Missing Release for Linksys WHW03 V1?

georgek42 · January 5, 2025, 7:22pm

Hello everyone, I recently got my hands on a couple of Linksys WHW03 v1, which I'm hoping to install OpenWRT on. This post is a bit lengthy, so I've bolded the important bits

As usual, I understand that we should always check if support exists before committing to a model. However, I was under the impression that this one did have support (plus it was free). I might have been mistaken, but that's okay.

But looking on the OpenWRT sites shows only the Snapshot release, which does not have Luci. I am a bit new to using GitHub, so I cannot understand what to make out of these as they make it seem like the WHW03 v2 builds had been ported to WHW03 v1, but I am unable to see where I can find any files accordingly.

Obviously, I am probably wrong so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, Is there supposed to be links for the release versions of OpenWRT or are they just missing/broken or not avaiable yet, again, just new so any explaination would be greatly appriciated.

https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/whw03_v1

Saw This:

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

Help fixing channel support of WHW03 V2, help porting to WHW03 V1

opened 11:05AM - 02 Apr 24 UTC

closed 06:53PM - 11 Apr 24 UTC

Lanchon

target/ipq40xx bug release/23.05 Official Image

### Describe the bug @hauke, @vtremblay, the purpose of this thread is tw…ofold: - getting help fixing channel support of WHW03 V2 (NAND-based, officially supported) - getting help porting openwrt to WHW03 V1 (eMMC-based, but otherwise seems identical; no official port) ## the channel problem there are a number of tri-band routers based on IPQ4019, which seem to be very much alike: - Linksys EA8300/MR8300 (EA8250/MR8250) - Linksys WHW03 V1/V2 - ASUS Lyra (MAP-AC2200) of these, all of them except WHW03 V2 (including [this WHW03 V1 out of tree port originally by @flipy](https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/14350)) support these channel ranges on their separate 5 GHz interfaces: - 36 ~ 64: supported - 100 ~ 165: supported however, the official WHW03 V2 port only supports a much reduced range, which is suspect (i think these channels are the ones that do not require DFS in the USA): - 36 ~ 48: supported - **52 ~ 64: unsupported** - **100 ~ 144: unsupported** - 149 ~ 165: supported i've also seen that the official WHW03 V2 port seems to ignore the regulatory country setting. it clearly uses DFS, as 5 GHz networks are not enabled for a minute or two while the devices does CAC (Channel Availability Check). when the regulatory region is set to Panama, which does not use DFS, the CAC period remains active. (other QCA routers i own correctly disable DFS in this case.) also, the device shouldn't be using DFS at all for the restricted channel range it uses, AFAIK. i have a single V2 to play with, currently with stock firmware. when running old 2.1.9.195026 firmware, the device indeed allows the same restricted channel range as the openwrt port. however in current 2.1.19.209783 firmware, channel selection has been removed from the GUI so there is no way to know the range. (during testing my device chose channels 40 and 149.) i am assuming the RF section of all these routers is the same, and thus all should support the same extended channel range... unless they cut corners on the RF filters for V2. (note: they use different FCC IDs.) how can i push openwrt WHW03 V2 to use the full range in order to test? (i don't really care if i damage my hardware, this restricted channel range makes these routers unusable.) my uninformed guess is that maybe this info is encoded in the [board data files](https://github.com/openwrt/firmware_qca-wireless/commit/711d8ea2e3b47b03d74d6be8d09797051ecb3ade). is this true? the OoT V1 port uses [different files](https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/14350/commits/e030c835c43ecc0f3453dbb7414c888ba5099285#diff-51c24c1a7b736127c0fa1b2e44b2a0cbba17d70a998209c5287965919fa7c16c). where did these files come from? i downloaded the latest [stock firmwares](https://www.linksys.com/support-article?articleNum=47907) for V1 and V2, unpacked the ext4 and ubifs files, and uploaded them [here](https://github.com/Lanchon/whw03-stock-firmware). firmwares for V1 and V2 seem to be in sync. qca bin files are [here](https://github.com/Lanchon/whw03-stock-firmware/tree/main/whw03v2_2.1.19.209783_2022-06-20/rootfs/lib/firmware). i compared `/lib/firmware` directories of V1 and V2 firmwares and they match bit for bit, so each firmware seem to contain the bin files for both hardware versions. next i checked the 4 files from openwrt V1 and V2 ports, and they do not match any of the files in stock `/lib/firmware`. so where did they come from? earlier versions of stock? or am i barking up the wrong tree? why does stock seem to have different bin files for different regions and openwrt does not? should i try V1 port bin files in a V2 build to unlock the extra channels? ## the WHW03 V1 port i want to build on flipy's port and get it merged into openwrt but i really can't continue until i understand where the qca bin files included in the port came from. ### OpenWrt version r23809-234f1a2efa ### OpenWrt release 23.05.3 ### OpenWrt target/subtarget ipq40xx/generic ### Device Linksys WHW03 V2 (Velop) ### Image kind Official downloaded image ### Steps to reproduce _No response_ ### Actual behaviour _No response_ ### Expected behaviour _No response_ ### Additional info _No response_ ### Diffconfig _No response_ ### Terms - [X] I am reporting an issue for OpenWrt, not an unsupported fork.

Led to This:

Which Led To This:

I am trying to learn how github works, and am I wrong if closed means the problem has been solved or adbandoned? Just trying to learn.

If all else, I saw this, which builds on a what looks to be a generic build? Is this what I should be doing? Thanks!

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/comerford/a225d036bb3f7cc586484a175cc687ab

whw03v1.md

## making a recent build by cherry-picking from @protectivedad repo

This is a verbose, step-by-step-from-scratch account of how I built a version of OpenWRT for my Linksys Velop WHW03 V1 based off the 23.05.2 release and cherry picking in the changes from a reported working repo for the WHW03 V1

### Build Environment Notes
For the build step I use a docker container, that is from here:

https://github.com/mwarning/docker-openwrt-build-env

Basically though, assuming you have docker working already it is:

This file has been truncated. show original

Thank you for all your time and help, I greatly appreciate it!

efahl · January 5, 2025, 7:40pm

... as a default package. As soon as you install the snapshot, simply log into the device and apk add luci, then it does.

Or go to https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/ and build an image that does contain LuCI and any other package you desire. (Note that the default package linked there does not contain LuCI, you must perform a build to create one.)

georgek42 · January 5, 2025, 8:06pm

Oh perfect, yeah I intend to do that.

That said, all those post referring to porting V2 to V1, what did they end up to be? I'm only asking to try and understand how github works and what it means. Finding it very confusing lol

dannil · January 5, 2025, 8:29pm

https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/14350 was abandoned by the author (they even say so here so that work got stalled.
The work got picked up at https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/15345 by another person and that one was merged, meaning the code changes needed to support the V1 was accepted.

It actually depends, normally the purple "Closed" badge with a checkmark indicates that the changes in the Pull Request were accepted, and a red "Closed" badge means the Pull Request was abandoned/not accepted/any other reason the work didn't continue.

The project employs a bot which can merge commits by maintainers without going through the GitHub UI, in that case it'll be a red "Closed" badge but the changes were accepted; it's not that commonly used, but there should be a reference to the added commit anyway in the Pull Request so there's traceability that the changes were indeed accepted.

If you're just learning how GitHub works, it's not anything you need to pay special attention to.

If you mean how to install OpenWrt on it then no. It's poorly documented in the wiki but the commit that added support for WHW03 V1 (which is here https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/commit/c90487556229ae264dec33305e5c71c4ef7dd1c5) has installation instructions at the bottom, which seems very straight-forward. Just make sure that you're using the factory image instead of the sysupgrade on initial flashing from inside the OEM firmware, just ask if you're unsure.

georgek42 · January 5, 2025, 10:56pm

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me!

I see the instructions you've linked, but am I being blind when I say that I can find the files? The factory or the sysupgrade files? Only the SNAPSHOT files in the official OpenWRT page for this router.

I think I might be overlooking something. Any chance you can send a screenshot where your looking at?

dannil · January 6, 2025, 8:12am

I see what you mean now, the wiki is not updated in that regard as well (it's manually curated so it sometimes falls behind). As mentioned by @efahl you can go to https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org and there you'll find the files needed.

I would recommend installing the newest 24.10.0 release candidate, then you are prepared for the stable release of 24.10.0 and you get LuCI (the web interface) included automatically. It seems the buildbots are building the new 24.10.0-rc5 release at this current moment, so your device won't show up in the firmware selector UI until it's gotten around to compiling the firmware for it since it only shows the newest release candidate. I've attached a screenshot for the device I'm using (R7800) which also has a factory and sysupgrade so you know how it should look.

If you don't want to wait for rc5 to finish compiling, you could always go directly to https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.0-rc4/targets/ipq40xx/generic and download the factory and sysupgrade for rc4 (the firmware selector is just a fancy UI around https://downloads.openwrt.org) from there, as everyone did before the firmware selectors existence.

EDIT: and one more important point of order is that if rc5 starts showing up for your device in the firmware selector but rc5 hasn't been public announced here on the forum in the Release and security announcements category, it's not ready to be used yet as there could still be some work needed to ensure it's actually stable.

georgek42 · January 8, 2025, 12:01pm

Thank you dannil for all your help and advice.
Yes, what you suggested did in fact work pretty well!

I personally used the SNAPSHOT variant, which, in hindsight, should probably well change, but I did that before I saw your post.

I guess I'll leave a section below on what I did for anyone for anyone else that happens to use this device, cause that's what forums all about.

Lanchon Explained how to use the snapshot available and build it with LUCI like dannil also suggested, but to add a few other things to make updating them a bit easier (From what I understand).

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

Comment by Lanchon - ipq40xx: add support for Linksys WHW03 V1

openwrt:main ← Lanchon:whw03v1

> Glad to see the Linksys WHW03 V1 is on the way. I have 3 of them. Hope I can d…o test when it's ready. it's totally ready! the BDFs have already merged, and reports are it's wholly stable. if you worry about using snapshots, read this: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/using-openwrt-snapshots-in-production/204518/3 if you want to make full use of the 4 GiB storage, here is how: https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/whw03_v1#repartitioning just note: if you want to use the complete channel range (including radar channels (eg: ch 100), which are not available with stock firmware) it seems you **need** to manually configure your country. the default config (global) apparently does not support radar channels.

I was able to successfully use this firmware on my WHW03 V1 and have LUCI preinstalled vs installing it over SSH.

I had one machine which had already been flashed with the SSH Only firmware on the WHW03 V1s site, which can make updating them with the new custom firmware a bit tricky.

If you fell into this trap, these should work to make it easier than hosting a mini webserver on your PC or using the embedded link on the custom firmware page to download firmware via CLI.

Use the Dual Boot Feature of these routers. Only works if you haven't tried to flash it more than once, as the stock firmware will be on the second backup partition. This should work: Using OpenWrt Snapshots in production
Install LUCI to get webUI to upload firmware (What I did)

and then use WebUI to flash custom firmware

Hope this helps to anyone in the future, and many thanks to those who helped me on this forum!