Adding Support For Imou HX21

For Developers
1

This router also known as Imou LC-HX3001 is a very affortable router with MediaTek MT7981BA.

Hardware specification:
SoC: MediaTek MT7981B 2x A53
Flash: Foresee F35SQA001G 128 MB SPI-NAND
RAM: 256MB DDR3
Ethernet: 4x 10/100/1000 Mbps
Switch: MediaTek MT7531AE
WiFi: MediaTek MT7976C
Button: Reset, Mesh
Power: DC 12V 1A

SSH access gain method of LC-HX3001 does not working with HX21 so i created a new restore configuration conf for HX21. Also i created a pull request for this device. Lastet Snapshot installed tested.

Gain SSH access:
Method 1:

  1. Connect UART Adapter to the router

  2. UART pins are enabled, set the root password with passwd command start the dropbear instance on port 22

Method 2:

  1. Login into web interface, and restore the router with SSH enabled configuration.

  2. After reboot Default Web interface password will be 12345678 SSH password is empty

SSH enabled conf link below. Thanks

Mega.nz

2

Can you get console boot log (or dmesg from ssh) from the device? There were somfe indecisive attempts to support this device in the past.

3

Here’s the boot log
https://pastebin.com/MgXTEZ6D

4

Looks quite ok.... Can you try to ftftpboot + bootm openwrt iniramfs kernel from a similar filogic device via u-boot?

5

i have complied openwrt snapshot using its previous version LC-HX3001 configs from immortalwrt repo and its working fine and stable.

6

Nice, want to try to port that back to OpenWrt?
https://github.com/immortalwrt/immortalwrt/commit/9777c5e853b6ecb1677c0e138a8a39b07e3bd59a

7

i have already created a pull request here

8

You are too fast...
mega expires, i think youll need to make it a wiki page. (dont tell me you did it before yesterday :rofl: }

9

lol i have never done it before, maybe i will if it got merged.

10

Old thread (maybe somebody willing to test follows it)

11

i tried it and its working fine.

12

I tried it, and everything is good so far, but the WAN LED shows "ON" when not connected.

13

Here’s the Test build hopefully everything should be working

14

very interesting, promising & welcoming device supporting openwrt out-of-the-box ! are there any photos of the internal circuity-board, especially the place where the serial pins reside ?

any estimate on the gains of the additional antenna compared to other similar devices offering only four antennas ?

Edit: there is a picture on the relative page of the device

I noticed that on the OEM bootlog the board used is MediaTek MT7981 RFB

Machine model: MediaTek MT7981 RFB

[ 0.718904] xhci-mtk 11200000.xhci: xHCI Host Controller

[ 0.731730] xhci-mtk 11200000.xhci: Host supports USB 3.2 Enhanced SuperSpeed

while on the OpenWrt bootlog the board used is Imou HX21

[ 0.000000] Machine model: Imou HX21

also under the basic configuration USB port is also mentioned

configure USB port

15

There is not much noticiable gain with that extra antenna and this board doesn’t have an usb port.

17

Screenshot from 2026-10-12 01-39-01
Screenshot from 2026-10-12 01-39-011317×866 64.4 KB

I am trying to flash OpenWrt onto my router (Model: HX21, Software Version: V1.0.6), but when I try to upload the firmware via the stock web interface under "System Settings -> Firmware Update -> Restore Configuration / Manual Update", it throws the following error:

Failed to recover the router because of invalid uploaded files. Please re-upload the file.

It seems the stock firmware is rejecting the custom OpenWrt bin/ssh file.

18

are you referring to https://openwrt.org/toh/imou/hx21 ?

19

Yes, exactly! I am looking into the Imou HX21 device. Since the stock web interface rejects custom binaries with the 'invalid uploaded files' error, what would be the proper workaround or step-by-step approach mentioned in the documentation or community experience to get OpenWrt installed successfully on this model.

20

it would be the page I linked to, or serial.

21

Are you referring to the 'Connect UART Adapter to the router' process?