After upgrading the operating system, providing more power via a powered USB Hub, and better understanding the startup scripts, I seem to have a reliable WiFi link from my BBB.
I still have occasional problems at boot time with the device not connecting to my WiFi network. I’ve got an FTDI USB-SerialTTL console cable that I can connect to the device and examine the status. Most of the time when I’ve not been able to reach the device over the network and I do this, running the lsusb command produces results showing nothing connected beyond the internal USB devices.
root@beaglebone:~# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
If I disconnect the USB hub, remove and reapply it’s power, and reconnect the USB hub, sometimes it will cause the BBB to recognize the USB devices, but often it requires removing all power, disconnecting the hub, and reconnecting everything.
USB Power is the first issue in getting things to work. I only have the verbose reports from the lsusb command to go on for deciding how much power I need. The spec sheet for the BBB reports that it can only supply 500 mA on it’s USB port, and even then only if it’s powered by an external power adapter via the barrel jack. My WiFi adapter reports 450 mA. My camera reports 500mA. The hub in self powered operation reports 100mA. The power adapter that came with my hub reports it’s output as 2.1A, which would indicate that it should be able to provide the standard 500mA to each of it’s 4 ports if it’s running on external power.
root@beaglebone:~# lsusb ; lsusb --verbose | grep MaxPower
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0409:005a NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 13b1:002f Linksys AE1000 v1 802.11n [Ralink RT3572]
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 046d:082d Logitech, Inc.
MaxPower 100mA
MaxPower 0mA
MaxPower 0mA
MaxPower 450mA
MaxPower 500mA
I’m running a system that I started by flashing my eMMC with the 9/4/2013 image I downloaded from http://circuitco.com/support/index.php?title=Updating_The_Software#Procedure
The dmesg command reports the kernel as “Linux version 3.8.13 (koen@rrMBP) (gcc version 4.7.3 20130205 (prerelease) (Linaro GCC 4.7-2013.02-01) ) #1 SMP Wed Sep 4 09:09:32 CEST 2013”
I am running with a 32GB micro sd card installed, and partitioned into two volumes. In the root of the FAT volume I’ve got a uEnv.txt file that continues the boot process to the eMMC and it also issues the kernel command to disable the internal HDMI cape on the BBB. Since I’m only running this device over the network, I have decided it is more efficient to disable the HDMI entirely. I don’t think that the HDMI changes affect my WiFi, but I’ve not investigated it either.
root@beaglebone:~# fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0 /dev/mmcblk1
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 31.9 GB, 31914983424 bytes, 62333952 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 41945087 20971520 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 41945088 62333951 10194432 83 Linux
Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 1920 MB, 1920991232 bytes, 3751936 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk1p1 * 63 144584 72261 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk1p2 144585 3743144 1799280 83 Linux
root@beaglebone:~# cat /media/BONEBOOT/uEnv.txt
mmcdev=1
bootpart=1:2
mmcroot=/dev/mmcblk1p2
optargs=quiet capemgr.disable_partno=BB-BONELT-HDMI,BB-BONELT-HDMIN
root@beaglebone:~# cat /etc/fstab
rootfs / auto defaults 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p2 /home auto defaults 0 2
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/BONEBOOT auto defaults 0 2
/dev/sda1 /media/PNY auto noauto 0 2
/dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/BEAGLEBONE auto ro 0 2
I have created a file /var/lib/connman/wifi.config that has two sections, one for each of the wifi networks that I regularly connect to. The first is my primary network, and it seems to be stable connecting. The second is a network I occasionally power up, but I’ve not spent much time testing it. The good thing is that the credentials are in one place, and it’s supposed to chose the first network in the list that is found.
root@beaglebone:~# cat /var/lib/connman/wifi.config
[service_WimsWorld-5G]
Type = wifi
Name = WimsWorld-5G
Security = wpa2-psk
Passphrase = MyPasswordInPlainText
[service_WimsWorld-UAV]
Type = wifi
Name = WimsWorld-UAV
Security = wpa2-psk
Passphrase = MyPasswordInPlainText
I created /etc/udev/rules.d/70-wifi-powersave.rules following the information in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_saving#Network_interfaces , paying explicit attention to the fact that naming the file matters.
In this case, the name of the configuration file is important. Due to the introduction of persistent device names via 80-net-name-slot.rules in systemd v197, it is important that the network powersave rules are named lexicographically before 80-net-name-slot.rules, so that they are applied before the devices are named e.g. enp2s0.
root@beaglebone:~# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/70-wifi-powersave.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNEL=="wlan*", RUN+="/usr/sbin/iw dev %k set power_save off"
The iw dev wlan0 set power_save off command disables a WiFi feature called power save mode. I believe it is part of the 802.11 standard, but support varies by driver and chipset. It gets negotiated between the client device and the access point on authentication. If it is enabled, the access point may buffer multiple small packets before sending them to the client and the client spends less time either transmitting or receiving. If I run the command ping -t 192.168.0.17 from my windows machine with power_save off, the time is very stable at 1 to 2ms. If I get a connection with power_save on, the time varies greatly with most times reported over 100ms.
