Flashing a Mikrotik Hex or Hex lite

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

I am considering the purchase of either the hEX or the hEX lite (I am also open to getting some other wired router) to route traffic for a set of TP-Link Decos (which work fine in the limited way that they are designed) that I plan to switch to access point mode.

First, hEX or hEX lite or something else altogether? I notice that the RB750Gr3 has a stable release while the RB750r2 only has snapshot images.

Second, are there any gotchas that I should be aware of with flashing these devices? I'd prefer to set up a tftp server using Linux but tiny pxe seems easier.

2

As a Mikrotik "fanboy" I'd recommend the Hex over the Hex Lite as it's going to be supported much longer and it overall a way better device.

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3

Thanks, that's good to know. Any issues with flashing? Different versions of the RB750Gr3 that require different images? Do you use tiny pxe or some other method?

4

I am only using RouterOS on mine because I really like it, and until recently Openwrt wasn't able to utilize the dual link to the CPU so performance suffered. The process is thoroughly documented though.

5

Took a good bit of fiddling but I finally got it to work using the exact version of RouterOS from here.

6

I’ve been running openwrt on it for a week or two now and I’m not completely happy. Simply running updates has consumed all of the storage space and further updates are no longer possible. I suppose that I should have thought a bit harder about how little space it came with. I may have to go back to routeros.

7

Did you revert? I was just thinking to migrate from RouterOS to Openwrt in order to get a bit more througput...

8

Not yet but I think I will. If there’s not even enough space to update the software, I don’t see how openwrt is workable on the hex.

9

What do you mean by updating the software? Are you intending to update the packages within OpenWrt?

AFAIK, it is not recommended at all. Simply stick to the ones that come with the version (23.05.2 in this case), or just perform a sysupgrade with the latest snapshot.

I've just installed OpenWrt and it's working well. I'm not sure if the patch for 2Gbps is working... When I connect my PC directly to my ONT, I can reach the maximum theoretical speed from the gigabit port. However, when I put it behind the 750GR3 (with OpenWrt or RouterOS), it performs slightly worse (930M instead of 947M, which is [theoretically] the maximum).

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10

Oh, really? On all my previous Openwrt devices, I regularly updated the software. That's good to know -- RouterOS sure looks ugly to me but maybe that's because I've been using Openwrt for so long and that's what I'm used to.

11

It's not a Windows PC. Unless you need urgent security updates e.g. and can't or don't want to flash a newer firmware image, there's little reason to install updates through opkg.

12

Upgrading packages (via the CLI opkg upgrade command or the LuCI Upgrade... button) can result in major problems. It is generally highly discouraged, unless you know what you are doing or if there is specific instruction to do so.

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13

Ok, that is good to know. I've always treated Openwrt like a typical Linux distro but now I know better! Thank you!