Amped ALLY - Wireless Settings

llaub01 · February 10, 2022, 11:29pm

Hi all,

My local Microcenter had the Amped Wireless ALLY 1200 systems selling for <$10 a year or 2 ago so I bought a couple. Just recently I was able to get the OpenWRT v21.02.1 for the r1900 installed via TFTP and functioning on all units (master and extender units) but I don't know that functionality is where it needs to be to be a daily use system in my household. I don't have the option to change any Wireless settings, unless I'm missing a setup step or something somewhere.

Any other ALLY users out there who have had success and using this system to it's fullest capabilities?

jonathans · July 23, 2022, 11:35pm

Sorry just saw this. There's an issue with the initramfs images that needs to be patched before the 2nd step (sysupgrade) will work. Once you sysupgrade successfully, all of the drivers are there, the wifi works, and your settings can be saved.
There's a 1-time fix to work around this. Log in via SSH, and edit /lib/upgrade/platform.sh. Change:

	ampedwireless,ally-00x19k|\
	ampedwireless,ally-r1900k)
		if [ "$(fw_printenv --lock / -n bootImage 2>/dev/null)" != "0" ]; then
			fw_setenv --lock / bootImage 0 || exit 1
		fi
		;;

to:

	ampedwireless,ally-00x19k|\
	ampedwireless,ally-r1900k)
		if [ "$(strings /dev/mtd1 | grep -c bootImage=0)" != "1" ]; then
			dd if=/dev/mtd1 of=/tmp/mtd1.tmp bs=1c
			sed -i 's/bootImage=./bootImage=0/g' /tmp/mtd1.tmp
			mtd -e /dev/mtd1 write /tmp/mtd1.tmp /dev/mtd1
		fi
		;;

Once you do this, you can install the sysupgrade image and will be fine going forward.

HTH

jonathans · September 6, 2022, 2:49am

A more appropriate patch for /lib/upgrade/platform.sh for 21.02.x:

	ampedwireless,ally-00x19k|\
	ampedwireless,ally-r1900k)
		if [ "$(grep -c bootImage=0 /dev/mtd1)" != "1" ]; then
			mtd erase u-boot-env
		fi
		;;

This resets the uboot environment, which has the side effect of setting bootImage=0.

22.03.0 also just came out, but the patch for this hadn't been finalized & merged so it does not work (see PR here). For now, please build 22.03.0 from scratch, with the PR, to get working images.

Energyx · January 24, 2023, 3:53pm

Manually applying the change to the script works fine for me, but for some reason the only version I can seem to get to install via U-Boot, or sysupgrade after the patch, is 21.02.0.

When I try other versions in the 21 and 22 branch U-Boot gets a checksum error, and if I try to sysupgrade to one of the other versions from 21.02.0 I get the "lzma error 1 - must reset board to recover" after if flashes.

I am able to recover either back to stock or 21.02.0 with U-Boot and I have serial access. From what I've read, the LZMA error is usually an issue with how the kernel is compressed in the build. Why would that vary from 21.02.0 to 21.02.5 or the 22 builds?

This is technically the ALLY-R2100k, but all of their mesh products from this generation have the exact same hardware and FCC IDs. Even the firmware I got from support back in 2020 was for the 1900.

Thanks

edit: I was able to get 21.02.5 installed, but 22 still fails even after patching the platform.sh script.

jonathans · January 24, 2023, 11:22pm

Thanks for the info.
I've been away from the Amped devices for a bit but will try to get back to them. My understanding is that the root of the problem is often the proprietary U-boot builds the OEMs use. So AFAIK we may be just hitting the image size limit of the Amped devices' U-boot. I'll check into it though and report back.

Energyx · January 25, 2023, 3:40pm

Thanks for your work in these. I hate throw them out seeing the vendor abandoned them out of the gate, and the radios are pretty solid. If there's anything you need me to check on them, just let me know.

jonathans · February 6, 2023, 2:34pm

I'd done some work months ago to get 22.03 working, and have validated that it still works. You'll have to build an image by hand however. The high level steps:

Checkout/clone the 22.03 branch.
Apply this PR.
Add this line to mt7621.mk
Edit this line in mt7621.mk.
Follow normal instructions for building images from scratch.

Even with that, the initramfs images are sometimes rejected via TFTP. But I find that usually one of them works, so if the Router initramfs fails, try the Extender image. Once you get either initramfs image in there, you can force a sysupgrade to the proper image from LuCI. I ran into this myself yesterday, and used the router initramfs to get the extender going, then sysupgraded to the full extender image.

HTH

vrjram · December 23, 2024, 1:36pm

Hi @jonathans Thank you for your contributions to this device. I found new interest in this device i had from long back lying around in my house and was wondering what is the latest build that is supported on this device. Please advise.

The latest firmware i was able to setup is 21.02.2

Thank you

jonathans · December 26, 2024, 1:42am

Hi @vrjram, thanks for the ping.
22.03.x and 23.05.x work fine on the Amped Wireless devices, but currently you have to build images from scratch. The openwrt.org builds don't work, and you've reminded me I have a patch I need to submit to fix that.
In the meantime, if you want to build from scratch, just patch 2 lines of target/linux/ramips/image/mt7621.mk:

 define Device/ampedwireless_ally_common
   $(Device/nand)
+  $(Device/uimage-lzma-loader)
   DEVICE_VENDOR := Amped Wireless
   DEVICE_PACKAGES := kmod-mt7615-firmware
   IMAGE_SIZE := 32768k
-  KERNEL_INITRAMFS := $(KERNEL_DTB) | uImage lzma -n 'flashable-initramfs' |\
+  KERNEL_INITRAMFS := $(KERNEL_DTB) | loader-kernel | lzma | uImage lzma -n 'flashable-initramfs' |\
        edimax-header -s CSYS -m RN68 -f 0x001c0000 -S 0x01100000
 endef

I just built 23.05.5 from scratch with that patch and it works fine.

HTH and let me know how it goes.

jonathans · December 27, 2024, 2:59am

Submitted a new PR for the Amped Wireless devices today that enables the loader-kernel; see 17389.

EDIT: PR merged today, 1-Jan-2025, so 24.10 images built after today should work.

EDIT: Tested 24.10.1-rc5 today, doing a normal 2-stage installation for this device and it worked fine.

jonathans · December 27, 2024, 2:52pm

Also FWIW I had a test r1900k with 22.03.0 on it and upgraded that to 23.05.5 via the GUI without any issues. Both images had been built from source with the lzma-loader patch.

I can provide 23.05.5 images for Amped ALLY r1900k and 00x19k devices if need be. You'll still need to do the 2-stage installation process (flash the initramfs first via TFTP recovery, then use the GUI to finish the install with sysupgrade).