Missing signal, bitrate, and station details for ESP-Hosted SDIO client in LuCI Web UI (OpenWrt)

[san-av]

Checklist

• Checked the issue tracker for similar issues to ensure this is not a duplicate.
• Provided a clear description of your suggestion.
• Included any relevant context or examples.

Issue or Suggestion Description

I am using ESP-Hosted-NG (master branch) on onboard ESP32-C5 SDIO device on NUC980-based OpenWrt 22.03 host (custom BSP).

The SDIO link and host driver are working correctly — the wlan0 interface is created, and the device can connect to an access point in Client (STA) mode without issues. However, some wireless status information does not appear in the LuCI Web UI.

Observed Behavior:

When I access the host device via LAN and open
Network → Wireless, the page displays two panels:
1. Wireless Overview
2. Associated Stations

Under these panels:

• Wireless Overview
  • The signal strength indicator (bars) is empty.
  • The encryption type (e.g., WPA/WPA2) is not shown.
• Associated Stations
  • The connected client (wlan0 in STA mode) is not listed here.
  • If the connected client is listed, it should show the following:
    -- The signal-to-noise ratio in dBm.
    -- Bitrate.

Despite this, the connection works correctly.
For example:

root@OpenWrt:/# iw dev wlan0 link
Connected to 40:ae:30:xx:xx:xx (on wlan0)
        SSID: ACCPoint2
        freq: 2457
        RX: 3677495 bytes (7866 packets)
        TX: 386556 bytes (4032 packets)
        signal: -30 dBm
root@OpenWrt:/# 

But running iwinfo wlan0 info shows:

Link Quality: unknown/70
Signal: unknown  Noise: unknown
Bit Rate: unknown
Encryption: unknown

Expected Behavior:

When the STA interface connects to an AP, the LuCI Wireless Overview and Associated Stations panels should ideally display:

• Signal strength (dBm)
• Encryption type
• Bitrate and link quality and related details.

Under ideal conditions the LuCI Web UI should display Wireless status similar to the one in the following sample image:

Please advise!

[mantriyogesh]

@san-av , we missed to respond on this matter.

@kapilkedawat, can we expose the desired stats?

[san-av]

I tried to debug the esp32-sdio-c5 (host) driver -- the callback esp_cfg80211_get_station() never gets called.
Though this function does have code pertaining to signal (i.e. rssi) it doesn't get pushed to 'iwinfo' due to the said reason - not sure whether it's a driver issue or 'iwinfo' issue.

Neither are the bitrate or noise values exposed to the desired stats.

[mantriyogesh]

@kapilkedawat ++

[SmarTemp101]

Dear Yogesh, we need a solution for this, pending our product release. While you are looking at it internally, if you could please share some pointers that might help us implement the missing hooks? Hoping this might help us get to the resolution quickly. Help please!

[SmarTemp101]

In this connection what we have observed so far - LuCI (via iwinfo/ nl80211) trying to communicate with cfg80211 - dump station functionality, especially cfg80211_ops.dump_station function is missing or not working properly/ responding to callback/ triggers.
As we understand the missing info message flow is supposed to work as follows:
LuCi --(ubus)--> iwinfo --> nl80211_get_signal (iwinfo fn) --> nl80211_fill_signal (iwinfo fn) --> .. -->nl80211_msg('wlan0', NL80211_CMD_GET_STATION, NLM_F_DUMP)

[kapilkedawat]

Hi @SmarTemp101, iwinfo is openwrt specific binary only and seems like cannot be compiled in other distributions directly. Could you tell us which calls are missing for cfg80211 which we can add. I see this code in openwrt upstream of iwinfo . Is this the same that you are using?

[san-av]

@kapilkedawat, the callback function dump_station() was missing in the host driver.
The issue has been partially resolved after addition of the said function into the host driver.
As shown in the following screenshot, the stats under the "Associated Stations' is incomplete -the bitrate defaults to 0 Mbits/s and the Host IP is unkown.

[Shreyas0-7]

Hey @san-av we have made changes for getting mac address and rssi. We are planning to add TX and RX rates in subsequent iterations. Can you please help us to check if this patch is working for you.

dump_station.zip

[san-av]

Hi @Shreyas0-7,
Yes, this patch (dump_station.zip) is working for us, as shown in the following screenshot.

Under “Associated Stations”, the Host (IP) and Bitrate fields are still not displayed. I understand that you plan to add TX and RX rates reporting in the upcoming iterations. Could you please let us know when we can expect the next update?

Thanks!