How to install LEDE on TP-Link Archer C7 V4 (EU) AC1750 Dual Band Wireless Gigabit Router?
Also how to use it after installing LEDE?
What are the improvements in Archer C7 with LEDE?
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Thanks. What are the benefits of installing LEDE?
When stable release will be issued for Archer C7 V.4?
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It is Snapshot - which is NOT stable!
You'll need to look for other 3rd party firmware.
Good luck.
Which are?
When the steady LEDE for Archer C7 V.4 will be issued?
Since support for this device has not yet been committed to the 17.01 branch, nobody can tell you when stable support will be available.
What can be said as per today: Support for Archer C7 v4 will not be part of 17.01.5.
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I am asking about Archer C7 V.4 (EU)
As @tmomas (who knows what he is talking about) mentioned above, there will not be any support for the Archer C7 v4 in the next stable release...EU or otherwise.
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@led1, even though there is no stable release with support for the Archer C7 v.4, I would recommend you give a nightly snapshot a try. The basic installation instructions are the same as for a stable release, with the exception that a web interface is not included. To add a web interface, SSH to the fresh installation and run the following commands:
opkg update
opkg install luci
You can also use opkg install luci-ssl to enable SSL encryption.
It is possible that there is a problem with the current nightly snapshot, but I would imagine that will be fixed shortly.
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What is SSH?
Any chance of releasing stable release for Archer C7 V.4 (EU) in the near future?
Just for my understanding on when a device is fully supported: the kernel has to be on the same version as the stable release. So since the C7 v4 is running trunk and kernel 4.9 it will not be back ported but only officially supported until the stable version catches up to the trunk kernel??
I happen to have both a C7 v2 and v4. Compiling my own images anyway, but just wondering about the background on which device support is based.
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@led1, SSH is an encrypted remote command prompt. Telnet provides similar functionality, but is not encrypted.
On Windows, you can use PuTTY to establish an SSH connection.
Regarding when a stable release will be available, I would assume it will be included in the 18.x release, which means sometime in 2018. The version numbers indicate the release date, so 17.01.0 was released in January of 2017. 17.01.5 will be released soon, which is the fifth maintenance release of the 17.01 series. I do not know of any projected release date for 18.x, but I assume it will release when it is ready (TM), which is a whole lot better than putting it out there before it is ready and causing a bunch of headaches.
Can it be confirmed conclusively that the standard installation process works for the v4. i.e. a simple factory firmware upgrade, selecting the appropriate Lede firmware bin file.
The reason I ask is that, for the v2, Tp-Link added a verification process into the upgrade process. For OpenWrt this therefore requires first to install DD-Wrt, which has been modified to pass verification, which then allows installation of an earlier factory firmware without the verification process. At this point it's then possible to install OpenWrt using the normal process. See here https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c5-c7-wdr7500 about half way down the post.
So this leads to the following questions:
Does v4 also have this verification when upgrading?
If so, has Lede been modified to pass the verification?
If verification is implemented and Lede will not pass this, is a workaround similar to above required?
Thanks in advance for any information clarifying this.
I was using the TFTP method for both the v2 and v4 models. This works without any problem. I don't even remember if I tried using the web-interface since setting up a simple TFTP is easy to do and is good to have just in case you brick the router for whatever reason. Getting it working again via TFTP always works (unless you start messing with the uboot partition).
For flashing instructions see the git-commit which added support for the C7 v4:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=9887afb1afcf387f6892315413e610a6816df463
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OK, thanks for the replies.
Hadn't found the OpenWrt github instructions in my many searches.
Just for my curiosity.
Does the v4 stock firmware have validation when upgrading and Lede has been modified to pass this?
Or have Tp-Link changed their mind and removed it from later versions?
Many thanks.
A bit more digging and I've found that Gargoyle instructions for v2 has the first step of installing Lede, then installing over that. So this tells me that Lede also passes Tp-Links upgrade validation. I'm therefore guessing that v4 still has validation then.
Things would be a whole let easier if forum searches for Archer AND c7 didn't ignore c7, no matter how I phrase the search. Having to sift through the results that only contain Archer on here, DD-Wrt OpenWrt and Gargoyle certainly makes finding relevant information tricky.