ipTIME AX2004M is an 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) router, based on MediaTek
MT7621A.
Specifications:
* SoC: MT7621A
* RAM: 256 MiB
* Flash: NAND 128 MiB
* Wi-Fi:
* MT7915D: 2.4/5 GHz (DBDC)
* Ethernet: 5x 1GbE
* Switch: SoC built-in
* USB: 1x 3.0
* UART: J4 (115200 baud)
* Pinout: [3V3] (TXD) (RXD) (GND)
MAC addresses:
| interface | MAC address | source | comment
|-----------|-------------------|----------------|---------
| LAN | 58:xx:xx:00:xx:9B | | [1]
| WAN | 58:xx:xx:00:xx:99 | |
| WLAN 2G | 58:xx:xx:00:xx:98 | factory 0x4 |
| WLAN 5G | 5A:xx:xx:40:xx:98 | |
| | 58:xx:xx:00:xx:98 | config ethaddr |
[1] Used in this patch as WLAN 5G MAC address with the local bit set
Load addresses:
* stock
* 0x80010000: FIT image
* 0x81001000: kernel image -> entry
* OpenWrt
* 0x80010000: FIT image
* 0x82000000: uncompressed kernel+relocate image
* 0x80001000: relocated kernel image -> entry
Notes:
* This device has a dual-boot partition scheme, but this firmware works
only on boot partition 1. The stock web interface will flash only on the
inactive boot partition, but the recovery web page will always flash on
boot partition 1.
Installation via recovery mode:
1. Press reset button, power up the device, wait >10s for CPU LED
to stop blinking.
2. Upload recovery image through the recovery web page at 192.168.0.1.
Revert to stock firmware:
1. Install stock image via recovery mode.
Signed-off-by: Sungbo Eo <mans0n@gorani.run>
Commit f4a79148f8 ("ramips: add support for ipTIME AX2004M") seems to
leak KERNEL_LOADADDR 0x82000000 to other devices, causing the to no
longer boot. The leak is visible in u-boot:
Using 'config-1' configuration
Trying 'kernel-1' kernel subimage
Description: MIPS OpenWrt Linux-5.10.92
Type: Kernel Image
Compression: lzma compressed
Data Start: 0x840000e4
Data Size: 10750165 Bytes = 10.3 MiB
Architecture: MIPS
OS: Linux
Load Address: 0x82000000
Entry Point: 0x82000000
Normally, it should look like this:
Using 'config-1' configuration
Trying 'kernel-1' kernel subimage
Description: MIPS OpenWrt Linux-5.10.92
Type: Kernel Image
Compression: lzma compressed
Data Start: 0xbfca00e4
Data Size: 2652547 Bytes = 2.5 MiB
Architecture: MIPS
OS: Linux
Load Address: 0x80001000
Entry Point: 0x80001000
Revert the commit to avoid more people soft-bricking their devices.
This reverts commit f4a79148f8.
Signed-off-by: Stijn Tintel <stijn@linux-ipv6.be>
The current MAC address assignment is still incorrect.
Use the same MAC address as seen on the stock firmware
for both wireless interfaces.
The 5GHz MAC address OUI is +2 in the first EUI octet. We currently
don't do this in OpenWrt. Ignore this offset for now. With the current
assignment, recurring MAC addresses between radios is already taken care
of.
Signed-off-by: David Bauer <mail@david-bauer.net>
Specifications:
- SoC: MT7621DAT (880MHz, 2 Cores)
- RAM: 128 MB
- Flash: 128 MB NAND
- Ethernet: 5x 1GiE MT7530
- WiFi: MT7603/MT7613
- USB: 1x USB 3.0
This is another MT7621 device, very similar to other Linksys EA7300
series devices.
Installation:
Upload the generated factory.bin image via the stock web firmware
updater.
Reverting to factory firmware:
Like other EA7300 devices, this device has an A/B router configuration
to prevent bricking. Hard-resetting this device three (3) times will
put the device in failsafe (default) mode. At this point, flash the
OEM image to itself and reboot. This puts the router back into the 'B'
image and allows for a firmware upgrade.
