Help for installing OpenWrt on Aruba AP-303

Hello im trying to install openwrt to my Aruba AP-303 accsespoint. i was looking wiki page but i dont understat this.

Configure the bootargs and bootcmd for OpenWrt
   $ setenv bootargs_openwrt "setenv bootargs console=ttyMSM1,9600n8"
   $ setenv nandboot_openwrt "run bootargs_openwrt; ubi part aos1; ubi read 0x85000000 kernel; set fdt_high 0x87000000; bootm 0x85000000"
   # Substitute the following IP-addresses as mentioned Step 1 and 2, in case, you are using DHCP.
   $ setenv ramboot_openwrt "run bootargs_openwrt; setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.105; setenv serverip 192.168.1.75; netget; set fdt_high 0x87000000; bootm" 
   $ setenv bootcmd "run nandboot_openwrt"
   $ saveenv

I have windows in use. Thanks for your help

i also looked whit putty that uart connection works

Did you start with a serial UART connection to the AP-303 so that you can interact (using PuTTY) over the serial link?

Yeah i have connection on putty via that uart. I can see in putty device coming on etc but i cant type anything. Like there comes autoboot i try cancell that but putty dosent accept anything from keyboard

Are you seeing the boot sequence messages on PuTTY? Do you have the UART adapter connected properly?

Yeah i can see it boot but i cant do any thing on there

Are you sure that you have the Tx (computer side) > Rx (AP-303 side) connected properly?

Temporarily, unplug both the Tx and Rx from the AP and short them together on the computer side (i.e. on the wires running from the USB-serial UART adapter)... this should form a loopback situation where text you type in will get echo'd right to the screen.

thanks for you help i did have tx and rx worng way :smiley:
now i passed but i got this
TFTP from server 192.168.3.146; our IP address is 192.168.0.220
Filename 'ipq40xx.ari'.
Load address: 0x84000000
Loading: #
0 Bytes/s
done
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!

aah now it works i did again that ipq40xx.ari file
thanks for help

great!

If your problem is solved, please consider marking this topic as [Solved]. See How to mark a topic as [Solved] for a short how-to.

daam sorry to disturp

  1. After OpenWrt booted, transfer the OpenWrt sysupgrade image to the /tmp folder on the device. how you do this ?

Use putty to scp the file from your windows computer to the router.

1 Like

Hello sorry to distrub commynity again. I got now Opewrt up and running in my aruba ap-303. Now i bumped into next problem. I got now 60 clients connected via wifi 2,4ghz and 5ghz each got 30 clients. But i cant connect any more. Is there somehow to increased that max clients

Hi i found thins

root@OpenWrt:~# iw list
Wiphy phy1
	wiphy index: 1
	max # scan SSIDs: 16
	max scan IEs length: 199 bytes
	max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
	max # match sets: 0
	Retry short limit: 7
	Retry long limit: 4
	Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
	Device supports AP-side u-APSD.
	Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
	Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
	Supported interface modes:
		 * IBSS
		 * managed
		 * AP
		 * AP/VLAN
		 * monitor
		 * mesh point
		 * P2P-client
		 * P2P-GO
		 * P2P-device
	Band 2:
		Capabilities: 0x19ef
			RX LDPC
			HT20/HT40
			SM Power Save disabled
			RX HT20 SGI
			RX HT40 SGI
			TX STBC
			RX STBC 1-stream
			Max AMSDU length: 7935 bytes
			DSSS/CCK HT40
		Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
		Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 8 usec (0x06)
		HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
		VHT Capabilities (0x339959b2):
			Max MPDU length: 11454
			Supported Channel Width: neither 160 nor 80+80
			RX LDPC
			short GI (80 MHz)
			TX STBC
			SU Beamformer
			SU Beamformee
			MU Beamformer
			MU Beamformee
			RX antenna pattern consistency
			TX antenna pattern consistency
		VHT RX MCS set:
			1 streams: MCS 0-9
			2 streams: MCS 0-9
			3 streams: not supported
			4 streams: not supported
			5 streams: not supported
			6 streams: not supported
			7 streams: not supported
			8 streams: not supported
		VHT RX highest supported: 0 Mbps
		VHT TX MCS set:
			1 streams: MCS 0-9
			2 streams: MCS 0-9
			3 streams: not supported
			4 streams: not supported
			5 streams: not supported
			6 streams: not supported
			7 streams: not supported
			8 streams: not supported
		VHT TX highest supported: 0 Mbps
		Frequencies:
			* 5180 MHz [36] (23.0 dBm)
			* 5200 MHz [40] (23.0 dBm)
			* 5220 MHz [44] (23.0 dBm)
			* 5240 MHz [48] (23.0 dBm)
			* 5260 MHz [52] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5280 MHz [56] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5300 MHz [60] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5320 MHz [64] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5500 MHz [100] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5520 MHz [104] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5540 MHz [108] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5560 MHz [112] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5580 MHz [116] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5600 MHz [120] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5620 MHz [124] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5640 MHz [128] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5660 MHz [132] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5680 MHz [136] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5700 MHz [140] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5720 MHz [144] (23.0 dBm) (radar detection)
			* 5745 MHz [149] (30.0 dBm)
			* 5765 MHz [153] (30.0 dBm)
			* 5785 MHz [157] (30.0 dBm)
			* 5805 MHz [161] (30.0 dBm)
			* 5825 MHz [165] (30.0 dBm)
			* 5845 MHz [169] (27.0 dBm) (no IR)
			* 5865 MHz [173] (27.0 dBm) (no IR)
	valid interface combinations:
		 * #{ managed } <= 16, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 16, #{ IBSS } <= 1,
		   total <= 16, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match, radar detect widths: { 20 MHz (no HT), 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz }

	HT Capability overrides:
		 * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
		 * maximum A-MSDU length
		 * supported channel width
		 * short GI for 40 MHz
		 * max A-MPDU length exponent
		 * min MPDU start spacing
	max # scan plans: 1
	max scan plan interval: -1
	max scan plan iterations: 0
	Maximum associated stations in AP mode: 32
	Supported extended features:
		* [ VHT_IBSS ]: VHT-IBSS
		* [ RRM ]: RRM
		* [ SET_SCAN_DWELL ]: scan dwell setting
		* [ CQM_RSSI_LIST ]: multiple CQM_RSSI_THOLD records
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211 ]: control port over nl80211
		* [ TXQS ]: FQ-CoDel-enabled intermediate TXQs
		* [ AIRTIME_FAIRNESS ]: airtime fairness scheduling
		* [ AQL ]: Airtime Queue Limits (AQL)
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_NO_PREAUTH ]: disable pre-auth over nl80211 control port support
		* [ DEL_IBSS_STA ]: deletion of IBSS station support
		* [ SCAN_FREQ_KHZ ]: scan on kHz frequency support
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211_TX_STATUS ]: tx status for nl80211 control port support
Wiphy phy0
	wiphy index: 0
	max # scan SSIDs: 16
	max scan IEs length: 195 bytes
	max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
	max # match sets: 0
	Retry short limit: 7
	Retry long limit: 4
	Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
	Device supports AP-side u-APSD.
	Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
	Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
	Supported interface modes:
		 * IBSS
		 * managed
		 * AP
		 * AP/VLAN
		 * monitor
		 * mesh point
		 * P2P-client
		 * P2P-GO
		 * P2P-device
	Band 1:
		Capabilities: 0x19ef
			RX LDPC
			HT20/HT40
			SM Power Save disabled
			RX HT20 SGI
			RX HT40 SGI
			TX STBC
			RX STBC 1-stream
			Max AMSDU length: 7935 bytes
			DSSS/CCK HT40
		Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
		Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 8 usec (0x06)
		HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
		VHT Capabilities (0x339959b2):
			Max MPDU length: 11454
			Supported Channel Width: neither 160 nor 80+80
			RX LDPC
			short GI (80 MHz)
			TX STBC
			SU Beamformer
			SU Beamformee
			MU Beamformer
			MU Beamformee
			RX antenna pattern consistency
			TX antenna pattern consistency
		VHT RX MCS set:
			1 streams: MCS 0-9
			2 streams: MCS 0-9
			3 streams: not supported
			4 streams: not supported
			5 streams: not supported
			6 streams: not supported
			7 streams: not supported
			8 streams: not supported
		VHT RX highest supported: 0 Mbps
		VHT TX MCS set:
			1 streams: MCS 0-9
			2 streams: MCS 0-9
			3 streams: not supported
			4 streams: not supported
			5 streams: not supported
			6 streams: not supported
			7 streams: not supported
			8 streams: not supported
		VHT TX highest supported: 0 Mbps
		Frequencies:
			* 2412 MHz [1] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2417 MHz [2] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2422 MHz [3] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2427 MHz [4] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2432 MHz [5] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2437 MHz [6] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2442 MHz [7] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2447 MHz [8] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2452 MHz [9] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2457 MHz [10] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2462 MHz [11] (30.0 dBm)
			* 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
			* 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
			* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
	valid interface combinations:
		 * #{ managed } <= 16, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 16, #{ IBSS } <= 1,
		   total <= 16, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match, radar detect widths: { 20 MHz (no HT), 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 80+80 MHz, 160 MHz }

