2012-02-03 20:01:44

by Daniel Smith

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

Hi

I see on the "To be done list" for both the fullmac and softmac chips
is to add support for monitor mode. I was wondering how realistic is
that task. If it is definitely going to occur, any idea what it will
support, e.g. capturing management frames. Also any kind of hint what
kind of time frame are you looking at? Any info would be greatly
appreciated.

V/r,
Daniel Smith


2012-02-03 21:03:56

by Arend van Spriel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 02/03/2012 09:01 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
> Hi
>
> I see on the "To be done list" for both the fullmac and softmac chips
> is to add support for monitor mode. I was wondering how realistic is
> that task. If it is definitely going to occur, any idea what it will
> support, e.g. capturing management frames. Also any kind of hint what
> kind of time frame are you looking at? Any info would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> V/r,
> Daniel Smith
>

For brcmsmac it has already been done just using the radiotap
functionality. I did not implement it, but I think this functionality is
provided by cfg80211. Not sure if that is sufficient info.

Gr. AvS


2012-02-10 18:21:06

by Franky Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 02/08/2012 10:53 AM, Kiss Robert wrote:
> On 2012-02-03 21:57:27, Franky Lin wrote:
>> Monitor mode is not supported in fullmac at the moment. I am afraid we
>> don't have an ETA as well. But if for mobile devices you mean Android
>> devices using Broadcom wifi chipset, current Android driver does have
>> monitor mode support.
>>
>> Franky
>
> Hi,
>
> Does that mean that the Android driver for bcm4330 has a working
> monitor mode already? Where can I download that?
>

Hi,

I need to correct my words after some digging. The Android version does
*NOT* fully support monitor mode. It has some partial support there for
P2P implementation. But some packets are held by the dongle because of
filter offload. Sorry about the wrong info.

Regards,
Franky


2012-02-23 20:01:00

by Franky Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 02/23/2012 08:00 AM, Kiss Robert wrote:
> I have read somewhere that the Broadcom 4330 chipset on Samsung Galaxy
> S II cannot be put to monitor mode because of some hardware
> limitation. Is that true? Can someone confirm that?

Hi Robert,

It's a firmware limitation instead of hardware to be more precise. There
is no firmware out there support monitor mode so the support can not be
done by changing the host driver only.

Regards,
Franky


2012-02-03 21:28:09

by Daniel Smith

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

Hey Arend,

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Arend van Spriel <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 02/03/2012 09:01 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I see on the "To be done list" for both the fullmac and softmac chips
>> is to add support for monitor mode. I was wondering how realistic is
>> that task. If it is definitely going to occur, any idea what it will
>> support, e.g. capturing management frames. Also any kind of hint what
>> kind of time frame are you looking at? Any info would be greatly
>> appreciated.
>>
>> V/r,
>> Daniel Smith
>>
>
> For brcmsmac it has already been done just using the radiotap
> functionality. I did not implement it, but I think this functionality is
> provided by cfg80211. Not sure if that is sufficient info.
>
> Gr. AvS
>

Thanks for the quick response and that is excellent to hear! Is there
any word on the fullmac side? I am actually interested in both as I
will be dealing with both standard and mobile devices. Due to the
popularity of your chips, it would be great if I could add Broadcom to
my list of viable chips.

Thanks!
dps

2012-02-03 21:58:06

by Franky Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 02/03/2012 01:28 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
> Hey Arend,
>
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Arend van Spriel<[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 02/03/2012 09:01 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I see on the "To be done list" for both the fullmac and softmac chips
>>> is to add support for monitor mode. I was wondering how realistic is
>>> that task. If it is definitely going to occur, any idea what it will
>>> support, e.g. capturing management frames. Also any kind of hint what
>>> kind of time frame are you looking at? Any info would be greatly
>>> appreciated.
>>>
>>> V/r,
>>> Daniel Smith
>>>
>>
>> For brcmsmac it has already been done just using the radiotap
>> functionality. I did not implement it, but I think this functionality is
>> provided by cfg80211. Not sure if that is sufficient info.
>>
>> Gr. AvS
>>
>
> Thanks for the quick response and that is excellent to hear! Is there
> any word on the fullmac side? I am actually interested in both as I
> will be dealing with both standard and mobile devices. Due to the
> popularity of your chips, it would be great if I could add Broadcom to
> my list of viable chips.
>
> Thanks!
> dps
>

Monitor mode is not supported in fullmac at the moment. I am afraid we
don't have an ETA as well. But if for mobile devices you mean Android
devices using Broadcom wifi chipset, current Android driver does have
monitor mode support.

Franky


2012-02-23 16:01:06

by Kiss Robert

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

Thanks for the answer!
I have read somewhere that the Broadcom 4330 chipset on Samsung Galaxy
S II cannot be put to monitor mode because of some hardware
limitation. Is that true? Can someone confirm that?

Regards,

Robert

On 10 February 2012 19:20, Franky Lin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 02/08/2012 10:53 AM, Kiss Robert wrote:
>>
>> On 2012-02-03 21:57:27, Franky Lin wrote:
>>>
>>> Monitor mode is not supported in fullmac at the moment. I am afraid we
>>> don't have an ETA as well. But if for mobile devices you mean Android
>>> devices using Broadcom wifi chipset, current Android driver does have
>>> monitor mode support.
>>>
>>> Franky
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Does that mean that the Android driver for bcm4330 has a working
>> monitor mode already? Where can I download that?
>>
>
> Hi,
>
> I need to correct my words after some digging. The Android version does
> *NOT* fully support monitor mode. It has some partial support there for P2P
> implementation. But some packets are held by the dongle because of filter
> offload. Sorry about the wrong info.
>
> Regards,
> Franky
>

2012-02-08 18:53:56

by Kiss Robert

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 2012-02-03 21:57:27, Franky Lin wrote:
>Monitor mode is not supported in fullmac at the moment. I am afraid we
>don't have an ETA as well. But if for mobile devices you mean Android
>devices using Broadcom wifi chipset, current Android driver does have
>monitor mode support.
>
>Franky

Hi,

Does that mean that the Android driver for bcm4330 has a working
monitor mode already? Where can I download that?

