Porting AW-CM358 (NXP 88W8987) for IMX8MP Custom Board

[Wobaffet]

Hello, 

We are trying to port AW-CM358 (NXP 88W8987) for our custom board. We are using the SDIO interface for the wifi. We are getting the below error on boot with the below kernel config.

root@imx8mp-lpddr4-evk:~# dmesg | grep mrvl
[    3.240146] mwifiex_sdio mmc0:0001:1: Direct firmware load for mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin failed with error -2
[    3.252447] mwifiex_sdio mmc0:0001:1: Falling back to sysfs fallback for: mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin
[    7.225014] mwifiex_sdio mmc0:0001:1: Failed to get firmware mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin
root@imx8mp-lpddr4-evk:~# modprobe moal
modprobe: FATAL: Module moal not found in directory /lib/modules/6.1.55+gf69f7ebd0ab9

CONFIG_BT_HCIUART_MRVL=y
CONFIG_BT_MRVL=y
# CONFIG_BT_MRVL_SDIO is not set
#CONFIG_LIBERTAS_THINFIRM=y
#CONFIG_LIBERTAS_THINFIRM_DEBUG=y
# CONFIG_LIBERTAS_THINFIRM_USB is not set
CONFIG_MWIFIEX=y
CONFIG_MWIFIEX_SDIO=y
# CONFIG_MWIFIEX_PCIE is not set
# CONFIG_MWIFIEX_USB is not set
# CONFIG_PWRSEQ_SD8787 is not set

If I change the configs from y to m, I can't find the .ko object to insert

Can you help with the issue?

Thank you in advance!

Best Regards.

[jackwu]

Hello, do you have AM-CM358 WIFI and Bluetooth DTS sample code?

Because I want to implement the SDIO and Bluetooth UART functions of AM-CM358 on NXP i.mx8,

can you help me provide it? Thank you!

[cdoumenc]

Hi jackwu,

Do you confirm you are also using NXP Application Processor i.MX 8M Plus which is the context of the current topic (from Wobaffet) ?

Are you using NXP "Evaluation Kit for the i.MX 8M Plus Applications Processor" (https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/development-boards-and-designs/i-mx-evaluation-and-developm...

or

a custom board using NXP Application Processor i.MX 8M Plus ? 

Because dts content depends on the board hardware used.

Which SDIO and UART ports number are you using ?

Regards,

Christophe

[ocourson · Accepted solution]

Dear @Wobaffet 

The errors you see occur because the driver cannot locate the firmware:

[    3.240146] mwifiex_sdio mmc0:0001:1: Direct firmware load for mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin failed with error -2
[    3.252447] mwifiex_sdio mmc0:0001:1: Falling back to sysfs fallback for: mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin

(path is relative to /lib/firmware/ directory, so driver is looking for /lib/firmware/mrvl/sd8987_uapsta.bin)

We would advise to use NXP Wifi/BT driver and firmware from NXP github, has explained below:

1/ Getting NXP Wifi/BT driver and firmware

- You can get NXP Wifi/BT driver from:

git clone http://github.com/nxp-imx/mwifiex.git
git checkout lf-6.1.55-2.1.0

- And NXP Wifi/BT firmware:

git clone https://github.com/NXP/imx-firmware
git checkout lf-6.1.55-2.1.0

88W8987 chipset SDIO firmware is imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/sdiouart8987_combo_v0.bin

2/ Cross compiling the driver

You will need to setup the cross compiler for your host processor, then build the driver as follows:

cd mwifiex/mxm_wifiex/wlan_src && make KERNELDIR=<LINUX_KERNEL_SOURCES> build

The driver is composed in two kernel modules moal.ko and mlan.ko, located in mwifiex/mxm_wifiex/bin_wlan

3/ Copy driver and firmware to the target

Driver: copy mwifiex/mxm_wifiex/bin_wlan directory content to your host (.ko file in usual location, the other files in /lib/firmware/nxp/ directory)

Firmware: copy imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/sdiouart8987_combo_v0.bin to your host, usually in /lib/firmware/nxp/ directory

4/ Starting Wifi driver

Refer to README_MLAN for explanations

Driver is started by insmod'ing moal.ko (has dependancy to mlan.ko)

There are two ways to specify the drivers parameters:

- Using wifi_mod_para.conf file content to provide driver options:

modprobe moal mod_para=nxp/wifi_mod_para.conf

moal.ko driver will get its parameters from the wifi_mod_para.conf file, automatically load mlan.ko dependency and start downloading the firmware

Here is an example of wifi_mod_para.conf (should be located in /lib/firmware/nxp/ directory)

SD8987 = {
cfg80211_wext=0xf
max_vir_bss=1
cal_data_cfg=none
ps_mode=1
auto_ds=1
host_mlme=1
fw_name=nxp/sdiouart8987_combo_v0.bin
}

- Manually specifying driver options

In that case, you can use this kind of command: 

modprobe moal fw_name=nxp/sdiouart8987_combo_v0.bin cfg80211_wext=0xf cal_data_cfg=none host_mlme=1

Once firmware is loaded, ifconfig -a should show new network interfaces (by default mlan0 for STA mode and uap0 for AP mode)

Regards,

Olivier

[Wobaffet]

Hello,

We've cross compiled the firmware. Is it possible to copy the generated binaries and kernel object files during yocto build process to the final image?

Thanks!

[ocourson]

Dear @Wobaffet 

This is basic Yocto knowledge.

You can add do_install() target to any bitbake recipe, something like:

# Copyright 2017-2022 NXP

FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/files:"

IMX_FIRMWARE_SRC ?= "git://github.com/NXP/imx-firmware.git;protocol=https"
SRCBRANCH_imx-firmware = "lf-6.1.55_2.2.0"
SRC_URI += " \
    ${IMX_FIRMWARE_SRC};branch=${SRCBRANCH_imx-firmware};destsuffix=imx-firmware;name=imx-firmware \
"

SRCREV_imx-firmware = "7be5a936ce8677962dd7b41c6c9f41dd14350bec"

do_install:append () {
    install -d ${D}${sysconfdir}/firmware

    # Install NXP Connectivity
    install -d ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/wifi_mod_para.conf    ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp

    # Install NXP Connectivity 8987 firmware
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/ed_mac_ctrl_V3_8987.conf  ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/sd8987_wlan.bin           ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/sdiouart8987_combo_v0.bin ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/txpwrlimit_cfg_8987.conf  ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
    install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/imx-firmware/nxp/FwImage_8987/uartuart8987_bt.bin       ${D}${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp
}

FILES:${PN} = " ${nonarch_base_libdir}/firmware/nxp/* "

Regards,

Olivier

[ocourson]

Dear @Wobaffet 

You can use i.MX Yocto Linux releases as a reference:

See Embedded Linux

 README

You can get i.MX Linux Yocto recipes:

repo init -u https://github.com/nxp-imx/imx-manifest -b imx-linux-mickledore -m imx-6.1.55-2.2.0.xml
repos sync

 And use below recipes as example:

# wifi kernel modules recipe

sources/meta-imx/meta-bsp/recipes-kernel/kernel-modules/kernel-module-nxp-wlan_git.bb

sources/meta-imx/meta-bsp/recipes-connectivity/nxp-wlan-sdk/nxp-wlan-sdk_git.inc

# Wifi Firmware recipe

sources/meta-imx/meta-bsp/recipes-kernel/linux-firmware/linux-firmware_%.bbappend

Regards,

Olivier