Getting LEDE to run on RPI3

Hi, I've been tearing my hair trying to get LEDE running on my RPI3. I've looked up installation guides, which involve downloading the LEDE firmware file from https://downloads.lede-project.org/releases/17.01.0/targets/brcm2708/bcm2710/lede-17.01.0-r3205-59508e3-brcm2708-bcm2710-rpi-3-ext4-sdcard.img.gz and then flashing it to my RPI SD card. I've tried with both Windows method using Win32 disk imager and the Linux method of using dd to mount it to the card, but everytime I plug it in my RPI, i'm met with a blank screen, not even a boot screen, I don't know if i'm missing some crucial step or i simply did the whole thing wrong, can anyone help me get LEDE running on my RPI 3? Thanks :slight_smile:

what was the dd command you used on linux?

David Lang

I used the one on this tutorial and replaced the image file with my own

gunzip -c lede-17.01.0-r3205-59508e3-brcm2708-bcm2710-rpi-3-ext4-sdcard.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sde <- sd card path

i've also tried this tutorial

dd if=/home/username/Downloads/firmware_name.img of=/dev/sdX bs=2M conv=fsync

did you get any error on the DD command? did the size that it reported copying
seem to match the size of the uncompressed image file?

what is the path that you used on your machine for the SD card? is the card
plugged into a port on the laptop, or into an USB SD card reader?

David Lang

  • The microSD card was connected to my Windows machine via usb card reader which was then connected to my Kali Linux VM, and from there I used terminal to execute DD

  • There wasn't any errors that I saw on the DD command, the copied filesize checked out at 8mb,

  • However, after DD'ing the file into the micro SD card, the size shrunk (from 16gb -> 20mb) when i checked out its properties afterwards, is this normal?

Can you try using the image from snapshots too? https://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/targets/brcm2708/bcm2710/lede-brcm2708-bcm2710-rpi-3-ext4-sdcard.img.gz

after DD'ing the file into the micro SD card, the size shrunk (from 16gb -> 20mb) when i checked out its properties afterwards, is this normal?

Yes, you see only the small boot partition with firmware blobs, windows does not see ext4 linux partitions.
Use a partitioning software to see more than that (or to repartition the SD card if needed).

Btw, did you try connecting to it with ethernet at 192.168.1.1 anyway?

Yeah, I did try and directly plugged it to my ethernet port, however, the activity light did not light up, so there was no transmission of data, also, only the red LED on my RPI light up, and not both red and green, indicating that it wasn't booting

Could you try to gunzip the file first and then write it to your SD card. Instead of pipeing it to dd?