My Belkin RT1800 does not work with OpenWrt

grifo · March 28, 2023, 7:53am

Hi Andrew, thanks for your reply.

I had seen that thread and I was glad to read your post saying you could flash OpenWRT on your RT1800 after updating it to the latest available OEM firmware - ver. 1.1.00.016, released a year ago, which I duly downloaded - so I thought there would be no issue, but this thread suggests there are problems with some units.

This one doesn't sound like the issue with the corrupted boot partition 1 as @Annick was able to flash a different build, but then what do I know (very little about OpenWRT YET! ) Still, I've just ordered a TTL-USB CP2102 on Aliexpress.

It'd be interesting to know from Annick which OEM firmware version he had on his RT1800 and if he updated it.

grifo · March 28, 2023, 2:57pm

Thank you, so that's the initial OEM firmware release from September 2020, according to the release notes linked on the other thread by @AndrewZ, then that could be the cause of the problem.

Annick · March 28, 2023, 3:32pm

The correct installation of a firmware is always done by the U-boot
Normally it has nothing to do with the OEM firmware version that is loaded next
If it does not work it is that the built firmware is not correct
So it is important to correct this

I built very quickly a firmware factory ( the sysupgrade for example does not work )
Not problem with different versions of the OEM firmware with the tftp

openwrt build depend of type_fw_date fw_ver ???


define Build/belkin-header
	$(eval magic=$(word 1,$(1)))
	$(eval hw_ver=$(word 2,$(1)))
	$(eval fw_ver=$(word 3,$(1)))

	( \
		type_fw_date=$$(printf "01%02x%02x%02x" \
			$$(date -d "@$(SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)" "+%y %m %d")); \
		hw_fw_ver=$$(printf "%02x%02x%02x%02x" \
			$(hw_ver) $$(echo $(fw_ver) | cut -d. -f-3 | tr . ' ')); \
		fw_len_crc=$$(gzip -c $@ | tail -c 8 | od -An -tx8 | tr -d ' \n'); \
		fw_crc_len="$${fw_len_crc:8:8}$${fw_len_crc:0:8}"; \
		\
		printf "$(magic)" | dd bs=4 count=1 conv=sync 2>/dev/null; \
		printf "$$(echo $${type_fw_date}$${hw_fw_ver} | \
			sed 's/../\\x&/g')"; \
		printf "$$(echo $${fw_crc_len}$${fw_crc_len} | \
			sed 's/../\\x&/g')"; \
		printf "\x5c\x78\x00\x00"; \
		cat $@; \
	) > $@.new
	mv $@.new $@
endef

Annick · March 28, 2023, 6:12pm

found another bug / problem for MAC address because values are not in mtd2 but in mtd1

i think bad in 02_network

belkin,rt1800|\
linksys,e7350)
		lan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config lan_hwaddr)
		wan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config wan_hwaddr)
		label_mac=$lan_mac
		;;

correct ?

belkin,rt1800)
		lan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config lan_hwaddr)
		wan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config wan_hwaddr)
		label_mac=$lan_mac
        ;
linksys,e7350)
		lan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config lan_hwaddr)
		wan_mac=$(mtd_get_mac_ascii Config wan_hwaddr)
		label_mac=$lan_mac
		;;

grifo · March 28, 2023, 8:33pm

Good job for continuing to dig into this. this is an interesting device now that the RT3200 is harder to find here in Europe.

I already have two Netgear WAX202 running OpenWRT as APs, but they don't have an USB port which I need on the router, so I'm running OpenWRT on my old Asus RT-AC87U (wired only) for now. The idea would be to replace it with the RT1800 and have 3 wifi boxes with the same chipsets and drivers for optimal coverage. Hopefully the RT1800 will route 1 Gb/s too with the latest patches.

I've ordered one on Amazon Warehouse, I'll update it to the latest OEM firmware then try to flash OpenWRT. I'll keep you posted. Thanks guys for all the great info on this and the other thread.

AndrewZ · March 28, 2023, 8:34pm

FYI - there is no "MAC problem" in the official OpenWrt build, see Bad MAC adress for Belkin RT1800 - #2 by AndrewZ

grifo · March 28, 2023, 8:38pm

Thanks, appreciated.

Annick · March 28, 2023, 9:55pm

In fine i have modofied values in partition factory

neheb · March 28, 2023, 10:16pm

yeah this was a quick job by @musashino . Probably needs adjustment for newer firmware versions.

Annick · March 28, 2023, 11:01pm

ah, .. the quick work of a single developer
Now I'm not surprised at all that there are problems
and we add, and we add not only products but functionalities without really doing some checks
it doesn't surprise me anymore that OEMs are still using old version 17.01

hecatae · March 28, 2023, 11:52pm

How can I recreate this issue?

Barophobia · March 29, 2023, 8:47pm

Just set up my RT1800 with the latest snapshot, no issues at all, added pppoe into network wan config and installed luci no problem.

grifo · March 31, 2023, 5:33pm

Hi guys, so I got the RT1800. It came already with the latest OEM firmware 1.1.00.016, I guess the first owner updated it.

Initially I thought it had a corrupted boot partition 1 as the factory.bin (snapshot r22456-75e78bcaab from 2023-03-30) would not install, it seemed to flash correctly but after rebooting the router was still on the OEM fw.

I flashed the OEM fw (same version 1.1.00.016), no change. Then I did a factory reset on the OEM GUI. After that the LAN subnet changed from 192.168.10.0/24. to 192.168.1.0/24, and the next factory.bin flash worked. Everything seems to be working fine.

Thanks again for the info on this thread.

Annick · March 31, 2023, 5:50pm

griffo ->

exactly that's kinda weird
it worked but without really knowing how we did it

have you checked if the mac lan wan & wifi address correspond to what is indicated on the sticker ?

grifo · March 31, 2023, 6:30pm

Yes, the one on the sticker is the lan address, wan and wifi follow by a few digits of the same range E8:9F:80.

The initial problem was due more to the OEM than to OpenWRT as resetting the OEM fw to factory did change things from their initial state, as the different lan subnet proves. The router came already reset to factory (it started with the initial setup dialogue), I don't know why the extra reset changed things, maybe the OEM firmware reflashing did it.

d687r02j8g · March 31, 2023, 9:55pm

Is the wireless performance good on rt1800? I'm thinking of upgrading my APs as on paper they're better than my archer c7s

grifo · March 31, 2023, 10:06pm

I don't have any ax clients yet, with my 2x2 ac laptop I get >500 Mbps, which to me is a sufficient speed for wifi.

I've also confirmed that the Rt1800 routes 1 Gbps wired. It's a nice router but of course it's an old CPU so the VPN performance isn't the best. The RT3200 would be a better buy at the right price.

I wouldn't pay the full price going for either in Europe at the moment, I bought it as an Amazon Warehouse deal for 44 euros and that made sense.

Edit: of course if you'll use them as APs then the CPU doesn't matter much.

d687r02j8g · March 31, 2023, 10:09pm

Thank you. Think I'll try to get one.

grifo · March 31, 2023, 10:20pm

You're welcome.

It's worth trying to get one on Amazon Warehouse if you are in the EU (in the UK it's only 33 pounds new). The one i got is like new, the description said very good conditions with some scratches but in fact there aren't any, even the protective plastic hadn't been peeled off the front.

It looks a lot nicer than the Netgear WAX202's I have, It also looks better live than in pictures.

d687r02j8g · March 31, 2023, 10:26pm

Do you mean the rt1800? They're available for about £24 at the moment!

Did you test routing performance with SQM enabled?