otousama

Oh well, same issue with the powered hub, then tried with a different driver (https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes)
sudo apt-get install dkms git clone https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes.git sudo dkms add ./rtl8192cu-fixes sudo dkms install 8192cu/1.10 sudo depmod -a sudo cp ./rtl8192cu-fixes/blacklist-native-rtl8192.conf /etc/modprobe.d/ sudo reboot and at next boot had the wifi up and running
> lsmod Module Size Used by mac80211 358429 0 mali_drm 2732 1 drm 178255 2 mali_drm mali 123208 0 ump 29379 3 mali 8192cu 624560 0 > ifconfig wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:13:ef:62:0a:ee inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.254.0 inet6 addr: fe80::213:efff:fe62:aee/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1492 Metric:1 RX packets:18910 errors:0 dropped:1173 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:34687 errors:0 dropped:2 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:15112303 (14.4 MiB) TX bytes:71589296 (68.2 MiB) > iwconfig wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"WESTEROS" Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:1A:E3:B8:EA:30 Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Sensitivity:0/0 Retry:off RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:****-****-****-****-****-****-****-**** Security mode:open Power Management:off Link Quality=100/100 Signal level=92/100 Noise level=0/100 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 > cat /proc/net/wireless Inter-| sta-| Quality | Discarded packets | Missed | WE face | tus | link level noise | nwid crypt frag retry misc | beacon | 22 wlan1: 0000 100. 97. 0. 0 0 0 0 0 0 > iperf -c 192.168.1.22 -p 20 ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 192.168.1.22, TCP port 20 TCP window size: 20.9 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 192.168.1.4 port 39951 connected with 192.168.1.22 port 20 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 3] 0.0-10.2 sec 7.12 MBytes 5.88 Mbits/sec > iperf -c 192.168.1.22 -p 20 ------------------------------------------------------------ Client connecting to 192.168.1.22, TCP port 20 TCP window size: 20.9 KByte (default) ------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3] local 192.168.1.4 port 39952 connected with 192.168.1.22 port 20 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [  3]  0.0-10.2 sec  21.9 MBytes  18.0 Mbits/sec speeds are quite inconsistent, didn't go over 20Mb/s even with the AP at 4 meters, but that's not a big concern for now, maybe it only needs some tweaking, but at least it is working!
Here is the dmesg of the successful association:
 
 
 
 
Thanks everyone for helping me solve this problem.

Driver supplied with kernel could be buggy. What about trying some alternative?
 
https://github.com/dz0ny/rt8192cu
https://github.com/pvaret/rtl8192cu-fixes
 
and there are probably more different ones. And try to plug it via powered USB hub, to rule out power related issues.

setenv bootargs "console=tty0 root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootwait"
 
If it is what you entered in fex, you forgot the S (ttyS0 and not tty0)

If you log in on this console, executing
dmesg -w on this console will give you real-time dmesg output until reboot/crash occurs.
 
Also you can experiment with kernel command line in boot.cmd/boot.scr, setting "console=ttyS0 loglevel=6" and disabling login on this console (sudo systemctl disable serial-getty@ttyS0) should put all kernel messages to ttyS0 (console available on separate 3-pin header). In case you use high enough loglevel (like 6 or 7), I would recommend increasing scrollback buffer size in your terminal application or enabling logging to file.