I just purchased this router to upgrade to something more modern. I'm coming from an Netgear R7800 Nighthawk running OpenWRT (23.05-SNAPSHOT r23835-9b33b74ef7 - Hnyman build) that works perfectly. Just want to know if there's a starting point for this particular device? Should I stick with the stock UI with Luci underneath or are there any stable builds specifically for it?
Just to be sure it is clear: the stock firmware on that device comes from GL-Inet. It is a fork of OpenWrt that they created, and is not actually from this project. That also means that any support while using that firmware should be directed to their support channels.
Yes. Your device is well supported by official OpenWrt.
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Thanks. So I see there's a warning that's I'm not sure about. It says "always use a sysupgrade image" for a router that already runs OpenWRT and also "Use a Factory image to flash a router with OpenWrt for the first time." So, since this router is OpenWRT I should start with the sysupgrade image right?
WARNING: Always install a sysupgrade image.
Attempting to flash a factory image first, then flashing an OpenWrt image will very likely lead to bricking!
Use a Sysupgrade image to update a router that already runs OpenWrt. The image can be used with the LuCI web interface or the terminal.
sha256sum: f589ba73b79ec8f4c18a60899b216b64da036cb614eb2bfe71fba12dfa6b1c54
FACTORY
Use a Factory image to flash a router with OpenWrt for the first time. You normally do this via the web interface of the original firmware.
sha256sum: 332004fcd400afd8d37d61ea4debfa1c692728baeb8f295034bff8c07e4b9ac1
Yes, the sysupgrade image will work with the built-in firmware upgrade method, even on the GL-Inet fork.
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I’m not sure that a sysupgrade image would work. It definitely didn’t work with a different model of the same manufacturer. I don’t know specifically about the Flint 2.
I just set up a second GL.iNET Flint (GL-AX1800) from factory firmware to snapshot yesterday. The sysupgrade image definitely resulted in a boot failure and a rescue (to the latest firmware of the manufacturer) via the built-in HTTP server in uboot. In the manufacturer’s firmware upgrade web interface, the sysupgrade image was recognized as "unknown", but it did otherwise pass the validity checks. What worked was a factory.bin image, which was recognized as "SNAPSHOT". This was the case for both one that I built myself, and the one that I downloaded from the firmware-selector. (To my understanding, the Flint 2 would already be supported by the 24.10 release; the Flint only works with a snapshot.)
I used the uboot recovery to initiate the router and from there I did a firmware upgrade to openwrt if I remember well ..it worked with no problem.
It works the other way too.
I used the firmware downloaded from openwrt that says it is a sysupgrade not, the first install.
It will keep the uboot from the manufacturer, but I don't think it is important.
Of course I did not preserve settings.
I uploaded the sysupgrade through the default UI @ 192.168.8.1 and it worked for me. I had no issues accessing the OpenWRT at 192.168.1.1 after the upgrade.
Great! Glad it worked.
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Thanks! 
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