Add support for a device that is impossible to flash without console access

Hi All hope everyone is keeping safe.

I have managed for a while now to build openwrt for my device (DIR-853-A3). It is working well thanks to the work done by others.

Since the last few commits done on the master tree now to add the device to the official openwrt it is basically just a DTS plus another additions to 3 files.

My issue is that the device cannot be flashed without accessing the console. and to do that it needs to be open and have 3 pins soldered. The reset button option found in other devices does not work.

My question is: Will the openwrt maintainers accept such device to be added to the list?

I did manage to flash from the factory image though. This is using a binary called imgcrypt that I found in the official dlink sources. I guess they left it by mistake as it is only available in a single version of the source code.

K.

I think that should not be an issue as long as it's clearly documented in your commit message. There's multiple devices (commit 0c24b363a6 e.g.) that require UART access and have been added.

As for the D-link binary you need, no idea how to go about it. You can ask on the mailing list when you send in your patch maybe?

Thanks again @Borromini, as usual you very helpful.

I will have a look at the commit.

In fact there are 2 parts for this. The first one is that the dlink source code for my device (and all the new dlink ones with mt7621) use a modified mkimage and the source code is available from dlink. Instead of padding the uboot with 00 like in openwrt it actually appends other details like the model number and version etc. This is used by the stock firmware to check that it is flashing the correct version.

This is a hexdump of the stock image decrypted and openwrt

00000000  27 05 19 56 4b 77 d5 e8  5c 6e 6f d1 01 05 30 d2  |'..VKw..\no...0.|
00000010  80 00 10 00 80 64 31 b0  8a fa 80 57 05 05 02 03  |.....d1....W....|
00000020  4c 69 6e 75 78 20 4b 65  72 6e 65 6c 20 49 6d 61  |Linux Kernel Ima|
00000030  67 65 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |ge..............|
00000040  44 49 52 2d 38 35 33 2f  45 54 00 00 00 00 00 00  |DIR-853/ET......|
00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
00000080  56 31 2e 30 35 42 37 31  44 32 36 00 00 00 00 00  |V1.05B71D26.....|
00000090  41 33 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |A3..............|
000000a0  5d 00 00 00 02 c0 39 5e  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 6f  |].....9^.......o|

00000000  27 05 19 56 7e e8 bf 96  5f 2d 65 9f 00 26 29 18  |'..V~..._-e..&).|
00000010  80 00 10 00 80 00 10 00  34 27 d3 6d 05 05 02 03  |........4'.m....|
00000020  4d 49 50 53 20 4f 70 65  6e 57 72 74 20 4c 69 6e  |MIPS OpenWrt Lin|
00000030  75 78 2d 35 2e 34 2e 35  32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |ux-5.4.52.......|
00000040  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000000a0  6d 00 00 20 00 60 44 7c  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 6f  |m.. .`D|.......o|
000000b0  fd ff ff a3 b7 7f fa 98  4f ba 9b e6 d9 b5 e8 9b  |........O.......|
000000c0  ad d0 cd 9c 17 05 19 f9  23 e4 c6 11 cf 3d c6 03  |........#....=..|
000000d0  e3 52 8e 0a 3c 7d 18 b9  ad 8c 3e 70 5b 83 81 4a  |.R..<}....>p[..J|

The second part is the imgcrypt is a 32bit binary and no source code is availble for it (at least in all versions of dir-853, 1360, 878...etc.

I am not sure how to go about it or if its even worth the change just to move from factory to openwrt. I am also not the best suitble candidate for the task I will leave the details here in case someone needs them.

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