I have a Netgear WNDR4300SW from my ISP. The bootloader(?) is such that you cannot flash a regular WNDR4300 image unless you modify its checksum, similar to the instructions posted here: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=178128#p178128
Questions:
(1) What is the easiest way to add a profile to LEDE that could build an image for the SW version that has the proper model name in the image header and correct checksum? Would something like this be accepted in the project or would it be something I'd have to maintain locally?
Not sure whether there are similar models that have to do something similar that I can use for inspiration.
(1a) Would it be possible to actually replace the bootloader or whatever does the model check on firmware flash with the generic one from a WNDR4300 so that these custom images are not required?
(2) I would like to use this router as wired only. Can I build an image myself where I remote the wifi drivers? I'd like to make sure that under no circumstances wifi can possibly come on, if the config is reset, I don't want wifi with default settings to turn on. It seems that removing the wifi drivers (or "breaking" wifi in some other way in a custom image) is the safe way to do it.
(3) I'd like to disable IPv6 completely but I think that's already possible with custom image builds, I've seen some references from a brief search.
There was a sale recently on the (wired only) EdgeRouter X and I picked one up. Stock firmware is pretty good, it seems to get updates and there's a lot of info from the community in their forums. Also LEDE can run on it if at some point I need to. $40 saved me time trying to get the WNDR4300SW to work with LEDE, but I'll keep it around as a backup in case something happens to the ER-X.
i agree it would be nice to have the wndr4300sw added as one of the profiles so it would be more convenient when it's time to upgrade with sysupgrade.bin file instead of always having to modify the ubi-factory.img file. btw, lede r3560 runs great on this router. can't complain when it's a hand-me-down.
Just flashed OpenWRT on the Surewest branded router WNDR4300. The flash will not work by default because the board_id is 'WNDR4300SW' and not 'WNDR4300'. I could not enable Telnet to router using the standard Telnet enable link (http://192.168.1.1/setup.cgi?todo=debug) or using the 'telnetenable' program.
Was able to connect using serial console using header pins at baud 115200. Once in I found commands to show and set board ID. Can't remember exact command but it was something that contained 'board id show/set'. Just type 'help' [ENTER] and you will see it. I was able to use the 'set' command and change board ID to 'WNDR4300'. After that I was able to use Admin UI to upload new OpenWRT firmware [wndr4300-ubi-factory.img] (http://archive.openwrt.org/releases/17.01.4/targets/ar71xx/nand/lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-nand-wndr4300-ubi-factory.img) and it flashed successfully.
If I already have OpenWRT running on it, can I just run the "set board id" command or do I still need serial console access?
Do you have any instructions or a link on how to get serial console access, what kind of cable is needed, software, etc.?
FYI to change the board id in most cases is just using the burnboardid command in the netgear firmware
so to change it load back the netgear firmware telnet into the router https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/telnet.console
type "burnboardid" to get the current ID
then "burnboardid ????" to set it
you should only do this when you know the hardware is compatible with the ID
If you have confirmed that really only the board ID is differing, a better strategy would be to teach OpenWrt's image generation code about it and build compatible images by default.
I asked how to build an image from an existing setup that only needs a slightly different board ID and didn't get any replies. Do you have any instructions please?
Check the image code for the tl-wdr3600 and tl-wdr4300 (preferably ath79, but ar71xx if you like), aside from the hardware ID (and the number of streams the 5 GHz wlan card supports, but that's something ath9k sorts out on its own) these two routers are 100% identical to the firmware.
I don't know how to make it simple and reuse the existing code, there has to be a way to define just a new profile that has the slightly different board ID. Are there any similar examples or could someone experienced do a PR for it as an example?