Netgear EX7500 Repeater/Extender Device Support

Hi, new build for that device possible?

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_EX7500

Latest build on device:
Chaos Calmer 15.05.1, r124102, generic/ipq806x

Thanks

One confusing thing is that Qualcomm's proprietary QSDK has that "signature" and, unfortunately, their code uses parts of an old release, and isn't immediately usable with mainline OpenWrt.

The IPQ4019 chip shown in the WikiDevi link is supported by OpenWrt and the QCA9886 wireless should be as well. There are several boards running OpenWrt using the IPQ4019, so I don't see any immediate roadblocks to support, other than the time of someone with the device in hand and the skills and drive to do so. That could be a week of work if lucky, a lot longer if not, then plus the time for review and changes by the core-dev team before "snapshot" builds were available. Locked boot loaders and/or signed firmware would be a challenge if they popped up in the exploration.

It's an interesting unit from the look of things. Probably similar to the Linksys EA8300 that I ported earlier this year (and run meshed at home), with a slightly different third wireless chip (QCA9888). The three-radio device class seems to be (finally) filling out a bit!

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Hi Jeff,

thanks for reply.

Yes, both IPQ4019 and QCA9886 are supported by OpenWrt.
Interesting, QSDK is new to me.
How to manage QSDK and signature?

Would be great EX7500 running with OpenWrt.
So, is it possible to port?

Best regards

What about this?

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_EX7300

This topic is about EX7500.
Please open a new topic for EX7300.

Does the EX7500 have any Ethernet ports? Looking at the manuals it appears that all networking is by wifi.

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Correct, the EX7500 only has WiFi (Tri-Band), no Ethernet port.

That is going to make development difficult, since a typical workflow is to TFTP over test images with the bootloader and Ethernet.

Yeah, i used Telnet to access device (enabled via 192.168.x.xxx/debug.htm) and tried to enable wireless by default (http://www.8devices.com/wiki/openwrt:recipes:build_wirelles_on:with_wireless_enabled_by_default)

OpenWrt will not support any WiFi-only devices with no Ethernet. This was previously discussed at length when code was submitted to support such a device, and rejected:

This was why I suggested to you a similar, but already supported, device to use instead.

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censored

Thank you for being censored by OpenWRT

Thank you :smiley:

Going to sell that device and build DIY x86 Router/Repeater/AP

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