Google Wifi Nest Router OpenWrt availability

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello! Recently I have purchased a Google Wifi Nest Router from amazon, with model number (GA00595-US). According to wikipedia, this is the first of the second generation for the google nest wifi lineup.

However the openwrt toh for google devices only lists versions of the first generation. (If I understand this correctly.). May I ask, do the flashing steps work for the other generations too? Hardware wise they seem to be identical, the main difference being a different wifi standard, and more storage/ram, and a different cpu but with the same architecture.

I'm only asking this question because I wouldn't like to brick my device while trying to flash a different rom. I haven't actually received the device (yet), but from what I've seen from reviews and similar, the OEM firmware seems limited in terms of options, not to mention it being closed source of course.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Edit: Fixed wikipedia link.

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Unless very explicitly stated as compatible, the answer will be a firm 'no' - always. These are embedded devices, they always need a bespoke image, exclusively for one device - down to the hardware revision.

This case is not an exception.

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3

Clicked wikipedia link - devices are completely different even by outside specs.

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Thank you slh and brada4. Appreciate the help!

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I've got a HD2 in front of me, second generation Google Nest WiFi, apparently the CPU is a QCS404, but looking at Linux Kernel commits it looks like it's related to the IPQ8064.

Might crack it open to check for serial ports etc, after I've finished converting my 4 AC-1304 Google WiFi to Openwrt.

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6

Hecatae, that would be pretty cool!

After yesterday's responses, I've done some digging too, and found that some already took it apart and took some pictures. Maybe, this is helpful to some degree?

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7

Looks like that's confirmed the missing USB C port?

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Looks like it. However, I think I have found some great new information, that I'd like to share with you.

The reddit post I linked actually links to a blog, not sure how many of you seen that. The blog has a lot of useful information, namely, a link to the device's FCC page. The FCC page contains various important information, namely, internal pictures of the device. Interestingly enough, these pictures clearly show a usb-c connector added to the device. So what is going on here? My theory would be, that the same thing happened as with the GJ2CQ. Google released a "cost effective" version of the device, removing this useful port. However based on comments of the openwrt forum post, soldering the hub back is likely possible.

Something else I found, is that since these devices run ChromeOS, we can actually take a look at google's repo. GaleForce's README links to this directory in the ChromeOS source code. The device in question has the code name "mistral", not "gale", so after navigating to the proper directory we find all kinds of interesting things.

Among other things, potential for developer mode:

		{GPIO_DEV_STATE.addr, ACTIVE_HIGH,
			gpio_get(GPIO_DEV_STATE), "developer"},

Commens regarding "os recovery":

 * - keeping it pressed for longer than 16 seconds signals the need for Chrome
 *   OS recovery.

Hints regarding the USB-(C(?)) hub (even if it's not present):

	/*
	 * Do DWC3 core and phy reset. Kick these resets off early
	 * so they get atleast 1msec to settle.
	 */
	reset_usb(HSUSB_HS_PORT_1);

There are actually two repos for "mistral" it seems, this one and this one.

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