[GCC 7.2 BUILD] Optimized TP-Link Archer C7 V2 AC1750 LEDE Firmware

Hi @cliobrando. I want to build my custom firmware.bin file for my Archer C7 v2 with Infinitnet patches.


I downloaded the patches but I don't have a clue what will I do with these :frowning: How can I apply "064-luci-wifi-add-feature.patch" to original LEDE repository files? I want the option in LuCI "Force to use 40 MHz"
Thanks!

I'm having consistent issues with my 2.4 Ghz N band, where all devices show connected both at the device and on the router, but there is no access to the internet or it crawls so much that it's unusable or things time out. 5Ghz AC and wired connections continue to function perfectly.

It will usually fix itself in an hour or 2, or after a power cycle.

I don't even know where to begin for debugging, any tips here? Is this still the best firmware package to use these days?

DD-WRT repo?

I tried em all the only one I was able to get close to 1 gb was the newest tp link firmware with hardware nat, even ddwrt latest beta with sfe wasn’t cutting it.

Try disabling legacy

Heres an example of the commands i use to make a firmware image

#!/bin/bash
git clone https://git.openwrt.org/openwrt/openwrt.git lede
#copies patches to lede directory, assuming you already have patches directory available.
cp -r patches /path/to/lede
cd lede
./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a
#applies patches and moves to appropriate directory
for i in patches/*.patch; do patch -p1 < $i; done 
mv ./target/linux/generic/patches-4.9/* ./target/linux/generic/pending-4.9/
rm -rf ./target/linux/generic/patches-4.9
#copies my config.seed file( i have saved) to the lede directory as .config, so when i run make menuconfig in the lede directory, it already has my previous settings.
cp /path/to/config.seed /path/to/lede/.config

Once this is complete just cd into lede and make menuconfig check your configuration settings and save, then make image. make -j1 V=s
this can be made into a shell script just copy and paste it into a .sh file.

Automatic make:

#!/bin/bash
git clone https://git.openwrt.org/openwrt/openwrt.git lede
#copies patches to lede directory, assuming you already have patches directory available.
cp -r patches /path/to/lede
cd lede
./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a
#applies patches and moves to appropriate directory
for i in patches/*.patch; do patch -p1 < $i; done 
mv ./target/linux/generic/patches-4.9/* ./target/linux/generic/pending-4.9/
rm -rf ./target/linux/generic/patches-4.9
#copies my config.seed file( i have saved) to the lede directory as .config, so when i run make menuconfig in the lede directory, it already has my previous settings.
cp /path/to/config.seed /path/to/lede/.config
make menuconfig
make -j1 V=s

HOPE THAT HELPS!

1 Like

This is ddwrt archer c7 v2 latest build:
https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2018/05-04-2018-r35874/

https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2018/05-04-2018-r35874/tplink_archer-c7-v2/


.

2 Likes

@nitromehmet
What I do:

  • download the lede source
  • crate the fixes folder inside the lede source
  • copy your patches there
  • cd lede_source and exec:
    for i in fixes/*.patch; do patch -p1 < $i; done

My opinion about forcing 40Mhz: if there are more than 30 2.4Ghz wifi networks detected the driver forces the 20Mhz channel because if you use 40Mhz under that condition not only your wifi network will work worse, you'll affect your neighbors networks.

1 Like

This have SFE?

SQM and QoS does work with fastpath and offloading...
Only if you use hw offloading (currently only on mt7621), sqm and qos does not work...

@juppin
Yep, I know, but this thread is about Archer C7 v2

1 Like

I know too... But you said that one would lose sqm/qos capability... Thats wrong

@juppin
This has been discussed a lot of times in this thread, the only option for Archer C7 v2 is fastpath, offload is only available on kernel > 4.14 which is not available for Archer C7 v2. You can enable SQM with fastpath, but you get a great performance penalty.

For mediatek based routers you can have hardware offloading, but even the main developer of this feature (nbd) says that SQM don't work with hardware offloading.

1 Like

One question, Archer C7 is MU-MIMO capable?
I mean, is a software or hardware restriction the MU-MIMO fuction is our Archer?

@Klingon
Only Archer C2600 and Archer VR2600 are MU-MIMO capable and I have not seen MU-MIMO support on the LEDE source, so I think there's no driver support yet.

1 Like

Hi there,

I built a simple version of OpenWRT with the performance patchs laying around this thread. Current snapshot, r00t's patchs (patched for 4.9), fast path, no fancy package. I fact, I don't want to use the units as WAN routers, only as part of a mesh network (I have 6 units).

But my unit is hitting a performance wall at 190mbps with nearly everything i tried. Even with a vanilla snapshot.

LAN Client 1 <wired> Archer C7 <Wifi AP> Archer C7 Client mode <wired> LAN Client 2
And even with iperf on the units, the link is still maxed at ~200mpbs.

Am I missing something here ? There is peoples who are successful to achieve far better performances with the 5ghz interface. Clearly, I have an issue with the softirqs, but I don't know what to do with this information.
Also, since I want to use them only as mesh nodes, maybe there is a lot of routing packes to remove.

Any idea ?

@Moff_Tigriss
Maybe you are stressing the CPU, check usr + sys + sirq using top. If that sum is near 100 then you are running at full utilization.

If you want to see if a CPU is struggling, it is better to simply focus on the idle %. If that's close to or hitting 0, you're running into a CPU bottleneck.

1 Like

Another day of hacking, and I have some results.

The sysconf file up here was useful. I need to do some work on it to understand why, but it's here. I'm actually not CPU limited, now. The limit is near, but i managed a constant 210mbps, with ~15% idle. I can use the web interface without hurting the bandwidth. The thing is... it's with AC@80mhz, in a perfect radio condition between two unit. I can use N@40mhz with nearly the same result.

Since the CPU is not totally maxed, it is possible that there is a bottleneck somewhere else ?

@Moff_Tigriss
Without knowing much about your configuration, I think you are reaching the router limit. Have you tried to configure your mesh network without encryption just to test?
Btw, mesh networks are complicated (form the point of view of how you can configure it), I have seen some weird configurations that "just works". If you get something that works for you with a decent speed stick with that.

Edit: I remember I saw a device called "Google Wifi", it was a 3 device mesh router that uses a recent qualcomm SoC (much better than the archer c7 v2) and under good conditions it gets like 250 - 270Mbps.