With an elf loader I could get the initramfs to start unpacking, but it then crashed before it finished.
Trying some things out, I copied the tplink-safeloader-uimage base from the Archer C7-v5, like you've been using. This got me a sysupgrade.bin file that could be booted, so I copied it to flash and tried booting. Can't believe it actually worked!
Or worked somewhat, at least. It can't find the ethernet phy, nor any messages about the qca9982. I'll investigate tomorrow and put my changes on github. That should make it easier to keep track of what's working.
Quite the rabbit hole...
ath> setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.10; setenv serverip 192.168.1.109; tftp 0x80800000 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_eap245-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Trying eth0
dup 1 speed 1000
Using eth0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.109; our IP address is 192.168.1.10
Filename 'openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_eap245-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin'.
Load address: 0x80800000
Loading: #################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#################################################################
#
done
Bytes transferred = 3998491 (3d031b hex)
ath> erase 0x9f0c0000 +$filesize
Erasing flash...
First 0xc last 0x49 sector size 0x10000
73
Erased 62 sectors
ath> cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f0c0000 $filesize
Copy to Flash... write addr: 9f0c0000
done
ath> bootm 0x9f0c0000
## Booting image at 9f0c0000 ...
Image Name: MIPS OpenWrt Linux-4.19.123
Created: 2020-06-07 11:57:24 UTC
Image Type: MIPS Linux Kernel Image (lzma compressed)
Data Size: 1824317 Bytes = 1.7 MB
Load Address: 80060000
Entry Point: 80060000
Verifying Checksum at 0x9f0c0040 ...OK
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
No initrd
## Transferring control to Linux (at address 80060000) ...
## Giving linux memsize in bytes, 134217728
Starting kernel ...
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.19.123 (build@terra) (gcc version 8.4.0 (OpenWrt GCC 8.4.0 r12638+879-132ff90f1d)) #0 Sun Jun 7 11:57:24 2020
[ 0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[ 0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
[ 0.000000] MIPS: machine is TP-Link EAP245 v3
[ 0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA956X ver 1 rev 0
[ 0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[ 0.000000] memory: 08000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[ 0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[ 0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[ 0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[ 0.000000] Zone ranges:
[ 0.000000] Normal [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[ 0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[ 0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[ 0.000000] node 0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[ 0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000007ffffff]
[ 0.000000] random: get_random_bytes called from start_kernel+0x98/0x4a8 with crng_init=0
[ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 32480
[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200n8 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2
[ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[ 0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[ 0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[ 0.000000] Memory: 122360K/131072K available (4326K kernel code, 177K rwdata, 1032K rodata, 1240K init, 206K bss, 8712K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[ 0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[ 0.000000] NR_IRQS: 51
[ 0.000000] CPU clock: 775.000 MHz
[ 0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 4932285024 ns
[ 0.000007] sched_clock: 32 bits at 387MHz, resolution 2ns, wraps every 5541893118ns
[ 0.008223] Calibrating delay loop... 385.02 BogoMIPS (lpj=770048)
[ 0.046730] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[ 0.051788] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.058779] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.070420] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 7645041785100000 ns
[ 0.080730] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[ 0.087294] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[ 0.093705] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[ 0.127433] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[ 0.133829] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[ 0.139185] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.147348] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.154715] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.161429] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[ 0.168256] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.174464] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[ 0.181439] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[ 0.189013] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[ 0.196105] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=15 bucket_order=1
[ 0.208859] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[ 0.215054] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[ 0.237628] io scheduler noop registered
[ 0.241815] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[ 0.249009] pinctrl-single 1804002c.pinmux: 544 pins, size 68
[ 0.256115] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[ 0.263549] console [ttyS0] disabled
[ 0.267339] 18020000.uart: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 9, base_baud = 1562500) is a 16550A
[ 0.276457] console [ttyS0] enabled
[ 0.276457] console [ttyS0] enabled
[ 0.284018] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[ 0.284018] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[ 0.308143] m25p80 spi0.0: w25q128 (16384 Kbytes)
[ 0.313098] 10 fixed-partitions partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[ 0.319762] Creating 10 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[ 0.324821] 0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "factory-boot"
[ 0.331265] 0x000000040000-0x000000080000 : "u-boot"
[ 0.337171] 0x000000080000-0x000000090000 : "partition-table"
[ 0.343925] 0x000000090000-0x0000000a0000 : "info"
[ 0.349623] 0x0000000a0000-0x0000000b0000 : "art"
[ 0.355255] 0x0000000b0000-0x0000000c0000 : "extra-para"
[ 0.361479] 0x0000000c0000-0x000000f00000 : "firmware"
[ 0.372030] 2 uimage-fw partitions found on MTD device firmware
[ 0.378198] Creating 2 MTD partitions on "firmware":
[ 0.383349] 0x000000000000-0x0000001bd67d : "kernel"
[ 0.389203] 0x0000001bd67d-0x000000e40000 : "rootfs"
[ 0.395043] mtd: device 8 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[ 0.402380] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[ 0.408843] 0x0000003d0000-0x000000e40000 : "rootfs_data"
[ 0.415159] 0x000000f00000-0x000000f30000 : "config"
[ 0.421043] 0x000000f30000-0x000000fb0000 : "mutil-log"
[ 0.427226] 0x000000fb0000-0x000000ff0000 : "oops"
[ 0.433774] libphy: GPIO Bitbanged MDIO: probed
[ 0.438688] mdio_bus gpio-0: MDIO device at address 0 is missing.
