Need list of firmware

[hamishcoleman]

In order to improve the way we are handling the firmware, I need to remove most of the firmware files that are currently installed. To ensure that we still have the firmware needed to support for all the expected hardware, I need to ensure some files are added in - but I dont have access to most (all?) of the required hardware to confirm the needed files.

We need to compile a list of supported hardware and the matching firmware.

@benhylau, @darkdrgn2k can you both add all the details you have for this?

#27 and #22 look like they might help

Current list of hardware I know about:

Bus	Driver	Description	Firmware file(s)
sdio	xradio	Orange Pi Zero Wifi	xr819/boot_xr819.bin xr819/device-xradio.mk xr819/fw_xr819.bin xr819/sdd_xr819.bin
sdio	brcmfmac	Raspberry Pi Wifi (probably different firmware for 3b+)	brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.bin brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin
usb	rt2800usb?	TOP-GS07 RT5572	rt2870.bin
usb	ath9k_htc	TL-WN722N V1	htc_9271.fw
usb	rtl8192cu?	Some new USB stick Ben has trialed

Still need exact firmware file names for most of those though.

Driver	Found in repo	Package	Notes
brcmfmac	raspbian debian/stretch	firmware-brcm80211
ath9k_htc	raspbian debian/stretch	firmware-atheros
rt2800usb?	raspbian/jessie	firmware-ralink	FIXME: This package is no longer present in raspbian/stretch
rt2800usb?	raspbian debian/stretch	firmware-misc-nonfree

[darkdrgn2k]

Ill start work on that however a repository of some information can be found here

Maybe i can include the firmware information in that repo as we test.

[benhylau]

I used rt2800usb ath9k_htc rtl8192cu

[hamishcoleman]

and what firmware files are needed by each of those?

[benhylau]

How do I check that?

[hamishcoleman]

• boot up a system
• rename the /lib/firmware dir to something else

repeat:

• insert the usb stick
• look at the output of dmesg for which firmware files it is trying to load
• rename only those files back into the correct /lib/firmware dir (and make note of them)
• re-insert the usb stick
• check to see if it is working.
• if not, repeat for whatever file it is asking for now
• it it is working, you now have a list of the required firmware

[darkdrgn2k]

Most of my unique dongles are scattered into the wind at the moment as i been brining the TP 722s for the workshop

But the two main ones are

TL-WN722N V1
ath9k_htc
htc_9271.fw

Toplinkst TOP-GS07
rt2800usb
rt2870.bin

I think the new chinees one is the same as the topink but i can only test it on a orange pi.

[benhylau]

I tried those two @darkdrgn2k posted and have the same results. Also, I tried the new TOP-4M02 and it uses the same file as the TOP-GS07.

I do not have the one that is rtl8192cu anymore. It was borrowed from the library and worked very poorly so we ended up returning it.

[hamishcoleman]

The firmware package updates needed to support the rpi3b+ mean that the ralink firmware is no longer available - this needs some work to address.

[hamishcoleman]

raspbian jessie contains the ralink files in the firmware-misc-nonfree package, however this is a rather large package.

This simply increases the need to rework the firmware Makefiles to allow easily defining which firmware files to include