Realtek Wi-Fi SDK for Android L 5.

x
ver. 1.0.1

Contents
Release History ............................................................................................................. 2
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 3
1. Copy Necessary Files into SDK .......................................................................... 4
2. Platform Related Files ......................................................................................... 4
2.1. BoardConfig.mk ....................................................................................... 4
2.2. init.xxx.rc .................................................................................................. 6
2.3. Others ........................................................................................................ 8
3. System Resource Configurations ........................................................................ 9
4. wpa_supplicant_8............................................................................................... 11
5. Driver Configurations for Android 5.x ............................................................ 11
6. FAQ ..................................................................................................................... 13
6.1. Wi-Fi (STA mode) .................................................................................. 13
6.1.1. Why Wi-Fi can’t enable? ........................................................... 13
6.2. Portable Wi-Fi hotspot (AP mode) ....................................................... 14
6.2.1. Why Portable Wi-Fi hotspot can’t enable? ............................. 14
6.3. Wi-Fi Direct (P2P mode) ....................................................................... 14
6.3.1. There is no Wi-Fi Direct UI shown? ......................................... 14
6.3.2. Wi-Fi Direct can’t scan any peer? ............................................ 14

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Release History
0.0.1 2014/12/03 1. Beta release
1.1. realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_L_5.0_20141203.tar.gz
0.0.2 2014/12/19 1. Beta release
1.1. Add CONFIG_RADIO_WORK_20141219.diff
1.0.0 2015/02/13 1. First formal release
1.1. Remove CONFIG_RADIO_WORK_20141219.diff, won’t provide
CONFIG_RADIO_WORK related patch files anymore
1.0.1 2015/09/07 1. Add chapter 4. wpa_supplicant_8
2. Rename Android 5.0 to Android L 5.x
3. Rename Android KK to Android L
4. Change “realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_L_5.0_20141203.tar.gz” to
“realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_L_5.x_20150811.tgz”

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SDK packages
 hardware/realtek/*
Folder to store config files, private code from Realtek.

Introduction
This document provides a simple guide to help engineers to apply Realtek Wi-Fi
solution onto their Android L 5.x system. For now, we have supported the following
two scenarios:

 STA/AP – Switch between STA mode and AP mode

 (STA+P2P)/AP – Switch between STA+P2P(Wi-Fi Direct) concurrent
mode and AP mode

To port Realtek Wi-Fi driver onto Android 5.x platform, you can go through the
following guide with reference codes within our driver package's
realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_L_5.x_20150811.tgz.

Because Android's SDK may differ from platform to platform, our reference
codes may not be applied on every platform without modifications. You should check
if our reference code is suitable for you to use.

In this document, ANDROID_SDK is the path of top folder of the target Android
SDK; this term is used in the following paragraphs.

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1. Copy Necessary Files into SDK
After unzipping realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_L_5.x_20150811.tgz, copy the
following folder into ANDROID_SDK/hardware/ folder:
 hardware/realtek

2. Platform Related Files

2.1. BoardConfig.mk
To apply Realtek Wi-Fi solution onto your Android 5.x system, you need to
define some compile-time variables in BoardConfig.mk of your platform. In general,
the BoardConfig.mk file is located in:
ANDROID_SDK /device/<soc_vendor_name>/<board_name>/
Take TI panda board for example:
ANDROID_SDK /device/ ti/panda/ BoardConfig.mk

Please define the following compile-time variables below:

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 BOARD_WIFI_VENDOR := realtek
ifeq ($(BOARD_WIFI_VENDOR), realtek)
WPA_SUPPLICANT_VERSION := VER_0_8_X
BOARD_WPA_SUPPLICANT_DRIVER := NL80211
BOARD_WPA_SUPPLICANT_PRIVATE_LIB := lib_driver_cmd_rtl
BOARD_HOSTAPD_DRIVER := NL80211
BOARD_HOSTAPD_PRIVATE_LIB := lib_driver_cmd_rtl

BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8192cu
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8192du
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8192ce
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8192de
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8723as
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8723au
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8189es
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8723bs
#BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := rtl8723bu

WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_NAME := "wlan"
WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_PATH := "/system/lib/modules/wlan.ko"
WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_ARG := "ifname=wlan0 if2name=p2p0"

WIFI_FIRMWARE_LOADER := "rtw_fwloader"
WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_STA := "STA"
WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_AP := "AP"
WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_P2P := "P2P"
WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_PARAM := "/dev/null"
endif

 BOARD_WIFI_VENDOR := realtek
To distinguish the platform Wi-Fi device from products of other vendors, we
define variable BOARD_WIFI_VENDOR as realtek. This is for compile-time choices
to be applied for Realtek Wi-Fi solutions.

