Hi, I currently have an TL-SG1024DE 3.0, how do I know what SOC it is and if I can flash it with openwrt?
It is not currently supported by OpenWRT.
Non-destructive method is to grab boot messages after setting log level to MAXIMUM or DEBUG from vendor web interface and try to derive system parameters from those.
Failing that you have to open the case and observe the chips on PCB to determine SoC. It may or may not be a combination of already supported CPU and switch chips, with sufficient or not flash or memory amount.
It's your device, sitting on your desk - you'd need to tell us.
If the device isn't listed as supported, then it isn't supported<fullstop>.
If it could theoretically be supported, if you put in the development work to port OpenWrt to the device in question, can only be answered after you determined the hardware specs (SOC, flash, RAM, switch chips).
tl;dr: no.
It's in my rack ATM, have to remove it and take it apart.
I do not know how the boot is done so I was hopping someone would have some insight on how feasible or hard it is and has it been done before.
tl;dr: I know, just wondering has anyone been able to do it, but I wasn't clear enough on it so my bad.
https://static.tp-link.com/2018/201811/20181107/TL-SG1024DE_V3_20180629.zip
pretty much rules out OpenWrt support, at all.
Ok, what is the tell that it will not? The 1MB firmware?
Yes.
OEM firmware sizes in the sub 1 MB range (usually) only have two reasons:
- the OEM firmware is not linux based (for
$reasons) - the flash chip is correspondingly small (1 MB), which is a hard no-go (at least 8 MB is hard-required, but OpenWrt states a minimum of 16 MB for future releases)
- RAM is probably way too small as well (64 MB is required, but OpenWrt states a minimum of 128 MB for future releases)
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Thanks, you learn something new everyday, that is good 
any recommendations on a switch for a homelab?
What you have is good enough with vlans and lacp....
Definitely it is, but it does not have POE and I can't really use stuff like Ansible to deploy or any other network management solution, I can't isolate it into a management vlan.
It grinds my gears not being able to update stuff to do what I need/want but that is just me...
Fully OpenWrt supported rtl838x based switches (or at least strongly-assumed-to-be-supportable ones) are often found reasonably cheap on the second hand markets. As these are on the cusp between enthusiast- and boring office equipment (and commercial users tend to buy new), you often don't see much competition for these listings and may get a very reasonable price (at least as long as you are content with 1 GBit/s ports); PoE capable ones tend to be significantly more expensive though.
(And there are also a few vendors/ switches where the OEM firmware isn't that bad either, but you will also find really bad examples as well.)
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Thanks for the info, I'll check the list of supported switches, maybe try and figure out if there are any other ones not in the list.
BTW, is the only way to know if they have rtl838x is by opening them up or is there a site that has this information?
My advice always is to stick with known-fully-supported devices and not to bet on future support (unless you're confident to do the missing development yourself).
https://svanheule.net/switches/models collects information about realtek based routers (and a lot of development information), there are certainly more not-yet-identified realtek switches on the market. Dissecting the OEM firmware tends to give clues.
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Very interesting, thanks for the advice, I don't mind developing stuff and contributing to OSS, but if I have the time and money I would buy a switch just to make compatible.
Good intentions aside, I don't see myself doing it in the near future.
Again thanks for everything.
Keep in mind that the link above is more about hardware documentation, so always cross-check which of those are already supported by OpenWrt - not all of them are (nor will it list absolutely all supported ones).
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