Hello @all,
Any chance to give a second life to some Aruba AP-305 with help of openWRT?
I'm able to help or test any try, I have three of them now useless without controller.
Thank you!
Hello!
So far only the 105 and 303 are supported. I don't know if any developer would be interested to get one in his hands to give it a try.
I've some photos if can help to identify of the SOC or I'm able to help in debug also I'm disposed to send one to any developer (in EU) if it's needed.
Thank you!
According to the internal photos of a AP-304: https://fccid.io/Q9DAPIN0304305/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photo-3146938
That is a IPQ4029(supported) and a QCA9992 (not yet supported by ath10k)
Don't know how similar the AP-305 is.
after checking your link I made this fotos and seems quite similar:
https://imgur.com/a/A0s1shw
@JevermeisteR seems that QCA9992 (wireless chip?) is connected to antenna so I suspect that is this is not supported with openWRT then wireless would never work?
Thank you.
I'm going to try to boot myself OpenWRT, bir I need some general guideance, I was trying to start with Aruba AP snapshot install (initramfs):
But I'm getting a 403, Is this a good aproch? Or I must start with Another Snapshot more generic?
Thank you
Just flashing an arbitrary image might not work.
See https://openwrt.org/faq/how_can_i_add_support_for_a_new_device how to add support for your device.
Thanks for the advise @tmomas, I started compiling latest OpenWRT version with the following parameters
CONFIG_TARGET_ipq40xx=y
CONFIG_TARGET_ipq40xx_generic=y
CONFIG_TARGET_ipq40xx_generic_DEVICE_aruba_ap-303=y
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca4019=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca4019-ct-full-htt=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca4019-ct-htt=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca99x0=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca99x0-ct=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca99x0-ct-full-htt=m
CONFIG_PACKAGE_ath10k-firmware-qca99x0-ct-htt=m
Then I have loaded the generated initramfs file (openwrt-ipq40xx-generic-aruba_ap-303-initramfs-fit-uImage.itb) following the Aruba-303 guide.
Surprisingly OpenWRT booted
Filename 'ipq40xx.ari'.
Load address: 0x84000000
Loading: #################################################################
##################
1.2 MiB/s
done
Bytes transferred = 5281404 (50967c hex)
Invalid image format version: 0x50967c
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
ipq: fdt fixup unable to find compatible node
Please press Enter to activate this console.
BusyBox v1.31.1 () built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r13279-74ff0773b5
-----------------------------------------------------
=== WARNING! =====================================
There is no root password defined on this device!
Use the "passwd" command to set up a new password
in order to prevent unauthorized SSH logins.
--------------------------------------------------
root@(none):/#
root@OpenWrt:/#
Now the problem I reach is that apboot force a reboot after inactivity (60 secongs) so I can't do much, this can be avoid on apboot with the command "auto off", im stuck now any tip?
Thank you!
1 Like
@Ghyron
Do you mean that "auto off" did the job for you?
i also tried but it kept rebooting after 60 seconds!
And there also had been not network adapter... but i think there need to be some mor customization needed...
This reboot was a watchdog a kind of "security" or keep alive that requires firmware(OpenWRT) interact with it or it will reboot the device in X seconds.
You could try your luck in posting to the openwrt devel mailing list. Maybe someone there has an idea how to poceed.
Thanks with the help of community (via IRC channel) I was able to compile my own Custom OpenWRT and interact with that watchdog over GPIO, I was able finally to boot OpenWRT (well at least 90% of times 
).
But now I reach another problem seems that QCA9992 is not supported yet and without this additional chipset the AP it's at half os it's capability.
I believe QCA9992 is now supported, could you share your build details?
I am new to this and I'd love to try and get working openwrt on this, thanks!
Wiki is up with hardware info and oem bootlog
tried to compile my own image and use the ap-303 flash method to ram boot but failed
booted into openwrt however theres some watchdog rebooting after short period of inactivity like post before mentioned, need to figure this out
on reboot Reset: watchdog
also ifconfig showed no wifi interface, only br-lan, eth0 and lo
also even after setenv bootcmd "boot" and saveenv it could not revert back to stock, entering a bootloop right after Uncompressing Lernel Image ... OK
Oops
reset using reset button worked to restore to stock, so thats nice
Using eth0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.75; our IP address is 192.168.1.253
Filename 'ipq40xx.ari'.
Load address: 0x84000000
Loading: #################################################################
##################################
604.5 KiB/s
done
Bytes transferred = 6274076 (5fbc1c hex)
Invalid image format version: 0x5fbc1c
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
ipq: fdt fixup unable to find compatible node
Please press Enter to activate this console.
BusyBox v1.34.1 (2021-12-21 20:38:52 UTC) built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r18389-15aa53d7ee
-----------------------------------------------------
=== WARNING! =====================================
There is no root password defined on this device!
Use the "passwd" command to set up a new password
in order to prevent unauthorized SSH logins.
--------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:/#
APBoot 2.1.4.8 (build 58435)
Built: 2017-02-15 at 15:30:17
Model: AP-30x
DRAM: 512 MiB
Flash: Detected MX25R3235F: total 4 MiB
NAND: 128 MiB
PCIE0 link up
dev fn venID devID class rev MBAR0 MBAR1 MBAR2 MBAR3
00 00 168c 0040 00002 00 00000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
Power: 802.3at POE
Net: eth0
Radio: qca9990#0, ipq4029#1
Reset: watchdog
FIPS: passed
Hit <Enter> to stop autoboot: 0
Volume kernel not found!
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
apboot>
will try with the pre compiled 303 image next to see if it can boot
I'm also interested that de aruba ap-305 is supported. I hope someone can help
From the U-Boot GPL tarball:
#define GPIO_WD_LATCH_CLR_L 35 /* pulse this bit low to reset watchdog status D flipflop */
Thank you for the hint! uboot is out of my depth but I will do more research on it.
Do you have the GPL code for 300 (304 and 305) series? I can only find 310 series GPL dump on github
Edit:
after reviewing aruba ap-365 support commit, seems like I need the watchdog poke pin to keep poking it?
Correct
The GPL dump was to big to upload to GitHub AFAIR. maybe I'll create separate repos for U-Boot and Linux.
Also as a shortcut: AP-303 = Speyburn ; AP-305 = Glenmorangie
In the meantime, I've uploaded it to Google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pqJbsxhJ3mWML0pEF37n_kstVs00ZI1H/view?usp=sharing
Thank you very much for your help! There's a lot to learn and the device tree looks very intimidating
Is there any progress of supporting the aruba ap-305?