Realtek Wi-Fi SDK for Android P 9.

x
ver. 1.0.4

Contents

Contents............................................................................................................................1
Release History.................................................................................................................2
SDK packages...................................................................................................................3
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..........................................................................11
4. wpa_supplicant_8...................................................................................................13
5. Driver Configurations for Android 9.x................................................................13
5.1 CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID..........................................................................16
6. FAQ.........................................................................................................................17
6.1. Wi-Fi (STA mode).........................................................................................17
6.2. Portable Wi-Fi hotspot (AP mode)..............................................................18
6.3. Wi-Fi Direct (P2P mode).................................................................................18

1
Release History

1.0.0 2018/08/23 1. First formal release

1.0.1 2018/10/01 1. Modify wpa_supplicant service definition
1.0.2 2019/8/7 1. CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID in Makefile
1.0.3 2019/08/29 1. Adding supplicant overlay config files section
1.0.4 2019/12/12 1. supplicant_overlay_config will be stored in separate folder

2
SDK packages

 hardware/realtek/*
Folder to store private code from Realtek.
 supplicant_overlay_configs/*
Folder to store supplicant overlay config files
Introduction

This document provides a simple guide to help engineers to apply Realtek Wi-Fi
solution onto their Android P 9.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 9.x platform, you can go through the
following guide with reference codes within our driver package's
realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_P_9.x_20190827.tar.gz.

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.

3
1. Copy Necessary Files into SDK

After unzipping realtek_wifi_SDK_for_android_P_9.x_20190827.tar.gz, copy the

following:
 folder hardware/realtek into ANDROID_SDK/hardware/folder
After unzipping supplicant_overlay_config.tar.gz, copy the following:
 files in folder supplicant_overlay_config into
$ANDROID_SDK/devices/$vendor/$target. Please refer to Chapter 2.3. Others -
Supplicant_overlay config file for further details

2. Platform Related Files

2.1 BoardConfig.mk

To apply Realtek Wi-Fi solution onto your Android 9.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 Hikey board for example:
ANDROID_SDK/device/linaro/hikey/BoardConfigCommon.mk

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 := realtek
endif

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 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
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
In Android 9.x, BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE is used to choose which vendor wifi_hal
should be applied. You have to set BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE := realtek to use
realtek’s wifi_hal.

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2.2 init.xxx.rc
For Wi-Fi to operate properly, we need some actions and 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 Hikey board for example:
ANDROID_SDK/linaro/hikey /init.common.rc

Please add the service definitions below:

 mkdir for wpa_supplicant and copy config file
Please make sure the directories used by the Wireless and related
wpa_supplicant config filess will be created and copied in init rc.
on zygote-start
# Create the directories used by the Wireless subsystem
# Copy wpa_supplicant config files to related dir
mkdir /data/misc/wifi 0770 wifi wifi
mkdir /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant 0770 wifi wifi
mkdir /data/vendor/wifi 0771 wifi wifi
mkdir /data/vendor/wifi/wpa 0770 wifi wifi
mkdir /data/vendor/wifi/wpa/sockets 0770 wifi wifi
mkdir /data/misc/dhcp 0770 dhcp dhcp
chown dhcp dhcp /data/misc/dhcp

 insmod
Please select one of action definitions below according to your requirement.
Meanwhile, please make sure your wlan.ko has right seclabel and mode as

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root u:object_r:vendor_file:s0 3429448 1970-01-01 00:19 wlan.ko

You can use command “ls -alZ” to check seclabel of wlan.ko.

(For concurrent mode)

on boot

exec u:r:vendor_modprobe:s0 root root -- /vendor/bin/toybox_vendor insmod

/vendor/modules/wlan.ko ifname=wlan0 if2name=p2p0

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 (For STA only)

on boot

exec u:r:vendor_modprobe:s0 root root -- /vendor/bin/toybox_vendor insmod

/vendor/modules/wlan.ko ifname=wlan0

 wpa_supplicant
Please define wpa_supplicant service as below.

service wpa_supplicant /vendor/bin/hw/wpa_supplicant \

-O/data/vendor/wifi/wpa/sockets \
-g@android:wpa_wlan0
# we will start as root and wpa_supplicant will switch to user wifi
# after setting up the capabilities required for WEXT
# user wifi
# group wifi inet keystore
interface [email protected]::ISupplicant default
interface [email protected]::ISupplicant default
class main
socket wpa_wlan0 dgram 660 wifi wifi
disabled
oneshot

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2.3 Others

For topics mentioned here, you can add the following code segments in any .mk
file which your platform will use. Take Hikey board for example:
ANDROID_SDK /device/linaro/hikey/device-common.mk.

 Add wifi related packages

These packages are needed for Wifi support in Android P, please make sure these
packages are added in .mk
PRODUCT_PACKAGES += \
libwpa_client wpa_supplicant hostapd wificond wifilogd wpa_supplicant.conf
hostapd.conf libwifi-hal [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]
service [email protected] [email protected]
service

 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
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.hardware.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
9.x”

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 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

 Set wifi.direct.interface
If you require p2p support, you have to set wifi.direct.interface as “p2p0”

PRODUCT_PROPERTY_OVERRIDES += \
wifi.direct.interface=p2p0

 Toybox_vendor
In android 9.x, we need toybox_vendor to insmod. If you do not set the config in
device.mk
PRODUCT_SHIPPING_API_LEVEL := 26

You should modify $ANDROID_SDK/external/toybox/Android.mk as below to build

toybox_vendor

#ifeq ($(PRODUCT_FULL_TREBLE),true)
############################################
# static version to be installed in /vendor
#
….
LOCAL_MODULE := toybox_vendor
….
include $(BUILD_EXECUTABLE)
#endif

 wifi_hal
To support wifi_hal, you have to patch
$ANDROID_SDK/frameworks/opt/net/wifi/libwifi_hal/Android.mk as below.

# Pick a vendor provided HAL implementation library.

# ============================================================
LIB_WIFI_HAL := libwifi-hal-fallback
….
else ifeq ($(BOARD_WLAN_DEVICE), realtek)
# support RTK WIFI HAL
LIB_WIFI_HAL := libwifi-hal-rtk
endif
….

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 Device manifest file
The Device manifest file is provided by the device. It lives in the Android source tree at
device/${VENDOR}/${DEVICE}/manifest.xml and on the device at
/vendor/manifest.xml

RTK wifi needs Iwifi , ISupplicant and IHostapd. Please check device/${VENDOR}/$
{DEVICE}/manifest.xml,
It should have IWifi and ISupplicant description as below.

<hal format="hidl">
<name>android.hardware.wifi</name>
<transport>hwbinder</transport>
<version>1.2</version>
<interface>
<name>IWifi</name>
<instance>default</instance>
</interface>
</hal>
<hal format="hidl">
<name>android.hardware.wifi.supplicant</name>
<transport>hwbinder</transport>
<version>1.1</version>
<interface>
<name>ISupplicant</name>
<instance>default</instance>
.
</interface>
</hal>
<hal format="hidl">
<name>android.hardware.wifi.hostapd</name>
<transport>hwbinder</transport>
<version>1.0</version>
<interface>
<name>IHostapd</name>
<instance>default</instance>
</interface>
</hal>

 Supplicant_overlay config file

After “1. Copy Necessary Files into SDK.” accomplished, you should find out
wpa_supplicant_overlay.conf and p2p_supplicant_overlay.conf in folder
$ANDROID_SDK/devices/${VENDOR}/${TARGET}.
Please modify $ANDROID_SDK/devices/${VENDOR}/${TARGET}/BoardConfig.mk
as below.

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 PRODUCT_COPY_FILES += device/${VENDOR}/$
{TARGET}/wpa_supplicant_overlay.conf:$(TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR)/etc/wifi/
wpa_supplicant_overlay.conf
PRODUCT_COPY_FILES += device/${VENDOR}/$
{TARGET}/p2p_supplicant_overlay.conf:$(TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR)/etc/wifi/
p2p_supplicant_overlay.conf

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 Hikey board for example:
ANDROID_SDK/device/linaro/hikey/overlay/frameworks/base/core/res/res/
values/config.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
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>

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 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.

