Emre Yavuzalp
f23af0c828
Add an OpenWrt U-Boot ("UBI") layout variant for the TP-Link Archer
BE450. It replaces the vendor bootloader and the stock dual-image
layout with a single large UBI partition, extending the usable flash
to around 95 MiB, and ships a current U-Boot with TFTP recovery.
Hardware
--------
SoC: MediaTek MT7988D (Filogic 880)
Wi-Fi: MediaTek MT7992AV (BE7200, 2.4/5 GHz)
Flash: 128 MiB SPI-NAND
RAM: 512 MiB DDR4
Serial: 115200 8N1, header located next to the heatsink:
heatsink
| |
| |
| | +----+-----+------+-------+ +-----------------+
| | | TX | RX | GND | +3.3V | | power connector |
+---+ +----+-----+------+-------+ +-----------------+
|
Don't connect ----+
MAC addresses
-------------
The label MAC (base) is stored in tp_data/default-mac and is written
into the factory partition at offset 0x4 during installation:
eth0 (LAN): base (factory 0x4)
eth1 (WAN): base + 1
eth2 (LAN): base + 2
Wi-Fi: derived by mt76 from the factory EEPROM (2.4 GHz = base,
5 GHz = base with bit 0x10 set), matching the stock
layout behaviour.
Installation
------------
Requires a serial connection and a TFTP server. The device must be
running the stock-layout OpenWrt (tplink_be450) build.
1. From the running stock-layout OpenWrt, back up the vendor
bootloader and the calibration/MAC data. These cannot be
recovered otherwise:
cat /dev/mtd0 > /tmp/boot.bin
cat /dev/mtd5 > /tmp/tp_data.bin
scp /tmp/boot.bin /tmp/tp_data.bin user@pc:backup/
scp -r /tmp/tp_data user@pc:backup/
Store boot.bin, tp_data.bin and the tp_data file contents
(MT7992_EEPROM.bin, default-mac) somewhere safe.
2. Boot the UBI-layout initramfs. Connect the PC to one of the LAN ports
(LAN1-3) and serve the recovery image from a TFTP server on the PC at
192.168.1.2. Interrupt the vendor U-Boot on the serial console
(Ctrl+C), then:
setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
tftpboot 0x50000000 openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-initramfs-recovery.itb
bootm 0x50000000
3. Copy the required files to the booted initramfs (192.168.1.1):
scp -O MT7992_EEPROM.bin default-mac \
openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-bl31-uboot.fip \
openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-preloader.bin \
openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-squashfs-sysupgrade.itb \
root@192.168.1.1:/tmp
4. Build the factory image from the EEPROM and MAC data:
cd /tmp
dd if=/dev/zero bs=$((0x100000)) count=1 | tr '\000' '\377' > factory.bin
dd if=MT7992_EEPROM.bin of=factory.bin bs=1 count=$((0x1e00)) conv=notrunc
dd if=default-mac of=factory.bin bs=1 seek=4 conv=notrunc
5. Create the UBI volumes. Warning: this permanently erases the
remaining vendor data, including tp_data - only proceed with the
backups from step 1 stored safely:
ubidetach -p /dev/mtd2
ubiformat /dev/mtd2 -y
ubiattach -p /dev/mtd2
ubimkvol /dev/ubi0 -N fip -t static -s 2MiB
ubiupdatevol /dev/ubi0_0 /tmp/openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-bl31-uboot.fip
ubimkvol /dev/ubi0 -N ubootenv -s 0x1f000
ubimkvol /dev/ubi0 -N ubootenv2 -s 0x1f000
6. Write the factory data and the BL2 preloader. kmod-mtd-rw is
required to lift the read-only protection of the bl2 partition;
set up internet access first or upload the package manually:
apk update && apk add kmod-mtd-rw
insmod mtd-rw i_want_a_brick=1
mtd erase factory
mtd write /tmp/factory.bin factory
mtd erase bl2
mtd write /tmp/openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-preloader.bin bl2
7. Flash the system:
sysupgrade -n /tmp/openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-ubi-squashfs-sysupgrade.itb
Revert to stock firmware
------------------------
1. From the UBI-layout OpenWrt, force-flash the stock-layout OpenWrt
(tplink_be450) initramfs image; the board name differs, so
sysupgrade must be forced:
sysupgrade -F -n openwrt-mediatek-filogic-tplink_be450-initramfs-kernel.bin
2. After booting into that initramfs, set up network access, copy
boot.bin and tp_data.bin from the backup to /tmp and restore the
vendor bootloader and data:
apk update && apk add kmod-mtd-rw
insmod mtd-rw i_want_a_brick=1
mtd erase boot
mtd write /tmp/boot.bin boot
mtd erase ubi0
mtd erase ubi1
mtd erase userconfig
mtd erase tp_data
mtd write /tmp/tp_data.bin tp_data
3. Verify the tp_data restore before rebooting - without it the
device has no ethernet:
md5sum /tmp/tp_data.bin
md5sum /dev/mtd5
If the checksums match, reboot. The vendor U-Boot web recovery
comes up on 192.168.1.1; flash the TP-Link stock firmware from
there.
