WiFi support for ESP32

[zephyrbot]

Reported by Leandro Pereira:

WiFi support requires binary blobs that currently assumes it's running on FreeRTOS. Figure out a way to use them on Zephyr.

(Imported from Jira ZEP-2288)

[locomuco]

for anybody who's interested, here is a application that can compile the ESP wifi lib against zephyr, but still quite a long way to go getting wifi running

[galak]

Adding reference to the #10539

[lpereira]

@galak #10539 is unrelated to @locomuco's application -- ESP8266 in that PR is being used as an external chip, running its stock firmware, rather than running Zephyr and driving the radio itself.

[mchodzikiewicz]

Hi, it's been a while... are there any updates on this?

[MarcDorner]

Hi, is there any update on the topic or further information how the status is?

[Skallwar]

There was some code to do this back when I was working on it, and some people actually made it work, but I don't know what's the status of it

Are we talking of this PR ?

[lpereira]

That seems to be it, yeah. Once this is working -- you probably want to add ESP32 support in mcuboot, too, to act as the second stage bootloader -- it should be trivial to hook up the ESP32 WiFi blob with Zephyr's network stack, IIRC. With some work it should be possible to deconstruct the static library and write shims to use the crypto API (and select which crypto implementation to use).

…

On Tue, Jun 30, 2020, 08:21 Esteban Blanc ***@***.***> wrote: There was some code to do this back when I was working on it, and some people actually made it work, but I don't know what's the status of it Are we talking of this PR <#8783> ? — You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3723 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAADVGNBYZWFTSOWVGAIW3TRZH7H5ANCNFSM4GAZ4YIA> .

[Skallwar]

That seems to be it, yeah.

Any idea why this has never been merged ?

Once this is working -- you probably want to add ESP32 support in mcuboot, too, to act as the second stage bootloader

The esp-idf bootloader is not sufficient ?

it should be trivial to hook up the ESP32 WiFi blob with Zephyr's network stack, IIRC.

Is it really a blob ? From what I see here it looks like no, but you maybe referring to something else ?

[lpereira]

The ESP-IDF bootloader could be used as a starting point, yes, but I think that the ideal situation for Zephyr would be using mcuboot so that the Zephyr tooling could be used.

You have to link with the blobs provided in https://github.com/espressif/esp32-wifi-lib (the "lib" directory is a git submodule pointing to this repo).

[locomuco]

@Skallwar

https://github.com/locomuco/zephyr-esp32

this was the follow up to the previously mentioned PR, it was able to enable flash cache and link in the Wifi Blob, it's outdated, but might give good hints in the single commits

[Skallwar]

The ESP-IDF bootloader could be used as a starting point, yes

I can not boot the hello world example with it, the boot is stuck at boot: Disabling RNG early entropy source... after loading the app. Beside on larger project, the app contains too much segments (here, segment = elf section) and the app will not be loaded.

I will maybe try to work on mcuboot

[mahavirj]

Update:

Feature branch that has functional networking (WiFi) on ESP32 can be found here.

Technical details:

• This is still based on 2nd stage bootloader from ESP-IDF which does required flash cache setup for XIP enabled application
• This feature branch has appropriate west manifest file to pick up correct base ESP-IDF repository (based on v4.2 version)
• Toolchain should be based on revision xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc (crosstool-NG esp-2020r2) 8.2.0
• All networking application should be functional, just that prj.conf should be added with credentials for WiFi network using CONFIG_WIFI_SSID="myssid" and CONFIG_WIFI_PASSWORD="mypassword"

Official PR (from Espressif) will still take some time but interim please feel free to give this a try and report any issues or feedback.

CC @ExtremeGTX @Skallwar @GautierAtWork

[lpereira]

Great job, Mahavir!

…

On Thu, Sep 24, 2020, 02:38 Mahavir Jain ***@***.***> wrote: Update: Feature branch that has functional networking (WiFi) on ESP32 can be found here <https://github.com/mahavirj/zephyr/tree/feature/esp32_networking_support_on_zephyr_v2.4.0-rc1> . Technical details: - This is still based on 2nd stage bootloader from ESP-IDF which does required flash cache setup for XIP enabled application - This feature branch has appropriate west manifest file to pick up correct base ESP-IDF repository (based on v4.2 version) - Toolchain should be based on revision xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc (crosstool-NG esp-2020r2) 8.2.0 - All networking application should be functional, just that prj.conf should be added with credentials for WiFi network using CONFIG_WIFI_SSID="myssid" and CONFIG_WIFI_PASSWORD="mypassword" Official PR (from Espressif) will still take some time but interim please feel free to give this a try and report any issues or feedback. CC @ExtremeGTX <https://github.com/ExtremeGTX> @Skallwar <https://github.com/Skallwar> @GautierAtWork <https://github.com/GautierAtWork> — You are receiving this because you were assigned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3723 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAADVGIOLMICXZXAW6FR7BLSHMHQFANCNFSM4GAZ4YIA> .

