Hello Toradex
I have a wifi usb stick Netgear A6150 and want to have it as Access Point AP with hostapd. The proper Kernel driver should be included with:
#CONFIG_RTW88 is not set
Could you please bring it into Torizon OS?
tdx-info
Software summary
Bootloader: U-Boot
Kernel version: 5.15.148-6.8.0+git.8c5c2dcbf6ba #1-TorizonCore SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 6 10:01:59 UTC 2024
Kernel command line: root=LABEL=otaroot rootfstype=ext4 quiet logo.nologo vt.global_cursor_default=0 plymouth.ignore-serial-consoles splash fbcon=map:3 ostree=/ostree/boot.0/torizon/4ce5201e7c4599e052b0e0311db6a4875e04be881fa94b115c316d1ff169bc2a/0
Distro name: NAME=“TorizonCore”
Distro version: VERSION_ID=6.8.0-build.22
Distro variant: VARIANT=“Docker”
Hostname: verdin-imx8mm-15437271
Hardware info
HW model: Toradex Verdin iMX8M Mini
Toradex version: 0086 V1.1#26
Serial number: 15437271
Processor arch: aarch64
Thanks.
Br.
Greetings @pitschen,
I see you are on Torizon OS 6.X, which is in a LTS state. Typically we do not enable new features (including kernel configs) once a version reaches LTS. We can enable this kernel config on Torizon OS 7.X, which is in active development.
Would that be acceptable for you, or do you really require this on Torizon OS 6.X specifically?
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
We will switch to Torizon OS 7 later. We really need this in Torizon OS 6 because we have no alternative USB Wifi stick for AP running out of the box (there are, but not available several hundreds of pieces),
So this would really help us to have it in OS6. Do you think it is possible?
Br.
So this would really help us to have it in OS6. Do you think it is possible?
I will bring this up internally for discussion in our team. We will let you know once we have something to respond with.
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
Thank you for considering this.
Br.
After much discussion internally the following was decided upon.
We greatly prefer not to break our policy on this matter by adding this to an already established LTS release.
However, we can offer a professional service, wherein we do a one-time custom build for you with this kernel configuration enabled. That way you have a Torizon OS with the driver you need, and we don’t break our policy on our standard releases.
Alternatively, we could provide some instructions on how to perform such a custom build yourself and then you do the build on your end.
Either way our team will be in touch with you, regarding proceeding with next steps.
Thank you for your patience on this matter.
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
I fully understand that.
But could you please activate config RTW88 in Torizon OS7? I need the Driver for USB Wifi devices.
So could you activate all USB drivers there? At least I need:
config RTW88_8822BU
tristate “Realtek 8822BU USB wireless network adapter”
depends on USB
select RTW88_CORE
select RTW88_USB
select RTW88_8822B
help
Select this option will enable support for 8822BU chipset
802.11ac USB wireless network adapter
But as mentioned above: It would be nice to have all USB drivers activated for more flexibility, meaning:
config RTW88_8822BU
config RTW88_8822CU
config RTW88_8723DU
config RTW88_8821CU
Br.
But could you please activate config RTW88 in Torizon OS7? I need the Driver for USB Wifi devices.
Of course, my previous comment was in regards to adding these to Torizon OS 6 which is in LTS and is what our policy refers to.
For Torizon OS 7 we can add kernel configs freely. But, from what I understood from you this won’t be needed as immediately as Torizon OS 6. Since you won’t be transitioning your product to 7 for some time, correct?
So could you activate all USB drivers there? At least I need:
Wait, just to clarify do you need all these options enabled on Torizon OS 6 and Torizon OS 7?
Also I see these are for different USB WiFi solutions. Have you not made a final decision on which of these you will go with in your product?
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
Since it is not possible to have the config in Torizon OS6, we plan to switch earlier to Torizon OS7.
In the meantime we have to work with USB wifi Sticks with the Realtek chip RTL8188CUS (which is EOL) on Torizon OS6.
But because we now have to plan for Torizon OS7 it would be nice to have the config as early as possible in Torizon OS7 to test.
What driver for OS7?
=> we have no decision yet because we could not test it in OS7 because it is not available
=> as I wrote: at least we need the config RTW88_8822BU. This should work with some actual USB wifi sticks with Realtek RTL8812BU. I see that this chips on a native ubuntu PC brings the kernel to load the rtw_8822bu driver. So I suppose that Torizon OS 7 with the config RTW88_8822BU activated will work with those USB wifi chips.
=> why activate more USB wifi drivers on Torizon OS7: this gives us more flexibility to choose USB wifi sticks (especially when it comes to cost optimisation).
Br.
Okay, so just to summarize.
You do not want us to do anything on Torizon OS 6 anymore? Even as a professional service?
You do want us to activate those listed kernel configs for Torizon OS 7, correct?
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
Yes, nothing to do in OS6, also no professional service.
Yes, please bring in the configs into OS7. Thanks.
Br.
Yes, please bring in the configs into OS7. Thanks.
Okay, we can definitely do that. Do you happen to know if any of these 4 USB WiFi devices:
config RTW88_8822BU
config RTW88_8822CU
config RTW88_8723DU
config RTW88_8821CU
Also require an additional firmware binary in order to work? Otherwise just enabling the configuration for the driver would not be sufficient.
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Hello Jeremias
Good question. When I look at the kernel driver for rtw8822b, there has to be a blob for the realtek chip. (I searched for "rtw88/ ) in the kernel sources, then I got listed all drivers with their blob.
So yes, it requires additional blobs.
Looking also at my ubuntu PC, I find them all in /lib/firmware/rtw88:
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 28884 Aug 22 17:29 rtw8723d_fw.bin
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 138984 Aug 22 17:29 rtw8821c_fw.bin
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 150984 Aug 22 17:29 rtw8822b_fw.bin
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 202456 Aug 22 17:29 rtw8822c_fw.bin
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 145224 Aug 22 17:29 rtw8822c_wow_fw.bin
I think you can find them here:
Br.
So yes, it requires additional blobs.
Thank you for checking and confirming that detail for us. I will submit the request to our team to have those 4 kernel configs and the corresponding firmware binaries added to Torizon OS.
Just to reiterate this is only for Torizon OS 7.X.
I will try to update you here on the thread once there is news to share regarding this.
Hi @pitschen,
Just to inform you, the kernel configs you have requested have been accepted as seen here: features/network.cfg: enable Realtek WiFi modules · toradex/toradex-kernel-cache@216ef4a · GitHub
These just missed the window for our 7.4.0 quarterly release, so these configs are not available there. You will need a recent 7.5.0 nightly build of Torizon OS if you want these configs. Of course these will be available in the future 7.5.0 quarterly release when that occurs, as well as future releases going forward.
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Glad we were able to help.
