ASUS RP-AC51 installation

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello!
I have a problem with installation OpenWRT on my ASUS RP-AC51 (range extender). I've done everything like described in this commit, but my TFTP client refuses to connect (timeout):

  • I set a static IP address for my Ethernet adapter (I've tried both 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.75).
  • I put my RP-AC51 in recovery mode (power LED slowly flashing).
  • When I try to put factory.bin TFTP client refuses to connect (timeout). I've also tried ASUS firmware restoration utility, but this tool also refuses to find a device in recovery mode.
  • I tried this on three different machines (Windows, Ubuntu and Fedora) but no luck.
  • I have a A1 hardware revision (if I recall correctly, there is no other version of this device).
  • I tried this on firmware 3.0.0.4.382.52182 (newest) and 3.0.0.4.382.14948 (stocked).

Does anyone have experience with this device and can help me?

Cheers
Adam

1 Like
2

Hi Adam,
i have the same repeater and the same problem - the repeater seems "dead" in recovery mode.
Did you find any solution to this?

Cheers
Christian

3

Hello,

I have the same problem. The Power LED flashes slowly, but the repeater does not react in any way. So there is also no arp resolution and an nmap to 192.168.1.0/24 also fails.

any ideas?

celle

4

Hi,
the original post has been quite a while but I wanted to share my experience just in case it's useful for someone.
I had the same problem - the TFTP method didn't work at all, on Linux, macOS or Windows. I carefully followed detailed instructions for TFTP but had no success.
Luckily I found there is a similar device called RP-AC66 whose support had been added by the same contributor. For this device there is another method using mtd-write which is already included in the stock firmware.
I checked the flash layout of RP-AC51 from the syslog:

May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "Bootloader"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000040000-0x000000050000 : "nvram"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000050000-0x000000060000 : "Factory"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000060000-0x000000f80000 : "linux"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000162c40-0x000000f80000 : "rootfs"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000f80000-0x000001000000 : "jffs2"
May  5 07:05:32 kernel: 0x000000000000-0x000001000000 : "ALL"

which looks more or less the same as that of RP-AC66 (found here and here).

So I concluded it would be 99% safe to try this method, and it worked splendidly! Just make sure to activate SSH server on the stock firmware beforehand and be careful with the firmware file name :slight_smile: