Provide brcm80211 driver for hostapd

[acidicX]

Hi there,

to get hostapd working on the ci20 I need a cfg80211 or mac80211 driver.
The Broadcom 4330 on the ci20 is supported by the brcm80211 (brcmsmac) driver:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211

So I followed the debian doc to install the firmware:
https://wiki.debian.org/brcm80211
but it seems that package does not include the modules (modprobe fails, module brcmsmac not found).

Is there a way to get the driver working? I don't need the bluetooth chip, if that is the issue.

Cheers,
acidicX

[ZubairLK]

The wifi firmware is already there in /lib/firmware/iw8103/fw_bcm4330b2.bin

I'm not sure if the drivers support hostapd. Please do try and tell.

Also, have you seen https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mips-creator-ci20

That is a better place for such discussions as others in the community are subscribed and can contribute as well.

This one is generally for issues that are linux kernel specific as it is the kernel repository.

[acidicX]

It's not about the firmware - you can also get the firmware in the android source. Installing the firmware package on debian also works. It's about the brcm80211 driver. The standard 'wl' driver does not support hostapd, that much is known.

Because loading the module (modprobe brcmsmac) fails, I guess it is not included in the current kernel. I've seen the Google Group, but this means it's a kernel issue - and therefore here should be the right place?

[ZubairLK]

When drivers are compiled as a module, then they need to be loaded using modprobe.
But in this case, modprobe is not needed because the wireless drivers are compiled into the kernel. And not compiled as a separate module.

From http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211
"Broadcom brcmsmac(PCIe) and brcmfmac(SDIO/USB) drivers"

modprobe brcmsmac won't work on the ci20 as it has the sdio based chip 4330 which needs the brcm full mac driver.

The broadcom brcmfmac driver for the CI20 in 3.16 (wip) works with a few patches
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mips-creator-ci20-dev/EdCgigq5Aps

The CI20 ships with 3.0.8 by default.
Which uses an old version of broadcoms android driver.
https://github.com/MIPS/CI20_linux/tree/ci20-v3.0.8/drivers/net/wireless/bcmdhd

I am unaware of the level of support for hostapd for either of these drivers..