Adding OpenWrt support for Zyxel EX5601-T0

psherman · 2024-12-23T07:07:16.381Z

2 posts were split to a new topic: No internet access behind Ex5601-T0 router

senso · 2024-12-23T23:57:48.860Z

Just ordered one of theses (the ODIDO T56 version).
How is WiFi coverage? And anyone has full PCB photos, kinda curious to see how the antennas look like.
I'm currently running openWrt on a Xiaomi AX6S, flashed back when a serial cable was needed, so I expect this one to not be too problematic to get up and running.

Finally, is there any tutorial on how to go from the stock layout to the openWRT u-boot layout?

Best regards.

frollic · 2024-12-24T04:32:29.819Z

senso:

Just ordered one of theses (the ODIDO T56 version).
...
is there any tutorial on how to go from the stock layout to the openWRT u-boot layout?

Scroll back some 15 posts.

peca89 · 2024-12-26T10:31:01.370Z

How are 2x2.5G and 3x1G Ethernet ports wired in this device? I see that MT7986a has only two HSGMII ports (2.5G), so I would assume one is exposed as a WAN port and the other is connected to a switch (MT7531 ?). Or is the architecture different?

What I'm really interested in is whether I could get a linerate LAN switching between 2.5G ports?

bmork · 2024-12-26T15:03:39.667Z

peca89:

How are 2x2.5G and 3x1G Ethernet ports wired in this device?

You can see this in the dts:

github.com

openwrt/openwrt/blob/main/target/linux/mediatek/dts/mt7986a-zyxel-ex5601-t0-common.dtsi

// SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0 OR MIT)
/*
 * Copyright (C) 2021 MediaTek Inc.
 * Author: Sam.Shih <sam.shih@mediatek.com>
 */

#include "mt7986a.dtsi"
#include <dt-bindings/gpio/gpio.h>
#include <dt-bindings/input/input.h>
#include <dt-bindings/leds/common.h>

/ {
	aliases {
		serial0 = &uart0;
		label-mac-device = &gmac0;
		led-boot = &led_status_green;
		led-failsafe = &led_status_red;
		led-running = &led_status_green;
		led-upgrade = &led_status_red;
	};

This file has been truncated. show original

phy6 is connected to gmac1 and phy5 is connected to switch port@5. Switch ports 1, 2 and 3 are using the internal 1G phys. Switch port@6 connects to gmac0 by a fixed 2.5G mac-mac link.

peca89:

What I'm really interested in is whether I could get a linerate LAN switching between 2.5G ports?

So, no switching between the 2.5G ports. But you should still be able to achieve linerate or pretty close (based on my experience with the similar EX5700).

Jip-Hop · 2024-12-29T09:14:19.707Z

bmork:

So, no switching between the 2.5G ports.

Does that mean the WAN port is useless for a Dumb AP use case? That would explain why I can’t use the WAN port to connect to my main router and the remaining 4 LAN ports for different VLANs.

bmork · 2024-12-29T12:24:10.652Z

Jip-Hop:

Does that mean the WAN port is useless for a Dumb AP use case?

No. It just means that bridging between WAN and LAN is a software feature.

Jip-Hop · 2025-01-01T16:04:30.244Z

I'm trying to turn as many LEDs off as possible on this router. But the 2.5G WAN LED is always on (when a cable is connected to the 2.5G WAN port). Has anyone successfully disabled this LED as well?

skyscreaper · 2025-01-01T16:23:52.109Z

2.5 front wan led is managed by the phy itself hence is hardcoded into the DTS.

You need to use mdio-tools to interact with the phy and shut it down.