[chrta]

@mahavirj I tried to test your branch but failed, because the path to the source files in https://github.com/mahavirj/zephyr/blob/feature/esp32_networking_support_on_zephyr_v2.4.0-rc1/drivers/wifi/esp32/CMakeLists.txt#L69 did not match the correct paths in my esp-idf module (I used west and one manual git submodule update --init in esp-idf module). Maybe i did something wrong.
Could you describe the steps necessary to test your branch (especially how to get the correct esp-idf and what variables to set)?

[mahavirj]

@chrta

Could you describe the steps necessary to test your branch (especially how to get the correct esp-idf and what variables to set)?

Please find instructions here. Let me know if you face any issues.

[chrta]

Please find instructions here. Let me know if you face any issues.

Great, thank you. Now i could proceed a little bit further. My previous error was that i used the wrong hal (the old one not named espressif).
Now i am facing the next issue with the python modules that are required (when i execute "west build"). I am using Ubuntu 20.04 and the build step fails because the necessary python modules are not installed. I try to install them from the requirements.txt file from the hal, but that did not work either.
Can you add instructions how to install the required python modules, or what venv to use when executing the "west build" step?

Maybe you can enable the issues in your github fork and we can continue the discussion there? I do not want to spam this issue too much.

[mahavirj]

Maybe you can enable the issues in your github fork and we can continue the discussion there?

Done. I have also reached out you on slack channel, in case that is faster.

[chrta]

Just for reference: It works now, after fixing some python issues on my pc and applying espressif/esp-idf@96cfdf3 to esp-idf. Thank you @mahavirj for your support.

[timdesi]

@mahavirj i could confirm that WiFi on ESP32 works with your branch. Thx.

[vtothsvk]

Hi @mahavirj
I was trying out the WiFi support for ESP32 and encountered the following issue: each time I build an app and try to flash it I get an error pointing that no bootloader.bin is present in the build (also no partitions file is generated as well). Tried the CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_ESP_IDF=y option as well, still no bootloader was built.
Opened an issue on your repo as well about it.

[ExtremeGTX]

@vtothsvk I have this issue also on Windows 10, but you can use Linux for now if you want to try the wifi support.
I will try to find a fix for this issue.

[mahavirj]

@ExtremeGTX FYI, fix for this is available here. We will ensure that this is part of PR for WiFi support on ESP32.

[beriberikix]

@mahavirj thanks for the updates! Is there an official PR yet for us to follow?

[mahavirj]

@beriberikix Sorry for delayed reply, baseline PR is here #30424. Subsequent work will be based on this, it is waiting on more approvals and final merge.

[Nithyasrikannathal]

Please find instructions here. Let me know if you face any issues.

Great, thank you. Now i could proceed a little bit further. My previous error was that i used the wrong hal (the old one not named espressif). Now i am facing the next issue with the python modules that are required (when i execute "west build"). I am using Ubuntu 20.04 and the build step fails because the necessary python modules are not installed. I try to install them from the requirements.txt file from the hal, but that did not work either. Can you add instructions how to install the required python modules, or what venv to use when executing the "west build" step?

Maybe you can enable the issues in your github fork and we can continue the discussion there? I do not want to spam this issue too much.

how did you resolve the python isuue?

[Nithyasrikannathal]

@chrta

Could you describe the steps necessary to test your branch (especially how to get the correct esp-idf and what variables to set)?

Please find instructions here. Let me know if you face any issues.

I am facing a new issue which says that " C:/Users/NFI2KOR/zephyr3wifi/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_timer/src/esp_timer_impl_frc_legacy.c:141:1: error: unknown type name 'portMUX_TYPE'
portMUX_TYPE s_time_update_lock = portMUX_INITIALIZER_UNLOCKED;
^~~~~~~~~~~~
C:/Users/NFI2KOR/zephyr3wifi/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_timer/src/esp_timer_impl_frc_legacy.c:141:35: error: 'portMUX_INITIALIZER_UNLOCKED' undeclared here (not in a function)
portMUX_TYPE s_time_update_lock = portMUX_INITIALIZER_UNLOCKED;
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"
I gave west update . It gave error
" updating hal_espressif (modules/hal/espressif):
--- hal_espressif: fetching, need revision master"
fatal: couldn't find remote ref master
HEAD is now at 143df6755 CMakeLists.txt: make BL2 configurable
ERROR: update failed for project hal_espressif

Initially when i got this error i just cloned the https://github.com/mahavirj/hal_espressif inside the espressif folder. but i guess there is a issue

[WilliamGFish]

@Nithyasrikannathal
You may find that if you refresh the repo the issue goes away, there has been a number of changes in the Wi-Fi area.
Billy..

[Nithyasrikannathal]

@Nithyasrikannathal You may find that if you refresh the repo the issue goes away, there has been a number of changes in the Wi-Fi area. Billy..

Thanks for the reply. Can you please link the changes made or the updated thing? ?

[WilliamGFish]

@Nithyasrikannathal You may find that if you refresh the repo the issue goes away, there has been a number of changes in the Wi-Fi area. Billy..

Thanks for the reply. Can you please link the changes made or the updated thing? ?

If you look at the recently closed pull requests re wifi; you will see a number of changes to the shell which has had a knock on effect with many wifi drivers.