Installing on Netgear R8000P

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I’ve had an R8000P for awhile and looked for an OpenWrt image about a year ago with noting available.

I’ve checked again today and it is now on the ToH! Looking at the download file, it’s a .bin and Netgear requires a .chk to flash through the web UI.

I’ve bought a USB-TTL device after reading about having to stop the boot sequence or something and then flashing firmware for a different but similar router. (https://www.myopenrouter.com/article/how-set-serial-console-netgear-r8000)

Am I going about this the right way? Would serialing into the board solve anything and allow me to install the .bin? Did I get my hopes up too quickly?

2
3

Hi,

you need serial connection (usb to ttl), you can use (windows) putty to establish connection,
interrupt the boot process by pressing strg + c.
Image that can be flashed using bootloader web UI at this point. You also need network connection to the router and give your PC an IP adress between 192.168.1.2 - 254.
Open browser and type the IP adress(192.168.1.1.) into adressbar. Then you can flash the .bin image.

greetings

4

I have successfully installed OpenWrt on Netgear R8000P however WiFi is not working.
If anyone managed to make it work, can you please share how?

1 Like
5

There aren't any good open drivers for the Broadcom wifi chips in the R8000. With OpenWrt this model should be considered only for wired use.

6

BCM4365E is supported by brcmfmac, not great, but okay'ish.

7

hi @slh
How can I install brcmfmac?

Thank you!

8

Try looking for brcm in the package list.

9

@frollic I did install both pci and usb BCM43xx drivers, rebooted. No joy.

10

kmod(s) and firmware package(s) ?

11

that's the problem there is no kmod packages named kmod-brcm..... on the list which I did opkg update.

12

there are for 19.07, what version are you running ?
and check if they're perhaps shipping with the image.

image
image940×136 11 KB

13

I am running OpenWrt 21.02.0 and it is not among installed packages.

14

double check using lsmod, just to be sure.

15

@frollic please see below for search result and installed packages

100-001
100-0011920×1982 214 KB

100-002
100-0021988×870 178 KB

and lsmod output.

crc_ccitt 12288 1 ppp_async
ehci_fsl 12288 0
ehci_hcd 53248 2 ehci_platform,ehci_fsl
ehci_platform 12288 0
fsl_mph_dr_of 12288 0
gpio_button_hotplug 12288 0
ip_tables 20480 4 iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
ip6_tables 20480 24 ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter
ip6t_REJECT 12288 2
ip6table_filter 12288 1
ip6table_mangle 12288 1
ipt_REJECT 12288 2
iptable_filter 12288 1
iptable_mangle 12288 1
iptable_nat 12288 1
nf_conntrack 86016 8 xt_state,xt_nat,xt_conntrack,xt_REDIRECT,xt_MASQUERADE,xt_CT,nf_nat,nf_flow_table
nf_defrag_ipv4 12288 1 nf_conntrack
nf_defrag_ipv6 12288 1 nf_conntrack
nf_flow_table 20480 2 xt_FLOWOFFLOAD,nf_flow_table_hw
nf_flow_table_hw 12288 1
nf_log_common 12288 2 nf_log_ipv4,nf_log_ipv6
nf_log_ipv4 12288 0
nf_log_ipv6 12288 0
nf_nat 32768 4 iptable_nat,xt_nat,xt_REDIRECT,xt_MASQUERADE
nf_reject_ipv4 12288 1 ipt_REJECT
nf_reject_ipv6 12288 1 ip6t_REJECT
nls_base 16384 1 usbcore
ohci_hcd 40960 1 ohci_platform
ohci_platform 12288 0
ppp_async 20480 0
ppp_generic 40960 3 pppoe,ppp_async,pppox
pppoe 20480 0
pppox 12288 1 pppoe
slhc 12288 1 ppp_generic
usb_common 12288 5 xhci_plat_hcd,xhci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ehci_platform,usbcore
usbcore 200704 7 xhci_plat_hcd,xhci_hcd,ohci_platform,ohci_hcd,ehci_platform,ehci_fsl,ehci_hcd
x_tables 28672 24 xt_state,xt_nat,xt_conntrack,xt_REDIRECT,xt_MASQUERADE,xt_FLOWOFFLOAD,xt_CT,ipt_REJECT,xt_time,xt_tcpudp,xt_multiport,xt_mark,xt_mac,xt_limit,xt_comment,xt_TCPMSS,xt_LOG,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter,ip_tables,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter,ip6_tables,ip6t_REJECT
xhci_hcd 139264 1 xhci_plat_hcd
xhci_plat_hcd 12288 0
xt_CT 12288 0
xt_FLOWOFFLOAD 12288 0
xt_LOG 12288 0
xt_MASQUERADE 12288 1
xt_REDIRECT 12288 0
xt_TCPMSS 12288 4
xt_comment 12288127
xt_conntrack 12288 14
xt_limit 12288 20
xt_mac 12288 0
xt_mark 12288 0
xt_multiport 12288 0
xt_nat 12288 0
xt_state 12288 0
xt_tcpudp 12288 12
xt_time 12288 0

16

Did anyone ever figure this out, I too just installed Openwrt 21.02.1 in R7960p/R8000p and cannot find these packages either. Some wireless support would be awesome even if it's not the greatest. I realize we are limited as broadcom does not offer FLOSS drivers.

17

Can someone tell me what is this "bootloader web UI"? Is there an official documentation about it?

I'm new to openwrt, not familiar with its terminology. From above description, I guess I need to connect the serial console, stop the auto booting, and then access the http://192.168.1.1, is that correct?

Thanks for the help.

18

Found it:

19

I installed openwrt 21.02.1, r16325-88151b8303 on my R7900P, wireless not working, lan and wan ether port seems okay.

20

It looks like the R7900P has different wifi chips
The R7900P uses BCM4365E, the R7900 uses BCM43602

According to @slh in this thread:
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/adding-openwrt-support-for-linksys-ea9300/45787


BCM4365E should be covered by brcmfmac