[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Lance Zhang]

I am sorry about the format.

My questions are: How can I support wireless network card on U Boot?

I want to implement a wlan mini-pci driver, But when I see U Boot source tree, there is no codes related to wireless, do you have any suggestion on how to add wireless support on U Boot? Or is there any U Boot branches that have already implemented wireless extension on U boot?

Thanks
Lance Zhang 

-----Original Message-----
From: Wolfgang Denk [mailto:wd at denx.de] 
Sent: 2008?11?11? 3:57
To: Lance Zhang
Subject: Re: [U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

Dear "Lance Zhang",

In message <49EF8B38CAABF74C8FFEA1405FDFBE923CD203@suzexch01.taihootech.com> you wrote:
> SGkgSmVhbiwKCkRvIHlvdSBrbm93IGFueSBjb21tb24gbWV0aG9kcyB0byBwb3J0IGEgTGludXgg

Please do not send base 64 encoded messages.

Please do not send HTML messages.

Please send plain text only.

Message unreadable, ignored. Sorry.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[John W. Linville]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 11:11:29AM +0800, Lance Zhang wrote:
> I am sorry about the format.
> 
> My questions are: How can I support wireless network card on U Boot?
> 
> I want to implement a wlan mini-pci driver, But when I see U Boot
> source tree, there is no codes related to wireless, do you have any
> suggestion on how to add wireless support on U Boot? Or is there any
> U Boot branches that have already implemented wireless extension on
> U boot?

It's going to depend on lot on your hardware.  Some wireless hardware
does all or most of the wireless bits in firmware (e.g. prism2).
Drivers for such hardware look a lot like ethernet drivers.

Other hardware expects a lot of help with the wireless bits from the
host CPU (e.g. ath5k).  For hardware like that, you will need to add
something like the mac80211 stack from Linux.  That will be a tons
of work...

Hth!

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Linux should be at the core
linville at tuxdriver.com			of your literate lifestyle.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear "Lance Zhang",

In message <49EF8B38CAABF74C8FFEA1405FDFBE923CD361@suzexch01.taihootech.com> you wrote:
> 
> My questions are: How can I support wireless network card on U Boot?

Correct. And there is no support for TCP/IP einther, nor do  we  have
X11  or  Gnome,  and  there is neither Eclipse nor Firefox available,
not even OpenOffice or iSCSI support.

To make the story short: U-Boot  is  a  boot  loader,  and  a  pretty
powerful one, but there are certain tasks where it makes sense to use
an OS.

> I want to implement a wlan mini-pci driver, But when I see U Boot source
> tree, there is no codes related to wireless, do you have any suggestion
> on how to add wireless support on U Boot? Or is there any U Boot
> branches that have already implemented wireless extension on U boot?

Don't waste your time. Use U-Boot to boot asmall configuration of
Linux with WLAN support included, and use this to do whjat you want to
do.

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

-- 
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: (+49)-8142-66989-10 Fax: (+49)-8142-66989-80 Email: wd at denx.de
       There is enough for the need of everyone in this world,
       but not for the greed of everyone.     - Mahatma Gandhi

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[LanceZ]

Hi Wolfgang 

Thanks for the reply, I am not really want to support the TCP/IP ,
Wnat I do is to add the wireless network card to uboot then I can load OS
firmware from another computer(maybe through tftp wlan)


wd wrote:
> 
> Dear "Lance Zhang",
> 
> In message
> <49EF8B38CAABF74C8FFEA1405FDFBE923CD361@suzexch01.taihootech.com> you
> wrote:
>> 
>> My questions are: How can I support wireless network card on U Boot?
> 
> Correct. And there is no support for TCP/IP einther, nor do  we  have
> X11  or  Gnome,  and  there is neither Eclipse nor Firefox available,
> not even OpenOffice or iSCSI support.
> 
> To make the story short: U-Boot  is  a  boot  loader,  and  a  pretty
> powerful one, but there are certain tasks where it makes sense to use
> an OS.
> 
>> I want to implement a wlan mini-pci driver, But when I see U Boot source
>> tree, there is no codes related to wireless, do you have any suggestion
>> on how to add wireless support on U Boot? Or is there any U Boot
>> branches that have already implemented wireless extension on U boot?
> 
> Don't waste your time. Use U-Boot to boot asmall configuration of
> Linux with WLAN support included, and use this to do whjat you want to
> do.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Wolfgang Denk
> 
> 
> 

