bes2600 driver

[mshelby]

Hoping someone here can aggregate the info on the bes2600 wifi/bluetooth driver in development and offer a step by step set of instructions to at the very least, download the  from gitlab and get it compiled. Currently, as of kernel version 6.4.2 it does not build using 'make.'

There is some info about applying a patch, but the info is presented in such a way that the newbie (who just bought the device and wants to download a driver) could do it.

a note for the Devs: please provide setup and install info of the driver that is free from insider jargon and assumptions. Yes, I know it is a development release tablet, but that doesn't mean that everyone knows how to patch a file (what file?) to get a kernel module to build with make.

[gregb49]

Agreed. That would be so helpful.

[diederik]

a note for the Devs: please provide setup and install info of the driver that is free from insider jargon and assumptions.

There are none because it's nowhere near ready for use by anyone.
When it is ready then there will be instructions on how to use it.

The driver is MONTHS away from being useful and all this nagging is only going to delay it even further.
On top of that, it's annoying and demotivating. So just stop it.

[dachalife]

Don’t let the whiners get to you; they’re just kids with the “I want it working NOW!!” mentality.

It’s better to have good, solid & well documented code that you can be proud of, rather than rushed garbage, that others have to fix/modify to make functional; a small company would never recover from that, as their reputation would be tarnished.

I believe most of the developers who received the PineTab2 are very happy with it “as is” and are not really concerned about WIFI/Bluetooth, as we have other things to concentrate on.

[zoward]

Don’t let the whiners get to you; they’re just kids with the “I want it working NOW!!” mentality.

It’s better to have good, solid & well documented code that you can be proud of, rather than rushed garbage, that others have to fix/modify to make functional; a small company would never recover from that, as their reputation would be tarnished.

I believe most of the developers who received the PineTab2 are very happy with it “as is” and are not really concerned about WIFI/Bluetooth, as we have other things to concentrate on.

I'll second this.  You can get a capable linux-compatible USB dongle the size of a fingernail for $20 on Amazon, and Wi-Fi becomes a solved problem for the time being.  I'm very grateful to the devs who've forgotten more than I know about device driver development that are taking the time to work on this.
Cheers,
Zoward

[frtodd]

The PineTab was described clearly as a developer machine with important bits not working yet on the ordering website. I know it was inevitable that some people would buy it expecting something different. I've been waiting years for a Linux tablet! To be fair, though I've played with it, I'm waiting hopefully for working WiFi before I spend a lot more time with it.

If the OP is just looking to get that driver running, well, when it's ready, the update is (most likely) going to be quick and easy. And I bet the announcement about how to do it will be loud & clear on this forum and on the wiki. You won't get left behind.

On the other hand, in the OP's message, I heard a bit of my teenage self. A lot of time, not a lot of experience. Maybe they want to contribute some of that time to the PineTab project and hopes to help things along!

"Anybody can code" is (mostly) true; but the level upon level of expertise it takes to write good software is something different. And kernel modules that interact with actual hardware? I am amazed by those who have gotten that far. It's like the final boss on a massively multiplayer game into which you have invested YEARS of learning and playing and building a guild.

So for mshelby and others who may be asking because you want to help: definitely jump in and start learning. But if you want to contribute to PineTab's hardware driver development, there are going to be *lots* of underlying skills needed. Some of those are programming. Even more of those are the meta-skills that are critical to programming, like asking the right questions and learning where and of whom (and sometimes even when) to ask in order to get the answer you need.

Learning about building a development environment (or how to apply patch files) is not a PineTab-specific question. This is not the right forum to ask those. One of the skills you're going to need if you want to work on kernel drivers is the skill of starting with a search engine and figuring out all the prerequisites. Like how to patch files. Or like what the jargon means. (The jargon isn't meant to keep you out; it's simply a way to short-cut a lot of ideas that can be assumed by dev's who have put in the time to learn their craft. Unknown jargon might, again, be the hint you need to figure out what you need to learn.)

If learning all that is not what you're after, no problem. There are other kind souls doing that hard work. And you know they will proudly share their results with us as soon as they believe they can do so without damaging our machines or losing our data.

We live in a magical time when generally all the software you need for most computing tasks (and an endless flow of flashy frivolities) is available for free. I'm grateful to the PineTab dev's who DONATE tons of time to provide for us fancy toys and tools (free of Apple & Google!). Thank you!

[mshelby]

Thanks for the replies. I am seeking to help. I do have limited time, just like most here!

So I want to make the best use of my limited time.
I figured I could 'test and provide feedback.'

But,

1. There really doesn't seem to be any kind of coordinated feedback structure set up. Not for testing and development, at least. There are the Matrix channels, and this forum so I figured I'd place feedback here or there.

2. I can't really test the hardware because I can't install the driver.
2a. I can't get the driver to build (make) and there are no clear instructions on how to do that. I realize the bes2600 driver is NOT PINE64 so it is NOT their driver. It is an independent project. But the build info on that page is very poor as well. Still, I will confine my questions to the gitlab page for the bes2600 driver.

3. I posted my question in the forum: "pine64/pinetab/hardware" So I thought this might be the place where the "pine64" community enthusiastic about the "pinetab" might welcome questions or feedback about the "hardware" on same.

[FortunateFowl]

I feel like the original request of getting step by step instructions on building the driver is quite reasonable. I am not sure why there wasn't a straightforward answer given.

Yes the replies above are correct, it appears it isn't ready for deployment, and you probably shouldn't try to build it in order to get wifi on your tablet. However, that is no reason to not answer how to build it to see for yourself.

First step, you'll need the tools to make and compile, as well as the kernel headers to compile against.

Code:

$ sudo pacman -S make gcc linux-pinetab2-headers

Then git cloning to get the current module code.
 

Code:

$ git clone 'https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600'

Then try to make the module, I am not sure it will even compile at this point however.

[spenk]

I feel like the original request of getting step by step instructions on building the driver is quite reasonable. I am not sure why there wasn't a straightforward answer given.

Yes the replies above are correct, it appears it isn't ready for deployment, and you probably shouldn't try to build it in order to get wifi on your tablet. However, that is no reason to not answer how to build it to see for yourself.

First step, you'll need the tools to make and compile, as well as the kernel headers to compile against.

Code:

$ sudo pacman -S make gcc linux-pinetab2-headers

Then git cloning to get the current module code.
 

Code:

$ git clone 'https://gitlab.com/TuxThePenguin0/bes2600'

Then try to make the module, I am not sure it will even compile at this point however.

thanks.
I tried on mobian. After git clone I did make then insmod bes2600.ko . I received error:
insmod: ERROR: could not insert module bes2600.ko: Unknown symbol in module

[arjan1995]

I've created a more in-depth guide how you can get the bes2600 driver working right now.

Be aware: this is difficult and unstable (do this at your OWN RISK!). It will take quite some time. You have been warned!

Since the content is subject to change, I'm not placing the full instructions here directly, but instead, I'd suggest reading them in the repo itself:

https://gitlab.com/arjanvlek/bes2600/-/b...ds&plain=0

Feel free to let know if it worked!