Enabling Wi-Fi USB Dongle in buildroot [buildroot part-3]

In this post we will talk about how to enable two kind chipset of Wi-Fi USB dongle in buildroot.

1. Atheros in TP-Link 722

We will start from kernel configuration:
$ make linux-menuconfig

1 cfg80211

• Networking support
• – Wireless
• – – [*] cfg80211 wireless extensions compatibility
• – – <*> Generic IEEE 802.11 Networking Stack (mac80211)

2 atheros wireless

• Device Drivers
• – Network device support
• – – <*> USB Network Adapters —>
• – – [*] Wireless LAN
• – – – [*] Atheros Wireless Card
• – – – – <*> Atheros HTC based wireless cards support
• – – – – <*> Linux Community AR9170 802.11n USB support
  exit the linux-menuconfig

Then we will continue to buildroot configuration. In this section we will enable the firmware for Atheros:
$ make menuconfig
3 USB Wi-Fi Atheros firmware:

• Target Packages
• – Hardware Handling
• – Firmware
• – – – [*]linux – firmware
• – – – – [*]WiFi firmware
• – – – – – [*] Atheros 9170
• – – – – – [*] Atheros 9271

Exit the menuconfig and Create our image:
$ make
Then write the image to micro sd-card and test if our beaglebone can identify Atheros Wi-Fi USB Card

note:
TP-Link still produce this model, unfortunately the chipset is difference in latest version. It’s not Atheros anymore. So this tutorial aren’t compatible with such dongle.

2. Realtek RTL8188EUS in TP-Link

In this section we start by configuring the builldroot:
$ make menuconfig

• Target Packages
• – Hardware Handling
• – [*] rtl8188eu

Exit the menuconfig.

Next we need to enable driver in kernel configuration:|
$ make linux-menuconfig

• Device Drivers
• – Network device support (NETDEVICES [=y])
• – – Wireless LAN (WLAN [=y])
• – – – <*> Realtek rtlwifi family of devices
• – – – <*> RTL8723AU/RTL8188[CR]U/RTL819[12]CU (mac80211) support
• – – – – <*> Realtek RTL8192CU/RTL8188CU USB Wireless Network Adapter
• Device Drivers
• – [*]Staging drivers
• – – <*> Realtek RTL8188EU Wireless LAN NIC driver
  exit linux-menuconfig
  Create our image:
  $ make
  Then write the image to micro sd-card and test if our beaglebone can identify Realtek Wi-Fi USB Card

This chipset available in other brand of USB dongle and may valid if the chipset is same.

To use WiFi USB dongle, you need to enable the USB first. if you haven’t enable the USB, you won’t be able to use the Wi-Fi. I cover how to enable the USB in previous post here.

Next post I will cover how to configure the network and what package (application) to enable so we can configure the network easily. Hope you get some help and knowledge from this writing. Cheers.

Feedback and Correction is appreciated
See You.