Cheers,

--
Robert

2012-02-03 21:38:23

by Arend van Spriel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 02/03/2012 10:28 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
> Hey Arend,
>
> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Arend van Spriel <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 02/03/2012 09:01 PM, Daniel Smith wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> I see on the "To be done list" for both the fullmac and softmac chips
>>> is to add support for monitor mode. I was wondering how realistic is
>>> that task. If it is definitely going to occur, any idea what it will
>>> support, e.g. capturing management frames. Also any kind of hint what
>>> kind of time frame are you looking at? Any info would be greatly
>>> appreciated.
>>>
>>> V/r,
>>> Daniel Smith
>>>
>>
>> For brcmsmac it has already been done just using the radiotap
>> functionality. I did not implement it, but I think this functionality is
>> provided by cfg80211. Not sure if that is sufficient info.
>>
>> Gr. AvS
>>
> t
> Thanks for the quick response and that is excellent to hear! Is there
> any word on the fullmac side? I am actually interested in both as I
> will be dealing with both standard and mobile devices. Due to the
> popularity of your chips, it would be great if I could add Broadcom to
> my list of viable chips.
>
> Thanks!
> dps
>

With fullmac chip management frames are normally not sent to the host so
there is a bit more work involved, but still realistic. At this moment I
can not really give a date when to expect it.

Gr. AvS


2012-04-16 19:50:41

by Kiss Robert

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

Hi,

Is there any hope in the near future for a brcm80211 firmware which
supports monitor mode? If I got it right, it is either Broadcom who
could release such a firmware or someone else who has infinite free
time to reverse engineer the blob firmware, right? Is there any
initiative for that? Maybe some progress on it? I ask it because I'd
like to contribute to such a project if it already exists.

Cheers,

Robert

On 23 February 2012 21:00, Franky Lin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 02/23/2012 08:00 AM, Kiss Robert wrote:
>>
>> I have read somewhere that the Broadcom 4330 chipset on Samsung Galaxy
>> S II cannot be put to monitor mode because of some hardware
>> limitation. Is that true? Can someone confirm that?
>
>
> Hi Robert,
>
> It's a firmware limitation instead of hardware to be more precise. There is
> no firmware out there support monitor mode so the support can not be done by
> changing the host driver only.
>
> Regards,
> Franky
>

2012-04-16 21:08:42

by Franky Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 04/16/2012 12:50 PM, Kiss Robert wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there any hope in the near future for a brcm80211 firmware which
> supports monitor mode? If I got it right, it is either Broadcom who
> could release such a firmware or someone else who has infinite free
> time to reverse engineer the blob firmware, right? Is there any
> initiative for that? Maybe some progress on it? I ask it because I'd
> like to contribute to such a project if it already exists.

There is no plan for adding monitor mode support since it's not
requested by any products. And it's impossible to release the firmware
source code at the moment. I am not aware of any reverse engineering
project for Broadcom fullmac dongle. However, I do plan to work on the
monitor mode support on the firmware for SDIO dongle as a leisure
project although I don't have a schedule for it. I will announce it on
the mail list when it's ready. Stay tuned :)

Regards,
-Franky


2012-07-27 16:59:43

by Franky Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On 07/26/2012 04:12 PM, Fred wrote:
> Franky Lin <frankyl@...> writes:
>> However, I do plan to work on the monitor mode support on the firmware
>> for SDIO dongle as a leisure project although I don't have a schedule for it.
>> I will announce it on the mail list when it's ready. Stay tuned :)
>
> Any news on this? :)

No, I still don't have time get to it.

> Seems like the Galaxy S3 uses BCM4330 as well.

Sorry, wrong answer. :(

Franky


2012-07-26 23:15:07

by Fred

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

Franky Lin <frankyl@...> writes:
> However, I do plan to work on the monitor mode support on the firmware
> for SDIO dongle as a leisure project although I don't have a schedule for it.
> I will announce it on the mail list when it's ready. Stay tuned :)

Any news on this? :)
Seems like the Galaxy S3 uses BCM4330 as well.


2013-11-01 11:51:19

by Peter Wu

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Broadcom brcm80211 monitor mode

On Friday 27 July 2012 09:59:33 Franky Lin wrote:
> On 07/26/2012 04:12 PM, Fred wrote:
> > Franky Lin <frankyl@...> writes:
> >> However, I do plan to work on the monitor mode support on the firmware
> >> for SDIO dongle as a leisure project although I don't have a schedule for
> >> it. I will announce it on the mail list when it's ready. Stay tuned :)>
> > Any news on this? :)
>
> No, I still don't have time get to it.

Since there are no messages on this, I guess you did not get to start it?

There is a RE effort on https://code.google.com/p/bcmon/ that looks very
hacky.

> > Seems like the Galaxy S3 uses BCM4330 as well.
>
> Sorry, wrong answer. :(

The Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) uses BCM4334 (again SDIO interface, so fullmac).
I have not tested the brcmfmac driver, but if anyone tries to do so, you might
need the patch at http://marc.info/?l=linux-wireless&m=136881782700636.

Regards,
Peter