I will try to install it on the other two devices now that I have the first device up and running.
It's just a basic AP setup as luci was not available in your build on onedrive and I keep struggling with a local (snapshot) build of your branch but that's probably caused by a wrong build environment.
I will make sure that I create a detailed log when flashing the other devices and will report back to you.
Great! I just did applied the updated sysupgrade file and now it runs LuCi.
After that I successfully installed OpenWrt on the other 2 Deco's, using the following steps:
: not found
Unlocking /dev/mtd3 ...
Erasing /dev/mtd3 ...
Writing from /tmp/jffs to /dev/mtd3 ...
: not found
Unlocking /dev/mtd4 ...
Erasing /dev/mtd4 ...
Writing from /tmp/jffs to /dev/mtd4 ...
Rebooting ...
/bin/sh: /sbin/reboot: Input/output error
Installation worked!
Device came up at 192.168.1.1
Connected locally using UTP cable directly hooked into PC with static IP.
So the upgrade for the second and third deco was flawless.
I guess the problems that I had with the first Deco were caused by a mistake, mistype or other stupidity.
Thanks! I will let you know if I find something, but right now everything runs smooth.
I'm not entirely sure whether it's a config issue I don't understand or something that's not working in your build, but I'm unable to get the ethernet backhaul working, when all deco's are connected like a chain.
Also, the stock firmware has some interesting behavior, once you login to the router’s webUI and manually type this in the address bar http://192.168.68.1/cgi-bin/luci/ you will see something like this:
“ JClNywu2p9RnH780ZPJrPzER5PzTNY4/SBR014I811CUM7
+g==“
Guessing there is a way to access the Openwrt on it, would anyone have more ideas what could be done to interact with the Openwrt on stock firmware?
unfortunately it is not possible to make a simple "flash via the stock web interface" solution due to the fact that tplink has implemented their* software to require the uploaded firmware image be digitally signed by tplink.
* as you note, "their" software is "just" modifications on top of an old openwrt base. ill leave you to judge if this tivoization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization) feels fair to either openwrt's developers or tplink device users
only because tplink's modifications contain exploitable bugs is there any possibility that the user-provided openwrt firmware can be installed without hardware intervention (attaching to uart pins on board to get a serial console) at all, but obviously the steps (https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/16581) are more convoluted than just "hit the install button on webgui". but the file referenced in those instructions "openwrt-ramips-mt7621-tplink_deco-x20-v3-squashfs-jffs2.bin" is indeed located at the link that @dmascord provided above in OpenWrt support for Deco X20 - #45 by dmascord to save you from having to build it manually while the PR they submitted slowly makes it way into openwrt mainline (the build will at some point be available for download as a snapshot, and eventually as a proper openwrt release, if all goes well with the PR submittal process)