 WPA_SUPPLICANT_VERSION := VER_0_8_X
For Android L, please set WPA_SUPPLICANT_VERSION as VER_0_8_X to

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use wpa_supplicant_8.

 BOARD_WPA_SUPPLICANT_DRIVER := NL80211
 BOARD_WPA_SUPPLICANT_PRIVATE_LIB := lib_driver_cmd_rtl
 BOARD_HOSTAPD_DRIVER := NL80211
 BOARD_HOSTAPD_PRIVATE_LIB := lib_driver_cmd_rtl
We use NL80211 as the driver interface for wpa_supplicant and hostapd to
communicate with driver and provide lib_driver_cmd_rtl as the private library.

 BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE
Realtek provide a variety of Wi-Fi solutions to choose. For now,
BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE is not used for any purpose but we suggest setting this
variable for your Wi-Fi solution you used.

 WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_NAME
 WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_PATH
 WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_ARG
These three variables will be used in libhardware_legacy (wifi.c) to do insmod
and rmmod. The value of WIFI_DRIVER_MODULE_NAME should match the value
of MODULE_NAME specified in our driver’s Makefile at compile-time. Please refer
to “Platform Setting Section in Detail” of:
document/Quick_Start_Guide_for_Driver_Compilation_and_Installation.pdf

 WIFI_FIRMWARE_LOADER :=”rtw_fwloader”
This variable will be used in libhardware_legacy (wifi.c) as the name of Wi-Fi
firmware loader, which will be executed after driver’s insmod and before the
executing of wpa_supplicant and hostapd. Setting it to “rtw_fwloader” for calling
service rtw_fwloader which provided by Realtek.

 WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_STA :=”STA”
 WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_AP :=”AP”
 WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_P2P :=”P2P”
 WIFI_DRIVER_FW_PATH_PARAM :=”/dev/null”
Realtek driver has FW embedded inside, and will automatically load FW at NIC
initialization process. Setting these four variables is just to fit the requirement of the
libhardware_legacy (wifi.c).

2.2. init.xxx.rc

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 For Wi-Fi to operate properly, we need some daemons to be defined as service
inside init.xxx.rc. In general, the init.xxx.rc file is located in:
ANDROID_SDK/device/<soc_vendor_name>/<board_name>/
Take TI panda board for example:
ANDROID_SDK/device/ti/panda/init.omap4pandaboard.rc.

Please add the service definitions below:

 rtw_fwloader

service rtw_fwloader /system/bin/rtw_fwloader

class main
disabled
oneshot

 wpa_supplicant
service p2p_supplicant /system/bin/wpa_supplicant \
-ip2p0 -Dnl80211 -c/data/misc/wifi/p2p_supplicant.conf \
-e/data/misc/wifi/entropy.bin -N \
-iwlan0 -Dnl80211 -c/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf \
-O/data/misc/wifi/sockets \
-g@android:wpa_wlan0
class main
socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi
disabled
oneshot

service wpa_supplicant /system/bin/wpa_supplicant \

-iwlan0 -Dnl80211 -c/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf \
-O/data/misc/wifi/sockets \
-e/data/misc/wifi/entropy.bin \
-g@android:wpa_wlan0
class main
socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi
disabled
oneshot

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 dhcpcd
service dhcpcd_wlan0 /system/bin/dhcpcd -aABDKL
class main
disabled
oneshot

service dhcpcd_p2p /system/bin/dhcpcd -aABKL

class main
disabled
oneshot

service iprenew_wlan0 /system/bin/dhcpcd -n

class main
disabled
oneshot

service iprenew_p2p /system/bin/dhcpcd -n

class main
disabled
oneshot

2.3. Others
For topics mentioned here, you can add the following code segments in any .mk
file which your platform will use. Take TI panda board for example:
ANDROID_SDK /device/ ti/panda/device.mk.

 Add android.hardware.wifi.xml
To claim Wi-Fi support for your device, please add the rule in the
PRODUCT_COPY_FILES variable to copy the permission definition file of Wi-Fi to
the /system/etc/permissions/ folder of your system image.

