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gk7202v300: add ultimate variant + ship rtl8188fufw blob from the FU package#2157

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widgetii merged 2 commits into
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gk7202v300-ultimate-rtl8188fu-2153
May 28, 2026
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gk7202v300: add ultimate variant + ship rtl8188fufw blob from the FU package#2157
widgetii merged 2 commits into
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gk7202v300-ultimate-rtl8188fu-2153

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Summary

Closes #2153 (no gk7202v300 ultimate build + RTL8188FTV not working) and fixes #1906 (HI3518EV200 ultimate same RTL8188FU firmware-blob symptom) as a side effect.

  • rtl8188fu-openipc: the rtl8188fufw.bin firmware blob was sitting inside rtl8188eus-openipc/ and was only installed when BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188EUS_OPENIPC=y, which no production defconfig sets. Boards that enabled BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188FU_OPENIPC=y (e.g. hi3518ev200_ultimate) therefore compiled 8188fu.ko but never shipped /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8188fufw.bin, so the driver couldn't bind. Moved the blob into the FU package and install it from a POST_INSTALL hook there.
  • gk7202v300_ultimate_defconfig (new): cloned from gk7205v200_ultimate_defconfig (same SoC family) with the gk7202v300.generic.config kernel config and SOC_MODEL=gk7202v300. Adds BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188FU_OPENIPC=y and BR2_PACKAGE_LINUX_FIRMWARE_OPENIPC_RTL_8188EU=y so the 16 MB ultimate image natively drives the reporter's RTL8188FTV (USB 0bda:f179) via the existing /etc/wireless/usb rtl8188fu-generic shim.
  • CI: added gk7202v300_ultimate to the ultimate matrix in .github/workflows/build.yml.

Local-build verification (make BOARD=gk7202v300_ultimate)

- uImage:         1890 KB / 2048 KB
- rootfs.squashfs:7064 KB / 8192 KB
- Build time:     04:05

unsquashfs -l rootfs.squashfs.gk7202v300 | grep -E '8188fu|rtl8188fufw|wpa_supplicant':

squashfs-root/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
squashfs-root/lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8188fufw.bin
squashfs-root/lib/modules/4.9.37/extra/8188fu.ko
squashfs-root/usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant

Both the driver and the firmware blob land in the squashfs at the expected paths. Image fits comfortably within the NOR-16 MB caps.

Out of scope

  • gk7202v300_lite was deliberately not modified — adding the FU driver+blob to the 8 MB rootfs (already close to the 5120 KB cap) needs a separate size-budget audit. The reporter's hardware ships with 16 MB NOR, so the ultimate path covers their case.
  • On-device smoke test (flash → fw_setenv wlandev rtl8188fu-generic → reboot → wlan0 associates) should be done by the issue reporter or a lab board after merge.
  • Regression rebuild of hi3518ev200_ultimate was not run locally (Buildroot mirror was flaky enough that one full build took multiple retries with hand-seeded dl/ tarballs); the CI matrix will exercise it on this PR.

Test plan

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

widgetii and others added 2 commits May 28, 2026 21:05
The Realtek 8188FTV firmware blob was sitting inside the rtl8188eus-openipc
package and was only installed when BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188EUS_OPENIPC=y — which
no production defconfig sets. As a result, every board that enabled
BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188FU_OPENIPC=y (e.g. hi3518ev200_ultimate) built the kernel
module but never shipped /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8188fufw.bin, so the 8188fu
driver could not bring up the dongle.

Move the blob into the FU package and install it from a POST_INSTALL hook
there, mirroring the install idiom that previously lived in the EUS .mk.
Drop the matching hook + license note from rtl8188eus-openipc.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The OpenIPC Installation Guide already advertises a gk7202v300-nor-ultimate
firmware but no such image has ever been built — only the lite defconfig
existed. Add the ultimate defconfig, modelled on gk7205v200_ultimate (same SoC
family) with the gk7202v300 kernel config and SOC_MODEL, and wire it into the
CI matrix.

Enable BR2_PACKAGE_RTL8188FU_OPENIPC=y plus the linux-firmware RTL_8188EU set
so the 16 MB image natively drives an RTL8188FTV USB dongle
(0bda:f179, /etc/wireless/usb rtl8188fu-generic), which is what the reporter
of #2153 has wired to the BM002-IPC-GK7202-PCB-V10 board.

Local build verified: uImage 1890/2048 KB, rootfs.squashfs 7064/8192 KB,
8188fu.ko and /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/rtl8188fufw.bin both present in the
squashfs.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@widgetii widgetii merged commit c0b2b7c into master May 28, 2026
102 checks passed
@widgetii widgetii deleted the gk7202v300-ultimate-rtl8188fu-2153 branch May 28, 2026 18:57
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