	HT Capability overrides:
		 * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
		 * maximum A-MSDU length
		 * supported channel width
		 * short GI for 40 MHz
		 * max A-MPDU length exponent
		 * min MPDU start spacing
	max # scan plans: 1
	max scan plan interval: -1
	max scan plan iterations: 0
	Maximum associated stations in AP mode: 32
	Supported extended features:
		* [ VHT_IBSS ]: VHT-IBSS
		* [ RRM ]: RRM
		* [ SET_SCAN_DWELL ]: scan dwell setting
		* [ CQM_RSSI_LIST ]: multiple CQM_RSSI_THOLD records
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211 ]: control port over nl80211
		* [ TXQS ]: FQ-CoDel-enabled intermediate TXQs
		* [ AIRTIME_FAIRNESS ]: airtime fairness scheduling
		* [ AQL ]: Airtime Queue Limits (AQL)
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_NO_PREAUTH ]: disable pre-auth over nl80211 control port support
		* [ DEL_IBSS_STA ]: deletion of IBSS station support
		* [ SCAN_FREQ_KHZ ]: scan on kHz frequency support
		* [ CONTROL_PORT_OVER_NL80211_TX_STATUS ]: tx status for nl80211 control port support

there is that Maximum associated stations in AP mode: 32. Is that possible some how edit ?

Maybe it will be useful for someone doing it first time ever like me.
I will comment main instruction at https://openwrt.org/toh/aruba/ap-303

I have done it with use of old windows 7 laptop and handmade UART adapter.

Step 0:
I have used chip UART adapter PL2303HX (~ 2 eur), driver need to be v1.5. Newer driver versions not working as it some сhinese copy of original taiwainese chip...
Cutted old Micro-usb with 4 wires and just soldered it strait to UART adapater.

Step 1:
Downloaded and renamed image "ipq40xx.ari". Downloaded tftp server "TFTPD64 exe" and set-it up as it shown here https://youtu.be/YdVEonLMWYs, select folder with ipq40xx.ari. IP address for tftp is 192.168.1.75. Also changed LAN settings to IP 192.168.1.75, mask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.1.105. Select 192.168.1.75 in TFTPD64.
Connect lan cable between laptop and ap303 and UART adapter.

Step 2:
Downloaded "puTYY exe".
Set it up: Category > Session > Connection type > Serial > Serial line > COM1 (you need to choose your com port number); then Category > Serial > Flow control > none; then Click on "open" button. Your will have puTYY black console opened.
Now power on ap303 with 12v adapter and puTYY console will start showing some text :slight_smile: . Press enter when it start "countdown".

Step 3:
Copy lines from step 3 (without $ :slight_smile: )

setenv bootargs_openwrt "setenv bootargs console=ttyMSM1,9600n8"
setenv nandboot_openwrt "run bootargs_openwrt; ubi part aos1; ubi read 0x85000000 kernel; set fdt_high 0x87000000; bootm 0x85000000"
setenv ramboot_openwrt "run bootargs_openwrt; setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.105; setenv serverip 192.168.1.75; netget; set fdt_high 0x87000000; bootm"
setenv bootcmd "run nandboot_openwrt"
saveenv

enter them in puTYY with mouse right click one by one.

Step 4:
run ramboot_openwrt
I have disabled laptop wifi on this step as it was struggling to start processing it.

Step 5:
"transfer the OpenWrt sysupgrade image to the /tmp folder on the device."
Was most complected for me. I have tried via windows cmd & pscp.exe without successes.. Something like this: "C:\folderwithupdate>pscp -P 22 openwrt-sysupgrade.bin root@192.168.1.1:/root/"
Finally downloaded WinSCP exe, entered in 192.168.1.1, found couple /tmp folders there and dropped "openwrt-sysupgrade.bin" file.

Step 6:
As per instruction, no comments :slight_smile:

vi /etc/config/network
service network reload

Then changed lan settings gateway from 192.168.1.105 to 192.168.1.1.
Entered openwrt interface in browser 192.168.1.1.

p.s.
My sorry to professionals this comments aimed to dummies like me :slight_smile:
In main instruction was noted that chip UART failed to work however my chip worked well.