[Commotion-dev] Boilerplate Android code pushed

Jeremy Lakeman Jeremy.Lakeman at gmail.com
Fri Feb 3 01:26:34 UTC 2012 

We've got a lot of cheap Huewai IDEOS phones, CPU and flash is quite
slow and they have ridiculously tiny screens.

Samsung galaxy's work quite well, at least with the stock firmware.
I've also seen them work with CM, so I assume those roms have the same
driver files in the same locations so we aren't hitting the same
issue.

If we can disable our "generic" profile for CM phones, we could work
towards supporting the built in modified wpa supplicant. We shouldn't
actually need to load the wifi driver ourselves since Cyanogen
supports joining adhoc networks anyway. Not sure if we can initiate a
network though.

I wonder if your phone is having trouble loading the (at a guess)
tiwlan_drv.ko module.

On stock Droids we do something like;
insmod /system/lib/modules/tiwlan_drv.ko
/system/bin/wlan_loader -f /system/etc/wifi/fw_wlan1271.bin -e
/proc/calibration -i [path]/tiwlan.ini
Then use ifconfig / iwconfig to get the network running

If you have firmware binaries in different places we wouldn't use this
script and would fall back to trying "generic"

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 11:25 AM, Hans-Christoph Steiner
<hans at guardianproject.info> wrote:
>
> I poked around a little bit, my /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf file
> seems intact.  "netcfg tiwlan0 up" and down no longer work, it tells me:
>
> # /system/bin/netcfg tiwlan0 up
> action 'up' failed (No such device)
>
> I rebooted and cleared the cache, no luck there. I'll try flashing CM7.1
> again.  Do you have a phone you recommend for wifi hacking with Android?
>  We have a good collection, so we probably have a better one than a
> Droid/Milestone running CM7.1.
>
> .hc
>
>
> On 02/02/2012 04:58 PM, Jeremy Lakeman wrote:
>> Ah, we've had some strange reports like that from CM7 users.
>> No we don't write over any files in the system folder. At least not directly.
>> We'll probably end up trying to use our "generic" chipset profile
>> which will try to call /system/lib/libhardware_legacy.so
>> wifi_load_driver() / wifi_unload_driver().
>> CM7 seems to include this library, but using it might be the cause of
>> this issue. We haven't flashed CM7 onto any of our phones yet to test
>> what the root cause is.
>> You may need to boot into recovery mode and clear the cache, or worst
>> case do a factory reset.
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Hans-Christoph Steiner
>> <hans at guardianproject.info> wrote:
>>
>> I got it running on my Droid with CM7.1, but then I couldn't make it
>> stop running ;)  Every time I turned on my wifi since setting up
>> Serval, the Serval app would then show up and turn it back off.  I
>> first clicked the "Suspend" button, and it turned to "Start".  I then
>> clicked "Reset".  I then force closed it, and cleared the data.
>>
>> Now I've removed it entirely, and my wifi isn't working any more.  It
>> turns on, but never scans for any networks and it seems to have
>> cleared all the saved networks in my phone.  I cannot manually add
>> networks either.
>>
>> Does this app mess with the wpa_supplicant.conf that comes with the
>> phone, or any of the standard Android files?
>>
>> .hc
>>
>> On 01/10/2012 10:08 PM, Jeremy Lakeman wrote:
>>>>> If that process completely locks up (and it can) you may need to
>>>>> force close the application or reboot. After that it will disable
>>>>> running the same process for turning on adhoc mode.
>>>>>
>>>>> Let me know if you manage to get past that step, or you are still
>>>>> having issues.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 1:14 PM, Hans-Christoph Steiner
>>>>> <hans at at.or.at> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> A little bug report, in case you're interested:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I just downloaded Serval Mesh from the Marketplace on my Droid
>>>>>> running CM7.1.  It gets thru "Unpacking the stuff I need",
>>>>>> "Checking for root access", and "I think I know how to control
>>>>>> your wifi", then says "Skipped check for experimental support
>>>>>> since we already support your handset.", and gets stuck on "Test
>>>>>> if WiFi control works".  It just seems to try again and again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> .hc
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Jan 10, 2012, at 6:54 PM, Jeremy Lakeman wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Serval's software is available here
>>>>>>> https://github.com/servalproject/batphone The specific pieces
>>>>>>> you might want to look at are;
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> data/conf/wifichipsets/
>>>>>>> src/org/servalproject/system/ChipsetDetection.java
>>>>>>> src/org/servalproject/system/WiFiRadio.java
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> and the edify scripts are interpreted by (including the call
>>>>>>> to libhardware_legacy wifi_load_driver / wifi_unload_driver);
>>>>>>> native/adhoc-edify/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> (The data directory is zipped in the build process, and
>>>>>>> unzipped by our first run process into
>>>>>>> /data/data/org.servalproject)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And the apk is available on the market;
>>>>>>> https://market.android.com/details?id=org.servalproject
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This approach works with a fair number of stock (but rooted)
>>>>>>> handsets. We haven't gotten around to trying to using wifi
>>>>>>> supplicants that already support adhoc mode.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Hans-Christoph Steiner
>>>>>>> <hans at at.or.at> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Wow, that sounds quite elaborate, I'd like to see it in
>>>>>>>> action :)  Can you point us towards the code that is doing
>>>>>>>> all this?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My guess is that the level of detail will be needed to handle
