Andreas Rosvall

Turning a stock CC2531USB-RD dongle into a Linux-supported WPAN adapter

Various disclaimers

I’m in no way affiliated with Texas Instruments, EByte, AliExpress or any other company mentioned.

I take absolutely no responsibility for how you might use the presented information and/or software. The linked software might blow up your computer, break the your dongle, and wreck your marriage. You should probably consult with your local radio communications authority, lawyer, and/or priest before proceeding. Et cetera.

Compatibility

[!IMPORTANT] I had naively assumed that there was only a single version of the stock firmware. It turns out that there are several versions floating around, that needs to be supported individually.

Check the OEM flasher repo readme to see which versions are supported.

To see which version your dongle is running, run

lsusb -v -d 0x0451:0x16ae | grep bcdDevice

One of the compatible dongles I’ve used is EBYTE E18-2G4U04B, which I’ve previously bought here back in 2021.

Note: I don’t think so, but they could have changed the firmware in the meantime. If that’s the case, you can air your grievances here.

Quick howto

Prerequisites

• PyUSB
• dfu-util
• Linux 6.0 or newer
• GCC, binutils, kernel headers, etc.

Kernel module

# Clone driver repo
git clone 'https://github.com/rosvall/cc2531_linux.git' 
cd cc2531_linux

# Build
make

# Install module
sudo make modules_install

Hack the stock CC2531USB-RD dongle

Download the oem flasher

# Flash bootloader to CC2531 dongle (that runs stock sniffer firmware)
python oem_flasher.py stub.bin bootloader/bootloader.bin

Download WPAN firmware to dongle

Download the WPAN firmware

# Flash firmware to CC2531 through USB device firmware upgrade
dfu-util -D wpan_fw.dfu