Add Wi-Fi support to Atmel SAM9 platforms

This page will provide short information on how to build and install the Wi-Fi Linux driver on the Atmel AT91 SAM9M10-EKES, SAM9M10 G45-EK, SAM9X5-EK and SAM9RL-EK development boards.

NOTE: This information should be used in addition to the instructions given on http://www.linux4sam.org

To be able to use the owl wifi driver on the SAM9 boards, the kernel must be patched and the owl wifi driver kernel module must be built and installed. This can be performed "standalone" or from the Angstrom/OpenEmbedded environment.

It is also possible to use a pre-built image that is provided by HD Wireless. See DemoSAM9 for information about the demo image.

This page will describe the two options for building and installing the Wi-Fi driver on the Atmel SAM9 development boards.

Adding Wi-Fi support to Angstrom/OpenEmbedded

When building a kernel and a rootfs using Angstrom/OpenEmbedded, the oe_at91sam-owl-wifi patch should be applied to the oe_at91sam.tgz overlay tree (ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/oe/linux4sam_2.1/oe_at91sam.tgz).

First, follow the instructions at: http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/OpenEmbeddedAngstromBuild#How_to_build_Angstrom_for_AT91

After applying the AT91 OpenEmbedded overlay tree, apply the owl wifi patch: oe_at91sam-owl-wifi.patch

angr@blorg:~/oe$ cd oe_at91sam
angr@blorg:~/oe/oe_at91sam$ cp /path/to/oe_at91sam-owl-wifi.patch .
angr@blorg:~/oe/oe_at91sam$ patch -p1 < oe_at91sam-owl-wifi.patch

Then continue with the remainig steps as described in "Setup local configuration" on http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/OpenEmbeddedAngstromBuild#How_to_build_Angstrom_for_AT91

The kernel and rootfs image will now have wifi support, and the module will be loaded upon system start.

NOTE: The owl-wifi recipe currently uses the 1.0.5 driver.

Adding Wi-Fi support to a "custom" kernel

In "standalone" mode, it is assumed that a custom kernel image is built and used according to http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/LinuxKernel.

During the "Get and patch the Linux kernel", as described in http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/LinuxKernel, apply the 2.6.30-at91-sdio-irq-support-both-slots.patch after applying the 2.6.30-at91-exp.4.tar.gz patchset:

angr@blorg:~$ cd linux-2.6.30
angr@blorg:~/linux-2.6.30$ cp /path/to/2.6.30-at91-sdio-irq-support-both-slots.patch .
angr@blorg:~/linux-2.6.30$ patch -p1 < 2.6.30-at91-sdio-irq-support-both-slots.patch

After applying the patch, follow the remaining steps as described in http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/LinuxKernel to configure, build and install the kernel.

See the topic about building the Wi-Fi driver BuildDriver for information on how to build and install the owl wifi driver kernel module.