PRODUCT BRIEF
The SDIO Wi-Fi Adapter Board (WAB) is a GS2101MIP Wi-Fi-module-based hardware adapter board that can be interfaced using an SD card connector to the SDIO interface of a host microcontroller. SDIO WAB provides the means to evaluate the capabilities of GainSpan's low-power GS2101MIP Wi-Fi modules and Serial-to-Wi-Fi embedded software, and develop software for MCU host-based Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
The SDIO board includes the GainSpan GS2101MIP module and supports IEEE 802.11b/g/n protocols. It communicates with the MCU over the SDIO interface. It is designed to plug into the SD card connector on various MCU development platforms such as Renesas RZ and SH series, Freescale Tower K60, ST Micro STM32 development platforms and others. The boards have built-in external flash for reliable over the air firmware upgrade, factory restore configuration as well as data storage for web pages.
The SDIO Wi-Fi adaptor board ships with Serial-to-Wi-Fi software preloaded on the module. However, customers should load the latest version of the module firmware that is the most suited for their application from the GainSpan portal, or program the board with custom binaries built using the GainSpan SDK-Builder or GS2000 SDK.
- Introduction
- Setting up 3rd Party Wi-Fi interface modules drivers
- Physical interfaces
This utility installs an updated version of the Broadcom 802.11abgn Wireless SDIO Adapter driver to provide the following benefits: An access point using an 802.11n signal on a 5GHz channel, will not allow the Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) to connect The Intel. FreeBSD 13 gained SDIO support in r348805 and is now able to talk to the peripheral devices behind SDIO. Work is ongoing to create a WiFi driver for the Broadcom chips. Earlier version used DreamPlug hardware, which has Marvell SD8787 chip (WiFi, BT and FM).
Sdio Wifi Adapter Cable
Broadcom provides SoC solutions that serve retail, service provider gateways and enterprise access points over Wi-Fi. Broadcom's wireless LAN infrastructure portfolio includes a diverse range of solutions including CPU+wireless LAN 802.11 designs and products built around our market leading Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) technology.
Toradex's Embedded Linux BSPs only provide out-of-the-box software support for the LM006 Wi-Fi dongle, Wi2Wi WM828CC6, and AzureWave AW-CM276NF modules (Integrated to selected CoMs). For these modules, the support is already provided with Toradex's Linux images. If this is your case, you can skip this article and go directly to Wi-Fi Connection Bring Up article.
For modules that don't come with on-module Wi-Fi hardware, a mini-PCIe, SDIO or USB Wi-Fi module can be used. This article will provide you an overview of how to set up software drivers for other 3rd party Wi-fi modules.
Other Wi-Fi related articles
If this is not the information you are looking for, please, refer to the Wi-Fi Connectivity with Toradex's Computer on Module (CoM) article for more Wi-Fi related information.
Many Wi-Fi modules will work just fine once the matching driver is compiled into a custom Linux kernel. For a complete list of tested modules, see the Adding Wi-Fi Connectivity to Toradex's Computer on Module (CoM) page.
Note that most Wi-Fi modules require matching firmware as well. It is recommended to first test the selected Wi-Fi module on a regular PC running Linux (e.g. using a mini-PCIe to PCIe adapter if required). Make sure to use a Linux kernel version as close as possible to the version running on the Toradex module. This procedure not only checks if the module works reliably but also can be used to copy the matching firmware from there if required.
Also see the Linux BSP Release, where you can filter for information about the Wi-Fi Subsystem, and the official Linux Wireless wiki, where you can get information such as the supported chips and their drivers status, as well as how to install the firmware, among other information.
Custom Kernel
To enable support for other Wi-Fi hardware a custom Linux kernel is required. Please refer to the Build U-Boot and Linux Kernel from Source Code article concerning its setup/compilation. Once completed continue with the Kernel Driver Backports Integration article.
Note: Since the Embedded Linux BSP 2.7b4, the driver backports are added to the Toradex pre-built image. Please see the Kernel Driver Backports Integration article for further information.
Physical interfaces
Mini-PCIe
Sdio Wifi Adapter Dongle
Our embedded Linux BSPs so far do not support any mini-PCIe Wi-Fi modules out-of-the-box. However, we successfully tested various mini-PCIe Wi-Fi modules based on Broadcom (e.g. BCM4311KFBG) and Intel (e.g. 4965AGN, 6230AGN, ,N-1000 and N-7260) chip sets.
To configure e.g. support for the Intel 6230AGN mini-PCIe module one has to enable CONFIG_IWLAGN as follows:
Then just compile and deploy the custom kernel as explained in the above mentioned article.
During boot one gets the following kernel messages:
USB
The following USB Wi-Fi sticks with the Realtek RTL8188CUS/RTL8188EUS chip set are supported out-of-the-box. However we successfully tested various USB Wi-Fi modules based on Ralink(e.g RT5370, RT5572), Realtek(e.g RTL8188CUS, RTL8192EU chipset), Zydas(e.g ZD1211B).
- LM006 USB Wi-Fi
During boot or upon insertion the following kernel messages identify the LM006 stick:
In user space it can be identified by lsusb as follows:
SDIO
We successfully tested the WiBear 11n SDIO Wi-Fi wireless adapter module based on Marvel 8787 chipset. In addition, Wi2Wi WM828CC6 is employed as the on-module Wi-Fi for some models of the Colibri iMX6ULL SoM, and thus supported out-of-the-box in our BSP.
To configure support for the Marvel 8787 SDIO wireless adapter module one has to enable CONFIG_MWIFIEX, CONFIG_MWIFIEX_SDIO as follows:
During boot one gets the following kernel messages:
Firmware
Most Wi-Fi hardware uses specific firmware to operate properly. Certain such firmware can easily be installed as follows:
See also