Troubleshooting:
If the firmware will not boot, first restore the factory as described
above. This will then allow the factory.bin update to be applied
properly.
Signed-off-by: Nick McKinney <nick@ndmckinney.net>
RAISECOM MSG1500 X.00 is a 2.4/5 GHz band 11ac (Wi-Fi 5) router.
Apart from the general model, there are two ISP customized models:
China Mobile and China Telecom.
Specifications:
- SoC: Mediatek MT7621AT
- RAM: 256MiB DDR3
- Flash: 128MiB NAND
- Ethernet: 5 * 10/100/1000Mbps: 4 * LAN + 1 * WAN
- Switch: MediaTek MT7530 (SoC)
- WLAN: 1 * MT7615DN Dual-Band 2.4GHz 2T2R (400Mbps) 5GHz 2T2R (867Mbps)
- USB: 1 * USB 2.0 port
- Button: 1 * RESET button, 1 * WPS button, 1 * WIFI button
- LED: blue color: POWER, WAN, WPS, 2.4G, 5G, LAN1, LAN2, LAN3, LAN4, USB
- UART: 1 * serial port header (4-pin)
- Power: DC 12V, 1A
- Switch: 1 * POWER switch
MAC addresses as verified by vendor firmware:
use address source
LAN C8:XX:XX:3A:XX:E7 Config "protest_lan_mac" ascii (label)
WAN C8:XX:XX:3A:XX:EA Config "protest_wan_mac" ascii
5G C8:XX:XX:3A:XX:E8 Factory "0x4" hex
2.4G CA:XX:XX:4A:XX:E8 [not on flash]
The increment of the 4th byte for the 2.4g address appears to vary.
Reported cases:
5g 2.4g increment
C8:XX:XX:90:XX:C3 CA:XX:XX:C0:XX:C3 0x30
C8:XX:XX:3A:XX:08 CA:XX:XX:4A:XX:08 0x10
C8:XX:XX:3A:XX:E8 CA:XX:XX:4A:XX:E8 0x10
Since increment is inconsistent and there is no obvious pattern
in swapping bytes, and the 2.4g address has local bit set anyway,
it seems safer to use the LAN address with flipped byte here in
order to prevent collisions between OpenWrt devices and OEM devices
for this interface. This way we at least use an address as base
that is definitely owned by the device at hand.
Notes:
1. The vendor firmware allows you to connect to the router by telnet.
(known version 1.0.0 can open telnet.)
There is no official binary firmware available.
Backup the important partitions data:
"Bootloader", "Config", "Factory", and "firmware".
Note that with the vendor firmware the memory is detected only 128MiB
and the last 512KiB in NAND flash is not used.
2. The POWER LED is default on after press POWER switch.
The WAN and LAN1 - 4 LEDs are wired to ethernet switch.
The WPS LED is controlled by MT7615DN's GPIO.
Currently there is no proper way to configure it.
3. At the time of adding support the wireless config needs to be set up
by editing the wireless config file:
* Setting the country code is mandatory, otherwise the router loses
connectivity at the next reboot. This is mandatory and can be done
from luci. After setting the country code the router boots correctly.
A reset with the reset button will fix the issue and the user has to
reconfigure.
* This is minor since the 5g interface does not come up online although
it is not set as disabled. 2 options here:
1- Either run the "wifi" command. Can be added from LuCI in system -
startup - local startup and just add wifi above "exit 0".
2- Or add the serialize option in the wireless config file as shown
below. This one would work and bring both interfaces automatically
at every boot:
config wifi-device 'radio0'
option serialize '1'
config wifi-device 'radio1'
option serialize '1'
Flash instructions using initramfs image:
1. Press POWER switch to power down if the router is running.
2. Connect PC to one of LAN ports, and set
static IP address to "10.10.10.2", netmask to "255.255.255.0",
and gateway to "10.10.10.1" manually on the PC.
3. Push and hold the WIFI button, and then power up the router.
After about 10s (or you can call the recovery page, see "4" below)
you can release the WIFI button.
