Linksys MX8500 support?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Moving to a new place with lots of congestion in the wifi airway so I am looking for a wifi device with 6E capability.

I saw that the Linksys MX8500 is listed on the table of hardware page for wifi 802.11ax. However, there is not a lot of information regarding installing openwrt on it or any potential issues with the device once running openwrt on it. This is true despite the fact that the 24.10.0 stable is listed as available for this device.

If I get a chance to buy one cheap, should I get it? Or should I stay away from it since they're not a lot of I for on openwrt support?

2

https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=9bdaebaff323e554046ce354092832c956b2ad5e

3

I read through the instructions. When it says, "manually update" for the first install, does that mean through the Linksys web UI? Also, for the second partion install, do you have to copy the install file to the router first via SCP? Or do you just run the command to install openwrt on the second partition and it just copy from first partition? Sorry.... I'm a newb and since there is not a lot of info or guides, I want to double and triple check everything.

4

Updated OpenWrt ToH wiki page with newcomer-friendly instructions. https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/mx8500

3 Likes
5

Thank you, it is much appreciated.
Do you know if the 6 Ghz band is working? I have read through some forum and some people say yes and others say no.

6

6 Ghz band worked for me on 24.10

7

Is there a way to force a AQR firmware update through the OEM firmware? The wiki says to update the OEM firmware to the latest version and the AQR firmware will update as well, but I don't believe that was the case for me. My steps:

  1. Update OEM firmware
  2. Flash openwrt to both partitions
  3. Modify uboot to load AQR firmware

WAN port would just not work. Status lights lit up so I know the firmware was being loaded but refused to ping anything. Connecting the serial port showed:

"Downshift occurred from negotiated speed 1000Mbps to actual speed 100Mbps, check cabling!"

messages when connecting the 5gbe port. This is a known good cable so I know this wasn't right. After manually flashing the updated AQR firmware, errors stopped and 5gbe port was finally working fine. It wasn't an isolated incident as well, I had to manually update all 3 of the MX8500's AQR firmware.

Unfortunately I didn't log the OEM firmware update process so I don't know what went wrong. I was updating from OEM firmware 1.0.9.205280 to 1.0.11.208937.

8

In OEM software AQR firmware is loaded during system boot from file and not from u-boot. But such loading does not work in OpenWrt. Therefore AQR firmware update must be done manually.

9

This needs to be changed because it is not true:
5. Update to the latest OEM firmware. This saves the latest Marvell AQR firmware needed to use the WAN port that is not distributed with OpenWrt firmware

See the commit message. The latest AQR firmware can be obtained from the OEM update image file by unpacking it using binwalk or unblob.

1 Like
10

So does step 13 from the wiki page commit the AQR to the when port? I'm getting confused as I follow. I would like to have all the steps down before attempting to openwrt on the router.

  1. Modify U-Boot bootloader to load the Marvell AQR firmware needed to use the WAN port:
    fw_setenv bootcmd 'aq_load_fw; if test $auto_recovery = no; then bootipq; elif test $boot_part = 1; then run bootpart1; else run bootpart2; fi'
11

How did you manually flash the updated AQR/where do I get the firmware to flash it? Was it by following step #13 from the wiki page?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

12

I am getting stuck on the AQR update part (from the commit):

AQR firmware:
========

  1. Firmware loading:
    To properly load the firmware and initialize AQR PHY, we must use the u-boot aq_load_fw function.
    To do this, you need to modify u-boot env:
    With USB recovery:
  • fw_setenv bootcmd 'aq_load_fw; run bootusb; if test $auto_recovery = no; then bootipq; elif test $boot_part = 1; then run bootpart1; else run bootpart2; fi'
    and without:
  • fw_setenv bootcmd 'aq_load_fw; if test $auto_recovery = no; then bootipq; elif test $boot_part = 1; then run bootpart1; else run bootpart2; fi'
  1. Firmware updating:
    Newer firmware (AQR-G4_v5.6.5-AQR_WNC_SAQA-L2_GT_ID45287_VER24005.cld) is available in the latest OEM firmware.
    To load this firmware via u-boot, we need to add the MBN header and update 0:ethphyfw partition.
    For MBN header we can use script from this repository: https://github.com/testuser7/aqr_mbn_tool
  • python aqr_mbn_tool.py AQR-G4_v5.6.5-AQR_WNC_SAQA-L2_GT_ID45287_VER24005.cld
    To update partition we need to install kmod-mtd-rw package first:
  • insmod mtd-rw.ko i_want_a_brick=1
  • mtd -e /dev/mtd26 -n write aqr_fw.mbn /dev/mtd26

I do not know how to 1, unpack the OEM firm to get the AQR-G4_v5.6.5-AQR_WNC_SAQA-L2_GT_ID45287_VER24005.cld file. Also, once I get the file, 2. how to I update the BN header and update 0:ethphyfw partition 3. to install the kmod-mtd-rw package f do I need to be connected to the internet already on the Mx8500?

If anyone can point me how to get past this part it would be greatly appreciated.

13

I recommend going to the MX8500 thread in the developer forum and start reading from post #227. It will provide the information you are looking for.

Be sure to verify your files against the posted SHA256 hash in the thread. To install the kmod-mtd-rw package I just set the WAN interface to br-lan temporarily to connect to the internet.

14

Thanks. I read through it and I will give it try. The one part that is really confusing me is the ....add MBN header and update 0:ethphyfw partition part. Is there a somewhere I can read/learn on how to properly do this step?

15

What part are you specifically confused about? You already posted the commands to do it. Downloading the aqr_mbn_tool script and running

python aqr_mbn_tool.py AQR-G4_v5.6.5-AQR_WNC_SAQA-L2_GT_ID45287_VER24005.cld

will output the file "aqr_fw.mbn". This is the AQR firmware with the added MBN header. Verify the checksum of the file against what was posted in the developer thread.

"update 0:ethphyfw partition" of the instructions just refers to these commands

insmod mtd-rw.ko i_want_a_brick=1
mtd -e /dev/mtd26 -n write aqr_fw.mbn /dev/mtd26

This writes the modified AQR firmware to the proper partition.

16

sorry about the questions...I am not great with coding...When you say, to download the aqr_mbn_tool script, will I run that on after ssh into the router? It not, where do I run the script?

If not in the ssh, then will I have to scp the aqr_fw.mbn into the router to the run the final command?

17

Thanks so much for cleaning up the wiki. Unfortunately as this discussion shows, merely updating OEM firmware does not result in the AQR firmware being operative in OpenWRT. I will try to clarify it a little more.

18

As you can see, it's a real pain to update the AQR firmware.

If you love to tinker, you need to extract it from the OEM firmware, then run it through the script to create the final file "aqr_fw.mbn" which you then install into a partition.

If you don't love to tinker, here's a copy :wink:: https://fex.net/s/9belfrp

19

I do love to tinker and learn how to do things. However, as you see above based on my questions, I completely lost on even where to start. I would love to learn how to do it.

Now that I have the aqr_fw.mbn file :laughing: thank you, do I need to scp that file into the router to then run the final commands?

20

Now that I have the aqr_fw.mbn file :laughing: thank you, do I need to scp that file into the router to then run the final commands?

Yep.