GPL Drop for Qualcomm IPQ6018 -- MSI Radix AX6600-E AKA Grax66 -- What's Next

For Developers
1

MSI came through with a 1.5GB GPL source drop.

Questions

  • what resources / configs / source files in the GPL code can help ?
  • next steps on how to build and install?

Specs

FULL SPECS: MSI RadiX AX6600-E WiFi 6 Tri-Band Gaming Router | GRAX66

  • Linux (none) 4.4.60 #57 SMP PREEMPT Wed Sep 6 14:56:26 CST 2023 armv7l GNU/Linux
  • firmware version = WLAN.HK.2.5.r4-00745-QCAHKSWPL_SILICONZ-1 v1
  • built from Openwrt GCC: (OpenWrt GCC 5.2.0 eea552a14b+r49254) 5.2.0
  • Qualcomm IPQ6018 Quad-core 1.8GHz processor
  • 256MB flash and 512MB DDR4 RAM
  • tri-band wifi
    • 2.4GHz AX: 2x2(Tx/Rx) 1024/256-QAM 20/40MHz, up to 574 Mbps
      5GHz-L AX: 2x2(Tx/Rx) 1024/256-QAM 20/40/80MHz, up to 1201 Mbps
      5GHz-H AX: 4x4(Tx/Rx) 1024/256-QAM 20/40/80/160MHz, up to 4804 Mbps
  • 2.5 gHz ethernet WAN support

See also

Qualcomm IPQ6018 / IPQ60xx -- Adding New Device Support - For Developers - OpenWrt Forum

2

Not much, considering it's using a 4.4 kernel, while Openwrt is at 6.1 or newer.

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3

@tonymet have you tried to compile the GPL source?

4

GCC 5, eh :thinking:

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5

Not yet. the archive is huge around 8-10gb and it includes a ton of assorted and seemingly unrelated source files. at first glance it seems to be junk but I haven't assessed it enough to see if there is buildable repo inside.

6

@robimarko ?

7

apart from the technicalities of bringin this device into openwrt ... i would ask is it worth the effort ? how many other people are using it ? you will be on point to technically bringing the device to openwrt standard

8

GPL dump isnt anything new nor interesting really

2 Likes
9

Wow it costs twice as much as the zyxel armor g5, which has better specs.
You pay for the looks.

10
  1. there are a few vendors running this chipset e.g. synology, xiaomi, Zyxel , and MSI
  2. not too many wifi 6 routers have open source firmware.
  3. the hardware is excellent and hampered by poor software.

It's worth the effort for better understanding and a challenge, as well.

11

or the Tri-band...

12

Not sure what you are trying to say, the Armor G5 also has Tri Band 1 x 2.4 and 2 x 5 Ghz.

I had a quick look at the IPQ6018 specs the only special feature it has is an NPU. But I don't know of any openwrt package that could make use of it and it is also not clear what the NPU is capable of and if it could be used without any proprietäry bins. Usually you need special tooling(compiler/translator) in order to use such NPUs to convert for example tensorflow lite models, which then can be "uploaded" to the NPU.

13

It's not a "neural processing unit", just a "network processing unit" - so nothing new here, only a well known NSS core. QCA likes to use NPU and NSS interchangeably, ipq807x has two, ipq60xx only one.

2 Likes
14

You are wrong.

The image here shows a DSP ML Engine next to the Network Processor(NSS) for the IPQ6018. Its a Hexagon DSP

See:

P.S. I work with qualcomm enbedded boards at work, and my unit at work also has such a unit, but it has a few more cores :rofl:

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15

At least I can't find anything where it is clearly and easily advertised / tested / speced as Tri-Band. MSI is using this term for 1 x 2.4 and 2 x 5 Ghz. Zyxel not? Is Zyxel referring to Tri-Band only when 2/5/6 Ghz is available?

16

do you know of helpful resources, guides on how to install a custom build on one of these? any way to jailbreak the boot routine?

17

I cross-compiled & static-linked busybox with this guide How to cross compile Busybox - Lynxbee – Linux, Embedded, Android, WordPress, SEO, Digital Marketing

that helped me enable dmesg and other missing tools.

dmesg for the device:
gist:c51ab3b8edc5150bfdb0f18134329730 (github.com)

18

Any advice on how to use this to gain access to installing a build of the firmware?

19

U-boot/Serial is always a good start.

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20

The non E MSI Radix AX6000 is currently $85 at Newegg.

1 Like