There is no clear indication when the router
is entering or has entered into "RAISECOM Router Recovery Mode".
4. Call the recovery page for the router at "http://10.10.10.1".
Keep an eye on the "WARNING!! tip" of the recovery page.
Click "Choose File" to select initramfs image, then click "Upload".
5. If image is uploaded successfully, you will see the page display
"Device is upgrading the firmware... %".
Keep an eye on the "WARNING!! tip" of the recovery page.
When the page display "Upgrade Successfully",
you can set IP address as "automatically obtain".
6. After the rebooting (PC should automatically obtain an IP address),
open the SSH connection, then download the sysupgrade image
to the router and perform sysupgrade with it.
Flash back to vendor firmware:
See "Flash instructions 1 - 5" above.
The only difference is that in step 4
you should select the vendor firmware which you backup.
Signed-off-by: Liangkuan Yang <ylk951207@gmail.com>
It was reported, that Tenbay T-MB5EU v1 do have incorrect Wireless MAC
address set on 2.4 and 5 GHz.
Some boards do not seem to have the correct MAC address set for the
external PHY of the MT7915 radio at caldata offset 0xa.
As the external PHY does not expose a DT binding (yet), fix up the mac
address in userspace.
Signed-off-by: David Bauer <mail@david-bauer.net>
Commands in 10_fix_wifi_mac were not properly concatenated, so
this was also triggered for the second phy without giving a
MAC address as argument.
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
Specifications:
* SoC: MT7621AT
* RAM: 256MB
* Flash: 128MB NAND flash
* WiFi: MT7615DN (2.4GHz+5Ghz) with DBDC
* LAN: 5x1000M
* Firmware layout is Uboot with extra 96 bytes in header
* Base PCB is DIR-1360 REV1.0
* LEDs Power Blue+Orange,Wan Blue+Orange,WPS Blue,"2.4G"Blue, "5G" Blue,
USB Blue
* Buttons Reset,WPS, Wifi
MAC addresses on OEM firmware:
lan factory 0xe000 f4:*:*:a8:*:65 (label)
wan factory 0xe006 f4:*:*:a8:*:68
2.4 GHz [not on flash] f6:*:*:c8:*:66
5.0 GHz factory 0x4 f4:*:*:a8:*:66
The increment of the 4th byte for the 2.4g address appears to vary.
Reported cases:
5g 2.4g increment
f4:XX:XX:a8:XX:66 f6:XX:XX:c8:XX:66 +0x20
x0:xx:xx:68:xx:xx x2:xx:xx:48:xx:xx -0x20
x4:xx:xx:6a:xx:xx x6:xx:xx:4a:xx:xx -0x20
Since increment is inconsistent and there is no obvious pattern
in swapping bytes, and the 2.4g address has local bit set anyway,
it seems safer to use the LAN address with flipped byte here in
order to prevent collisions between OpenWrt devices and OEM devices
for this interface. This way we at least use an address as base
that is definitely owned by the device at hand.
Flashing instruction:
The Dlink "Emergency Room" cannot be accessed through the reset
button on this device. You can either use console or use the
encrypted factory image availble in the openwrt forum.
Once the encrypted image is flashed throuh the stock Dlink web
interface, the sysupgrade images can be used.
Header pins needs to be soldered near the WPS and Wifi buttons.
The layout for the pins is (VCC,RX,TX,GND). No need to connect the VCC.
the settings are:
Bps/Par/Bits : 57600 8N1
Hardware Flow Control : No
Software Flow Control : No
Connect your client computer to LAN1 of the device
Set your client IP address manually to 192.168.0.101 / 255.255.255.0.
Call the recovery page or tftp for the device at http://192.168.0.1
Use the provided emergency web GUI to upload and flash a new firmware to
the device
At the time of adding support the wireless config needs to be set up by
editing the wireless config file:
* Setting the country code is mandatory, otherwise the router loses
connectivity at the next reboot. This is mandatory and can be done
from luci. After setting the country code the router boots correctly.
A reset with the reset button will fix the issue and the user has to
reconfigure.
