OpenWrt on FritzBox!7530

Hello,
In these days, I'm trying to configure my FritzBox 7530 with OpenWrt and my DSL connection.
I installed the latest snapshot available, OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r23051-d6fef27f2d.
Following the instructions in the wiki, I installed the VRX512 firmware.
I see that the firmware is loaded:

[   12.185781] IFXOS, Version 1.7.1 (c) Copyright 2009, Lantiq Deutschland GmbH
[   12.187851] vrx518: Intel(R) SmartPHY DSL(VRX518) PCIe EP/ACA Driver - version 2.1.0-k
[   12.191920] vrx518: Copyright (c) 2016 Intel Corporation.
[   12.199864] vrx518 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0140 -> 0142)
[   12.208161] NET: Registered PF_ATMPVC protocol family
[   12.210838] NET: Registered PF_ATMSVC protocol family
[   12.220059] vrx518_tc:pcie_ep_probe: Total 1 VRX518 EP detected
[   12.233556] MD5 checksum pass!!!
[   12.233605] Firmware pointer id(0):size(10636), fw addr(9001e115), off(100)
[   12.235868] Firmware pointer id(1):size(19548), fw addr(601501ca), off(10736)
[   12.242635] Firmware pointer id(2):size(11504), fw addr(cf3ca03b), off(30284)
[   12.249861] Firmware pointer id(3):size(23076), fw addr(d42a48d7), off(41788)
[   12.256983] VRX518 PPE Firmware header info
[   12.264074] 	PTM Version: 3.5.75
[   12.268090] 	PTM Feature: A0000000
[   12.271538] 	ATM Version: 3.6.5
[   12.274750] 	ATM Feature: B0000000
[   12.277808] 	Compability ID: 00000004
[   12.281262] 	Size: 00000010
[   12.284993] 	FW built Date: 3-25-2021
[   12.287614] 	Number of firmware: 4
[   12.291417] 		Firmware[0]: ID[0] size[2659] at[0x9001e115]
[   12.294719] 		Firmware[1]: ID[1] size[4887] at[0x601501ca]
[   12.300204] 		Firmware[2]: ID[2] size[2876] at[0xcf3ca03b]
[   12.305657] 		Firmware[3]: ID[3] size[5769] at[0xd42a48d7]
[   12.311237] vrx518_tc:tc_drv_init: Intel(R) SmartPHY DSL(VRX518) PCIe TC Driver - version 1.5.12.4
[   12.316625] vrx518_tc:tc_drv_init: Copyright (c) 2018 Intel Corporation.
[   12.333631] Lantiq (VRX) DSL CPE MEI driver, version 1.11.1, (c) 2007-2016 Lantiq Deutschland GmbH
[   12.333908] Found 1 PCI VRX devices,
[   12.346520]
[   12.346520]
[   12.346520] Lantiq CPE API Driver version: DSL CPE API V4.23.1
[   12.346581]
[   12.346581]
[   12.346581] Lantiq CPE API Driver - autoloading layout...
[   12.354397]
[   12.354397]
[   12.354397] Lantiq CPE API Device layout: 1 devices, 1 lines, 1 channels
[   12.362493]
[   12.362493] Predefined debug level: 3
[   12.372198]
[   12.372198] ++++++++++++++++++ MEI_InternalDevOpen ++++++++++++++++++
[   12.372198]
[   12.377727]
[   12.377727] ++++++++++++++++++ MEI_InternalDevOpen ++++++++++++++++++
[   12.377727]
[   12.392082] Loading modules backported from Linux version v6.1.24-0-g0102425ac76b
[   12.395978] Backport generated by backports.git v5.15.92-1-44-gd6ea70fafd36
[   12.472548] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   12.473764] NET: Registered PF_PPPOX protocol family

However, I'm unable to see the dsl interface using ifconfig, neither via LuCI:

This is my network config file:

 config interface 'loopback'
 3         option device 'lo'
 4         option proto 'static'
 5         option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
 6         option netmask '255.0.0.0'
 7
 8 config globals 'globals'
 9         option ula_prefix 'XXXXX::/48'
10
11 config atm-bridge 'atm'
12         option vpi '1'
13         option vci '32'
14         option encaps 'llc'
15         option payload 'bridged'
16         option nameprefix 'dsl'
17
18 config dsl 'dsl'
19         option annex 'a'
20         option firmware '/lib/firmware/vdsl.bin'
21         option ds_snr_offset '0'
22
23 config device
24         option name 'br-lan'
25         option type 'bridge'
26         list ports 'lan1'
27         list ports 'lan2'
28         list ports 'lan3'
29         list ports 'lan4'
30
31 config interface 'lan'
32         option device 'br-lan'
33         option proto 'static'
34         option ipaddr '192.168.1.99'
35         option netmask '255.255.255.0'
36         option ip6assign '60'
37         option gateway '192.168.1.1'
38         list dns '192.168.1.1'
39
40 config device 'wan_dsl0_dev'
41         option name 'dsl0'
42         option macaddr 'XXXXXXXX:47'
43
44 config interface 'wan'
45         option proto 'pppoe'
46         option username 'USERNAME'
47         option password 'PASSWORD'
48         option ipv6 'auto'
49         option device 'dsl0.7'
50
51 config interface 'wan6'
52         option device '@wan'
53         option proto 'dhcpv6'

Am I doing something wrong?
Please consider that the static IP is assigned to the 7530 to reach it through the internal lan.

Thank you for any hint!

