wl12xx
Driver for Texas Instruments' Wilink(tm) combo devices WL1271/3 and WL1281/3
Contents
Overview
The WL1271x and WL128x chipsets support both single band (2.4GHz) and dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) modes. WL127x is a combo chip comprises of WLAN, Bluetooth(tm) and FM Rx/Tx technologies. WL128x adds a GPS core to it. The open source driver supports the standard mac80211 full MAC architecture
Driver supported features
- 802.11 a/b/g/n
- STA and AP modes
- 11n block acknowledgment
- SDIO runtime PM
- Scheduled scan(*)
(*) upstream in progress
Under development
- Advanced scan features for further host offloading
- Throughput optimizations
- Further power scheme optimizations
Get the latest wl12xx driver
The wl12xx driver resides under the the wireless drivers domain. The latest driver can be downloaded at:
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/luca/wl12xx.git
Using compat-wireless the wl12xx driver and its dependencies can be compiled for kernels >= 2.6.27
Note: if you are using compat-wireless to back port the wl12xx driver to kernels 2.6.36 or earlier, you will need to integrate the following patches for proper operation. These patches are not part of the compat-wireless package.
SDIO runtime PM support - here
Lenient generic runtime pm callbacks - here
Add platform data passing support - here
Firmware
The firmware for WL127x chipset is available under the Linux firmware license on David Woodhouse's git tree at:
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/dwmw2/linux-firmware.git
The firmware is accompanied by an NVS file that is required for the proper operation of the WL127x device. Those binaries need to be placed under /lib/firmware/ti-connectivity/ on Linux systems and under /etc/firmware on Android systems.
Note: There is a different firmware file for station and for access-point modes. Make sure you pick the right one (or both).
Calibration
Please refer to the calibration page for detailed information on the calibration process and the NVS file
Calibration is a process in which specific radio configuration parameters are generated and saved into the NVS file, later to be used by the wl12xx driver upon initialization.
The calibrator tool can be downloaded here:
git clone git://github.com/gxk/ti-utils.git
Porting wl12xx
Porting the wl12xx driver to a new hardware platform requires following these steps:
Modify or create the board-specific configuration. An example on how this should be done can be found under arch/arm/mach-omap2/board-zoom-peripherals.c for the TI Zoom reference boards. This is where you need to set the right mmc port, assign the gpios, adjust the reference clock information, etc.
- Apply the SDIO and PM patches described above, if using kernels earlier than 2.6.37.
- Use compat-wireless that is right to your kernel version.
- Download the firmware and NVS files and place them under the correct folder.
Troubleshooting
Porting to Kernel 2.6.32 based systems
If you are porting the wl12xx driver with mac80211 specifically to Kernel version 2.6.32, there are a few additional patches are not part of the compat-wireless but would be mandatory for proper operations. These patches need to be applied after applying the patches described above.
PM: allow for usage_count > 0 in pm_runtime_get() - here
PM: Use pm_runtime_put_sync in system resume - here
PM: Provide generic subsystem-level callbacks - here
SDIO: fix nasty oops in mmc_sdio_detect - here
Additional support
- Through the linux-wireless mailing list.
- On IRC at freenode.net. You can find us on the #linux-wireless channel and on the #wl12xx channel, a dedicated channel for wl12xx related discussions.
Hardware Information
Please refer to the hardware specifications page for more information
TODO
- Add information on WLAN-BT co-existence
- Add porting instructions for Android OS
- Add more information required for new HW bringup