SDK issues (SDK reverted from pre3 to 2.2.1)

[d-a-v]

This issue keeps track of underlying espressif SDK questions

Current SDK in master branch is nonos-sdk-2.2.1, as shipped in core-2.4.2.

This espressif nonos-sdk 2.2.1 has a WiFi sleep bug (ref: #2330) which is partly solved with a pre-version of espressif nonos-sdk-v3. Workarounds exist with this issue, like regularly sending gratuitous ARP.

The unofficial nonos-sdk-pre-v3.0.0 espressif firmware shipped with arduino-core 2.5.0 has two issues that leaded us to revert back to 2.2.1:

• Some boards show erratic behavior (radio connection is quickly lost), with an unknown cause.
  These boards work well with previous nonos-sdk-2.2.1 firmware (ESP8266WebServer hangs after updating to 2.5.0 #5736)
• Overall performances have decreased ([core 2.5.0] Loop Count much lower than with 2.4.2 #5513)

Why not migrating to official nonos-sdk-v3 now ?

• arduino core uses unofficial hacks and API with nonos-sdk.
  These hacks currently do not work with latest versions (v3.0.0+) of this sdk.
• nonos sdk is claimed to be EOL by Espressif, meaning that we can never officially ask for feature support like full WPA2-Enterprise (rtos, nonos) (refs: 1 2)
• Migrating to RTOS-SDK is being under serious consideration
  disclaimer: not saying that esp8266 arduino-core will be RTOS - we can always run in a single task / single stack while being run by an RTOS (I personally think this is also the nonos-sdk model) - That, because we are short in main RAM

[FWdeveloper]

I am looking for WPA2-Enterprise implementation for Arduino. As I understand from the initial comment:

• nonos SDK does not have a full WPA2-Enterprise support (and there is no plan to implement it).
• RTOS SDK can fully support WPA2-Enterprise but it will take a significant effort and time to migrate to Arduino platform.

If so, is it possible to provide the rough estimates about RTOS SDK availability on Arduino?

[devyte]

@FWdeveloper correct: nonos sdk doesn't ahve full WPA2-E support. And not correct: FreeRTOS sdk also has incomplete WPA2-E support. I understand a first version is expected in FreeRTOS SDK v3.2, but that was a comment from some time ago, and current status could be different.
About rough estimate for migration of our core to FreeRTOS sdk, it's too early even for a rough estimate. I would like to do a full migration, and the underlying architectures and build systems are far too different for a quick solution, so it will take a long time. I can say full migration will likely take longer than a year.

[FWdeveloper]

@devyte Thank you for your comment. A year is a long story :(

What I am thinking can do in this case:

• Is it possible to provide wpa2_enterprise.h API source code for development/fixing? So I will try to run it on my own.
• Is there any open source client side implementation of WPA-2 Enterprise? - to integrate it to the existing Arduino framework.

[devyte]

@FWdeveloper the .h is not enough, it's just the declarations. The definitions and other underlying code are in closed-source libs provided by Espressif, so nothing we can do there.
And no, there is no open-source implementation of WPA2-E. The relevant code is tightly related to the low level wifi comms, and that's in closed-source libs that belong to Espressif. We have no access to that.
The whole WPA2-E is a long discussion, with no current complete solution. There are other issues covering it, here as well as in the NONOS SDK and FreeRTOS repos, as well as in forums. I suggest not hijacking this thread, which is meant to cover the pre3 vs. 2.2.1 versions of the NONOS SDK, and how to address the immediate issues.

[FWdeveloper]

@devyte Yes, I meant C/C++ source files along with wpa2_enterprise.h header used to build libwpa2.a library. Thank you for clarification.

[d-a-v]

This is again turning into a WPA2-Enterprise discussion :)
You can try this sketch if your AP is using MSCHAPv2 auth-phase-II (espressif/ESP8266_NONOS_SDK#133)
We will not provide any help, we don't own this api nor have sources for it.
You have to use it as it is for now.