Before I Make A Bad Choice..


rhijaen

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What all is needed to have working wifi on the gp2x?

Is there a list of supported usb wifi devices?
 
rhijaen posted on Sep 23 2006 at 05:36 PM said:
What all is needed to have working wifi on the gp2x?

Is there a list of supported usb wifi devices?

Since the GP2X does not have a powered USB you will need a USB hub or a powered USB interface (have seen pictures but don't know here to buy one) or the developers card with power supply. Then you need a USB network interface with a kernel driver module. The developer card (which I have) has four extra USB ports (powered it seems) an S-video right and left RCA jacks serial port and what looks like a parallel port. If you use the USB HUB you should be able to do lots of things because the ports are all powered. The GP2X configuration might limit what you can do with the hub but it depend on what you want to do. If you are looking to use the GP2X as a wirless device then you can from a stationary point.

I have downloaded the kernel development kit from the open source site where gamepark got it from but I have not competed my diff of the software to see where I stand. The kernel used by the GP2X is of 2.4 vintage and the current release is 2.6. The 2.6 has a lot more support for wireless USB but the kernel is bigger thaan the 2.4 version. I am going to see if I can work up a working 2.6 version so I have a more modern version to start from but the effort may be more than I want to do. I have a number of devices using 2.6 but without knowing all of the customization in the 2.4 I may be headed for a brick wall. A number of posts have hinted that not all of the kernel code is on the offical web site so I do not know for sure what state things are in.

If you state what your goals are others might be able to help you decide the best approach and mine might not even be any of those suggestions. I got my GP2X yesterday and I am still testing out all of the hardware and developement environment I set up. I have tested my power adapter Radio Shack 273-1680, my battery charger Radio Shack 23-1303 and replacement USB cable BELKIN F3U138v06 (I guess this is the part number) and they all work. I have my development environment working and am working on some test code now. I am looking at getting my version of the Visual Boy Advanced emulator using SDL working on the system (I may need to remove the network code).
 
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From your post, i have gathered that i will need..

1. A powered usb hub
2. Usb WiFi Stick
3. USB network interface/kernel driver module

What exactly is number 3?
 
rhijaen posted on Sep 23 2006 at 08:52 PM said:
From your post, i have gathered that i will need..

1. A powered usb hub
2. Usb WiFi Stick
3. USB network interface/kernel driver module

What exactly is number 3?

That is a portion of code that interfaces to the kernel to allow it to talk to the hardware (in this case the WiFi stick). This piece of code is specific to the chipset of the WiFi stick so it is very specific to a piece of hardware. What you really need to ask your self is: Why do you want to network the GP2X? If you tell us we can recommend the simple solution, and the WiFi stick is NOT that simple.
 
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I won't really have that big of a SD card, so I'd like to map a hard drive from my pc to a network drive (via samba?) to run things such as videos. I dont really want to be 2 feet from my computer using a usb cable to run things, as that defeats the purpose of a handheld :)
 
I just looked throught the kernel code and I do not see any of the candidates for USB wireless for the 2.4 kernel. I can check to see of the Prism driver or the ZyDAS driver can work in 2.4 but when I checked before there was very limited support. If you go to this page and look for kernel 2.4 support and USB I think you will find less than 5. Most of these 5 are not even made anymore. The best bet that I remember is the rt2500 which the driver (I think) supported USB and PCI in the same driver. I was trying to get something to work on my linux box but I aam running the 2.6 kernel so I had more choices. Of course knowing why you want wireless will help us make better recomendations.
 
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what about SDIO??
 
rhijaen posted on Sep 23 2006 at 09:38 PM said:
I won't really have that big of a SD card, so I'd like to map a hard drive from my pc to a network drive (via samba?) to run things such as videos. I dont really want to be 2 feet from my computer using a usb cable to run things, as that defeats the purpose of a handheld :)

Sorry we were both typing at the same time. Ok you want to host the source drive for video on your other machine. Makes sence ... sometimes the packet loss on wireless make the show pretty choppy so it might not be a great solution. Well you will have to have a hub with USB cable or a powered USB adpater to plug your wireless stick into so I don't know that any solution today would be that great. I was trying to find a USB adapter that I could hook a 9 volt battery to (with a voltage regulator to output 5V so I could do what I wanted but could not find a solution. Even with this non existant adapter I would need a USB wireless stick with a kernel module to support it for kernel 2.4. In that arena there is very little to choose from. Here is the US I could not find a combination that would work but where ever you are might be a different story.

Cervante posted on Sep 23 2006 at 09:53 PM said:
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what about SDIO??
If you can find one that will do the job (I found one that might but it was more than the GP2X) and required kernel 2.6 not the 2.4 we have.
 
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If you want a gp2x for wifi do not buy it.

The idea of wifi is portability, as it stands currently currently wifi on the gp2x is as good as being connected to a power outlet and wifi in range.

Until someone can piece together sdio drivers the wifi would not be portable. :(

You could wait till this does happen, there is a good chance that it might happen someday, but there are no promises.
 
SDIO is not a solution, there doesn't exist SDIO Wi fi that includes a memory these days (several models were released earlier, but they were discontinued), and eve if you found one, it will be totally unuseful, drivers needed to supprt SDIO are much harder to find, so my advice is to stick to EXT --> USB, it has been done before here, but SDIO Wi Fi? I never heard of a GP2Xer who succeeded to get it run.
 
Im going to take a freakin' shot in the dark here but what about this:

GP2X runs Linux right? Undoubtly there is a Linux Driver for SDIO WiFi. GP2X is bases on 2.4 from what I gather (correct?). So someone would need to recompile the Driver for 2.4 kernel using the GP2X SDK. Of course, this would probably be alot harder then hacking up a USB one just because USB works with a little hardware manipulation (correct?). But if we did get a driver intergrated then this would make WiFi more accesible to a typical user, and, if this happened, I wouldnt be suprised if we started seeing more homebrew apps including it.

As far as data storage you'd still have the limited built in NAND memory and from what I have read so far, Thumbdrives have been used in the EXT port correct? Just a thought.
 
Lupin posted on Sep 24 2006 at 07:12 PM said:
GP2X runs Linux right? Undoubtly there is a Linux Driver for SDIO WiFi.

BZZT! There are no open-source SDIO stacks for Linux. Here is one explanation of why, although the guy is overly negative (probably because his company sells a closed-source SDIO stack). There is plenty of open-source SD memory code, but SDIO really doesn't seem to be happening.

The USB WiFi thing is the only way to go, atm.
 
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hmm oh well like I said it was a shot in the dark. Though, I find it hard to belive there are no SDIO drivers for Linux. I use linux (educational only for A+) and know if you look hard enough you are bound to find anything. But I have no basis to say this exist.
 
There are SDIO drivers for Linux, but they are closed source and can´t be ported.

GPH did announce that there might be SDIO WIFI support in an upcoming firmware, but it might take years until they finish it, if at all.
 
Ok I have found a driver that claims it works for linux 2.4 and 2.6 (I tested 2.6) using the Xterasys XN-3135G USB stick (RT2571WF chipset). They have a driver posted http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm for USB that I will play with getting it to build for the GP2X. If this works then with the iwtools we should be able to do most of waht we need to make it work. Of course we will still be restricted in our movement because of the need for power for the USB. I know how to build modules for standard linux but I am unsure of the effect that on that process for the GP2X. I sort of remember reading something about it earlier but I forgot already. So I am off to see what I can do.
 
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