So in layman's terms, it isn't going to appear in the mainstream downloads
for a while, yes?
It will be in the next major release (probably 18.x.y), most likely not in future bugfix/ maintenance releases (17.01.x); the next major release shouldn't be that far away though (more than a few weeks, less than a few months | few := 2 < few >=6 /guesswork).
Looks like there is also recently a V3 version of this device per WikiDevi.
Unfortunately many of the specs are now missing.
https://wikidevi.com/w/index.php?search=wr902ac&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go
For anyone that wants to open the router case to get at the serial pads take a look at the picture on the FCC website. There are two latches to open (top and bottom edge) and the case itself is partially glued shut, fun...
(Edited to explain how to open)
The links to the snapshot don’t appear to work any longer and looking in the snapshot directory it doesn’t appear to be there.
It appears the problem is that the TARGET_DEVICES entry for it is missing. Was it removed/not added for a reason?
diff --git a/target/linux/ar71xx/image/tp-link.mk b/target/linux/ar71xx/image/tp-link.mk
index 868bbdae4e..24ba8e2e7a 100644
--- a/target/linux/ar71xx/image/tp-link.mk
+++ b/target/linux/ar71xx/image/tp-link.mk
@@ -1044,6 +1044,8 @@ define Device/tl-wr902ac-v1
MTDPARTS := spi0.0:128k(u-boot)ro,7360k(firmware),640k(tplink)ro,64k(art)ro
endef+TARGET_DEVICES += tl-wr902ac-v1
+
define Device/tl-wr940n-v4
$(Device/tplink-4mlzma)
DEVICE_TITLE := TP-LINK TL-WR940N v4
See f7a6fd31539be54d14d7c52b491b40b26bf8f740 and ar71xx: deactivate some boards with too small kernel.
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deactivation? and what will be in future? how long it will be?
Until a solution has been found and implemented, that might take a week, a month or eventually even 'never'. A hardcoded size limit for the kernel partition (1344 KB) is pretty limiting (even more stupid from the vendor that it mostly seems to affect rather recent devices), so the underlying issue (the limited mtd size) needs fixing (as the kernel size won't shrink in the future, even if you might still be able to disable some less important features today, the problem would re-occur with the next kernel bump).
And? We can use old kernel versions or with soma patches? OMG they think the best way is disable of all branch. Cool..
I agree this is frustrating -- I was really happy to have the WR902AC running on a snapshot and was looking forward to it being supported in a future stable release. I honestly would like to say a big "thank you!" to the developer(s) who made this possible initially, and I am hoping that there is a not-too-painful way to re-add support for this device.
I'll admit that I am coming from a tech-savvy but non-developer perspective, but I am really curious about something... The TL-MR3020 (4MB flash + 32MB RAM) is still supported in the snapshot and latest stable release (17.01.4), while the TL-WR902AC (8MB flash + 64MB RAM) is suddenly not supported anymore based on the kernel being too large. Why is this? If a standard image including LuCI can fit on the MR3020, why is there an issue with the WR902AC which has twice the memory?
Also, if it turns out that there are problems resolving the memory constraints for the standard support model, can the WR902AC at least be supported in the image builder -- this would allow customized images like what I've been doing for the MR3020 which also fits within the 4MB limit (standard image, less LuCI, and added support for USB and storage/file system stuff such that the extroot process can be done).
It's the partition that holds the kernel that is too small since they
updated to a new kernel, not the entire flash size. From what I can work
out from what's been said, this partition can't be resized easily either
(yet?)
@g0wfv - thanks. That makes sense in terms of the partition. But it raises another question -- is the partition (where the kernel is located) smaller on the WR902AC as compared to the MR3020, or is the size of the 'bundle' (forgive my terminology - I'm referring to the kernel and/or any other files that need to be co-located with the kernel on the partition) larger for the 902AC?
I'm not entirely sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say the former ....
yes, these are nice devices!
the current problem is also effecting other TPLINK devices (CPE510, RE450,...) and caused by TPLINK Bootloader "Safeloader" and Flash Layout.
cite openwrt commit 43384:
The new TP-LINK Pharos series uses a new bootloader, the "TP-LINK Safeloader". It uses an advanced firmware image format, containing an image partition table and a flash partition table
until that problem might be solved long-winded, you may use these devices with an older lede-trunk (before kernel-changes to 4.9) or lede-trunk with disabled CONFIG_KERNEL_KALLSYMS (mentioned above).
p.s.
i tried both for our meshkit. if someone is needing that to get devices running, here are my self-compiled imagebuilders for that: first http://gadow.freifunk.net:8004/srv2/lede/lede-20171019/bin/targets/ar71xx/generic/lede-imagebuilder-SNAPSHOT-ar71xx-generic.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz or second http://gadow.freifunk.net:8004/srv2/lede/lede-20171023/bin/targets/ar71xx/generic/lede-imagebuilder-SNAPSHOT-ar71xx-generic.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz
some discussion about that is also on the lede-mailinglist
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Looks good. Thx for links, man! It have great count of packages.
Any reason why the binary firmware is no longer available in the snapshots folder?
https://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/targets/ar71xx/generic/
If I understand correctly, the problem to support the TL-WR902AC is, the too small partition for the kernel. Is it possible to change the size of it?
Of course, it is possible. There is already a fix https://github.com/lede-project/source/pull/1464
You have to wait for some time untill it will be merged into main source tree.