Project

General

Profile

Actions
Copy link

Issue #1801

closed

Make Replicant be able to use external Wii dongles from the settings UI

Added by Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli over 7 years ago. Updated almost 5 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
Fil Bergamo
Category:
Wi-Fi
Target version:
Replicant 6.0 0004
Start date:
02/03/2019
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
(Total: 0.00 h)
Resolution:
Device:
Grant:
Type of work:

Description

Given that:
  • Android uses wpa_supplicant
  • Android probably talks to wpa_supplicant trough a control interface (ctrl_interface) in the wpa_supplicant configuration file.
  • wpa_supplicant can be started and controlled from shell scripts.
  • busybox can probably still be compiled for Android 6.0.
  • Busybox has a tiny version of udev called mdev, which can run scripts when a device is detected. It is probably very easy, with it, to run a script when an ath9k_htc compatible wifi card is detected.
  • As far as I understand, Android doesn't have a dev manager like udev, so using mdev would probably not conflict with other things.

It may be possible to integrate external wifi support well enough to make it transparent for the user once the wifi dongle is plugged in.

Denis.

Subtasks 1 (0 open — 1 closed)

Issue #1907: Merge patch to make default system WiFi GUI work with external donglesRejected02/03/2019

Actions

Related issues

Blocks Replicant - Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004Closed10/09/2019

Actions
Actions
Copy link
 #1

Updated by Joonas Kylmälä about 7 years ago

This looks very useful: http://blog.linuxconsulting.ro/2010/04/porting-wifi-drivers-to-android.html. I already got one idea from that blog post: as the thing works like that you supply wpa_supplicant some wifi driver (in i9300/5 case it is currently NL80211) so let's make a driver that combines all usb wifi drivers to one. I will try to come with other ideas before I'm going to try make that kernel driver because a) I'm not good kernel coder and b) it might be be a bad way to implement this.

Relevant file for smdk4412 kernel: device/samsung/smdk4412-common/BoardCommonConfig.mk

Actions
Copy link
 #2

Updated by Fil Bergamo over 5 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Feedback
  • Target version changed from Replicant 6.0 to Replicant 6.0 0004
  • % Done changed from 0 to 90

There is a patch pending, that enables the use of external Wifi dongles with the default system GUI:

https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2018-December/001752.html

I personally tested the patch and it works at least on i9300.

Actions
Copy link
 #3

Updated by Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli over 5 years ago

  • Subject changed from Integrate RepWifi into Replicant to Make Replicant be able to use external Wii dongles from the settings UI
Actions
Copy link
 #4

Updated by Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli over 5 years ago

#1907 also has a link to the patch and to some information on that too.

Actions
Copy link
 #5

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

Fil Bergamo wrote:

There is a patch pending, that enables the use of external Wifi dongles with the default system GUI:

https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2018-December/001752.html

I personally tested the patch and it works at least on i9300.

Here's some of the relevant responses to the patch:

https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-March/001829.html
https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-March/001829.html

Belgin said in the replicant irc channel that a response to these emails will be coming soon.

Actions
Copy link
 #6

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

Belgin's new patch for this is here and is in need of review: https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-August/002100.html

I just tested it on my n7100 and WiFi worked as described.

Actions
Copy link
 #7

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

A review of this patch on the #replicant irc said, "it seems quite sensitive to the WiFi card being physically bumped, and recovery from this condition is rather slow and unreliable.

I'm not sure if maybe there's some kind of polling frequency that could be increased, in order to make recovery from a physically jostled wifi card happen quicker, but that might be a potential area of improvement for a follow-up patch.

I'm relatively confident that the connection dropped due to a physically-induced USB fault of some kind. To be clear, when this happened, the Android UI stopped permitting me to "enable" wifi for many seconds. So it's not the same issue as when a wifi network drops."

Actions
Copy link
 #8

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

A patch review was submitted to the email list here: https://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/replicant/2019-September/002120.html

Actions
Copy link
 #9

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

  • Related to Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004 added
Actions
Copy link
 #10

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

  • Related to deleted (Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004)
Actions
Copy link
 #11

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

  • Blocked by Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004 added
Actions
Copy link
 #12

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

  • Blocked by deleted (Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004)
Actions
Copy link
 #13

Updated by Kurtis Hanna about 5 years ago

  • Blocks Issue #1960: Build release candidate image for 6.0 0004 added
Actions
Copy link
 #15

Updated by Joonas Kylmälä almost 5 years ago

  • Status changed from Feedback to Resolved

Patches for this are now pushed

Actions
Copy link

Also available in: Atom PDF