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
2 Likes
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.
phew! disaster averted .... 
And if it's done, a new image for the WR902AC will be published? That would be great news.
Hi,
Looking at getting a couple of these after a nightmare with RE450 V2... The binary is back in snapshots... Can anyone confirm if this works before I commit to buy and have to return again!
Thanks!
@alxscott - Hopefully someone can answer this for you sooner, but if I have some time tonight, I'll give it a shot and report back. I haven't updated my snapshot version in a long time (i.e. last updated when the device was initially supported, but not since it was excluded and re-included).
Much obliged!
@alxscott -Seems to be working properly
I neglected to check which snapshot I had been running, but I downloaded the sysupgrade version of the latest snapshot (SNAPSHOT, r5442-b0b289e) and applied it -- no apparent issues.
FWIW, I used the command line to do the upgrade, and used the following flags:
sysupgrade -n -v /tmp/lede-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr902ac-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
I used -n because I didn't want to save the config, just in case something might have conflicted. The other option (-v) sets verbose mode, but the ssh session was terminated immediately so it didn't give me any additional info. Just to be on the safe side, I let it sit for 5-10 mins since I had no other feedback about the status. When I power cycled the unit, it came up as expected (wifi off, eth0 as LAN with address 192.168.1.1 and the DHCP server enabled). Remember that LuCI is not installed in the snapshot builds, so if you want it, it must be manually installed (which requires either setting up a WAN on the device or using scp (or similar) to copy files over to the 902AC for installation).
Ah brilliant! Not new to Linux but new to LEDE so thanks for all that info...
Quick one... my understanding is the reason the firmware dropped off was because of kernel size. Am I worth just bypassing Luci (if space is tight ) and learning from the CLI side??
Thanks again!
The kernel size issue was, if I understood it properly, a function of one of the other partitions, but that is resolved.
Depends on what you’re doing with the device. There is enough room for LuCI, for sure. But if you will be installing lots of other packages, leave LuCI out to save space, or run extroot to give lots more space.
No, all is good once again. You could do everything CLI fashion, but LUCI
is that good it'd be a shame not to ..... It's a far cry from using CLI
versus Gnome in Linux (where I prefer the CLI!) - I prefer to use LUCI in
LEDE though!
Just a quick update to say successfully flashed latest snapshot; and configured 2 for 802.11s mesh backhaul (5Ghz) and Wireless (2.4Ghz) / Wired AP's!
Very happy!
Alex