You probably have to use Annex J, but that depends on your country and/or ISP. At least the AVM tech spec says:

Compatible with Annex-J lines

I dont't know if there exist Annex A versions of the box for other countries, though.

After a quick glance the rest of your config looks fine. So try with Annex B or J and if that doesn't work, post the ouput of /etc/init.d/dsl_control dslstat.

Reading again, valid Annexes for VDSL2 seem to be A, B or C, depending on your region.
But I have Annex J in my config and it correctly seems to fall back to B upon synchronization.
So for VDSL2 in Europe setting either Annex B or J should work fine.

The interface dsl0 only appears when the line is synchronized.

Check again if the log contains the line vrx518 0000:01:00.0: dc_ep_clk_on failed. If yes, you need an additional patch. If not, you're good to go.

To check the DSL status, run ubus call dsl metrics.

1 Like

AnnexJ is an ADSL thing, for VDSL2 Annex A-C contain the regional specialities (e.g. bandplans and PSD masks, ...) with Annex A for Region A (North America), Annex B for Region B (Europe), and Annex C for Region C (Japan), I assume the rest of the world picks either of these... see ITU-T G.993.2 for the gory details...

Side-note: ADSL also had Annex A and B but there these actually specified different bandplans, with Annex A being tailored to harmonize with a few KHz POTs band at the beginning, and Annex B tailored to leave more room at the beginning for ISDN.

2 Likes

Hello @andyboeh & @sebastian_de ,

I have an update, I was able to connect to internet using only one of the LAN ports and not the WAN one.
Firstly, let me say that I don't have a "physical" analogic DSL connection, but I have a fixed wireless access that was working with stock firmware, PPPoE connection on LAN1 of the FritzBox.
I was able to configure lan4.100 for internet access, excluding it from br-lan, as follows:

config interface 'loopback'
 3         option device 'lo'
 4         option proto 'static'
 5         option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
 6         option netmask '255.0.0.0'
 7
 8 config globals 'globals'
 9         option ula_prefix 'xxx::/48'
10
11 config atm-bridge 'atm'
12         option vpi '8'
13         option vci '35'
14         option encaps 'llc'
15         option payload 'bridged'
16         option nameprefix 'dsl'
17
18 config dsl 'dsl'
19         option annex 'a'
20         option firmware '/lib/firmware/vdsl.bin'
21         option ds_snr_offset '0'
22
23 config device
24         option name 'br-lan'
25         option type 'bridge'
26         list ports 'lan1'
27         list ports 'lan2'
28         list ports 'lan3'
29
30 config interface 'lan'
31         option device 'br-lan'
32         option proto 'static'
33         option ipaddr '192.168.1.99'
34         option netmask '255.255.255.0'
35         option ip6assign '60'
36         option gateway '192.168.1.1'
37         list dns '192.168.1.1'
38
39 config device 'dsl0'
40         option name 'dsl0'
41         option macaddr 'xx:47'
42
43 config interface 'wan'
44         option proto 'pppoe'
45         option username 'xxx'
46         option password 'xxx'
47         option ipv6 'auto'
48         option device 'lan4.100'
49
50 config interface 'wan6'
51         option device '@wan'
52         option proto 'dhcpv6'

With this config, I'm able to reach internet successfully and the new internet interface is named pppoe-wan.

Instead, if I connect the antenna cable to the WAN port, even if I configure dsl0, dsl.100 or dsl0.100, I have the device not found error.
At this point, maybe I'm overcomplicating things: as the real "modem" is the antenna, which I connected from the FritzBox via PPPoE (LAN ports), should I still need the DSL drivers? If yes, why can't I use the WAN interface? The config is the same, as I'm able to use the lan4 port to connect.

If DSL drivers are not required, and I can only use one of the LAN ports to connect, is my configuration clean/optimized enough?

Many thanks!

OK, the "WAN" port is connected to a DSL modem, no big surprise that this does not work when connected with something not actually using DSL.
Your solution, re-dedicating one of the LAN ports as ethernet WAN port is as far as I can tell, exactly the correct solution. (The question then is: why use a DSL-router at all, but I assume you had this sitting around or got one cheaply)

Internally, there is no such thing as a dedicated WAN port. Your device has a four-port switch and you can use and assign any port the way you like it. WAN on OpenWrt only refers to the firewalling zone, not to a specific port. In fact, it doesn't matter how your interfaces are named as long as they are contained in the correct firewalling zone.

That said, I'm also using a FRITZ!7520 as my main router with a cable modem - for historic reasons, we switched from DSL to cable just a few weeks ago. I have a very similar configuration with the only exception that I use lan4 as device for wan as I don't need to use VLAN 100 (well, actually my interface is called cable and it's lan1, but that doesn't make a real difference).

If you're not using the internal DSL modem, you're just using the device as a router and don't need the DSL files (you could in fact have used the standard 22.03.x firmware). The ipq40xx switch has some hardware oddities related to VLANs so there might be no clear answer how AVM got LAN1 to work as the WAN; as you've got LAN4 working as the WAN consider that a win and don't worry about LAN1 not working as the WAN.

Aren't most of these solved by the DSA driver in snapshot?

We probably won't know for sure until 23.05 hits wider adoption with that DSA driver.

Well, I'm using snapshot for months now and it works properly.

Who has noticed that LAN1-4 in software are reversed from the hardware labels?

I've noticed because I don't use ADSL, and the 7530 has 4 ports - LAN1 can be dual personality in the factory firmware.

Please don't create duplicate posts and/or start new threads with the same question!