D-Link router - Sticker: DIR-X3010, System: MediaTek MT7981

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Help identify D-Link router - Sticker: DIR-X3010, System: MediaTek MT7981

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping someone can help me identify my router so I can flash a stable, official version of OpenWrt.

I have a D-Link router with a sticker on the bottom that says the model is DIR-X3010. Based on public information, this model should use a Broadcom chipset.

However, I have SSH access to the device, and the system information clearly shows that it is running on a MediaTek MT7981 chipset. It seems to be a special version, perhaps for an ISP.

It is currently running a very old 21.02-SNAPSHOT which is incomplete. I am trying to upgrade because I cannot install any packages (including LuCI) due to the following error: wget: SSL support not available.

Here is the key information from the system:

/etc/openwrt_release:

DISTRIB_ID='OpenWrt'
DISTRIB_RELEASE='21.02-SNAPSHOT'
DISTRIB_REVISION='unknown'
DISTRIB_TARGET='mediatek/mt7981'
DISTRIB_ARCH='aarch64_cortex-a53'

/proc/cpuinfo:

processor	: 0
model name	: ARMv8 Processor rev 4 (v8l)
BogoMIPS	: 26.00
Features	: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid
CPU implementer	: 0x41
CPU architecture: 8
CPU variant	: 0x0
CPU part	: 0xd03
CPU revision	: 4

lspci:

00:00.0 Class 0002: 14c3:7981

My main questions are:

  1. Does anyone recognize this hardware combination (a D-Link device with MT7981 that is labeled as DIR-X3010)?
  2. Is there a known official OpenWrt build that would be safe to flash on this device?
  3. What would be the safest sysupgrade.bin file to try?

Thank you in advance for your help!

2

This device is running what appears to be a vendor fork of OpenWrt. There is no indication that the DIR-X3010 has ever been supported by the official OpenWrt project.

Not that I am aware of. Unless you are able to get assurances that it is identical to some other supported device, there isn't a "safe" OpenWrt build to use since every model requires its own bespoke image.

3 
cat /proc/mounts | grep ^tmpfs

(assuming /tmp/ is ramdisk...)

Get outputs of

dmesg | tee /tmp/info.txt
cat /proc/meminfo | tee -a /tmp/info.txt
cat /proc/cpuinfo | tee -a /tmp/info.txt
cat /proc/mtd | tee -a /tmp/info.txt
ubinfo -a | tee -a /tmp/info.txt

Show this file to us (use some pastebin or git gist if file does not fit forum post </>)

Tell where you download firmware upgrades (local site with links)

Back up flash memory:

cat /dev/mtd0 > /tmp/mtd0.bin
...
...

Transfer files - try scp -O root@router:/tmp/info.txt ./
If that does not work ssh root@router "cat /tmp/info.txt" > info.txt
Obviously repeat same with flash backup files.

(do not flash anything, we first need to establish safe recovery path , like net-booting non-permanent OpenWrt kernel, likely requiring serial connection)

1 Like
4

Does it have FCC ID printed? Or you will need to get PCB pictures directly.

5

Thank you for the detailed instructions.

I have gathered most of the requested information and saved it into text files (info.txt and partition details). However, due to the router’s limitations, I cannot extract or transfer full flash dumps (mtd*.bin) because:

  • Access is only available via Telnet (no SSH).
  • The router seems to lack tools like scp, netcat, or an HTTP server.
  • /tmp is a RAM disk with insufficient space for large binary files.

What I have collected:

  • System information including dmesg, /proc/meminfo, /proc/cpuinfo, /proc/mtd, and ubinfo -a.
  • Flash partition table output (/proc/mtd).

Files available for review:

I have uploaded the collected text files to WeTransfer for your convenience:
[https://we.tl/t-IZWYHVucDr]

The firmware currently installed on the router is the original factory firmware that came pre-installed by the vendor.

Here is the official product page from D-Link:
D-Link

Questions:

  1. Is there any method to transfer full flash dumps using only Telnet, or should I proceed with UART or TFTP for advanced extraction?
  2. Based on the information provided, is this device a good candidate for official OpenWrt support in the future?
6

You can transfer files using netcat outside telnet, or use "cat" and pipe via telnet session, maybe wget can "put" files, maybe you symlink them in OEM's webroot. Hack your ways around. Telnet is "chatty", you will get nonsensical page break codes etc, highly recommended to do x-y-zmodem or at least "cat" base64 encoded binaries.

  1. good? just as good as others of similar spec. Prospective support? sure, based on similar devices supported.
7

As of now it is not a download&install experience.

Practically any non-Broadcom hardware is a good candidate, the relevant key factor being someone owning the device and willing to spend dev time on it.

My guess is this device is probably rather new, so few people have seen it so far. D-Link seemed a bit reluctant to use Mediatek hardware the last 3 years. Good to see that they return to the table with more devices. Since many years, it roughly took no more than 2-3 years until new western market Mediatek D-Link devices found OpenWRT developers.
If I remember correctly, the last 2 digits on D-Links of the past decade was the sell market region. 60 being EU, 40 I think was US, 10 somewhere middle east or india. So your best bet would be if you or a dev in the D-Link 10 region engages to convert it, which is probably not that ideal since my impression is, there are not many OpenWRT devs in the 10 region.

if you have not bought it yet, I would not count in it to be supported soon. Though the device should be on the easier side of the dev spectrum for an experienced person, since it uses well supported Mediatek chips.
Not sure, if you want to engage as dev, but bare uploading stuff to community sites wont do it.

the common D-Link emergency room procedure should be available:
Booting router while holding reset button,
setting PC to static 192.168.0.2,
then accessing router emergency recovery via http://192.168.0.1