* This is minor since the 5g interface does not come up online although
it is not set as disabled. 2 options here:
1- Either run the "wifi" command. Can be added from LUCI in system -
startup - local startup and just add wifi above "exit 0".
2- Or add the serialize option in the wireless config file as shown
below. This one would work and bring both interfaces automatically
at every boot:
config wifi-device 'radio0'
option serialize '1'
config wifi-device 'radio1'
option serialize '1'
Signed-off-by: Karim Dehouche <karimdplay@gmail.com>
[rebase, improve MAC table, update wireless config comment, fix
2.4g macaddr setup]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
Specifications:
- SoC: MT7621AT
- RAM: 256MB
- Flash: 128MB NAND
- Ethernet: 5 Gigabit ports
- WiFi: 2.4G/5G MT7615N
- USB: 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0
This device is very similar to the EA7300 v1/v2, EA7500 v2, and EA8100 v1.
Installation:
Upload the generated factory image through the factory web interface.
(following part taken from EA7300 v2 commit message:)
This might fail due to the A/B nature of this device. When flashing, OEM
firmware writes over the non-booted partition. If booted from 'A',
flashing over 'B' won't work. To get around this, you should flash the
OEM image over itself. This will then boot the router from 'B' and
allow you to flash OpenWRT without problems.
Reverting to factory firmware:
Hard-reset the router three times to force it to boot from 'B.' This is
where the stock firmware resides. To remove any traces of OpenWRT from
your router simply flash the OEM image at this point.
With thanks to Tom Wizetek (@wizetek) for testing.
Signed-off-by: Tee Hao Wei <angelsl@in04.sg>
This PR adds support for router D-Link DIR-853-R1
Specifications:
SoC: MT7621AT
RAM: 128MB
Flash: 16MB SPI
WiFi: MT7615DN (2.4GHz+5Ghz) with DBDC (This mode allows this
single chip act as an 2x2 11n radio and an 2x2 11ac radio at the
same time)
LAN: 5x1000M
LEDs Power Blue+Orange,Wan Blue+Orange,WPS Blue,"2.4G"Blue, "5G" Blue
USB Blue
Buttons Reset,WPS, Wifi
MAC addresses:
|Interface | MAC | Factory |Comment
|------------|-----------------|-------------|----------------
|WAN sticker |C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2A| |Sticker
|LAN |C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2B| |
|Wifi (5g) |C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2C|0x4 |
|Wifi (2.4g) |C6:XX:XX:7E:XX:2C| |
| | | |
| |C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2E|0x8004 0xe000|
| |C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2F|0xe006 |
The increment of the 4th byte for the 2.4g address appears to vary.
Reported cases:
5g 2.4g increment
C4:XX:XX:6E:XX:2C C6:XX:XX:7E:XX:2C 0x10
f4:XX:XX:16:XX:32 f6:XX:XX:36:XX:32 0x20
F4:XX:XX:A6:XX:E3 F6:XX:XX:B6:XX:E3 0x10
Since increment is inconsistent and there is no obvious pattern
in swapping bytes, and the 2.4g address has local bit set anyway,
it seems safer to use the LAN address with flipped byte here in
order to prevent collisions between OpenWrt devices and OEM devices
for this interface. This way we at least use an address as base
that is definitely owned by the device at hand.
Flashing instruction:
The Dlink "Emergency Room"
Connect your client computer to LAN1 of the device
Set your client IP address manually to 192.168.0.101 / 255.255.255.0.
Then, power down the router, press and hold the reset button, then
re-plug it. Keep the reset button pressed until the internet LED stops
flashing
Call the recovery page or tftp for the device at http://192.168.0.1
Use the provided emergency web GUI to upload and flash a new firmware to
the device.
