Need help with recovery and installation (tp-link Archer A5 V6)

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hey there!
I need an Acces-Point where I can change the country code - thats why I bought the tp-link Archer A5 V6 from a shop nearby and tried to flash OpenWrt on it. Sadly, the documentation is really confusing for a newbie like me and I just combined the sysupgrade that sounded somewhat right and the firmware together and flashed it and well who would have thought - the LEDs are blinking and I can't access anything anymore.

So my question: What is the smartest next move? Try to flash the correct OpenWrt over a different protocol or can I give the router back and call it a day because the needed effort is too high?

2

Which documentation was followed, and file used for flashing?

3

I started here
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer_a5_v5

then found this thread:

then went here:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=01dcd574a24864c10a9c4df4304a3ce0da5c11a9

then I did this:
"
Create Factory image

As all installation methods require a U-Boot to be integrated into the
Image (and we do not ship one with the image) we are not able to create
an image in the OpenWRT build-process.

Download a TP-Link image from their Wesite and a OpenWRT sysupgrade
image for the device and build yourself a factory image like following:

TP-Link image: tpl.bin
OpenWRT sysupgrade image: owrt.bin

dd if=tpl.bin of=boot.bin bs=131584 count=1
cat owrt.bin >> boot.bin

Installing via Web-UI"

I took the firmware from tp-link and combined it with "openwrt-23.05.4-ramips-mt76x8-tplink_archer-c50-v4-initramfs-kernel.bin"

which probably is the cause because it is not for the router I have. But really, I searched 20 mins or so and couldnt find the "correct" binary and just rolled with it and see what happens hahaha

1 Like
4

This "project" is a bit tinkering around and testing for me so I don't care if something breaks or so - but I thought maybe asking here will help. So comments like "this was so dumb" don't really help :smiley:

5

And not the image to use with dd.

6

I am not a native english speaker - could you rephrase that?

7

You used the initramfs image when you built your images it's usually not the correct image form this.

8

Oh, okay.
Well, what would be the next move? I am reading the recovery part of the docs but they are really hard to get ahead of. Can you help me here? Maybe I have a hard time because of the model I picked cuz the docs are really thin about this model.

9

Based on https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=01dcd574a24864c10a9c4df4304a3ce0da5c11a9, see if you can get into web recovery, if not, you need to use TFTP.

1 Like
10

I got into TFTP - I am hosting it on my mac and I can see that it's asking for it:

"tcpdump: listening on en8, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), snapshot length 524288 bytes
17:50:05.245323 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 1, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 62)
192.168.0.2.surveyinst > 192.168.0.66.tftp: [no cksum] TFTP, length 34, RRQ "tp_recovery.bin" octet timeout 1"

After a few seconds the led turns off and it stays like this. I don't know what it's doing..

He can get the file 100% - I tried it on my host:
" enes@MacBookPro openwrt % tftp 127.0.0.1

tftp> get tp_recovery.bin

Received 7930368 bytes during 0.3 seconds in 15490 blocks

tftp>"

I don't know if its installing right now or... probably not because of "octet timeout 1"

trying to figure out what thats about

11

Disabled firewall?

12

The mac firewall is always off. I am trying to figure out if I have other software that could be the cause but I can't think of any.. man

13

image
image1582×754 68 KB

Now I used some software to do it and the transfer was successful. But sadly, the behavior didn't change and the LED just turns off.. hm.

14

Then you'll need serial access to figure out what's going on.

I assume you had prepped the image as described ?

15

yeah I prepped the image without knowing what I am doing lol

I don't have the knowledge, time and interest in accessing the serial stuff so I'll just give it back and act as clueless customer or something

16

unfortunately, Archer A5 v6 is not supported by openwrt, to add support the oem firmware boot is needed, It's not compatible with Archer C50 v6 don't try to flash that firmware, ethernet wouldn't work.

17

oem recovery instructions could be found here: