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Orange Pi Zero virtual wireless devices not working


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I've read many posts here and understand the OPi0 wireless chip isn't very well liked. I'm trying to setup hostapd with both client and AP functionality. I can get AP working only if I dedicate wlan0 to it. It seems that virtual devices (eg iw dev wlan0 interface add uap0 type managed; ip link set uap0 up) don't work with the current jessie image, making it impossible to have both AP and client simultaneously.

 

I'm happy to help with testing the driver, but I'm no expert and certainly not knowledgeable enough to code this sort of stuff. If there's any help to be had, I'd be grateful.

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4 hours ago, chowderhead said:

 

I've read many posts here and understand the OPi0 wireless chip isn't very well liked.

 


Opi Zero is not suitable for such complex setup. Even you manage to patch the driver (for which you need advanced knowledge) and get all this working, performance would be terrible.
 

Consider attaching some proven USB wireless chip or get Opi Zero 2 H3, which have at least a decent wireless chip and where this might be possible to achieve.

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On 5/29/2017 at 0:53 AM, Igor said:

Opi Zero is not suitable for such complex setup. Even you manage to patch the driver (for which you need advanced knowledge) and get all this working, performance would be terrible.
 

Consider attaching some proven USB wireless chip or get Opi Zero 2 H3, which have at least a decent wireless chip and where this might be possible to achieve.

 

Thanks for the reply, Igor. I would like to challenge your assertion since I presently have a Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless performing this function quite handily; for my purposes, anyway. The OPi0 is more useful given a quad core processor and more io, hence my interest in it. I'll take a look at the H3 version, however.

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1 minute ago, chowderhead said:

I would like to challenge your assertion since I presently have a Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless performing this function quite handily;

It's not about the board or SoC (processor), it's about the wireless module and its software (driver and firmware) quality.

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I would also like to get the wireless of the Orange Pi Zero working fully.  Limited bandwidth is not a problem for my use case.  I'm a competent programmer, but normally try to stay away from kernel code.  If this isn't too much work, I'm willing to make an exception.  To know that, and also to get started, I need to know what needs to be done though.  My observations so far:

  1. When the xradio module is loaded, the load average is at least 1.0.  It seems to be busy waiting whenever it's not doing anything useful.  Unloading the module makes the system load reasonable (near 0).
  2. The wifi interface works, but when creating other virtual interfaces (iw dev wlan0 interface add), they show up as if they're working, but no communication is possible with them (they also don't find any networks when scanning).

Please let me know where I should start if I want to fix things, so I can see if it's worth my time.

 

Thanks!

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So I followed the advise given and purchased an Orange Pi Zero Plus2 H3. No luck. Steps followed:

 

Removed network-manager (doesn't work with hostapd so I don't need it).

 

Permit ipv4 forwarding by uncommenting  net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 in /etc/sysctl.conf.

 

Setup dnsmasq to serve dhcp over wlan0_ap and ignore wlan0.

 

Create virtual device wlan0_ap:

iw dev wlan0 interface add wlan0_ap type managed

 

/etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
        wpa-essid "myssid"
        wpa-psk "mypassphrase"


auto wlan0_ap
iface wlan0_ap inet static
        address 192.168.76.1
        netmask 255.255.255.0  

 

/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf:

interface=wlan0_ap
ssid=opi0plus2
hw_mode=g
channel=4
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=0123456789
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP

Setup iptables:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.76.0/24 ! -d 192.168.76.0/24 -j MASQUERADE

Set wlan0_ap up:

ip link set dev wlan0_ap up
ifup wlan0_ap

 

Restart dnsmasq:

service dnsmasq restart

Start hostapd:

hostapd /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf 
Configuration file: /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
nl80211: Could not re-add multicast membership for vendor events: -2 (No such file or directory)
Using interface wlan0_ap with hwaddr 02:00:00:00:00:00 and ssid "opi0plus2"
wlan0_ap: interface state UNINITIALIZED->ENABLED
wlan0_ap: AP-ENABLED 

hostapd seems happy, but there is no opi0plus2 ssid in a scan of the local wireless networks.

 

I've tried the supplied interfaces.hostapd and /etc/hostapd.conf from Armbian, they don't work either.

 

Any help?

 

Oh, and Wijnen offered to work on the POS wireless drive, but radio silence from the Armbian crew. What's up with that?

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If you get such configuration working on RPi with very similar chip, than one way is to try with mainline kernel, even still development version - build one or try the ones from download section. This way become more but not exactly comparable ... It can be also firmware related and I would double check small print / documentation / ask Broadcomm, do detail compare of both chips.


This is wireless networking, which is yet another big area of expertise and pressing on volunteers to help is a bit out. We already save you a lot of work, but Armbian crew (few people) can not fix all generic Linux problems that emerges. 

 

Edit: if you are using old kernel (legacy 3.4.113) this module must be loaded with op_mode=2 to provide AP mode - only this way you will see AP. I have no idea if you still can run in client mode at the same time ...

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5 hours ago, chowderhead said:

Oh, and Wijnen offered to work on the POS wireless drive, but radio silence from the Armbian crew. What's up with that?

 

9 minutes ago, chowderhead said:

Wijnen is offering to help, but nobody responded to his request, so you're missing an opportunity

 

We are not missing anything since we don't manufacture or sell any boards, and vendors who are interested in their hardware usually provide documentation and financial support to people who are willing to improve their software.

Orange Pi Zero wireless limitations and problems were already discussed several times in other threads, so I don't see any points in discussing the situation yet another time.

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On 7/1/2017 at 7:51 PM, zador.blood.stained said:

Orange Pi Zero wireless limitations and problems were already discussed several times in other threads, so I don't see any points in discussing the situation yet another time.

 

I'm sorry for not making myself clear then.  I'm not asking for a discussion.  I'm asking for some pointers so I can see if it's worth my time to try to fix things.  Pointers to other forum threads are fine.  I didn't find anything of use myself, which is why I'm asking for pointers.

 

Thanks,

Bas

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33 minutes ago, wijnen said:

I'm sorry for not making myself clear then.  I'm not asking for a discussion.  I'm asking for some pointers so I can see if it's worth my time to try to fix things.  Pointers to other forum threads are fine.  I didn't find anything of use myself, which is why I'm asking for pointers.

Repository README: https://github.com/fifteenhex/xradio/blob/master/README.md

Discussion: https://forum.armbian.com/index.php?/topic/3243-orange-pi-zero-wireless-module-status-xradio-st-cw1200/

 

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