PRODUCT_COPY_FILES += \
frameworks/native/data/etc/android.hardware.wifi.xml:system/etc/permissions/android.hardware.
wifi.xml

 Add android.hardware.wifi.direct.xml
To claim Wi-Fi Direct (P2P) support for your device, please add the rule in the

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PRODUCT_COPY_FILES variable to copy the permission definition file of Wi-Fi
Direct to the /system/etc/permissions/ folder of your system image.

PRODUCT_COPY_FILES += \
frameworks/native/data/etc/android.hardware.wifi.direct.xml:system/etc/permissions/android.hard
ware.wifi.direct.xml

Make sure your driver is configured for STA+P2P concurrent mode or you may
encounter error when you open the Wi-Fi. Please refer to “5. Driver Configurations
for Android 5.x”

 Set wifi.interface
To specify the wifi interface name in Android, a system property named
“wifi.interface” is used. For Realtek Wi-Fi driver, Wi-Fi interface name is assigned
with “wlan%d”. In general, you should set wifi.interface as “wlan0”.

PRODUCT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES += \
wifi.interface=wlan0

 Include rtw_fwloader
To include rtw_fwloader in the system image, add rtw_fwloader into the
PRODUCT_PACKAGES variable.
ifeq ($(BOARD_WIFI_VENDOR), realtek)
PRODUCT_PACKAGES += rtw_fwloader
#endif

3. System Resource Configurations

You should set the following four resource configurations for your platform to
configure the network function and enable the corresponding UI interface. In general,
you can set the following configurations in your platform dependent config.xml file.
Take TI panda board for example:
ANDROID_SDK/device/ti/panda/overlay/frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/c
onfig.xml
Or the global config.xml file:
ANDROID_SDK/frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/config.xml

 networkAttributes
To define the system’s available network interfaces, make sure the wifi interface

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items is defined in the networkAttributes resource configuration in the config.xml.
For example:

<string-array translatable="false" name="networkAttributes">

<item>"wifi,1,1,1,-1,true"</item>
<item>"bluetooth,7,7,0,-1,true"</item>
<item>"ethernet,9,9,2,-1,true"</item>
</string-array>

 radioAttributes
To define the system’s available network interfaces, we need to define interface
items for wifi in the radioAttributes resource configuration. For example:

<string-array translatable="false" name="radioAttributes">

<item>"1,1"</item>
<item>"7,1"</item>
<item>"9,1"</item>
</string-array>

 config_tether_wifi_regexs
The interfaces set here are tetherable Wi-Fi interfaces which will be used as
interfaces for Wi-Fi LAN port. We use 'wlan0' by default when our Wi-Fi is set as
softap mode. So it needs to set 'wlan0' here. For example:

<string-array translatable="false" name="config_tether_wifi_regexs">

<item>"wlan0"</item>
</string-array>

 config_tether_upstream_types
The connection types set here are used as the interfaces for WAN port to connect
to internet. For example, adding Wi-Fi and Ethernet:

<integer-array translatable="false" name="config_tether_upstream_types">

<item>1</item>
<item>9</item>
</integer-array>

At least one item should be declared here to enable the “Tehtering & portable
hotspot” option of WirelessSettings in Settings.apk.

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 To know the definition and set other upstream connection types, please refer to
ANDROID_SDK/frameworks/base/core/java/android/net/ConnectivityManager.java.

 config_enableWifiDisplay
To enable Wi-Fi Display(Miracast) function, set config_enableWifiDisplay to
true:

<bool name="config_enableWifiDisplay">true</bool>

4. wpa_supplicant_8
We provide wpa_supplicant_8_L_5.x_rtw_r14967.20150811.tar.gz or newer
version in the wpa_supplicant_hostapd/ of our SW release package. You can:

 Use the wpa_supplicant_8_L_5.x_rtw instead of the original

1. Backup and remove the original external/wpa_supplcant_8/ folder
2. Extract and copy the wpa_supplicant_8_L_5.x_rtw tar file to the external/ folder
of your Android SDK.
3. Rename wpa_supplicant_8_L_5.x_rtw as wpa_supplicant_8.

※ We have enabled the two macros ANDROID_P2P and REALTEK_WIFI_VENDOR by default.

5. Driver Configurations for Android 5.x

Android 5.x support two scenarios for Wi-Fi solution:
 STA/AP – Switch between STA and AP mode
 (STA+P2P)/AP – Switch between STA+P2P concurrent and AP mode
The configuration of driver to fit the requirement of each scenario, see the
following table:
MACRO STA /AP (STA+P2P)/AP Kernel ver.
CONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211 Defined Defined ver. >= 2.6.35
RTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT Defined Defined ver. >= 3.2.0
CONFIG_RADIO_WORK Defined Defined -
CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE Undefined Defined -
RTW_ENABLE_WIFI_CONTROL_FUNC Defined for platform device/driver mechanism

 CONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211 is used for driver to enable cfg80211 ioctl

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interface, which is required by Realtek Wi-Fi to operate on Android 5.x system.

 RTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT is used for driver to indicate new

cfg80211 STA event, which is required by wpa_supplicant_8 of Android 5.x. Linux
kernel supports this feature after kernel 3.2. For kernel version between 3.0 and 3.2,
please refer to the patch file:
linux-3.0.42_STATION_INFO_ASSOC_REQ_IES.diff

CONFIG_RADIO_WORK is used for driver to fit ‘radio work’ mechanism of

Android 5.x’s wpa_supplicant_8. If this MACRO doesn’t exist in driver’s source code,
please contact with Realtek technical windows for suitable driver.

 CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE is used for driver to enable concurrent

mode, which is required by STA+P2P concurrent mode of Android 5.x.

 RTW_ENABLE_WIFI_CONTROL_FUNC is used to register platform driver

callbacks. If your platform needs those callbacks, please define this macro to register
platform driver callback functions. For example, these functions include:

static struct platform_driver wifi_device = {

.probe = wifi_probe,
.remove = wifi_remove,

By default, the probe callback is used to set up Wi-Fi power and remove callback
is used to close Wi-Fi power.

To compile Realtek Wi-Fi driver with the above setting, please refer to the
following document:
document/Quick_Start_Guide_for_Driver_Compilation_and_Installation.pdf
Adding platform selection and setting sections for compilation settings of your
platform.

For example, if you want to configure Realtek Wi-Fi driver for the
(STA+P2P)/AP scenario, make sure the macros: CONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211,
RTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT, CONFIG_RADIO_WORK and
CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE are defined into the EXTRA_CFLAGS settings
as following:

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 CONFIG_PLATFORM_ANDROID_L50_SAMPLE = y
…
…
…
ifeq ($(CONFIG_PLATFORM_ANDROID_L50_SAMPLE), y)
EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_LITTLE_ENDIAN
EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE
EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211 -DRTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT
EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_RADIO_WORK
ARCH := arm
CROSS_COMPILE := /toolchain/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-
KSRC := / android_sdk/android_l/ kernel
endif

6. FAQ
6.1. Wi-Fi (STA mode)
6.1.1. Why Wi-Fi can’t enable?
The whole Wi-Fi enabling procedure includes the following three main check
points. Please check in sequence:
 Is network interface(s) created?
 insmod driver success
 Wi-Fi device is recognized
 wlan0 (and p2p0) is created

 Does wpa_supplicant run successfully?

 wpa_supplicant.conf (and p2p_supplicant.conf) exists and is correct
 Service definition of wpa_supplicant exists and is correct
 Binary file wpa_supplicant exists and is executable

 Do connections of communication socket setup?

 Make sure the communication socket settings is matched below:
 ctrl_interface in:
/data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf
(and /data/misc/wifi/p2p_supplicant.conf)
 Service definition of wpa_supplicant
 Paths of communication socket in wifi.c

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6.2. Portable Wi-Fi hotspot (AP mode)
6.2.1. Why Portable Wi-Fi hotspot can’t enable?
The whole Portable Wi-Fi hotspot enabling procedure includes the following
three main check points. Please check in sequence:
 Is network interface created?
 insmod driver success
 Wi-Fi device is recognized
 wlan0 is created

 Does netd and hostapd run successfully?

 /data/misc/wifi/hostapd.conf exists and is correct
 Binary file netd and hostapd exist and are executable

 Does dnsmasq run successfully?

 Binary file dnsmasq exist and are executable

6.3. Wi-Fi Direct (P2P mode)

6.3.1. There is no Wi-Fi Direct UI shown?
Please refer to “Add android.hardware.wifi.direct.xml” in chapter 2.3. Others
to enable Wi-Fi Direct functionality of Android L.

6.3.2. Wi-Fi Direct can’t scan any peer?

First, make sure you have workable Wi-Fi Direct device nearby. Make them into
Wi-Fi Direct scanning state. Push “SEARCH FOR DEVICES” button also in our
device and wait for a while.
If there is still no peer shown the problem is usually caused by wrong service
definition of wpa_supplicant services. Please refer to “wpa_supplicant” in chapter
2.2. init.xxx.rc to check your service definition of wpa_supplicant.

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