1
2   Driver for the Intel Wireless Wimax Connection 2400m
3
4   (C) 2008 Intel Corporation < linux-wimax@intel.com >
5
6   This provides a driver for the Intel Wireless WiMAX Connection 2400m
7   and a basic Linux kernel WiMAX stack.
8
91. Requirements
10
11     * Linux installation with Linux kernel 2.6.22 or newer (if building
12       from a separate tree)
13     * Intel i2400m Echo Peak or Baxter Peak; this includes the Intel
14       Wireless WiMAX/WiFi Link 5x50 series.
15     * build tools:
16          + Linux kernel development package for the target kernel; to
17            build against your currently running kernel, you need to have
18            the kernel development package corresponding to the running
19            image installed (usually if your kernel is named
20            linux-VERSION, the development package is called
21            linux-dev-VERSION or linux-headers-VERSION).
22          + GNU C Compiler, make
23
242. Compilation and installation
25
262.1. Compilation of the drivers included in the kernel
27
28   Configure the kernel; to enable the WiMAX drivers select Drivers >
29   Networking Drivers > WiMAX device support. Enable all of them as
30   modules (easier).
31
32   If USB or SDIO are not enabled in the kernel configuration, the options
33   to build the i2400m USB or SDIO drivers will not show. Enable said
34   subsystems and go back to the WiMAX menu to enable the drivers.
35
36   Compile and install your kernel as usual.
37
382.2. Compilation of the drivers distributed as an standalone module
39
40   To compile
41
42$ cd source/directory
43$ make
44
45   Once built you can load and unload using the provided load.sh script;
46   load.sh will load the modules, load.sh u will unload them.
47
48   To install in the default kernel directories (and enable auto loading
49   when the device is plugged):
50
51$ make install
52$ depmod -a
53
54   If your kernel development files are located in a non standard
55   directory or if you want to build for a kernel that is not the
56   currently running one, set KDIR to the right location:
57
58$ make KDIR=/path/to/kernel/dev/tree
59
60   For more information, please contact linux-wimax@intel.com.
61
623. Installing the firmware
63
64   The firmware can be obtained from http://linuxwimax.org or might have
65   been supplied with your hardware.
66
67   It has to be installed in the target system:
68     *
69$ cp FIRMWAREFILE.sbcf /lib/firmware/i2400m-fw-BUSTYPE-1.3.sbcf
70
71     * NOTE: if your firmware came in an .rpm or .deb file, just install
72       it as normal, with the rpm (rpm -i FIRMWARE.rpm) or dpkg
73       (dpkg -i FIRMWARE.deb) commands. No further action is needed.
74     * BUSTYPE will be usb or sdio, depending on the hardware you have.
75       Each hardware type comes with its own firmware and will not work
76       with other types.
77
784. Design
79
80   This package contains two major parts: a WiMAX kernel stack and a
81   driver for the Intel i2400m.
82
83   The WiMAX stack is designed to provide for common WiMAX control
84   services to current and future WiMAX devices from any vendor; please
85   see README.wimax for details.
86
87   The i2400m kernel driver is broken up in two main parts: the bus
88   generic driver and the bus-specific drivers. The bus generic driver
89   forms the drivercore and contain no knowledge of the actual method we
90   use to connect to the device. The bus specific drivers are just the
91   glue to connect the bus-generic driver and the device. Currently only
92   USB and SDIO are supported. See drivers/net/wimax/i2400m/i2400m.h for
93   more information.
94
95   The bus generic driver is logically broken up in two parts: OS-glue and
96   hardware-glue. The OS-glue interfaces with Linux. The hardware-glue
97   interfaces with the device on using an interface provided by the
98   bus-specific driver. The reason for this breakup is to be able to
99   easily reuse the hardware-glue to write drivers for other OSes; note
100   the hardware glue part is written as a native Linux driver; no
101   abstraction layers are used, so to port to another OS, the Linux kernel
102   API calls should be replaced with the target OS's.
103
1045. Usage
105
106   To load the driver, follow the instructions in the install section;
107   once the driver is loaded, plug in the device (unless it is permanently
108   plugged in). The driver will enumerate the device, upload the firmware
109   and output messages in the kernel log (dmesg, /var/log/messages or
110   /var/log/kern.log) such as:
111
112...
113i2400m_usb 5-4:1.0: firmware interface version 8.0.0
114i2400m_usb 5-4:1.0: WiMAX interface wmx0 (00:1d:e1:01:94:2c) ready
115
116   At this point the device is ready to work.
117
118   Current versions require the Intel WiMAX Network Service in userspace
119   to make things work. See the network service's README for instructions
120   on how to scan, connect and disconnect.
