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From:   Kalle Valo <kvalo@codeaurora.org>
To:     Bassem Fahmy <bassem@morsemicro.com>
Cc:     linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Chip debug tool
References: <CAEirPfz4FEtuRH8VST0ehtQtttPpFJFrZLDb9v7heUAb8EA2tw@mail.gmail.com>
Date:   Wed, 30 Oct 2019 16:41:13 +0200
In-Reply-To: <CAEirPfz4FEtuRH8VST0ehtQtttPpFJFrZLDb9v7heUAb8EA2tw@mail.gmail.com>
        (Bassem Fahmy's message of "Wed, 30 Oct 2019 06:48:39 +1100")
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Bassem Fahmy <bassem@morsemicro.com> writes:

> Hi
> Our systems team is asking to develop a chip debug tool to be able to
> test, calibrate and tweak every bit of the chip from user space
> (something similar to Broadcom's WL tool). The tool would later be
> stripped out and passed to customers to help them tweak specific
> features.
>
> The tool needs to be easy for the firmware and RF team to add extra
> command, by adding some definitions in the user space tool and a
> matching response in the firmware (no driver recompilation).
>
> Based on this, I can think of few of options
> - nl80211: to overload NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE or NL80211_CMD_VENDOR or
> - nl80211: to create a new set of commands. These options don't seem
> to have a chance to go back upstream though.
>
> Another option is to use debugfs. In this case however, all the
> commands would go to a single node, and the driver which would blindly
> pass data to/from the chip. This is to avoid recompiling the driver
> every time a new command is added.
>
> Just wondering what is the proper (recommended way) for this. Any
> ideas, directions?

NL80211_CMD_TESTMODE was added exactly for this kind of use in mind
(used by RF/HW engineers and not by regular users), I recommend using
it.

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