[XR819] How to add the WiFi driver to LibreELEC

    Hello,

    I am currently using LibreELEC with my device connected to a WiFi repeater through Ethernet. This setup works, but I would like to remove the repeater so it doesn’t have to stay powered on all the time.

    My device has an XR819 WiFi chip, and I would like to enable it directly in LibreELEC.

    Could someone please explain how I can add support for the XR819 driver?

    • Do I need to rebuild LibreELEC from source and enable this driver in the kernel?
    • Is there an external driver or patch available that can be included in the build system?
    • Are there any existing builds or guides I can follow as a reference?

    Any instructions, tips, or links would be very helpful.

    Thank you!

    There is no upstream driver and no current attempt to author an upstreamable driver that I can see.

    This appears to be the most widely used driver source that I can see: https://github.com/fifteenhex/xradio and this probably makes it the 'least worst' to use (the repo README is honest). This chipset has quite a reputation for being rubbish once you start looking-for and finding information on it.

    LE has zero interest in adding out-of-tree drivers with no upstream plan to the buildsystem, but a self-built image can probably be done. I spotted some notes here: RE: How helpful will this be to getting LibreELEC on allwinner android boxes? and the zip file posted there contains some examples of the kernel device-tree changes that would be needed alongside the kernel driver itself. There are other threads that mention XR819 but they look to be mostly users asking for drivers and being told that it's not supported.

    Unless you like the development challenge (with the likelihood of a poor experience outcome even if successful) I'd probably just get myself a USB wifi dongle or a USB-powered Ethernet/WiFi bridge dongle and not go down the self-built image route.

    If you do, the Realtek out-of-tree drivers found in older LE images (LE11 for example) are probably a good starting point for cribbing the format for a simple buildsystem package that compiles the driver.

    Da Flex that's not an appropriate comment/rebuke because XR819 is an Allwinner own-brand WiFi chip found on some older Allwinner boards. The specific device/OEM is irrelevant due to the not-supported state of the chip.

    Quote from chewitt

    Da Flex that's not an appropriate comment/rebuke because XR819 is an Allwinner own-brand WiFi chip found on some older Allwinner boards. The specific device/OEM is irrelevant due to the not-supported state of the chip.

    It's relevant for users, who don't know, which chips they have inside of their devices. Many of them only know the device name.