WAVE300

Sources for Lantiq WAVE300 wi-fi driver used in many embedded devices.

Scope

In this document are instructions in order to setup and run the Lantiq Wave 300 development kit that includes drivers and misc tools.

The aim of this project is to upbring the sources to newer Linux kernels as original sources available seem to be compatible only with older kernels.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER

The original sources for this git (wave300-3.2.1.1.48.tar.gz), upon which all changes are made, came with no license file. In the code, however the MODULE_LICENSE is clearly defined as "proprietary".

In previous releases of the drivers like 3.01.0, there's a GPL LICENSE (txt) file where dual BSD/GPL is granted.

Being the sources of this git an evolution of the old ones, the GPL LICENSE (txt) file and its content must be kept.

Nonetheless, being myself an absolute newcomer into the world of open-source and licensing, I beg the original authors & owners of this code Infineon/Lantiq/Intel to correct me if I'm wrong and I will immediatly turn down this git.

Status

• The code has been up-ported to latest OpenWRT trunk using kernel 4.9 or later
• The code was successfully compiled using Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04 on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
• The compiled kernel module is successfully loaded, and network device initiated.
• The driver communicates with a custom hostapd that contains mtlk primitives.
• There is no IP communication, this is likely related to "SOURCE of RX packet not found!" issue.

TODO

• Diagnose "SOURCE of RX packet not found!" issue which is likely why there is no IP connectivity.

HOWTO: setup build environment

• Build using OpenWRT 18.06.1 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or Ubuntu 18.04 for WSL.

Clone the OpenWRT development environment

mkdir ~/src
cd ~/src
git clone https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt.git cd openwrt
It is better to switch to current stable release if you are not using SNAPSHOTS for your router.
git checkout -f v18.06.2

Select target and subtarget

make menuconfig

Build OpenWRT

This step is necessary to populate toolchain and kernel directories
make

Install libnl in OpenWRT

./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install libnl
make package/libnl/{clean,compile} V=99

Note: libnl-tiny does not work by default

I also added the following options to my .config :

For lspci: CONFIG_PACKAGE_pciutils=y

I like vim: CONFIG_PACKAGE_vim-full=y

For iwconfig: CONFIG_PACKAGE_wireless-tools=y

For hostapd: CONFIG_PACKAGE_libopenssl=y

HOWTO: Build driver

We are now ready to build the driver.

Clone WAVE300 git repository

cd ~/src
git clone https://github.com/vittorio88/WAVE300.git
cd WAVE300/driver

Set variable to point to cloned OpenWRT SDK repository

export BSP_BUILD_ROOT=~/src/openwrt

Configure build

make menuconfig

You should see the classical blue screen menu.

1. Choose your target platform¹

¹ ugw5.1-vrx288 has been more thoroughly tested and will be used as example for the rest of the document.

Upon exiting make menuconfig, ./configure will be run automatically. Do not run it on your own.
Note: If this step fails, then maybe you have multiple toolchains in openwrt/staging_dir. Remove all but the latest.

Build driver

make

Drivers will be available at:
./builds/ugw5.1-vrx288/binaries/wls/driver/mtlk.ko
./builds/ugw5.1-vrx288/binaries/wls/driver/mtlkroot.ko

HOWTO: Deploy driver

Prepare firmware files

In order to run the wifi driver in your target machine you need to have the following firmware files:
/lib/firmware/sta_upper.bin
/lib/firmware/ap_upper.bin
/lib/firmware/contr_lm.bin
/lib/firmware/Progmodel_*.bin

You can retrieve these from:

1. your running stock firmare
2. using fmk (firmware-mod-kit) to extract them from a stock firmware image
3. Retrieving them from a GPL dump of your image

Check README_FW in /lantiq_fw for help. They may need to be renamed, you will see in kernel log if it doesn't find an adequate firmware image.

Load driver

Bring those files to your platform (router, embedded system, etc) and insert the modules (insmod) in the following order:
insmod mtlkroot.ko
insmod mtlk.ko ap=1

A new wifi interface should be visible with iwconfig, usually named wlan0.
iwconfig

Configure wireless interface

Below lines are an example if your radio is 2.4GHz:
iwpriv wlan0 sCountry IT
iwconfig wlan0 essid test-24ghz
iwconfig wlan0 channel 1

Below lines are an example if your radio is 5GHz:
iwpriv wlan0 sCountry GB
iwconfig wlan0 essid test-5ghz
iwconfig wlan0 channel 52

Finally bring up the interface:
ifconfig wlan0 up

Here is it possible to see the wireless network and connect, yet there is no IP connectivity.

It is also possible to use hostapd if patched with mtlk primitives.

Troubleshooting

The generated modules accept some parameters, most of them are unexplored.

Increase logging verbosity

At menuconfig level, set debug level, 9 being the highest.
Beware, because the size of the drivers will grow.

Insert driver(s) with increased logging verbosity

insmod mtlkroot.ko cdebug=3