ELECOM WRC-1167GHBK2-S: Is that router really supported?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,

thanks to these forums, LEDE and OpenWrt, found a supported router and decided to purchase.
ELECOM WRC-1167GHBK2-S

Listed in the supported routers list
elecom

Binaries being here.

No problem with the installation 18.06.1.
However... no wireless. Neither in LuCI, nor via ssh.

Doing ssh, first thing that surprised me was the root prompt,

  • root@OpenWrt while the two other recent routers I upgraded (same version) have
  • root@LEDE.
  • uname -a gives the correct
    Linux OpenWrt 4.14.63 #0 SMP Thu Aug 16 07:51:15 2018 mips GNU/Linux though.

List of

  • /etc/config doesn't include wireless.
  • lsmod of modules didn't show any of the mediatek drivers.

So, installed kmod-mt76 (+ reboot).
Now I see only one radio,

ls -l /sys/devices/pci0000:00 shows only 0000:00:00.0/ (no 0000:00:01.0/)

This brings a few remarks / questions, if you don't mind [ provided the problem is not on my side, either something I should have done, or something I shouldn't have... ]

  1. Should this router be in the supported list as is

  2. Is there any way to get the radios x 2 working or ...

  3. would it be better to simply compile a fresh version?

Thank you.

2

Wifi 2.4 and wifi 5 are listed in the UNsupported features column. This is usually because no open drivers exist for the chips involved.

Models with that column blank have support of all features.

1 Like
3

Oh I see - the headers were on top and didn't filter so... the meaning was the opposite I thought :upside_down_face:

Have another router Buffalo WSR-1166 with good wifi support and has the exact same kernel log line

[ 0.000000] SoC Type: MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3 (WSR-1166 Buffalo)
[ 0.000000] SoC Type: MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3 (WRC-1167GHBK2 Elecom)

Doesn't this mean there is a way to have wifi working on the Elecom?

4

No. The MT7621 is the CPU. Per the Table of Hardware, the WiFi Chip is a MediaTek MT7615D.

5

I ported this router to OpenWrt.

This model has MediaTek MT7615D chip for wlan 2.4/5 GHz as @lleachii says, and can not be used because there is no open driver.

(note: WRC-1900GST and WRC-2533GST also have MT7615 chip.)

WikiDevi: https://wikidevi.com/wiki/MediaTek_MT7615

pictures:

6

@musashino Thank you for your hard work on this new router, that will certainly help future developments.
(the 4 pins (right side, top photo) are likely serial connectors).

However, was surprised to see that router included in the supported list while it does not have a single wifi function working. Sure it can act as a switch, a router, a firewall etc... but...

Anyway, that's on me, jumped to quickly on the first affordable and quickly available router in the list without reading the table headers (unsupported stuff). Learned something!

[ and learned something else trying to restore the original fw via mtd since it's bricked now... next time I'll check the file 32 bytes header first.... :slight_smile: that's the reason I'm interested in the 4 pins likely-UART... (if I find my ftdi serial-usb interface hidden somewhere in the closet!). for the time being, a tcpdump on the LAN side doesn't show anything, even pressing a button, reset ... completely dead it seems ]

7

Yes, they are serial pins and orderd Vcc, GND, TX and RX from ethernet port side.

IMO, OpenWrt is based on wlan routers, but not only for it. Wired routers and others are also supported in this project.
In WRC-1167GHBK2-S, it's supported as "OpenWrt" system including Linux Kernel and each packages. It's just we cannot use the wlan of a number of functions.

However, it is certainly better to have a mechanism to make it easy to know that wireless can not be used despite being a wireless router. :slightly_smiling_face:

8

Hello!
Thanks for your excellent work!
May I ask a question? It seems like this driver [https://github.com/hanwckf/mt7615] works with Phicomm K2P, which has MT7615DN too. So now I am wondering if it is possible to port this driver in the future, because I just got a wrc-1167ghbk2-s.

9

Just looking at one of the files there suggests that the code in use may not licensed for general use and that its publication may have been in violation of any NDA or other agreement under which it was originally received.
From https://github.com/hanwckf/mt7615/blob/master/MT7615_LinuxAP_V4.4.1.2_20170514/mt_wifi/rate_ctrl/alg_legacy.c

/****************************************************************************
 * Ralink Tech Inc.
 * Taiwan, R.O.C.
 *
 * (c) Copyright 2010, Ralink Technology, Inc.
 *
 * All rights reserved. Ralink's source code is an unpublished work and the
 * use of a copyright notice does not imply otherwise. This source code
 * contains confidential trade secret material of Ralink Tech. Any attemp
 * or participation in deciphering, decoding, reverse engineering or in any
 * way altering the source code is stricitly prohibited, unless the prior
 * written consent of Ralink Technology, Inc. is obtained.
 ***************************************************************************/
1 Like
10

Oh! I didn't notice that! Thanks for your reminder! That explains why it cannot be publically supported.