piCore WiFi

Under Construction

There are several options to obtain the needed extensions to get WiFi working.
The easiest is to connect the RPi with an Ethernet cable to Internet.
You can than use `tce-load -wi <extension-name>` to install them.

Below the steps to first download the needed extensions to an USB-stick and install them from there.

The needed files depend on the type of RPi and if you have a 32-bit (armhf) or 64-bit (aarch64) piCore OS.

You will need additional USB and possible driver extensions to get external Wifi adapters to work.

• Obtain the .tcz and .tcz.md5.txt and .tcz.dep files of the following extensions, and their dependencies:
  • The generic list
    • firmware-rpi-wifi.tcz
    • wireless_tools.tcz
    • wpa_supplicant.tcz
    • wifi.tcz
• The next extension needs to match the kernel version and for the RPi5 you need to use the 16K version.
  If using the tce commands you can use the KERNEL keyword to get the correct version.
  • RPi3
    • wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8.tcz
    • wireless-KERNEL.tcz
  • RPi5
    • wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8-16k.tcz
    • wireless-KERNEL.tcz

• and put them on a FAT32 usb-stick.

• For the piCore-15 64-bit (aarch64) the links to the generic extensions are:

• http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/firmware-rpi-wifi.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/firmware-rpi-wifi.tcz.md5.txt
  
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wpa_supplicant.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wpa_supplicant.tcz.md5.txt
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wpa_supplicant.tcz.dep
  
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/readline.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/readline.tcz.md5.txt
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/readline.tcz.dep
  
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/libnl.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/libnl.tcz.md5.txt
  
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/ncurses.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/ncurses.tcz.md5.txt
  
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wifi.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wifi.tcz.md5.txt
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wifi.tcz.dep

• For the piCore-15 64-bit (aarch64) the links to the kernel and RPi model specific extensions are:
• Examples below is for the 6.6.47 kernel version, change if needed.

  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8.tcz.md5.txt
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8.tcz.dep

• For RPi5 you need the extension with 16k page sizes.

  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8-16k.tcz
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8-16k.tcz.md5.txt
  http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/15.x/aarch64/tcz/wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v8-16k.tcz.dep

• sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1/

• cp /mnt/sda1/64bit/* /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/

• tce-load -i firmware-rpi-wifi.tcz 
  tce-load -i wifi.tcz
  tce-load -i wireless-6.6.47-piCore-v7.tcz 
  tce-load -i wireless_tools.tcz 
  tce-load -i wpa_supplicant.tcz

• sudo vi /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/onboot.lst
  add:

          firmware-rpi-wifi.tcz
          wifi.tcz
          wireless_tools.tcz
          wpa_supplicant.tcz
          

• sudo vi /opt/.filetool.lst
  add:

          etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
          

• Manually execute 'wifi.sh' select and configure an access point.
  This will create a 'wifi.db' file.

• sudo vi /opt/bootlocal.sh
  add:

          wifi.sh -a &> /home/tc/wifi.log &
          

• According the RN's it might be needed, and it looks to have solved my instability issues with both the RPi3 and RPi5.
  • sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/mmcblk0p1
  • sudo vi /mnt/mmcblk0p1/cmdline.txt
    add:
    

          brcmfmac.feature_disable=0x82000