[ 0.446180] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[ 0.784514] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
[ 0.792532] i2c /dev entries driver
[ 0.797871] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[ 0.806307] Segment Routing with IPv6
[ 0.810247] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[ 0.814941] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[ 0.820218] PCI host bridge /ahb/pcie-controller@18250000 ranges:
[ 0.826576] MEM 0x0000000012000000..0x0000000013ffffff
[ 0.831987] IO 0x0000000000000000..0x0000000000000000
[ 0.837567] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[ 0.841844] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x12000000-0x13ffffff]
[ 0.848959] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io 0x0000]
[ 0.854729] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [??? 0x00000000 flags 0x0]
[ 0.861753] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[ 0.870198] pci 0000:00:00.0: 2.000 Gb/s available PCIe bandwidth, limited by 2.5 GT/s x1 link at 0000:00:00.0 (capable of 4.000 Gb/s with 5 GT/s x1 link)
[ 0.885409] pci 0000:00:00.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x12000000-0x121fffff 64bit]
[ 1.163430] random: fast init done
[ 1.208506] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
[ 1.532500] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
[ 1.544675] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:8.
[ 1.558937] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1240K
[ 1.563643] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[ 1.570303] Run /sbin/init as init process
[ 2.221195] init: Console is alive
[ 2.224990] init: - watchdog -
[ 2.938200] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[ 3.002698] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[ 3.020621] init: - preinit -
[ 3.437947] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
[ 3.891788] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[ 3.994012] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[ 4.092608] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
Failed to connect to the switch. Use the "list" command to see which switches are available.
Failed to connect to the switch. Use the "list" command to see which switches are available.
Failed to connect to the switch. Use the "list" command to see which switches are available.
Failed to connect to the switch. Use the "list" command to see which switches are available.
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
[ 8.794736] mount_root: Could not open mtd device: /dev/mtd9
[ 8.800730] mount_root: reading rootfs_data failed
[ 8.806233] mount_root: Could not open mtd device: /dev/mtd8
[ 8.812216] mount_root: reading rootfs failed
[ 8.816836] mount_root: mounting /dev/root
[ 8.823250] urandom-seed: Seed file not found (/etc/urandom.seed)
[ 8.911251] procd: - early -
[ 8.914385] procd: - watchdog -
[ 9.535544] procd: - watchdog -
[ 9.539054] procd: - ubus -
[ 9.563542] urandom_read: 5 callbacks suppressed
[ 9.563549] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[ 9.646665] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[ 9.654567] procd: - init -
Please press Enter to activate this console.
[ 10.251476] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[ 10.403716] Loading modules backported from Linux version v5.7-rc3-0-g6a8b55ed4056
[ 10.411580] Backport generated by backports.git v5.7-rc3-1-0-gc0c7d2bb
[ 10.473685] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[ 10.613897] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[ 10.628414] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[ 10.636170] urngd: v1.0.2 started.
[ 10.748467] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9561 Rev:0 mem=0xb8100000, irq=2
[ 10.831799] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[ 10.960559] random: crng init done
[ 11.080964] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
BusyBox v1.31.1 () built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r12638+879-132ff90f1d
-----------------------------------------------------
=== WARNING! =====================================
There is no root password defined on this device!
Use the "passwd" command to set up a new password
in order to prevent unauthorized SSH logins.
--------------------------------------------------
root@(none):/#