Is there anyone working on OpenWRT for the Netgear Orbi RBR850? I also have an unused set of the prior edition (can't recall the moniker).
I read that these units actually run a heavily modified version of OpenWRT (is that correct?).
I've observed that Netgear seems to move quickly from model-to-model, as does their active development (it seems), so having a third-party replacement firmware would be better for advanced consumers I'd think.
Thanks.
https://fccid.io/PY319200453/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-rev-Part-1-4433134
Search for ipq8074a here at the forum.
Did you get OpenWRT running on the RBR850? I have one left over from adding more access points in a 3-pack, but the router can't be used as an mesh node so I'd love to use it as an OpenWRT router.
I did search for ipq8074a but I'm not sure how to see instructions / compatibility for a chipset? Obviously worried about bricking the device if I follow the instructions for something similar and it's not compatible.
Here are the currently supported IPQ807x devices.
The 850 should be supportable, but you're the person with the device.
Thanks, I'll have a play around but I'm no hardware hacker so I'm very out of my depth. Was hoping for a generic firmware for that chipset or some instructions for creating one, but looks like those firmware version all differ significantly despite being for the same chipset.
Yup, that's the correct conclusion.
If you obtain serial access, you can probably boot an (non destructive) initramfs, but that's only the beginning of the road to getting a device supported.
You can always donate/borrow this router to OpenWrt Devs . RBR850 have additional 2.5Gbit PHY that RBS850 miss
I'd be happy to do so - where could I find out how to do this?
It's on the website https://openwrt.org/donate . I assume that new thread in "For Developers" should be sufficient
Did this unit get donated? I'd love an OpenWRT image for RB*850 series, I won the RBK850 set from a contest and while the wireless coverage and performance is far superior from what I had previously the lack of options in the Netgear UI are disappointing, an OpenWRT image would turn this device into a beast!
but the router can't be used as an mesh node so I'd love to use it as an OpenWRT router.
@cd-slash FYI, it's absolutely possible to use the RBR850 as a mesh node. In fact, almost any Orbi (R) router series node can be converted to an Orbi (S) satellite node. I myself am running a mesh network using an RBR960 hub with RBR850 as a satellite. I found the relevant documentation from an old reddit thread. There is a Github project to enable telnet, should it not work--in my experience, TFTP was already working on my RBR960/RBR850/RBS850s. There are a few shared drive folders that have some of the relevant firmware files (some via the wayback machine), [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. The nmrpflash utility also helped me a lot. I haven't synthesized all of this information into a guide or document, so I don't have a how-to to hand off; but I can say that I have successfully run through the steps and I have a working 4 node mesh/roaming network with an RBR850 as one of the nodes.
I have spent some time poking around the filesystems on my RBK853 and RBKE963 series, and they both have a file /etc/openwrt_release:
RBS850:
DISTRIB_ID='OpenWrt'
DISTRIB_RELEASE='Chaos Calmer'
DISTRIB_REVISION='rtm-4.6.14.3+r49254'
DISTRIB_CODENAME='chaos_calmer'
DISTRIB_TARGET='ipq/ipq807x'
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05.1'
DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all busybox override'
RBRE960:
DISTRIB_ID='OpenWrt'
DISTRIB_RELEASE='Chaos Calmer'
DISTRIB_REVISION='rtm-6.3.7.5+r49254'
DISTRIB_CODENAME='chaos_calmer'
DISTRIB_TARGET='ipq/ipq807x'
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05.1'
DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all busybox override'
I am able to install Entware on each of these, though it's a little broken--but it seems like something that could be fixed with some more time and effort.
I would be happy to order a unit if a developer would like to volunteer to take a look. The hardware donation section just directs back here to find interested devs--is there anything else to do beyond ask who's interested?
Thinking of buying few RBR850.
Did anyone progress with these routers?
I still have one disassembled on my desk 
Its sitting there since a few years already and I managed to run a initramfs-version of OpenWRT on it, but I never really completed the work.
With the SXR80 supported, I’d think it’s just minor edits to a .dts to enable the RBR850? Same SOC, WiFi chips, and flash chip even.
Yes and no, there is more do it. I have it running now, but haven’t had time to upstream all the work. I also have another netgear device that is kinda ready.