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>

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 4. wpa_supplicant_8

We provide wpa_supplicant_8_P_9.x_rtw_r29226.20180827.tar.gz or newer

version in the wpa_supplicant_hostapd/ of our SW release package. You can:

 Use the wpa_supplicant_8_P_9.x_rtw_xxxx instead of the original

1. Backup and remove the original external/wpa_supplcant_8/ folder
2. Extract and copy the wpa_supplicant_8_P_9.x _rtw_xxxx tar file to the external/
folder of your Android SDK.
3. Rename wpa_supplicant_8_P_9.x _rtx_xxxx as wpa_supplicant_8.

5. Driver Configurations for Android 9.x

Android 9.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_RTW_WIFI_HAL Defined if android version >= 8.x ver. >= 3.18
&& rtk driver ver <= 5.8
CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID Must set this when rtk driver ver >= v5.9,
please refer to section 5.1

 CONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211 is used for driver to enable cfg80211 ioctl interface,

which is required by Realtek Wi-Fi to operate on Android 9.x system.

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 RTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT is used for driver to indicate new
cfg80211 STA event, which is required by wpa_supplicant_8 of Android 9.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 9’s wpa_supplicant_8. If this MACRO doesn’t exist in driver’s source
code, please contact with Realtek technical windows for suitable driver.
If you use rtk driver ver. >= v5.9, you do not need to set this compile flag.
Instead, you have to set CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID according to section “5.1
CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID”

 CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE is used for driver to enable concurrent

mode, which is required by STA+P2P concurrent mode of Android 9.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_M60_SAMPLE = y
…
…
…
ifeq ($(CONFIG_PLATFORM_ANDROID_ML0_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

 CONFIG_RTW_WIFI_HAL is defined if android version is >= 8.x :

For supporting Android version >= 8.x, make sure CONFIG_RTW_WIFI_HAL is set to
“y” in Makefile as follows,
…
CONFIG_RTW_WIFI_HAL = y
…

If you use rtk driver ver. >= v5.9, you do not need to set this compile flag.
Instead, you have to set CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID according to section “5.1
CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID”

According to Google’s suggestion, you must use kernel 3.18 or newer.

For more detail, you can refer
https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/kernel/modular-kernels

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5.1 CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID

From Wifi driver version 5.9, a new setting CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID is added in

Makefile, We can set CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID with the Android version in Makefile.
e.g. CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID = 9

Please note that we must set CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID with correct Android version
from wifi driver version 5.9, otherwise there will be problem in wifi driver for Android.
And the default value of CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID is 0, which means the driver is for
pure linux, not Android.

( CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID=4 means Android 4.4 )

Example in Makefile:

########################## Android ###########################

# CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID - 0: no Android, 4/5/6/7/8/9/10 : Android version
CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID = 9

ifeq ($(shell test $(CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID) -gt 0; echo $$?), 0)

EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_RTW_ANDROID=$(CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID)
endif

Then most of the settings mentioned above are set automatically by Android version
(CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID) in drv_conf.h, and we don’t need to write these setting in
Makefile; Except CONFIG_CONCURRENT_MODE and
RTW_ENABLE_WIFI_CONTROL_FUNC still need to be set manually, depends on the
platforms in Makefile as above as before.
drv_conf.h

#define CONFIG_IOCTL_CFG80211

#define RTW_USE_CFG80211_STA_EVENT

#if (CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID > 4)

#ifndef CONFIG_RADIO_WORK
#define CONFIG_RADIO_WORK
#endif
#endif

#if (CONFIG_RTW_ANDROID >= 8)

#if (LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(3,18,0))
#ifndef CONFIG_RTW_WIFI_HAL
#define CONFIG_RTW_WIFI_HAL
#endif
#else
#error "Linux kernel version is too old\n"
#endif
#endif

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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 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 P.

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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