Backporting mac80211 and mt76 drivers to 17.01.4

For Developers
1

Hi,

I'm trying to have the newest version of Mt76 and mac80211 running on 17.01.4. Because as you know older version of this driver are very buggy and unstable.

I'm copying the feeds from those two from trunk. Unfortunately I get errors from mac80211, that I'm unable to understand.

make[2]: Entering directory '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/feeds/base/package/kernel/mac80211'
Makefile:690: warning: overriding recipe for target '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/dl/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2'
Makefile:390: warning: ignoring old recipe for target '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/dl/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2'
rm -f /home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/staging_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/stamp/.mac80211_installed
cmp /home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/backports-2017-11-01/include/linux/ath9k_platform.h /home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/linux-4.4.92/include/linux/ath9k_platform.h
/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/backports-2017-11-01/include/linux/ath9k_platform.h /home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/linux-4.4.92/include/linux/ath9k_platform.h differ: char 1483, line 52
Makefile:1834: recipe for target '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/backports-2017-11-01/.configured_yynynnnnnynnnnnynnnynnnynnnnnnnynnnynnnyyynnnyynnnnnnnyynyynnnnnnnnnnyynnynnyyyyynnnnnnnnnnyyynyn' failed
make[2]: *** [/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl-1.1.16/linux-ramips_mt7628/backports-2017-11-01/.configured_yynynnnnnynnnnnynnnynnnynnnnnnnynnnynnnyyynnnyynnnnnnnyynyynnnnnnnnnnyynnynnyyyyynnnnnnnnnnyyynyn] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/feeds/base/package/kernel/mac80211'
package/Makefile:105: recipe for target 'package/feeds/base/mac80211/compile' failed
make[1]: *** [package/feeds/base/mac80211/compile] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64'
/home/pparent/code/lede/lede-sdk-17.01.4-ramips-mt7628_gcc-5.4.0_musl-1.1.16.Linux-x86_64/include/toplevel.mk:191: recipe for target 'package/mac80211/compile' failed
make: *** [package/mac80211/compile] Error 2

Any advice/help?

2

Any reason to not use snapshot instead of 17.01.4?

3

Snapshot constantly change kernel version. When you have custom built modules, you have to rebuild them every time the kernel it updated. Also an image compiled from trunk looses compatibility with opkg package, after a few weeks. Finally when compiling an image with image-builder at two different times, you get two different results. It cannot be used for a stable production firmware.

4

There is decent amount of patches that are tied to kernel version in order to compile mt76 and mac80211,so backporting those can be tricky.

I see that you are targeting MT7628, if you plan to use built-in radio you will be disappointed even with the latest version.
MT7628 has not really seen development.

5

Ok thanks. I will think about it.