Thursday, June 11, 2009

Libertas GSPI driver in 2.6.30

The Libertas GSPI driver that I worked on is now mainline, as part of Linux kernel 2.6.30. While this is definitely good news, there have been subsequent improvements to the driver they'll land in upcoming kernels.

If you're planning to use this driver (which supports SPI-interfaced Marvell 88w8686 cards), please also take a look at:
  • this patch to remove the use of GPIO Chip Select in the driver. If you're using a Blackfin-based system, you'll need to configure your SPI controller to use GPIO-based Chip Select but that can be done in your board config and didn't belong in the libertas_spi driver!
  • this one with endianness fixes, especially needed for big-endian systems (ex: PowerPC)
  • this one with a fix for IEEE Power Save mode
...or, better yet, pull the driver from wireless-testing if possible so that you're working with the latest.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear andrey:
Thank you very much because of the driver of "Marvell Libertas 8686 SPI 802.11b/g cards".
Now, there is a chipset base on marvell 8686. I use the SPI1 of S3C2440 to connect the marell 8686 chipset.
How can I use the driver in linux-2.6.30 to make my chipset work?Do I need to config my spi device?And where the help txt in Documetation in linux2.6.30?I'm so sorry that I can't find it.
Best wish to get help from you.

Unknown said...

Please read:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/libertas
(especially the part about the GSPI device). Yes, the driver in 2.6.30 will work, I suggest patching it or using a newer kernel, however.

Unknown said...

Wow, I'm glad that Google led me to your blog. I'm porting Linux to a new handheld that has the 8686 gspi module, and am hitting a few speed-bumps with this one.

I'll check out wireless-testing as you suggested.

Unknown said...

Good luck, Christopher. Yes, please use the wireless-testing version and discuss any issues you find on the mailing list. The driver needs a bit more work, I'm working on getting access to the hardware again so I can keep hacking on it.

Anonymous said...

Andrey, many thanks. I finally found the blue plastic line after asking myself what it would look like at the age of 38 (black). I will do all the other suggestions as well. Do you recall which port is the input and output of the canister, they are different lengths but no lines were attached so I cannot tell?

There is a line from the bell housing to the tranny dipstick that is missing on my Bavaria, but also no vent container for my tranny? Hey thanks for your responses, In New England, none of these cars are left and nobody who knows how to fix them. Rob

sandeep kumar said...

Hi andrey,
I am trying for spi driver for Marvell libertas 8686 card. I am using Linux 2.6.36 kernel. The platform using is smdk2410 . When i am inserting the liberas_spi.ko module, it is failing with an error "Can't read bus mode register".
Can u help me out for this problem.

Unknown said...

No I can't, sorry. Please try the libertas mailing list.