19.07 on WDR-3500: no ath79 build?

[zorxd]

Hello

I noticed there is no 19.07 ath79 build for the WDR-3500. There is an ar71xx image.
I find it strange since the WDR-3600, which is almost identical (100 Mbps switch replaced for gigabit) has both ath79 and ar71xx builds.

Should I flash the ar71xx file or wait for an upcoming ath79 to be released?
Any chance the WDR-3600 file would work on the WDR-3500?

thanks

[slh]

@zorxd

Should I flash the ar71xx file or wait for an upcoming ath79 to be released?

First of all, yes - you should update, if there is no ath79 image, your only option will be ar71xx.

@zorxd

Any chance the WDR-3600 file would work on the WDR-3500?

No, that would (even if the router would accept the wrong image) brick the device - as the devices are not the same (the different switch needs its own configuration, force-flashing the wrong image would end up without any ethernet support).

@zorxd

I find it strange since the WDR-3600, which is almost identical

It's not really strange at all, porting device support requires someone with the device on their desk to actually work on it - and the tl-wdr3500 was a much less attractive (and therefore less common) device than the tl-wdr3600 for just about the same retail price (about a fiver difference). Buying the tl-wdr3500 instead of the tl-wdr3600 has never really been worth it, unless it was bought in quantities (>5) and only intended to be used as AP (with no focus on wired routing).

20.xx.0 won't ship with ar71xx anymore (the target is pending removal), so unless someone (you?!) does the necessary porting work, the tl-wdr3500 will cease to be supported. The porting work shouldn't be too difficult (because of the existing support for the tl-wdr3600), but might still face some issues because of the different (uncommon) switch setup.

[zorxd]

Thanks, I'll look into it.

[kofec]

Maybe it will be safer to install snapshoot:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ath79/generic/openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_tl-wdr3500-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

i'm using it and it is fine.

I also have uboot: https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod

[juppin]

@zorxd

I find it strange since the WDR-3600, which is almost identical (100 Mbps switch replaced for gigabit) has both ath79 and ar71xx builds.

This is because it´s one of the first ported devices to ath79 and it´s very popular...

[zorxd]

OK so the supporting code was done, just not in time for 19.07.
Does that mean it will be included in 19.07.1 or it will have to wait for the next major release (20 or 21)?

[juppin]

Next major release as the stable releases only get security fixes.