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Original question:

Linux/WL1837MOD: 802.11s MESH + SAE

WL1835MOD: 802.11s MESH + SAE with BeagleBone Green Wireless

Jose Goncalves
Prodigy 150 points
Part Number: WL1835MOD


Hi,

While trying to setup a mesh network with a set of BeagleBone Green Wireless devices (that have the WL1835MOD chip), running the latest Debian 10 (buster) distro (with Linux kernel 4.19.94-ti-r42), I've hit a situation were I can connect the BeagleBones in mesh mode, but only without authentication set.

Looking at a previous post (Linux/WL1837MOD: 802.11s MESH + SAE), I've found the info that SAE only works with a modified wpa_supplicant from TI, so I've compiled it, following the instructions on the post, but still without success on the connectivity between the boards.

Is there any other thing that needs to be addressed to make mesh + SAE to work with BeagleBone Green Wireless devices running Debian 10?

Are TI not planning to push upstream the changes required to operate wl18xx devices in an authenticated (SAE) mesh?

Best regards,

José Gonçalves

  • 0
    Prodigy 150 points

    Some extra info about the software running on my BeagleBones:

    debian@beaglebone:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Debian
Description:	Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Release:	10
Codename:	buster
debian@beaglebone:~$ uname -a
Linux beaglebone 4.19.94-ti-r42 #1buster SMP PREEMPT Tue Mar 31 19:38:29 UTC 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux
debian@beaglebone:~$ dmesg | grep wlcore
[   49.093457] wlcore: wl18xx HW: 183x or 180x, PG 2.2 (ROM 0x11)
[   49.115198] wlcore: loaded
[   50.499895] wlcore: PHY firmware version: Rev 8.2.0.0.242
[   50.548202] wlcore: firmware booted (Rev 8.9.0.0.79)
debian@beaglebone:~$ wpa_supplicant -v
wpa_supplicant v2.8-devel
Copyright (c) 2003-2019, Jouni Malinen <j@w1.fi> and contributors

  • 0 in reply to Jose Goncalves
    TI__Mastermind 35795 points

    Hi ,

    We don't support Beaglebone Green wireless or debian distro. For kernel 4.19  , can you pls apply following 2 patches and recheck

    Thanks

    Saurabh

  • 0 in reply to S
    Prodigy 150 points

    Hi,

    Thank you for your reply. Applying those 2 patches on the Beaglebone's 4.19 kernel makes SAE to work, but it still requires TI's modified wpa_supplicant.

    BTW, don't you know what is the patch(es) that gives SAE support for the standard wpa_supplicant?

    I've looked in the TI's git logs for the wilink8-wlan/hostap repo, but did not find anything obvious that could fix the SAE connectivity issues with the standard wpa_supplicant.

    Best regards,

    José Gonçalves

  • 0 in reply to Jose Goncalves
    Prodigy 175 points

    Hi José,

    have you tried firmware version 8.9.0.0.70?
    SAE authentication seems to be broken in the TI firmware for 8.9.0.0.71 and above.

    Cheers,
    Patrick

  • 0 in reply to Patrick.Walther
    Prodigy 150 points

    Hi Patrick,

    No, I did not tried firmware version 8.9.0.0.70. I'm using the one shipped in the latest Beaglebone Debian 10 image, that is 8.9.0.0.79.

    Applying the kernel patches that Saurabh sent and using a wpa_supplicant compiled from TI's git, I have got it to work!

    Just would prefer to use the latest wpa_supplicant from Debian 10 (or from upstream), with some patch applied to work with SAE, instead of using an outdated wpa_supplicant version.

    Best regards,

    José Gonçalves

  • 0 in reply to Jose Goncalves
    Prodigy 150 points

    Some additional info on this issue.

    If I start simultaneous AP and mesh roles on my BeagleBones (and for this to work on kernel 4.19, another patch is required - see WL1835MOD: Unable to activate simultaneous AP and mesh roles), I can use the wpasupplicant package provided by Debian Buster to have connectivity using an encrypted (SAE) mesh. 

    Another point worth mentioning is that, currently, Debian does not ship the wpasupplicant package with mesh support (see Debian BR #930751). To use it on a Mesh with BeagleBones, I've taken the Debian Buster sources and recompiled with "CONFIG_MESH=y".

    WL1835MOD: Unable to activate simultaneous AP and mesh roles