WL1801MOD: WL1801 How do I get the WIFI Interface to acquire a IPV4 address from my modem/router?

Patricia Holden

Part Number: WL1801MOD
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: WL1801,

Tool/software:

I have tried to get my WL1801 interface to acquire an IPV4 address using HOSTAPD, WPA-SUPPLICANT, and NETWORK-MANAGER. None of them work, I get no response at all from the router. Here is the output of my ifconfig command:

# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: flags=-28605<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DYNAMIC> mtu 1500
inet 169.254.63.90 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 169.254.255.255
inet6 fe80::2cfa:4d26:344:38c0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether da:43:c8:e1:e4:4b txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 62 bytes 8896 (8.6 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

Is there an app note or something that can tell me what I need to do in order to get this WIFI interface going on my local net? Also, there is no ethernet in the custom hardware I'm working with. Also, I am using Buildroot on an AM62X custom board. I have other devices connected to the router, so the router is definitely not the problem.

Thanks!

11 months ago

0 Sabeeh Khan1 11 months ago

TI__Mastermind 31810 points

Hi Patricia,

Once you are connected to an AP, then you can execute 'udhcpc -i wlan0' to request an DHCP lease from the network. You can find example here in Section 5.1.1 and 5.1.2:

https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/swru561a/swru561a.pdf

0 Patricia Holden 11 months ago in reply to Sabeeh Khan1

Intellectual 265 points

I read this pdf a while ago but a lot of the information in it is obsolete. For instance, there is supposed to be a script called "sta_start.sh" and another one called "sta_connect-ex.sh". I have both 18xx-ti-utils (V8.8) and wlconf (aso V8.8) in my buildroot environment. These 2 scripts are nowhere to be found. So I created my own script and systemd services. Systemd services bring up hostapd in one and starts wpa_supplicant in the other. There is a network script that first unblocks rfkill for wlan, then restarts hostapd & wpa_supplicant. Finally, the network interface is brought online using "ifconfig wlan0 up". I thought this should be sufficient, but all I get is "wlcore down" repeatedly displayed. Can you point me to where I can find the 2 scripts mentioned in the swru561a.pdf please so I can start the process again and see if the interface will come up and stay up? Also, I did run "configure-device" script to configure WL1801MOD and am using that conf.bin file. So that's not my problem.

0 Patricia Holden 11 months ago in reply to Patricia Holden

Intellectual 265 points

I finally got this going. I did not need the 2 scripts called out in sru661a.pdf. I did not need hostapd. I enabled wpa_supplicant, added "/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf, and added the following to systemd/network/:

Create wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf, which contains the following:

ap_scan=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

network={
ssid=ENTER-YOUR-SSID-HERE
psk=ENTER-YOUR-WPA-PSK-PASSPHRASE-HERE
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
scan_ssid=1
}

Create file "25-wlan.network", which contains following:

[Match]
Name=wlan0

[Network]
DHCP=ipv4

Then I created a systemd/system type oneshot service that calls a script which contains the following commands:

#!/bin/sh

# Unblock wifi device (somehow it's blocked when network first comes up)
rfkill unblock wlan

# Set wpa type to AP
iw wlan0 set type ap

# Add a little delay before starting WPA
/bin/sleep 2

# Start wireless service
systemctl enable wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service
systemctl restart systemd-servicewomen
systemctl restart wpa_supplicant@wlan0.service

Running "ifconfig -a":

dummy0: flags=195<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,NOARP> mtu 1500
inet 169.254.217.132 netmask 255.255.0.0 broadcast 169.254.255.255
inet6 fe80::f85e:aa56:c1f5:6774 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
ether 72:05:66:58:bc:6f txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 22 bytes 3136 (3.0 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host>
loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback)
RX packets 108 bytes 7800 (7.6 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 108 bytes 7800 (7.6 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

wlan0: flags=-28605<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DYNAMIC> mtu 1500
inet 10.0.0.35 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 10.0.0.255
inet6 fe80::8c88:fcff:feec:e39a prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link>
inet6 2601:190:500:79d0:bd0c:871:7f40:ee65 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x0<global>
inet6 2601:190:500:79d0::c696 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x0<global>
ether 8e:88:fc:ec:e3:9a txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet)
RX packets 147 bytes 20371 (19.8 KiB)
RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0
TX packets 323 bytes 44885 (43.8 KiB)
TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0

Running ping:

# ping 10.0.0.249
PING 10.0.0.249 (10.0.0.249) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=119 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=2.94 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2.51 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=6.01 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2.30 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.249: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=4.07 ms

--- 10.0.0.249 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 2.298/22.862/119.355/43.170 ms

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WL1801MOD: WL1801 How do I get the WIFI Interface to acquire a IPV4 address from my modem/router?