My home network has plenty of nearby networks to conflict with.
root@beaglebone:~# iw wlan0 scan | grep SSID | sort
SSID: Aman-Guest
SSID: Aman2.4G
SSID: Aman5G
SSID: Angela's Wi-Fi Network
SSID: Battlestar Galactica
SSID: Battlestar Galactica
SSID: CenturyLink0705
SSID: Cyberia
SSID: Dagobah
SSID: Derek's Wi-Fi Network
SSID: HP-Print-60-LaserJet 100
SSID: HSE-1305(a) .media
SSID: Jaggernet
SSID: Jaggernett
SSID: Joergstrasse
SSID: Joergstrasse5
SSID: Joshernet
SSID: MOTOROLA-06F23
SSID: NCH1205
SSID: NCH515
SSID: NCH611
SSID: NETGEAR84
SSID: Paris
SSID: PhishingNet
SSID: Poop2 5GHz
SSID: PoopTime
SSID: SMC
SSID: Se1301
SSID: Seattle2GHz
SSID: SusansWIFI
SSID: WimsWorld
SSID: WimsWorld-5G
SSID: XVI
SSID: bedford
SSID: bedford
SSID: go-seahawks
SSID: goodtimes
SSID: goodtimes-guest
SSID: ladines
SSID: maverick
SSID: mridula_air
SSID: shubaloo
SSID: shubaloo-5g
SSID: washington
One other change that I made was to disable the cpu-ondemand.timer service with the command:
systemctl disable cpu-ondemand.timer
I don’t know if that has affected my WiFi stability, but it has certainly made my overall system more stable. By default this service runs after the BBB has been running for ten minutes, and then puts the system clock into variable mode with the command cpufreq-set -g ondemand. I ran into problems with my machine changing it’s internal frequency on a regular basis. for my purposes, I chose to leave the CPU in it’s default state, running with the performance governor, which leaves it at 1000 MHz. run the command cpufreq-info to see what state the BBB is currently in, and what it’s possible to change it to.
My machine seems to be stable right now, as can be shown by nothing being added to the dmesg log since the initial boot, 19 and a half hours ago.
root@beaglebone:~# dmesg | tail -32 ; uptime
[ 9.360135] usb0: eth_open
[ 9.360359] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): usb0: link is not ready
[ 10.281944] gs_open: ttyGS0 (dcaccc00,dcaa8600)
[ 10.282105] gs_close: ttyGS0 (dcaccc00,dcaa8600) ...
[ 10.282119] gs_close: ttyGS0 (dcaccc00,dcaa8600) done!
[ 10.283944] gs_open: ttyGS0 (dcaccc00,dcd1f980)
[ 11.637465] usb0: stop stats: rx/tx 0/0, errs 0/0
[ 11.742846] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[ 12.058808] net eth0: initializing cpsw version 1.12 (0)
[ 12.070772] net eth0: phy found : id is : 0x7c0f1
[ 12.070810] libphy: PHY 4a101000.mdio:01 not found
[ 12.075883] net eth0: phy 4a101000.mdio:01 not found on slave 1
[ 12.133068] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 12.694713] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 18.301568] wlan0: authenticate with 20:4e:7f:85:ce:5b
[ 18.327171] wlan0: send auth to 20:4e:7f:85:ce:5b (try 1/3)
[ 18.327734] wlan0: authenticated
[ 18.336184] wlan0: associate with 20:4e:7f:85:ce:5b (try 1/3)
[ 18.337359] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 20:4e:7f:85:ce:5b (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=2)
[ 18.342420] wlan0: associated
[ 18.342545] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 18.342777] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
[ 18.342940] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
[ 18.342951] cfg80211: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
[ 18.342962] cfg80211: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
[ 18.342973] cfg80211: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
[ 18.342983] cfg80211: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.342993] cfg80211: (5490000 KHz - 5600000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.343003] cfg80211: (5650000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
[ 18.343013] cfg80211: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
[ 18.343022] cfg80211: (57240000 KHz - 63720000 KHz @ 2160000 KHz), (N/A, 4000 mBm)
[ 18.418237] wlan0: Limiting TX power to 23 (23 - 0) dBm as advertised by 20:4e:7f:85:ce:5b
16:34:09 up 19:35, 1 user, load average: 0.03, 0.07, 0.05
WimsWorld 