2012-04-30 13:10:35

by Gary Thomas

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: wl1271 woes continue

Luciano,

I'm still having troubles with the WL1271. I now have a
brand new platform - same basic design as before but with
a DM3730 instead of the DM8148. I've tried a couple of
off-the-shelf kernels (3.0.0 and 3.3.0) with it, with mixed
results.

With 3.3.0 I could not get the device to associate with the AP.
It would get started and then the wl1271 stopped talking and
the process failed.

With 3.0.0, I can get it to work reasonably well. However, I
still have to go through the manual steps to get it to associate.
Anything other than the process below causes the wl1271 to reset
and die... I also cannot shut the device down and restart it.
Attempts at a restart cause the wl1271 to lock up and I have to
reboot to recover.

Only these steps work for the initial association:
# ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 0:1:2:3:4:5
# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iw wlan0 scan
# ifup wlan0
Note: my AP is using WPA2 so I'm also running wpa_supplicant

I'm going to try using the latest compat-wireless, using the
3.0.0 kernel as overall it is more stable on this platform.
I also plan to experiment a bit with the Panda (OMAP4) as it
has the same peripherals (and I assume that it works?)

What can I do to make this work better?
What data need I provide to help diagnose the failures?

Thanks for your time

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Thomas | Consulting for the
MLB Associates | Embedded world
------------------------------------------------------------


2012-04-30 17:13:12

by Mr Dash Four

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: wl1271 woes continue


> What can I do to make this work better?
> What data need I provide to help diagnose the failures?
I feel for you - I really do!

I have similar/worse problems with my older wl1251 and the TI support
(not only on this ML!) has been abysmal to non-existent! I am now
looking to completely replace my smartphone device and choose something
which *isn't* associated in any shape or form with TI - I'll make sure
to stay well clear of that company for the reasons I just mentioned.


2012-05-01 13:42:54

by Gary Thomas

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: wl1271 woes continue

On 2012-04-30 07:10, Gary Thomas wrote:
> Luciano,
>
> I'm still having troubles with the WL1271. I now have a
> brand new platform - same basic design as before but with
> a DM3730 instead of the DM8148. I've tried a couple of
> off-the-shelf kernels (3.0.0 and 3.3.0) with it, with mixed
> results.
>
> With 3.3.0 I could not get the device to associate with the AP.
> It would get started and then the wl1271 stopped talking and
> the process failed.
>
> With 3.0.0, I can get it to work reasonably well. However, I
> still have to go through the manual steps to get it to associate.
> Anything other than the process below causes the wl1271 to reset
> and die... I also cannot shut the device down and restart it.
> Attempts at a restart cause the wl1271 to lock up and I have to
> reboot to recover.
>
> Only these steps work for the initial association:
> # ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 0:1:2:3:4:5
> # ifconfig wlan0 up
> # iw wlan0 scan
> # ifup wlan0
> Note: my AP is using WPA2 so I'm also running wpa_supplicant
>
> I'm going to try using the latest compat-wireless, using the
> 3.0.0 kernel as overall it is more stable on this platform.
> I also plan to experiment a bit with the Panda (OMAP4) as it
> has the same peripherals (and I assume that it works?)
>
> What can I do to make this work better?
> What data need I provide to help diagnose the failures?
>
> Thanks for your time
>

My problems seem to stem from how the WiFi interface is taken
up/down. Looking at the driver, it's expecting the MMC/SDIO
hardware to be able to power the device on/off. Sadly, on my
board, this is not possible. However, we do have a way to
control the WLAN_EN signal to the module.

I extended the driver to make use of the set_power function
within the platform data. With this in place, the WiFi can
now be taken up/down with much success (that means it's not
perfect, but at least it doesn't stop talking irrecoverably)
Note that is is how it also works when SPI is used instead
of SDIO.

The attached patch is what I used.

--
------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Thomas | Consulting for the
MLB Associates | Embedded world
------------------------------------------------------------


Attachments:
0001-Use-platform-specific-power-function-if-provided-whe.patch (1.69 kB)