Archer C7 v2 vs v5 imagesize

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1

Hi there,
I have (unfortunately) two versions of the Archer C7. One v2 and one v5.
The resulting images are built with the same script, same .config and same feeds
except of

diff owrtv21.02.0_c7v2/bin/targets/ath79/generic/config.buildinfo owrtv21.02.0_c7v5/bin/targets/ath79/generic/config.buildinfo 
3c3
< CONFIG_TARGET_ath79_generic_DEVICE_tplink_archer-c7-v2=y
---
> CONFIG_TARGET_ath79_generic_DEVICE_tplink_archer-c7-v5=y

So I expected, there is not a big difference, also the specs do not show a very big difference.
But the resulting images are of totally different size. How can this be?

It is 16MB vs 8.7MB.

>  ls -hltr owrtv21.02.0_c7v2/bin/targets/ath79/generic/
> total 64M
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 6.1K Sep 8 10:30 config.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 18 Sep 8 10:30 version.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 268 Sep 8 10:30 feeds.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 8.1M Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2-initramfs-kernel.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 8.7M Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 16M Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 16M Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory-us.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 16M Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory-eu.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 7.2K Sep 8 12:21 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v2.manifest
> drwxr-xr-x 2 frood frood 12K Sep 8 12:21 **packages**
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 1020 Sep 8 12:21 sha256sums

>  ls -hltr owrtv21.02.0_c7v5/bin/targets/ath79/generic/
> total 26M
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 6.1K Sep 7 23:11 config.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 18 Sep 7 23:11 version.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 268 Sep 7 23:11 feeds.buildinfo
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 8.1M Sep 8 01:03 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v5-initramfs-kernel.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 8.7M Sep 8 01:03 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v5-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 8.7M Sep 8 01:03 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v5-squashfs-factory.bin
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 7.2K Sep 8 01:03 openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c7-v5.manifest
> drwxr-xr-x 2 frood frood 12K Sep 8 01:03 **packages**
> -rw-r--r-- 1 frood frood 756 Sep 8 01:03 sha256sums
2

Same observation here, too using ImageBuilder of 21.02.0-stable.

3

hint:

CONFIG_TARGET_MULTI_PROFILE=y
CONFIG_TARGET_PER_DEVICE_ROOTFS=y

…would save you a lot of time, by building images for both in one go.

Both devices require a different internal firmware structure, the c7-v2 is using the old style ($(Device/tplink-16mlzma)) with padding for the factory image (look at the sysupgrade image for the actual size), the c7-v5 requires the newer TP-Link safeloader structure ($(Device/tplink-safeloader-uimage)). Different devices (well, revisions sold under the same model name), different (bootloader inherited) partitioning- and firmware structure requirements.

1 Like
4

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