USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Andy Gay]

I have adapted the modified Airprime driver that Greg posted a few weeks
ago to add support for these 2 modules.

That driver works for these modules if the USB IDs are added, and fixes
the throughput problems in the earlier driver. I had to make some
changes though -

- there's a memory leak because the transfer buffers are kmalloc'ed
every time the device is opened, but they're never freed;

- these modules present 3 bulk EPs, the 2nd & 3rd can be used for
control & status monitoring while data transfer is in progress on the
1st EP. This is useful (and necessary for my application) so we need to
increase the port count.

So what should I do next? I see a few possibilities, assuming anyone is
interested in this:

- I could post a diff from Greg's driver. But I don't have hardware to
test whether my changes will break it for the other devices that it
supports;

- I could post it as a new driver for just these 2 modules, using some
other name;

- I could post it as a replacement for Greg's driver (which isn't yet in
the official sources, I think), including all the USB IDs, if someone
can test it for the other devices.

Any preference, anyone?

(Please CC replies. Thanks.)

- Andy

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Jeremy Fitzhardinge]

Andy Gay wrote:
> - these modules present 3 bulk EPs, the 2nd & 3rd can be used for
> control & status monitoring while data transfer is in progress on the
> 1st EP. This is useful (and necessary for my application) so we need to
> increase the port count.
>   
Ooh, can you share the details of those EPs?  Is your application public?

> So what should I do next? I see a few possibilities, assuming anyone is
> interested in this:
>
> - I could post a diff from Greg's driver. But I don't have hardware to
> test whether my changes will break it for the other devices that it
> supports;
>   
Well, it is specifically an airprime driver.  My card also presents 
another two endpoints, but I don't know what to do with them, so I 
haven't worried about them too much.  If they all talk the same thing, 
then they may as well be in the same driver.

Are you proposing adding some more protocol knowledge to airprime, or 
just make those EPs appear as more serial ports?

Thanks,
    J

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Andy Gay]

On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 17:11 -0700, Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
> Andy Gay wrote:
> > - these modules present 3 bulk EPs, the 2nd & 3rd can be used for
> > control & status monitoring while data transfer is in progress on the
> > 1st EP. This is useful (and necessary for my application) so we need to
> > increase the port count.
> >   
> Ooh, can you share the details of those EPs?
Probably not, but I'll check. The customer I'm developing for is a
Sierra OEM, so they're probably under an NDA.

The useful port is the second one, it talks a Sierra protocol called CnS
(control and status). You could google for that, I guess. Or ask Sierra
nicely :)

>   Is your application public?

> 
> > So what should I do next? I see a few possibilities, assuming anyone is
> > interested in this:
> >
> > - I could post a diff from Greg's driver. But I don't have hardware to
> > test whether my changes will break it for the other devices that it
> > supports;
> >   
> Well, it is specifically an airprime driver.  My card also presents 
> another two endpoints, but I don't know what to do with them, so I 
> haven't worried about them too much.  If they all talk the same thing, 
> then they may as well be in the same driver.
I'd think so too, but I can't test that my changes won't break things
for other cards. Just being cautious here...
> 
> Are you proposing adding some more protocol knowledge to airprime, or 
> just make those EPs appear as more serial ports?
They are just serial ports, there's nothing special the driver can or
should do with them. I just changed the driver so you can get to them.

The main change I made to Greg's driver is to fix the memory leak - it
leaks 16k per endpoint for each open(), that made it unusable on the
very limited memory embedded platform I'm developing for.
> 
> Thanks,
>     J

Re: [linux-usb-devel] USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Ken Brush]