Signed-off-by: Emre Yavuzalp <emreyavuzalp2@gmail.com>
Link: https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/23211
Signed-off-by: Jonas Jelonek <jelonek.jonas@gmail.com>
OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. Instead of trying to create a single, static firmware, OpenWrt provides a fully writable filesystem with package management. This frees you from the application selection and configuration provided by the vendor and allows you to customize the device through the use of packages to suit any application. For developers, OpenWrt is the framework to build an application without having to build a complete firmware around it; for users this means the ability for full customization, to use the device in ways never envisioned.
Sunshine!
Download
Built firmware images are available for many architectures and come with a package selection to be used as WiFi home router. To quickly find a factory image usable to migrate from a vendor stock firmware to OpenWrt, try the Firmware Selector.
If your device is supported, please follow the Info link to see install instructions or consult the support resources listed below.
An advanced user may require additional or specific package. (Toolchain, SDK, ...) For everything else than simple firmware download, try the wiki download page:
Development
To build your own firmware you need a GNU/Linux, BSD or macOS system (case sensitive filesystem required). Cygwin is unsupported because of the lack of a case sensitive file system.
Requirements
You need the following tools to compile OpenWrt, the package names vary between distributions. A complete list with distribution specific packages is found in the Build System Setup documentation.
binutils bzip2 diff find flex gawk gcc-6+ getopt grep install libc-dev libz-dev
make4.1+ perl python3.8+ rsync subversion unzip which
Quickstart
-
Run
./scripts/feeds update -ato obtain all the latest package definitions defined in feeds.conf / feeds.conf.default -
Run
./scripts/feeds install -ato install symlinks for all obtained packages into package/feeds/ -
Run
make menuconfigto select your preferred configuration for the toolchain, target system & firmware packages. -
Run
maketo build your firmware. This will download all sources, build the cross-compile toolchain and then cross-compile the GNU/Linux kernel & all chosen applications for your target system.
Related Repositories
The main repository uses multiple sub-repositories to manage packages of
different categories. All packages are installed via the OpenWrt package
manager called opkg. If you're looking to develop the web interface or port
packages to OpenWrt, please find the fitting repository below.
-
LuCI Web Interface: Modern and modular interface to control the device via a web browser.
-
OpenWrt Packages: Community repository of ported packages.
-
OpenWrt Routing: Packages specifically focused on (mesh) routing.
-
OpenWrt Video: Packages specifically focused on display servers and clients (Xorg and Wayland).
Support Information
For a list of supported devices see the OpenWrt Hardware Database
Documentation
Support Community
- Forum: For usage, projects, discussions and hardware advise.
- Support Chat: Channel
#openwrton oftc.net.
Developer Community
- Bug Reports: Report bugs in OpenWrt
- Dev Mailing List: Send patches
- Dev Chat: Channel
#openwrt-develon oftc.net.
License
OpenWrt is licensed under GPL-2.0