Signed-off-by: Stas Fiduchi <fiduchi@protonmail.com>
[commit title/message improvements, use correct label MAC address,
calculate MAC addresses based on 0x4, minor DTS style fixes, add
uart2 to state_default, remove factory image, add 2.4g MAC address,
use partition DTSI, add macaddr comment in DTS]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
Specifications:
- SoC: MT7621AT
- RAM: 256MB
- Flash: 128MB NAND
- Ethernet: 5 Gigabit ports
- WiFi: 2.4G/5G MT7615N
- USB: 1 USB 3.0, 1 USB 2.0
This device is very similar to the EA7300 v1/v2 and EA7500 v2.
Installation:
Upload the generated factory image through the factory web interface.
(following part taken from EA7300 v2 commit message:)
This might fail due to the A/B nature of this device. When flashing, OEM
firmware writes over the non-booted partition. If booted from 'A',
flashing over 'B' won't work. To get around this, you should flash the
OEM image over itself. This will then boot the router from 'B' and
allow you to flash OpenWRT without problems.
Reverting to factory firmware:
Hard-reset the router three times to force it to boot from 'B.' This is
where the stock firmware resides. To remove any traces of OpenWRT from
your router simply flash the OEM image at this point.
With thanks to Leon Poon (@LeonPoon) for the initial bringup.
Signed-off-by: Tee Hao Wei <angelsl@in04.sg>
[add missing entry in 10_fix_wifi_mac]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
This submission relied heavily on the work of Linksys EA7300 v1/ v2.
Specifications:
* SoC: MediaTek MT7621A (880 MHz 2c/4t)
* RAM: 128M DDR3-1600
* Flash: 128M NAND
* Eth: MediaTek MT7621A (10/100/1000 Mbps x5)
* Radio: MT7603E/MT7613BE (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
* Antennae: 2 internal fixed in the casing and 2 on the PCB
* LEDs: Blue (x4 Ethernet)
Blue+Orange (x2 Power + WPS and Internet)
* Buttons: Reset (x1)
WPS (x1)
Installation:
Flash factory image through GUI.
This device has 2 partitions for the firmware called firmware and
alt_firmware. To successfully flash and boot the device, the device
should have been running from alt_firmware partition. To get the device
booted through alt_firmware partition, download the OEM firmware from
Linksys website and upgrade the firmware from web GUI. Once this is done,
flash the OpenWrt Factory firmware from web GUI.
Reverting to factory firmware:
1. Boot to 'alt_firmware'(where stock firmware resides) by doing one of
the following:
Press the "wps" button as soon as power LED turns on when booting.
(OR) Hard-reset the router consecutively three times to force it to
boot from 'alt_firmware'.
2. To remove any traces of OpenWRT from your router simply flash the OEM
image at this point.
Signed-off-by: Aashish Kulkarni <aashishkul@gmail.com>
[fix hanging indents and wrap to 74 characters per line,
add kmod-mt7663-firmware-sta package for 5GHz STA mode to work,
remove sysupgrade.bin and concatenate IMAGES instead in mt7621.mk,
set default-state "on" for power LED]
Signed-off-by: Sannihith Kinnera <digislayer@protonmail.com>
[move check-size before append-metadata, remove trailing whitespace]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
The GL-MT1300 is a high-performance new generation pocket-sized router
that offers a powerful hardware and first-class cybersecurity protocol
with unique and modern design.
Specifications:
- SoC: MT7621A, Dual-Core @880MHz
- RAM: 256 MB DDR3
- Flash: 32 MB
- Ethernet: 3 x 10/100/1000: 2 x LAN + 1 x WAN
- Wireless: 1 x MT7615D Dual-Band 2.4GHz(400Mbps) + 5GHz(867Mbps)
- USB: 1 x USB 3.0 port
- Slot: 1 x MicroSD card slot
- Button: 1 x Reset button
- Switch: 1 x Mode switch
- LED: 1 x Blue LED + 1 x White LED
MAC addresses based on vendor firmware:
WAN : factory 0x4000
LAN : Mac from factory 0x4000 + 1
2.4GHz : factory 0x4
5GHz : Mac form factory 0x4 + 1
Flashing instructions:
1.Connect to one of LAN ports.
2.Set the static IP on the PC to 192.168.1.2.
3.Press the Reset button and power the device (do not release the button).
