh support for gumstix's wireless (Marvell 88W8385 wireless chip with CF interface)

Mesh support for gumstix's wireless (Marvell 88W8385 wireless chip with CF interface)

[Darko Makreshanski]

Dear all,

I would like to ask a quick question to anybody that is familiar in this 
area.

I would like to know if I can use a mesh networking with the wifi chip 
used for gumstix (88W8385 with most probably CF interface).

I am aware that the XO (OLPC) laptops have a Marvell 88W8388 chip (with 
USB interface) which is used with the libertas_tf driver, has support 
for mesh networking through open80211s.

Couple of things that I have found out:

1. on the linux-wireless website it is stated that libertas_tf driver 
supports only 88W8388 driver and libertas driver supports both 88W8385 
and 88W8388
2. also at linux-wireless it is also stated that both libertas_tf and 
libertas are supported for mesh networking
3. on the open80211s website at the drivers page only the libertas_tf is 
present.
4. i have read somewhere that the libertas driver is not based on the 
mac80211 layer, so it cannot work with open80211s.

What I would like to ask:

1. will mesh networking work with the 88W8385 chip on gumstix with the 
libertas driver?
2. if yes, is it open80211s or something else?
3. if not, is it possible to make the libertas_tf driver work with this 
chip?

Best regards,
Darko

Re: Mesh support for gumstix's wireless (Marvell 88W8385 wireless chip with CF interface)

[Andrey Yurovsky]

On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Darko Makreshanski
<d.makreshanski@jacobs-university.de> wrote:
> 1. will mesh networking work with the 88W8385 chip on gumstix with the
> libertas driver?

No.  The OLPC uses an 88w8288 with in-firmware mesh on the USB
variant.  That firmware won't run on other chips.

> 3. if not, is it possible to make the libertas_tf driver work with this
> chip?

No.  That driver only supports the 88w8388 USB variant with special
firmware.  Your chip is a full-MAC device and therefore cannot use the
mac80211 mesh stack (and there isn't a special firmware to make it do
something else).

  -Andrey

Re: Mesh support for gumstix's wireless (Marvell 88W8385 wireless chip with CF interface)

[Dan Williams]

On Thu, 2010-03-04 at 16:38 -0800, Andrey Yurovsky wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Darko Makreshanski
> <d.makreshanski@jacobs-university.de> wrote:
> > 1. will mesh networking work with the 88W8385 chip on gumstix with the
> > libertas driver?
> 
> No.  The OLPC uses an 88w8288 with in-firmware mesh on the USB
> variant.  That firmware won't run on other chips.

I assume you mean 88w8388 :)

Dan

> > 3. if not, is it possible to make the libertas_tf driver work with this
> > chip?
> 
> No.  That driver only supports the 88w8388 USB variant with special
> firmware.  Your chip is a full-MAC device and therefore cannot use the
> mac80211 mesh stack (and there isn't a special firmware to make it do
> something else).
> 
>   -Andrey
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Re: Mesh support for gumstix's wireless (Marvell 88W8385 wireless chip with CF interface)

[Andrey Yurovsky]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:35 PM, Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-03-04 at 16:38 -0800, Andrey Yurovsky wrote:
>> On Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Darko Makreshanski
>> <d.makreshanski@jacobs-university.de> wrote:
>> > 1. will mesh networking work with the 88W8385 chip on gumstix with the
>> > libertas driver?
>>
>> No.  The OLPC uses an 88w8288 with in-firmware mesh on the USB
>> variant.  That firmware won't run on other chips.
>
> I assume you mean 88w8388 :)

Yes, sorry about the typo. The '2' and '3' keys are, of course, right
next to each other ; )

>> > 3. if not, is it possible to make the libertas_tf driver work with this
>> > chip?
>>
>> No.  That driver only supports the 88w8388 USB variant with special
>> firmware.  Your chip is a full-MAC device and therefore cannot use the
>> mac80211 mesh stack (and there isn't a special firmware to make it do
>> something else).

By the way, you could try using the USB host on your Gumstix board
with the rt2x00 or zd1211rw cards, those are soft-MAC and at least
used to work with mesh mode.

  -Andrey