-- 
View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/-U-Boot--mini-pci-wireless-driver-tp20317042p20472956.html
Sent from the Uboot - Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[David Hawkins]

> Thanks for the reply, I am not really want to support the TCP/IP ,
> Wnat I do is to add the wireless network card to uboot then I can load OS
> firmware from another computer(maybe through tftp wlan)

Re-read Wolfgang's response, he gave you the recommended solution:

>> Don't waste your time. Use U-Boot to boot asmall configuration of
>> Linux with WLAN support included, and use this to do what you want to
>> do.

Boot your board with U-Boot, and have it run a stripped-down
version of Linux that understands how to run your wireless
card. Then use Linux to tftp your OS and then jump into
the tftp'd version, eg. Google kexec.

Cheers,
Dave

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 22:56 Wed 12 Nov     , Wolfgang Denk wrote:
> Dear "Lance Zhang",
> 
> In message <49EF8B38CAABF74C8FFEA1405FDFBE923CD361@suzexch01.taihootech.com> you wrote:
> > 
> > My questions are: How can I support wireless network card on U Boot?
> 
> Correct. And there is no support for TCP/IP einther, nor do  we  have
> X11  or  Gnome,  and  there is neither Eclipse nor Firefox available,
> not even OpenOffice or iSCSI support.
> 
> To make the story short: U-Boot  is  a  boot  loader,  and  a  pretty
> powerful one, but there are certain tasks where it makes sense to use
> an OS.
> 
> > I want to implement a wlan mini-pci driver, But when I see U Boot source
> > tree, there is no codes related to wireless, do you have any suggestion
> > on how to add wireless support on U Boot? Or is there any U Boot
> > branches that have already implemented wireless extension on U boot?
> 
> Don't waste your time. Use U-Boot to boot asmall configuration of
> Linux with WLAN support included, and use this to do whjat you want to
> do.

With the Ralink chip it's not too much complicate to add wifi support.
You need to upload the firmware and manage the wifi configuration via the
firmware. After it will work as ant other ethernet driver.

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Lance Zhang]

> With the Ralink chip it's not too much complicate to add wifi support.
> You need to upload the firmware and manage the wifi configuration via
the
> firmware. After it will work as ant other ethernet driver.

Thank you, I will ask for the Ralink chip information from manufacturer,
then I will try to do it as you say

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 09:56 Thu 13 Nov     , Lance Zhang wrote:
> 
> > With the Ralink chip it's not too much complicate to add wifi support.
> > You need to upload the firmware and manage the wifi configuration via
> the
> > firmware. After it will work as ant other ethernet driver.
> 
> Thank you, I will ask for the Ralink chip information from manufacturer,
> then I will try to do it as you say
Ask also to Ralink.

It will be the best solution.

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[John W. Linville]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 02:58:51AM +0100, Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD wrote:
> On 09:56 Thu 13 Nov     , Lance Zhang wrote:
> > 
> > > With the Ralink chip it's not too much complicate to add wifi support.
> > > You need to upload the firmware and manage the wifi configuration via
> > the
> > > firmware. After it will work as ant other ethernet driver.
> > 
> > Thank you, I will ask for the Ralink chip information from manufacturer,
> > then I will try to do it as you say
> Ask also to Ralink.
> 
> It will be the best solution.

YMMV...Ralink devices require lots of 802.11 MAC work at the host CPU.

John
-- 
John W. Linville		Linux should be at the core
linville at tuxdriver.com			of your literate lifestyle.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Lance Zhang]

> > > With the Ralink chip it's not too much complicate to add wifi
support.
> > > You need to upload the firmware and manage the wifi configuration
via
> > the
> > > firmware. After it will work as ant other ethernet driver.
> > 
> > Thank you, I will ask for the Ralink chip information from
manufacturer,
> > then I will try to do it as you say
> Ask also to Ralink.
> 
> It will be the best solution.
Thanks you very much for the help, I will get the chipset datasheet in
next few days. I just want to know why there are some codes (in the open
source codes) related to the mlme? 