121
1225.1. Module parameters
123
124   Module parameters can be set at kernel or module load time or by
125   echoing values:
126
127$ echo VALUE > /sys/module/MODULENAME/parameters/PARAMETERNAME
128
129   To make changes permanent, for example, for the i2400m module, you can
130   also create a file named /etc/modprobe.d/i2400m containing:
131
132options i2400m idle_mode_disabled=1
133
134   To find which parameters are supported by a module, run:
135
136$ modinfo path/to/module.ko
137
138   During kernel bootup (if the driver is linked in the kernel), specify
139   the following to the kernel command line:
140
141i2400m.PARAMETER=VALUE
142
1435.1.1. i2400m: idle_mode_disabled
144
145   The i2400m module supports a parameter to disable idle mode. This
146   parameter, once set, will take effect only when the device is
147   reinitialized by the driver (eg: following a reset or a reconnect).
148
1495.2. Debug operations: debugfs entries
150
151   The driver will register debugfs entries that allow the user to tweak
152   debug settings. There are three main container directories where
153   entries are placed, which correspond to the three blocks a i2400m WiMAX
154   driver has:
155     * /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:DEVNAME/ for the generic WiMAX stack
156       controls
157     * /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:DEVNAME/i2400m for the i2400m generic
158       driver controls
159     * /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:DEVNAME/i2400m-usb (or -sdio) for the
160       bus-specific i2400m-usb or i2400m-sdio controls).
161
162   Of course, if debugfs is mounted in a directory other than
163   /sys/kernel/debug, those paths will change.
164
1655.2.1. Increasing debug output
166
167   The files named *dl_* indicate knobs for controlling the debug output
168   of different submodules:
169     *
170# find /sys/kernel/debug/wimax\:wmx0 -name \*dl_\*
171/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m-usb/dl_tx
172/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m-usb/dl_rx
173/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m-usb/dl_notif
174/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m-usb/dl_fw
175/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m-usb/dl_usb
176/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_tx
177/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_rx
178/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_rfkill
179/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_netdev
180/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_fw
181/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_debugfs
182/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_driver
183/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_control
184/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_stack
185/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_op_rfkill
186/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_op_reset
187/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_op_msg
188/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_id_table
189/sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/wimax_dl_debugfs
190
191   By reading the file you can obtain the current value of said debug
192   level; by writing to it, you can set it.
193
194   To increase the debug level of, for example, the i2400m's generic TX
195   engine, just write:
196
197$ echo 3 > /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/dl_tx
198
199   Increasing numbers yield increasing debug information; for details of
200   what is printed and the available levels, check the source. The code
201   uses 0 for disabled and increasing values until 8.
202
2035.2.2. RX and TX statistics
204
205   The i2400m/rx_stats and i2400m/tx_stats provide statistics about the
206   data reception/delivery from the device:
207
208$ cat /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/rx_stats
20945 1 3 34 3104 48 480
210
211   The numbers reported are
212     * packets/RX-buffer: total, min, max
213     * RX-buffers: total RX buffers received, accumulated RX buffer size
214       in bytes, min size received, max size received
215
216   Thus, to find the average buffer size received, divide accumulated
217   RX-buffer / total RX-buffers.
218
219   To clear the statistics back to 0, write anything to the rx_stats file:
220
221$ echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m_rx_stats
222
223   Likewise for TX.
224
225   Note the packets this debug file refers to are not network packet, but
226   packets in the sense of the device-specific protocol for communication
227   to the host. See drivers/net/wimax/i2400m/tx.c.
228
2295.2.3. Tracing messages received from user space
230
231   To echo messages received from user space into the trace pipe that the
232   i2400m driver creates, set the debug file i2400m/trace_msg_from_user to
233   1:
234     *
235$ echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/i2400m/trace_msg_from_user
236
2375.2.4. Performing a device reset
238
239   By writing a 0, a 1 or a 2 to the file
240   /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0/reset, the driver performs a warm (without
241   disconnecting from the bus), cold (disconnecting from the bus) or bus
242   (bus specific) reset on the device.
243
2445.2.5. Asking the device to enter power saving mode
245
246   By writing any value to the /sys/kernel/debug/wimax:wmx0 file, the
247   device will attempt to enter power saving mode.
248
2496. Troubleshooting
250
2516.1. Driver complains about 'i2400m-fw-usb-1.2.sbcf: request failed'
252
253   If upon connecting the device, the following is output in the kernel
254   log:
255
256i2400m_usb 5-4:1.0: fw i2400m-fw-usb-1.3.sbcf: request failed: -2
257
258   This means that the driver cannot locate the firmware file named
259   /lib/firmware/i2400m-fw-usb-1.2.sbcf. Check that the file is present in
260   the right location.
261