>>>>>>>> a lot of cases, but I think we have a good chance of
>>>>>>>> simplifying things in the long run by including our own
>>>>>>>> binaries in the app for things that are not kernel mods.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I'd love to find a way to include kernel mods that work
>>>>>>>> across kernel versions, but I have not found a way to do
>>>>>>>> that.  It must be possible, since people like nvidia are
>>>>>>>> shipping binary kernel mods that work across a number of
>>>>>>>> kernel versions.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> .hc
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Jan 10, 2012, at 5:28 PM, Jeremy Lakeman wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Getting Adhoc and olsrd running is something the Serval
>>>>>>>>> Mesh software is already trying to do. We default to BATMAN
>>>>>>>>> but we have a setting to run olsr instead.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> We started with wifi tether's adhoc support and have tried
>>>>>>>>> to improve on it. We've written a generic approach to
>>>>>>>>> discovering how to control the wifi driver on each handset.
>>>>>>>>> For the handsets that need something different, we've got a
>>>>>>>>> bunch of text files describing file names we should be
>>>>>>>>> looking for, and a matching control script.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> But if we don't have a specific script that matches this
>>>>>>>>> handset, we look through the filesystem looking for *.ko.
>>>>>>>>> Then read through every short script in /system looking for
>>>>>>>>> insmod commands and any arguments that we need to pass
>>>>>>>>> through. And we've got a fallback method that tries a load
>>>>>>>>> driver library call that may or may not work.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hopefully one of these approaches will succeed.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 7:11 AM, Hans-Christoph Steiner
>>>>>>>>> <hans at at.or.at> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Hey Brian,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I briefly checked out your code, I'll dig in more soon.
>>>>>>>>>> Did you get ad-hoc mode running after all?  I assume so
>>>>>>>>>> since you said you got olsrd running.  Apparently, on
>>>>>>>>>> some devices, you have to replace the wpa_supplicant
>>>>>>>>>> binary in order to get ad-hoc mode working:
>>>>>>>>>> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=929865
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Cyanogenmod seems to include everything needed to run
>>>>>>>>>> ad-hoc though.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I just found this, which looks like it should provide us
>>>>>>>>>> with some useful code:
>>>>>>>>>> http://code.google.com/p/adhoc-on-android/
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On approach that might work for us is to include our own
>>>>>>>>>> custom wpa_supplicant in the app.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> .hc
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Jan 10, 2012, at 2:47 PM, Brian Duggan wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Commoters,
>>>>>
>>>>> I've been doing some preliminary work on getting olsrd to work in
>>>>> a user-friendly way on Android. The first challenge is creating an
>>>>> ad-hoc interface. Google doesn't support this, and doesn't look
>>>>> like they will support ad-hoc because they feel WiFi Direct is
>>>>> functions as a replacement. See bug 82:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82
>>>>>
>>>>> I pushed some code to the redux branch of the commotion-android
>>>>> repository. It's half code, half comments describing what will need
>>>>> to be done to automate the entire process of creating an ad-hoc
>>>>> interface the Android Way.
>>>>>
>>>>> It doesn't address current olsrd incompatibility with some Android
>>>>> wifi drivers, namely the dhd driver. To date, I've only been able
>>>>> to get olsrd to run stably on devices using the bcm4325 driver.
>>>>>
>>>>> Check it out, if you're interested:
>>>>>
>>>>> git clone -b redux
>>>>> git://git.chambana.net/commotion/commotion-android
>>>>>
>>>>> The master branch is still an Android Wifi Tether overlay, but will
>>>>> get olsrd up and running on bcm4325 (and other non-dhd?) devices.
>>>>> Some testing would be appreciated here. It would be great to start
>>>>> probing which devices olsrd works on and which don't.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks! Brian
>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev mailing list
>>>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net
>>>>>>>>>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-dev
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>> -
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to
>>>>>>>>>> know how to realize his wishes.  Now that he can realize
>>>>>>>>>> them, he must either change them, or perish.    -William
>>>>>>>>>> Carlos Williams
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net
>>>>>>>>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-dev
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev mailing list
>>>>>>>>> Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net
>>>>>>>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-dev
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>> There is no way to peace, peace is the way.       -A.J. Muste
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________ Commotion-dev
>>>>>>> mailing list Commotion-dev at lists.chambana.net
>>>>>>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-dev
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>> I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my
>> telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how
>> to use my telephone."  --Bjarne Stroustrup (creator of C++)
>>>>>>

More information about the Commotion-dev mailing list