On 6/28/06, Andy Gay <andy@andynet.net> wrote:
> I have adapted the modified Airprime driver that Greg posted a few weeks
> ago to add support for these 2 modules.
>
> That driver works for these modules if the USB IDs are added, and fixes
> the throughput problems in the earlier driver. I had to make some
> changes though -
>
> - there's a memory leak because the transfer buffers are kmalloc'ed
> every time the device is opened, but they're never freed;
>
> - these modules present 3 bulk EPs, the 2nd & 3rd can be used for
> control & status monitoring while data transfer is in progress on the
> 1st EP. This is useful (and necessary for my application) so we need to
> increase the port count.
>
> So what should I do next? I see a few possibilities, assuming anyone is
> interested in this:
>
> - I could post a diff from Greg's driver. But I don't have hardware to
> test whether my changes will break it for the other devices that it
> supports;
>
> - I could post it as a new driver for just these 2 modules, using some
> other name;
>
> - I could post it as a replacement for Greg's driver (which isn't yet in
> the official sources, I think), including all the USB IDs, if someone
> can test it for the other devices.

I'd be willing to test it out on my aircard 580 if you post it.

-Ken

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Greg KH]

On Wed, Jun 28, 2006 at 07:27:27PM -0400, Andy Gay wrote:
> I have adapted the modified Airprime driver that Greg posted a few weeks
> ago to add support for these 2 modules.
> 
> That driver works for these modules if the USB IDs are added, and fixes
> the throughput problems in the earlier driver. I had to make some
> changes though -
> 
> - there's a memory leak because the transfer buffers are kmalloc'ed
> every time the device is opened, but they're never freed;
> 
> - these modules present 3 bulk EPs, the 2nd & 3rd can be used for
> control & status monitoring while data transfer is in progress on the
> 1st EP. This is useful (and necessary for my application) so we need to
> increase the port count.
> 
> So what should I do next? I see a few possibilities, assuming anyone is
> interested in this:
> 
> - I could post a diff from Greg's driver. But I don't have hardware to
> test whether my changes will break it for the other devices that it
> supports;
> 
> - I could post it as a new driver for just these 2 modules, using some
> other name;
> 
> - I could post it as a replacement for Greg's driver (which isn't yet in
> the official sources, I think), including all the USB IDs, if someone
> can test it for the other devices.

or:
  - send a patch against 2.6.17 that is my changes + your fixes to
    actually make it work.

My patch was just a "throw it out there and see what works or not", as I
don't even have the device to test it with.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Roland Dreier]

 > or:
 >   - send a patch against 2.6.17 that is my changes + your fixes to
 >     actually make it work.
 > 
 > My patch was just a "throw it out there and see what works or not", as I
 > don't even have the device to test it with.

I would love to see such a patch.  I have a Kyocera KPC650 and I would
love to get better performance with it under Linux...

 - R.

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Andy Gay]

On Thu, 2006-06-29 at 19:40 -0700, Roland Dreier wrote:
>  > or:
>  >   - send a patch against 2.6.17 that is my changes + your fixes to
>  >     actually make it work.
>  > 
>  > My patch was just a "throw it out there and see what works or not", as I
>  > don't even have the device to test it with.
> 
> I would love to see such a patch.  I have a Kyocera KPC650 and I would
> love to get better performance with it under Linux...
Hmm. That's not one of the current list of devices this driver supports.
Is it a usb-serial interface like the other Airprime stuff?

> 
>  - R.

Re: USB driver for Sierra Wireless EM5625/MC5720 1xEVDO modules

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 10:51:37PM -0400, Andy Gay wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-06-29 at 19:40 -0700, Roland Dreier wrote:
> >  > or:
> >  >   - send a patch against 2.6.17 that is my changes + your fixes to
> >  >     actually make it work.
> >  > 
> >  > My patch was just a "throw it out there and see what works or not", as I
> >  > don't even have the device to test it with.
> > 
> > I would love to see such a patch.  I have a Kyocera KPC650 and I would
> > love to get better performance with it under Linux...
> Hmm. That's not one of the current list of devices this driver supports.
> Is it a usb-serial interface like the other Airprime stuff?

Here's the needed line to support this device, someone has already sent
me a patch adding it:

        { USB_DEVICE(0x0c88, 0x17da) }, /* Kyocera Wireless KPC650/Passport */

thanks,

greg k-h