OpenIPC Wiki

Adding a wifi driver to your firmware

Since most cameras have very little flash memory, OpenIPC firmware images don't contain many wifi drivers, as they can easily be 1.5MB+ per driver. This means that in many cases, you will have to add the appropriate wifi driver to your firmware image.

Step 1: preparing the build environment

You will need a Linux environment. First download the OpenIPC firmware repository:

git clone https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware.git openipc-firmware
cd openipc-firmware

Install packages required for building:

sudo make deps

Step 2: determine the driver package

Here are some of the most common wifi driver packages:

# AIC:
BR2_PACKAGE_AIC8800_OPENIPC

# Altobeam:
BR2_PACKAGE_ATBM60XX
BR2_PACKAGE_ATBM6441

# iComm:
BR2_PACKAGE_SSV6X5X_OPENIPC

# MediaTek:
BR2_PACKAGE_MT7601U_OPENIPC

# SigmaStar:
BR2_PACKAGE_SSW101B

# Realtek:
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188EUS_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188FU_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8189ES_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8189FS_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8192EU_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8733BU_OPENIPC
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8812AU_OPENIPC

Take note of the BR2_PACKAGE variable for the driver you need.

Step 3: add BR2_PACKAGE variable to your firmware configuration

The firmware configuration files are ordered per chipset in the br-ext-chip-*directories. Navigate to the directory for the chipset you are building for, then navigate to the /configs/ directory.

Example: you have a hisilicon chipset:

cd br-ext-chip-hisilicon/configs/

Inside you will see a number of _defconfig files. Open the file for your desired chip and firmware flavor in a text editor. Add the appropriate BR2_PACKAGE variable to this file, adding =y to the end of the variable.

Example: you want to add the RTL8188EUS driver:

BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188EUS_OPENIPC=y

Step 4: Build your firmware

Return to the root directory of the openipc firmware directory openipc-firmware/. Run ./building.sh and select the configuration you have edited in the previous step.

Alternatively, you can run ./building.sh <your_config>, where <your_config> is the name of the config file you have just edited, minus the _defconfig

Example: you want to build ultimate for hi3516ev200:

./building.sh hi3516ev200_ultimate

When the build is complete, you will find the output in the output/images/ directory:

./rootfs.hi3516ev200.cpio
./openipc.hi3516ev200-nor-ultimate.tgz
./rootfs.squashfs.hi3516ev200
./rootfs.hi3516ev200.tar
./uImage.hi3516ev200

You can now use rootfs.squashfs.* and uImage.* with sysupgrade or your preferred update mechanism.

For additional wifi configuration, see wireless settings.

For more information about building OpenIPC, see building.

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