On the machine where you're gonna prepare/fix the OEM image for sysupgrade per the Wiki. This would be:
For more info on *tar.xz files, see:
Great, thank you!
But I would imagine I still need to compile this to run, on linux as its still a binary?
Have you explored the tar.gz file yet?
Also your terminology is incorrect. Binaries are already compiled/in-format.
(Also, in Unix-like systems - the /bin directory usually contains executable binaries, see: http://www.linfo.org/bin.html)
Ok, thank you for your patience. I have not done a pile of compiling before (as im sure you can tell 
)
Let me give it a shot and see how I get on.
And you don't have to do any compiling here, either. From what I understand in the Wiki, you simply extract the tplink-safeloader program from the tar.gz and execute it against the OEM image.
Best wishes.
Oh and, im on windows. Is that a problem.
I can fire up a debain VM if need be but is it possible on windows?
Ummm, yes it is a problem. You will not be able to execute a Linux x86_64 program on Windows - even once you manage to extract it.
Yes (but this isn't an OpenWrt-related question). Also WSL is an option. You can also boot a LiveCD/LiveUSB.
(This assumes your Windows machine is in fact x86_64.)
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Yea all good ill fire up a VM now and give it a shot!
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Thats weird.
tar -xf openwrt-imagebuilder-22.03.3-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz -C /home/dean/openwrt
tar (child): xz: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
I cant even extract it
openwrt-imagebuilder-22.03.3-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz
root@debian:/home/dean#
root@debian:/home/dean# tar -xf openwrt-imagebuilder-22.03.3-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz -C /home/dean/openwrt
tar (child): xz: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
root@debian:/home/dean#
Ok sorry I got it, here is the result. Is this correct?
root@debian:/home/dean/openwrt-imagebuilder-22.03.3-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64# staging_dir/host/bin/tplink-safeloader -z wpa8631pv3_au-up-ver3-0-1-P1-20220401-rel55133-APPLC.bin -o oem-sysupgrade.bin
DEBUG: can not find fwuphdr
Error can not read the partition table (fwup-ptn): Success
root@debian:/home/dean/openwrt-imagebuilder-22.03.3-ramips-mt7621.Linux-x86_64#
It spat out a oem-sysupgrade.bin file of 0kb again.
@robho had a similar issue with that software in an image builder. Perhaps they could provide some information.
Another thread:
While I understand that you would like to get a quick fix, creating several threads with the same content isn't going to help.
You need to get the source code of firmware-utils from https://git.openwrt.org/?p=project/firmware-utils.git;a=summary and change tplink-safeloader.c to use the correct offfset. Then you recompile firmware-utils and run the changed tplink-safeloader.
As an alternative (because it might be easier to compile, I never tried compiling just firmware-utils) you can check out the complete OpenWrt source tree and compile firmware-utils from there. This is explained in https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/toolchain/use-buildsystem
As yet another alternative you could ask and hope that someone creates a sysupgrade-flashable firmware image for you.
And as the last alternative you can still decide to stay with OpenWrt and run plctool manually or on another computer. This would be my personal choice.
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It's a rather trivial fix and I'm in a good mood today, so I just fixed firmware-utils to look for the partition table in both offsets. I will submit a patch for this, so people won't longer face this problem. It seems to affect all newer TP-Link firmwares, also for my older WPA8630Pv2.
If you send me a DM with a link to the required firmware, I will send you a converted sysupgrade file back - no warranties.
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Wow thanks,
I PMd you
To followup on this: @deanfourie received a converted stock firmware image and he reported it to be working fine. I sent a patch for firmware-utils to the mailing list.
@deanfourie, please mark this thread as solved.
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