Need help reverting a Xiaomi 4A Gigabit back to stock

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello everyone. Ive recently purchased a secondary Xiaomi 4A Gigabit router. The other day I've upgraded both to Openwrt 22.03.1 but now I'm using the new one as dumb AP and the other one as main router.
Since the secondary doesn't need router capabilities I want to revert it back to stock firmware.
Questions:

  • Should I follow this guide (which is linked in the openwrt wiki) or the MiWiFi repair tool? Which method will reinstall the stock firmware?

  • Is there any chance I can hardbrick it by following said guide?
    I'm asking because I don't have the tools or knowledge to debrick it via serial.

  • On the video tutorial it shows a test.bin file. What is that? Should I download the firmware from the Xiaomi website and rename it to test.bin the placement on the folder?

  • Downgrading via openwrt using the Xiaomi .bin file is a huge no-no, correct?

I'm asking this because I've read that someone has hardbricked his 4a doing this.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Last question:

  • Can I downgrade the main router to openwrt 21.02.4 using sysupgrade? I need banip which is currently not supported on 22.03.1.
2

All methods below assume, you have stock bootloader.

See '4pda' method.

I used TinyPXE for reverting to stock.

You can manually mtd write any version of OpenWRT in router running any version of OpenWRT.

3

As stated on my OP, I'm on openwrt latest version. That's the thing. if a modified u-boot or any part of the bootloader is preset I can not just upgrade using Xiaomis original firmware. Is that not the case?

I just want to go back to Xiaomis ofw on the repester and squeeze max speed by using propietsry drivers since it's a dumb AP.

4

Yes, but 'stock' OpenWRT 'official' firmware is for 'stock' bootloader.

See https://openwrt.org/inbox/toh/xiaomi/xiaomi_mi_router_4a_gigabit_edition

6

I'm lost. Not sure how to tell which bootloader I have. I just installed openwrt following the guide described in the wiki.

Can I just use TinyPXE?

Thanks

7

Did you ever change it?

If not, there's your answer.

8

Ive never touched anything related to the bootloader, I just installed OpenWRT thats it.

1 Like
9

U can debrick it. Going back to stock firmware using tinypxe. Or follow those link for properly debrick. Make sure to download the version of ur firmware. English/Chinese .

10

Thanks. I successfully went back to stock but for some reason my router refused to flash the Global version (light went purple and wouldn't stop blinking even after waiting more than 39 minutes) so I went ahead and flashed the Chinese version (I remember mine was global when I purchased it because everything was in English and the MiWifi app shows that my router had fw version 3.0.24 which is the version number for the global one). Not a big deal tho since I can just nude chrome to translate and configure the router.

Thanks!

11

Then is not an english version but a Chinese. English version have a global version on the box.

12

It might be, but apparently this happened to another user, although it was the 100MB version of this router Xiaomi R4a 100mb - How to go back to global version firmware?

Ive found a YouTube tutorial on how to convert it back to global but right now I dont think it's worth the effort for me. The zip in the description of the video includes a bunch of scripts that seem useful.

13

refer to:

14

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.