After waiting for the blue led to flash 5 times, the white led will
come on and release the button.
4.Browse the 192.168.1.1 web page and update firmware according to web
tips.
5.The blue led will flash when the firmware is being upgraded.
6.The blue led stops blinking to indicate that the firmware upgrade is
complete and U-Boot automatically starts the firmware.
For more information on GL-MT1300, see the OFFICIAL GL.iNet website:
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt1300/
Signed-off-by: Xinfa Deng <xinfa.deng@gl-inet.com>
[add input-type for switch, wrap long line in 10_fix_wifi_mac]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
This submission relied heavily on the work of
Santiago Rodriguez-Papa <contact at rodsan.dev>
Specifications:
* SoC: MediaTek MT7621A (880 MHz 2c/4t)
* RAM: Winbond W632GG6MB-12 (256M DDR3-1600)
* Flash: Winbond W29N01HVSINA (128M NAND)
* Eth: MediaTek MT7621A (10/100/1000 Mbps x5)
* Radio: MT7603E/MT7615N (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
4 antennae: 1 internal and 3 non-deatachable
* USB: 3.0 (x1)
* LEDs:
White (x1 logo)
Green (x6 eth + wps)
Orange (x5, hardware-bound)
* Buttons:
Reset (x1)
WPS (x1)
Installation:
Flash factory image through GUI.
This might fail due to the A/B nature of this device. When flashing, OEM
firmware writes over the non-booted partition. If booted from 'A',
flashing over 'B' won't work. To get around this, you should flash the
OEM image over itself. This will then boot the router from 'B' and
allow you to flash OpenWRT without problems.
Reverting to factory firmware:
Hard-reset the router three times to force it to boot from 'B.' This is
where the stock firmware resides. To remove any traces of OpenWRT from
your router simply flash the OEM image at this point.
Signed-off-by: J. Scott Heppler <shep971@centurylink.net>
Specifications:
* SoC: MediaTek MT7621A (880 MHz 2c/4t)
* RAM: Nanya NT5CC128M16IP-DIT (256M DDR3-1600)
* Flash: Macronix MX30LF1G18AC-TI (128M NAND)
* Eth: MediaTek MT7621A (10/100/1000 Mbps x5)
* Radio: MT7615N (2.4 GHz & 5 GHz)
4 antennae: 1 internal and 3 non-deatachable
* USB: 3.0 (x1)
* LEDs:
White (x1 logo)
Green (x6 eth + wps)
Orange (x5, hardware-bound)
* Buttons:
Reset (x1)
WPS (x1)
Everything works! Been running it for a couple weeks now and haven't had
any problems. Please let me know if you run into any.
Installation:
Flash factory image through GUI.
This might fail due to the A/B nature of this device. When flashing, OEM
firmware writes over the non-booted partition. If booted from 'A',
flashing over 'B' won't work. To get around this, you should flash the
OEM image over itself. This will then boot the router from 'B' and
allow you to flash OpenWRT without problems.
Reverting to factory firmware:
Hard-reset the router three times to force it to boot from 'B.' This is
where the stock firmware resides. To remove any traces of OpenWRT from
your router simply flash the OEM image at this point.
Signed-off-by: Santiago Rodriguez-Papa <contact@rodsan.dev>
[use v1 only, minor DTS adjustments, use LINKSYS_HWNAME and add it to
DEVICE_VARS, wrap DEVICE_PACKAGES, adjust commit message/title]
Signed-off-by: Adrian Schmutzler <freifunk@adrianschmutzler.de>
The Linksys EA7500 v2 is advertised as AC1900, but its internal
hardware is AC2600 capable.
Hardware
--------
SoC: Mediatek MT7621AT (880 MHz, 2 cores 4 threads)
RAM: 256M (Nanya NT5CC128M16IP-DI)
FLASH: 128MB NAND (Macronix MX30LF1G18AC-TI)
ETH: 5x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet (MT7530)
WIFI:
- 2.4GHz: 1x MT7615N (4x4:4)
- 5GHz: 1x MT7615N (4x4:4)
- 4 antennas: 3 external detachable antennas and 1 internal
USB:
- 1x USB 3.0
- 1x USB 2.0
BTN:
- 1x Reset button
- 1x WPS button
LEDS:
- 1x White led (Power)
- 6x Green leds (link lan1-lan4, link wan, wps)
- 5x Orange leds (act lan1-lan4, act wan) (working but unmodifiable)
Everything works correctly.
