Hi,
I bought 2 Mikrotik SXTsq 5 ac but their firmware sucks (at least with the "license" they came with), it won't allow me to create an AP with more than one client, anyway...
I'm trying to get OpenWRT on this APs but i can't find the .elf file that is referred here . Setting DHCP+TFTP actually gets the AP to download the file and try to boot it, though i haven't opened it (it seems ultrasonic welded, unless it is 100% necessary to open i would not break it) so i can't snoop on serial.
How can i boot OpenWRT on this AP?
Well,there is no support for IPQ40xx target Mikrotik devices.
Somebody is gotta be first
Ahh, the lovely level 3 license that does not allow the most basic stuff.
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how would it differ from other routers? Can't we just "copy" code from ar9xxx mikrotik devices to ipq40xx?
No way, they are completely different.
Also, there are issues with RouterBoot on non ar71xx platforms.
I dont think that any developer has got a Mikrotik IPQ40xx device
besides handling one of these to some dev is there any way i can help?
Well if you are not able to add support for them yourself giving them to devs is only thing
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well, i can try to add support, but i have no idea how openwrt code is structured, is there any guide on how the code is structured?
Well it really depends from target to target and upstream support.
I'll take a look here https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/start , again, as i said, i really doubt that i can do anything about this (even worse without having serial 
), if i can't i'll keep waiting, if some dev wants to contact me (either by PM or on IRC) i will keep these APs, so i can test firmware
If anything I feel it would make more sense to "copy" things from devices with the same CPU and not devices with very different hardware.
Exactly, problem is that all devices with the same cpu do not get a .elf image, which seems to be needed to do tftp boot on mikrotik devices, so i came with the idea to scrape target from other mikrotik devices, maybe not the best idea though
I did this copy paste thing, and tough i got a compile error there was a vmlinux-initramfs.elf inside /build_dir/target-arm_cortex-a7+neon-vfpv4_musl_eabi/linux-ipq40xx_mikrotik/ which made the AP react in a different way (it did not reboot into mikrotik's proprietary firmware), but i have no connection to it, it should be on initramfs cause that's the only thing it has, now the question is... how can i connect to initramfs through ssh?
Well, you can try Netinstall to recover it.
You really cant do what you did
I still have that mikrotik proprietary firmware netboot afaik does not install anything, just loads to ram, i couldn't even connect to owrt so i rebooted and there it was, mikrotik stuff
Did it boot the ELF file, though?
If so, can you see the serial console?
i don't think so. Unless i break the AP (it seems ultrasonic welded) there is no way to get into serial With ethernet there was no signal, neither acting as a client or as a router on my laptop (using "shared with others" on networkmanager)
Dont worry, UART does not work.
Mikrotik compiles RouterBoot without UART support for any device that does not have serial console advertised
so unless specified otherwise the only way to connect to mikrotik boards is ethernet? I am no programmer, but from what i understood the problem here is the loader (mikrotik does not recognize the default one that comes with owrt), thus needing the lzma-loader (as defined on other architectures mikrotik devices). Maybe this is just plain wrong and lzma-loader is not needed at all to ipq40xx mikrotik devices
Well there is really no way to know but trial and error.
And in order to even get ethernet connection switches must be configured properly.
Not having UART is a huge pain in the ass.
It should be much easier with those IPQ40XX boards that have serial port.
Something like this, I have been looking to get one but I cant justify it on a student budget
