OpenWrt and TL-Wa901ND V5

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello , i'm fairly new and practically a newbie regarding openwrt.
So i got this router TL-WA901ND V5 from a friend and i wanted to install openwrt on it solely to use sqm(bandwith 15down/1up) because i have severe bufferbloat that made gaming almost impossible, so i did install the latest version of openwrt availbe for it and it worked fine, however when i tried to install the sqm(luci) package , it said that i dont have enough space so naturally i thought about deleting the preinstalled packages which i found out that can only be done while building you own image.

So my question is, can someone walk me through this whole process as im literally a noob, or is there a image already availble somewhere with sqm pres installed that i can use.

Ps: investing in a new better router is not an option.

Im sorry in advance if i did something wrong or didnt follow specific procesures, i am really new to this.

2

You could try https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wa901nd#support_for_openwrt_1907 just add the SQM packages to the list.

3

im sorry, can you tell me how do i do that step by step please?, the link you wrote was where i downloaded openwrt originally and it did not come with sqm

4

You'll need Linux, or some VM.

A link documenting the build procedure is there too.

5

i found the image (.bin) aka the lastest supported version of the router, now how can i use the builder to create my own image from the bin?, i havent found the manifest to know all the packages necessary

6

That's what the 1st link tells you.

Just add your extras.

7

i looked but couldnt find it, could you tell me where exactly its at when i use this:
make image PROFILE=tplink_tl-wa901nd-v5 PACKAGES="uhttpd uhttpd-mod-ubus libiwinfo-lua luci-base luci-app-firewall luci-mod-admin-full luci-theme-bootstrap -ppp -ppp-mod-pppoe"

the profile is not found, so im trying to get the manifest from the bin instead.

8

it's documented on the page I linked to earlier, and called "build your own image".

"it doesn't work" won't get you far here ...

9

how am i supposed to know all the base packages of my device if my device's profile is not recognized?

10

use the list provided in the wiki plus, luci-app-sqm ?

11

don't use .10, it won't fit, try .4.

[mktplinkfw] *** error: images are too big by 252561 bytes
cp: cannot stat '/hdc/sdf/openwrt-imagebuilder-19.07.10-ath79-tiny.Linux-x86_64/build_dir/target-mips_24kc_musl/linux-ath79_tiny/tmp/openwrt-19.07.10-ath79-tiny-tplink_tl-wa901nd-v5-squashfs-factory.bin': No such file or directory
12

should i remove a base package when using 4 or will it fit without it? if i need to remove packages, which ones are safe to remove?

13

No idea about the space, trial and error.

14

As this hasn't been spelled out explicitly so far, your device does not meet the minimum system requirements for OpenWrt (anymore). Accordingly none of this is supported, and you're largely on your own. Also keep in mind that the version we're talking about here is half a decade old by now (and not even the final maintenance release of the series), so all ideas of security (WAN and WLAN side) are out of the window, the result will be very limited and totally insecure by design.

1 Like