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

mediatek: add support for Zyxel EX5601-T0 router

Commit by

pameruoso - mediatek: Add support for Zyxel EX5601-T0 with stock partitioning

openwrt:master ← pameruoso:ex5601-t0

Zyxel EX5601-T0 specifics -------------- The operator specific firmware running …on the Zyxel branded EX5601-T0 includes U-Boot modifications affecting the OpenWrt installation. Partition Table | dev | size | erasesize | name | | ---- | -------- | --------- | ------------- | | mtd0 | 20000000 | 00040000 | "spi0.1" | | mtd1 | 00100000 | 00040000 | "BL2" | | mtd2 | 00080000 | 00040000 | "u-boot-env" | | mtd3 | 00200000 | 00040000 | "Factory" | | mtd4 | 001c0000 | 00040000 | "FIP" | | mtd5 | 00040000 | 00040000 | "zloader" | | mtd6 | 04000000 | 00040000 | "ubi" | | mtd7 | 04000000 | 00040000 | "ubi2" | | mtd8 | 15a80000 | 00040000 | "zyubi" | The router boots BL2 which than loads FIP (u-boot). U-boot has hardcoded a command to always launch Zloader "mtd read zloader 0x46000000" and than "bootm". Bootargs are deactivated. Zloader is the zyxel booloader which allow to dual-boot ubi or ubi2, by default access to zloader is blocked. Too zloader checks that the firmware contains a particolar file called zyfwinfo. Additional details regarding Zloader can be found here: https://hack-gpon.github.io/zyxel/ https://forum.openwrt.org/t/adding-openwrt-support-for-zyxel-ex5601-t0/155914 Hardware -------- SOC: MediaTek MT7986a CPU: 4 core cortex-a53 (2000MHz) RAM: 1GB DDR4 FLASH: 512MB SPI-NAND (Micron xxx) WIFI: Wifi6 Mediatek MT7976 802.11ax 5 GHz 4x4 + 2.4GHZ 4x4 ETH: MediaTek MT7531 Switch + SoC 3 x builtin 1G phy (lan1, lan2, lan3) 1 x MaxLinear GPY211B 2.5 N-Base-T phy5 (lan4) 1 x MaxLinear GPY211B 2.5Gbit xor SFP/N-Base-T phy6 (wan) USB: 1 x USB 3.2 Enhanced SuperSpeed port UART: 3V3 115200 8N1 (Pinout: GND KEY RX TX VCC) VOIP: 2 FXS ports for analog phones MAC Address Table ----------------- eth0/lan Factory 0x002a eth1/wan Factory 0x0024 wifi 2.4Ghz Factory 0x0004 wifi 5Ghz Factory 0x0004 + 1 Serial console (UART) --------------------- +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ | +3.3V | RX | TX | KEY | GND | +---+---+-------+-------+-------+-------+ | +--- Don't connect Installation ------------ Keep in mind that openwrt can only run on the UBI partition, the openwrt firmware is not able to understand the zloader bootargs. The procedure allows restoring the UBI partition with the Zyxel firmware and retains all the OEM functionalities. 1. Unlock Zloader (this will allow to swap manually between partitions UBI and UBI2): - Attach a usb-ttl adapter to your computer and boot the router. - While the router is booting at some point you will read the following: `Please press Enter to activate this console.` - As soon as you read that press enter, type root and than press enter again (just do it, don't care about the logs scrolling). - Most likely the router is still printing the boot log, leave it boot until it stops. - If everything went ok you should have full root access "root@EX5601-T0:/#". - Type the following command and press enter: "fw_setenv EngDebugFlag 0x1". - Reboot the router. - As soon as you read `Hit any key to stop autoboot:` press Enter. - If everything went ok you should have the following prompt: "ZHAL>". - You have successfully unlocked zloader access, this procedure must be done only once. 2. Check the current active partition: - Boot the router and repeat the steps above to gain root access. - Type the following command to check the current active image: "cat /proc/cmdline". - If `rootubi=ubi` it means that the active partition is `mtd6` - If `rootubi=ubi2` it means that the active partition is `mtd7` - As mentioned earlier we need to flash openwrt into ubi/mtd6 and never overwrite ubi2/mtd7 to be able to fully roll-back. - To activate and boot from mtd7 (ubi2) enter into ZHAL> command prompt and type the following commands: atbt 1 # unlock write atsw # swap boot partition atsr # reboot the router - After rebooting check again with "cat /proc/cmdline" that you are correctly booting from mtd7/ubi2 - If yes proceed with the installation guide. If not probably you don't have a firmware into ubi2 or you did something wrong. 3. Flashing: - Download the sysupgrade file for the router from openwrt, than we need to add the zyfwinfo file into the sysupgrade tar. Zloader only checks for the magic (which is a fixed value 'EXYZ') and the crc of the file itself (256bytes). I created a script to create a valid zyfwinfo file but you can use anything that does exactly the same: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pameruoso/OpenWRT-Zyxel-EX5601-T0/main/gen_zyfwinfo.sh - Add the zyfwinfo file into the sysupgrade tar. - Enter via telnet or ssh into the router with admin credentials - Enter the following commands to disable the firmware and model checks "zycli fwidcheck off" and "zycli modelcheck off" - Open the router web interface and in the update firmware page select the "restore default settings option" - Select the sysupgrade file and click on upload. - The router will flash and reboot itself into openwrt from UBI 4. Restoring and going back to Zyxel firmware. - Use the ZHAL> command line to manually swap the boot parition to UBI2 with the following: atbt 1 # unlock write atsw # swap boot partition atsr # reboot the router - You will boot again the Zyxel firmware you have into UBI2 and you can flash the zyxel firmware to overwrite the UBI partition and openwrt. Working features ---------------- 3 gbit lan ports Wifi Zyxel partitioning for coexistance with Zloader and dual boot. WAN SFP port (only after exporting pins 57 and 10. gpiobase411) leds reset button serial interface usb port lan ethernet 2.5 gbit port (autosense) wan ethernet 2.5 gbit port (autosense) Not working ---------------- voip (missing drivers or proper zyxel platform software) Swapping the wan ethernet/sfp xor port ---------------- The way to swap the wan port between sfp and ethernet is the following: export the pins 57 and 10. Pin 57 is used to probe if an sfp is present. If pin 57 value is 0 it means that an sfp is present into the cage (cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio468/value). If pin 57 value is 1 it means that no sfp is inserted into the cage. In conclusion by default both 57 an 10 pins are by default 1, which means that the active port is the ethernet one. After inserting an SFP pin 57 will become 0 and you have to manually change the value of pin 10 to 0 too. This is totally scriptable of course. Leds description ------------ All the leds are working out of the box but the leds managed by the 2 maxlinear phy (phy 5 lan, phy6 wan). To activate the phy5 led (rj45 ethernet port led on the back of the router) you have to use mdio-tools. To activate the phy6 led (led on the front of the router for 2.5gbit link) you have to use mdio-tools. Example: Set lan5 led to fast blink on 2500/1000, slow blink on 10/100: mdio mdio-bus mmd 5:30 raw 0x0001 0x33FC Set wan 2.5gbit led to constant on when wan is 2.5gbit: mdio mdio-bus mmd 6:30 raw 0x0001 0x0080 Signed-off-by: Pietro Ameruoso <p.ameruoso@live.it>

Look into the git commit in the leds description.

madkevo · 2025-01-02T21:08:17.393Z

I spent a lot of time trying to install OpenWrt 23.05.5 on my EX5601 T1 and kept getting blocked when trying to use APK instead of OPKG to install the images as OPKG is not supported on the base 23.05.5 image*. In the end I was able to go ahead an use OPKG on 24.10.0-rc4, it went very smoothly. I read some things about snapshot potentially being an important factor with 23.05.5 but I didn't want to give it any more than the 12 hours already invested in trying to get it to work. I hope this helps anyone stuck in the same situation. It felt to me like version 24.10 is fixing a major issue with 23.05 while not really stating it in those (clearer) terms. I'd be happy to be wrong on that one.
I'm extremely happy with OpenWRT on the EX-5601-T1, an Odido T56 I picked up for very little money - the ISP supplied one is factory reset and placed back in the box!
Another observation is that the public IPv4 address is now on my modem, the ISP software on the T-56 seemed to have a NATted 10.x.x.x address - anyone else see that on Odido NL on fibre ?
/MK

*maybe I was misunderstanding something, I dunno.

Bartvz · 2025-01-02T21:34:43.654Z

Sounds like you had a botched 23.05 image. To my knowledge those only come with opkg. Maybe you had an 24.0 RC image with apk?

madkevo:

Another observation is that the public IPv4 address is now on my modem, the ISP software on the T-56 seemed to have a NATted 10.x.x.x address - anyone else see that on Odido NL on fibre ?