Thanks

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Lance Zhang]

Hi,

 

I am going to write a mini-pci driver (GIGABYTE MiniPCI Wireless
Adapter: GN-WI01GS) for u-boot(sc520),

Currently, I have Linux driver source code (downloaded from
http://web.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html  RT61
<http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0506_RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1
.1.0.1.tar.bz2> ), 

Anyone knows how I can port the Linux driver to u-boot driver

 

Appreciate it if someone can give me some links/hints...

 

Thanks

Lance Zhang

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Ben Warren]

 Hi Lance,
Lance Zhang wrote:

Hi,



I am going to write a mini-pci driver (GIGABYTE MiniPCI Wireless
Adapter: GN-WI01GS) for u-boot(sc520),

Currently, I have Linux driver source code (downloaded
fromhttp://web.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html
RT61<http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0506_RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1
.1.0.1.tar.bz2>
<http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0506_RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1.1.0.1.tar.bz2>
),

Anyone knows how I can port the Linux driver to u-boot driver



Appreciate it if someone can give me some links/hints...




 U-boot doesn't really have any wireless support in-tree (that I know of,
anyway).  What is it that you plan on doing?

regards,
Ben

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 14:41 Tue 04 Nov     , Lance Zhang wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  
> 
> I am going to write a mini-pci driver (GIGABYTE MiniPCI Wireless
> Adapter: GN-WI01GS) for u-boot(sc520),
> 
> Currently, I have Linux driver source code (downloaded from
> http://web.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html  RT61
> <http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0506_RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1
> .1.0.1.tar.bz2> ), 
> 
> Anyone knows how I can port the Linux driver to u-boot driver
> 
>  
> 
> Appreciate it if someone can give me some links/hints...
> 
>  
I've work on a similar port for on other Ralink Chip

I will the common wireless port

I've separate the driver in 2 part:
1) the net interface as any other network driver

2) a wireless tools implementation (generic) currently OPEN/WEP and hardware
WPA only

3) a wireless implementation for the chip

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Lance Zhang]

Hi Jean,

Do you know any common methods to port a Linux driver to a u boot driver?
Will you rewrite all the driver codes? Or just make a function mapping?

I think it is terrible to write a wireless network card driver for uboot.

In uboot I need to implement MLME which contains "Authenticate ,Deauthenticate,Associate,Disassociate,Reassociate,Beacon,Probe ". and in Linux driver, the source code packet contains more than 10K lines.

Appreciated if anyone can give me further direction.

Thanks
Lance

-----Original Message-----
From: Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD [mailto:plagnioj at jcrosoft.com] 
Sent: 2008?11?5? 14:45
To: Lance Zhang
Cc: u-boot at lists.denx.de
Subject: Re: [U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

On 14:41 Tue 04 Nov     , Lance Zhang wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  
> 
> I am going to write a mini-pci driver (GIGABYTE MiniPCI Wireless
> Adapter: GN-WI01GS) for u-boot(sc520),
> 
> Currently, I have Linux driver source code (downloaded from
> http://web.ralinktech.com/ralink/Home/Support/Linux.html  RT61
> <http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/data/drivers/2008_0506_RT73_Linux_STA_Drv1
> .1.0.1.tar.bz2> ), 
> 
> Anyone knows how I can port the Linux driver to u-boot driver
> 
>  
> 
> Appreciate it if someone can give me some links/hints...
> 
>  
I've work on a similar port for on other Ralink Chip

I will the common wireless port

I've separate the driver in 2 part:
1) the net interface as any other network driver

2) a wireless tools implementation (generic) currently OPEN/WEP and hardware
WPA only

3) a wireless implementation for the chip

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] mini-pci wireless driver

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 13:52 Mon 10 Nov     , Lance Zhang wrote:
> Hi Jean,
> 
> Do you know any common methods to port a Linux driver to a u boot driver?
> Will you rewrite all the driver codes? Or just make a function mapping?
> 
> I think it is terrible to write a wireless network card driver for uboot.
> 
> In uboot I need to implement MLME which contains "Authenticate ,Deauthenticate,Associate,Disassociate,Reassociate,Beacon,Probe ". and in Linux driver, the source code packet contains more than 10K lines.

Base on your chip you do not need it you can let the firmware do it for you.

Send an e-mail to ralink, you may need to sign a NDA

Best Regards,
J.