There must be some networking security justification for newer kernels, right? I suppose important security fixes have been backported, but that doesn't mean the other various improvements are there. Also the networking efficiency improvements in recent kernels...
What justification is needed?
I don't know... The devs would have to answer. I realize they might not want to make the trade-off and break hardware, but I think there should be a way to run an more recent kernel via the pkg manager or similar. It would help them test to let us a group of us be on a more cutting edge / rolling release.
Its not a matter of breaking HW, the next stable will be on 5.10 and 5.15 will be merged after that is branched.
You cant do kernel updates via opkg in OpenWrt, there is no way that it could cover all of the methods of booting that are supported.
These are embedded devices that are meant to only do image based updates unlike desktop/server distributions that all utilize the same bootloader and booting process
2 Likes
so after a few noob errors (i am sure) I now connected via uar/serial to the ax9000
it is loading on u-boot ... I mtd wrote the mtd22 partition with the openwrt-ipq807x-generic-xiaomi_ax9000-squashfs-nand-factory and set the the router to start from rootfs_1
printenv shows
bootargs=ubi.mtd=rootfs_1 root=mtd:ubi_rootfs rootfstype=squashfs rootwait
however it doesn't carry on
... I tried to change the bootargs to mtd21 and rootfs (instead of rootfs_1) and no luck
any hints on how to get from this ?
I also tried to tftpboot the original firmware but can't boot it either
here is what I get at the start
U-Boot 2016.01 (May 08 2021 - 02:53:50 +0000), Build: jenkins-common_router_openwrt_ota_publish-1177
DRAM: smem ram ptable found: ver: 1 len: 4
1 GiB
NAND: Could not find nand_gpio in dts, using defaults
ONFI device found
ID = 1590aaef
Vendor = ef
Device = aa
SF: Unsupported flash IDs: manuf ff, jedec ffff, ext_jedec ffff
ipq_spi: SPI Flash not found (bus/cs/speed/mode) = (0/0/48000000/0)
256 MiB
MMC: sdhci: Node Not found, skipping initialization
PCI Link Intialized
PCI Link Intialized
In: serial@78B3000
Out: serial@78B3000
Err: serial@78B3000
machid: 8010012
MMC Device 0 not found
bootwait is on, bootdelay=5
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
so I was able to restore the ax9000 by placing the xiaomi firmware on an usb stick with partition formatted with fat32, rename the bin file to xiaomi.bin and then on the uboot command line type in usbboot addr 0:1
1 Like
question to the forum - would the usbboot method work to boot the openwrt "openwrt-ipq807x-generic-xiaomi_ax9000-squashfs-nand-factory.ubi" ? happy to have a go ... but don't want to brick the router again 
sumo
512
Seems like a Xiaomi custom command to me which we would need to assess what exactly it does. E.g. whether it just loads and executes stuff from USB or also does some kind of flashing. It might also perform some kind of validation on those bin files, who knows?
this is a standard uboot command
sumo
514
Yes, you are right. Funny I never noticed this one before. However, given we do not have any sources from Xiaomi at all, we still do not know whether they might not do anything special.
can someone clarify how to install openwrt
I tried to install the ubi factory image from robi github or my own compiled version on both mtd22 and 21 with no luck ... I was able to do a full restore (debrick) via uboot / tftp using the parts for mtd22/21 and mtd16/15 that were posted on this forum some time ago
so if I compile out of robi's fork how should I install openwrt definetely ubiformat of the rootfs(& _1) doesn't work for me .. or are the fit images that I should use?
thank you
ps. things have gone very quite here lately ...
1 Like
would you have similar files for the chinese 108 firmware?
I would have hoped someone in this forum at least could help getting openwrt on ax9000 I have been trying to do it for the last couple of weeks and surely loosing my patience as there isn't it seems no instructions to move out from the xiaomi even if well intentioned ... moving from the international version seems not be an option
If you want people to support moving this effort in the right direction surely we need to get a baseline we all can start working
note - I don't care if wifi doesn't work or whatever I have uart working ...
your latest build doesn't work if I ubiformat mtd22/mtd21 ... are you able to create files for each mtd partition of your ax9000 ? it feels this seems the best way to go forward
1 Like
RobertP
518
Running OpenWRT on AX9000 would be great!
But if you scroll up this forum thread, you can see unresolved problems with this device.
And at least for now, progress is stalled, so there isn't even an early prototype (except a bit experimental version with kernel 5.10)
So the best we can do is wait until people who can solve these problems decide to spend their free time working on it.
Please note OpenWRT is not a commercial product, so please refrain from comments stating you are losing your patience - people here have no obligation to make you happy.
2 Likes
thank you Robert .. just following up on Robi's ask for help
so what you are suggesting I pick up on the 5.10 robi's branch ...any help on this noting I am on the international xiaomi firmware... as i said happy to help but really stuck at the moment
on a side note I presume ansuel's work may help ax9000
Sorry, I don't understand what is the issue after you flash?
I either do ubiformat against mtd22 (or mtd21) or from the uboot flash rootfs or roofs_1 ; I set the nvram settings to point to the right mtd ... it always skips to the xiaomi firmware
note I am currently using a self compiled image from your 5.15 branch ... I tried the 5.10 in the past but also got the same results. I am using the international version .33
would you have a link to an image that is working ? or an extract of your mtd21-22 & mtd15-16
thank you
Just flash both of them, the bootloader logic is really unpredictable otherwise.
There is quite literaly nothing in the image itself, its the bootloader logic with the ags causing issues
akiz
523
have purchased the chinese version of ax9000 all my hopes are resting on you guys to make a stable version for ax9000
RobertP
524
This post is a bit of a cry for help 
Is there anyone who has enough knowledge and experience with Qualcomm SSDK, DTS and all "low-level stuff", ideally with access to Xiaomi ax9000, to make this device' switch work?
Robi has made a few attempts: one with kernel 5.10, which was kind-of-working, except for problems with 2.5 Gbit networking, and another with kernel 5.15, which never worked.
BTW thanks for these attempts @robimarko, I support your view, that we need more people working on this device if we want to make any progress.
Kernel 5.15 is preferred, as PCIe WiFi never worked with kernel 5.10, not to mention problems with the version of ath11k available in 5.10 even with backporting.
I believe it would be great if we could catch up with developments happening for its smaller brother (ax3600).