That is seriously weird. I just get a public IPv4 address and that's it, using some very simple settings. Here is my config (/etc/config/network)

config interface 'wan'
        option device 'eth1.300'
        option proto 'dhcp'

config device
        option type '8021q'
        option ifname 'eth1'
        option vid '300'
        option name 'eth1.300'
        option ipv6 '0'

madkevo · 2025-01-02T22:04:30.670Z

Hi Bart, my mistake, the IPv4 public address was indeed the same, I had just looked at the management VLAN address on the Odido provided firmware (I took the router out of the box again )
I will investigate the 23.05 situation further, I had downloaded the images more than once, both downloaded and loaded via macOS and Windows.
Cheers,
MK

PS our /etc/config/network is identical, even down to disabling IPv6 (because, Odido lol).

Bartvz · 2025-01-02T22:31:27.147Z

I would not bother with 23.05 and install a snapshot. More stable then people tend to think and you get improvements to the wireless stack among other improvements earlier then on stable branch.
Always good advice to keep a known good build and configuration at hand though.

madkevo · 2025-01-02T22:32:10.231Z

More info:

this was to install the base image on MacOS:

./mtk_uartboot-v0.1.1-aarch64-apple-darwin/mtk_uartboot -s /dev/cu.usbserial-0001 --aarch64 -p mt7986-ram-ddr4-bl2.bin -f openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-zyxel_ex5601-t0-ubootmod-bl31-uboot.fip

I also renamed the file as openwrt-mediatek-filogic-zyxel_ex5601-t0-ubootmod-bl31-uboot.fip

MD5 on this was:
MD5 (openwrt-23.05.5-mediatek-filogic-zyxel_ex5601-t0-ubootmod-bl31-uboot.fip) = c3a5e19128fde3759c6c334af694882e

The kmod-mtd-rw that I tried to install/load (renamed without version info), via app as opkg was not on the system:
MD5 (kmod-mtd-rw_5.15.150+git-20160214-2_aarch64_cortex-a53.ipk) = d72ff8816c9bc4f5892db8812038fd4b

Bartvz · 2025-01-02T23:36:03.124Z

Ah, I also ran into that but you can force install it with some flags. I will update the wiki tomorrow.

Edit: and it is added to the wiki. For the people wondering what the flags are over here: --force-non-repository --allow-untrusted, e.g.: apk add --force-non-repository --allow-untrusted *.apk (where * is the name of the apk you want to install).

psherman · 2025-01-05T23:15:48.345Z

9 posts were split to a new topic: OpenWrt Support for WX5600

iisquazar · 2025-01-05T09:55:39.455Z

Many thanks for the how to Page. Managed to flash my T-56.
Somehow only the FDTP method used in the AX6S guide worked for me, using another IP-address and the right files off-course:
https://openwrt.org/toh/xiaomi/ax3200#debricking

fralk · 2025-01-06T18:47:01.756Z

Hello, there is any way to install OpenWrt in the T-56 and retain the original firmware in UBI2? As far as I (poorly) understood the mtk_uartboot method wipe out both partition and create a single one

frollic · 2025-01-06T19:19:45.976Z

fralk:

Hello, there is any way to install OpenWrt in the T-56 and retain the original firmware in UBI2?

you can create a dump when you've booted the initramfs, then try to restore it, if needed.

Thomas5401 · 2025-01-07T14:50:17.056Z

Hi all,

Thanks to this topic, I've managed to boot the Zyxel stock firmware from RAM. Even though my goal was not to run OpenWRT, this topic has been very helpful as the information here is relevant in both cases, so thanks to all contributors! Through running the ACDZ firmware in RAM, I could even install it to flash, but due to signature checks, it won't boot. However, somewhere in the OpenWRT installation process, you have to replace the bootloader. I'd like to try and replace the Odido (formerly T-Mobile) bootloader with the stock bootloader using this method.
So my question is: is there anyone here with a non-branded EX5601 willing to share their zloader? As far as I can tell, it does not contain any 'personal' information such as serial number or MAC address.
Thanks in advance!