Installation
------------
The “factory” openwrt image can be flashed directly from OEM stock
firmware. After the flash the router will reboot automatically.
However, due to the dual boot system, the first installation could fail
(if you want to know why, read the footnotes).
If the flash succeed and you can reach OpenWrt through the web
interface or ssh, you are done.
Otherwise the router will try to boot 3 times and then will
automatically boot the OEM firmware (don’t turn off the router.
Simply wait and try to reach the router through the web interface
every now and then, it will take few minutes).
After this, you should be back in the OEM firmware.
Now you have to flash the OEM Firmware over itself using the OEM web
interface (I tested it using the FW_EA7500v2_2.0.8.194281_prod.img
downloaded from the Linksys website).
When the router reboots flash the “factory” OpenWrt image and this
time it should work.
After the OpenWrt installation you have to use the sysupgrade image
for future updates.
Restore OEM Firmware
--------------------
After the OpenWrt flash, the OEM firmware is still stored in the
second partition thanks to the dual boot system.
You can switch from OpenWrt to OEM firmware and vice-versa failing
the boot 3 times in a row:
1) power on the router
2) wait 15 seconds
3) power off the router
4) repeat steps 1-2-3 twice more.
5) power on the router and you should be in the “other” firmware
If you want to completely remove OpenWrt from your router, switch to
the OEM firmware and then flash OEM firmware from the web interface
as a normal update.
This procedure will overwrite the OpenWrt partition.
Footnotes
---------
The Linksys EA7500-v2 has a dual boot system to avoid bricks.
This system works using 2 pair of partitions:
1) "kernel" and "rootfs"
2) "alt_kernel" and "alt_rootfs".
After 3 failed boot attempts, the bootloader tries to boot the other
pair of partitions and so on.
This system is managed by the bootloader, which writes a bootcount in
the s_env partition, and if successfully booted, the system add a
"zero-bootcount" after the previous value.
A system update performed from OEM firmware, writes the firmware on the
other pair of partitions and sets the bootloader to boot the new pair
of partitions editing the “boot_part” variable in the bootloader vars.
Effectively it's a quick and safe system to switch the selected boot
partition.
Another way to switch the boot partition is:
1) power on the router
2) wait 15 seconds
3) power off the router
4) repeat steps 1-2-3 twice more.
5) power on the router and you should be in the “other” firmware
In this OpenWrt port, this dual boot system is partially working
because the bootloader sets the right rootfs partition in the cmdline
but unfortunately OpenWrt for ramips platform overwrites the cmdline
so is not possible to detect the right rootfs partition.
Because all of this, I preferred to simply use the first pair of
partitions and set read-only the other pair.
However this solution is not optimal because is not possible to know
without opening the case which is the current booted partition.
Let’s take for example a router booting the OEM firmware from the first
pair of partitions. If we flash the OpenWrt image, it will be written
on the second pair. In this situation the router will bootloop 3 times
and then will automatically come back to the first pair of partitions
containg the OEM firmware.
In this situation, to flash OpenWrt correctly is necessary to switch
the booting partition, flashing again the OEM firmware over itself.
At this point the OEM firmware is on both pair of partitions but the
current booted pair is the second one.
Now, flashing the OpenWrt factory image will write the firmware on
the first pair and then will boot correctly.
If this limitation in the ramips platform about the cmdline will be
fixed, the dual boot system can also be implemented in OpenWrt with
almost no effort.
Signed-off-by: Davide Fioravanti <pantanastyle@gmail.com>
Co-Developed-by: Jackson Lim <jackcolentern@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Jackson Lim <jackcolentern@gmail.com>
Sungbo Eo
Adrian Schmutzler