[SOLVED] Archer C7 V5: Welcome to the paradise

Hi guys,

I had to use my GL-AR750S-EXT as a temp solution and got in love with OpenWRT.
My Archer C7 V5 arrived and it is running OpenWrt 19.07.4.
Few tweaks here and there and everything is working way better than I expected but few things I appreciate the comunity feedback :slight_smile:

From the major to the minor "issue"

HTTPS: The access is via HTTP only. It looks like you can fix that by installing "luci-ssl" but I don't wanna have problems with space as the page mentioned that packages need to be installed, etc. It seems like I still have 9.5M. What is your experience??

Graphic Statistics: I followed this link but the result is way poor than my GL-AR750S-EXT which runs OpenWRT as well. I was expeting to see how much data each devices uses but after following that link I have nothing other than graphics with general information.

LED: I spent some time setting the LEDs that were blinking all over the place haha
The only one that I could not figure out is the WPS, I was looking for a blink option but I cannot see it. It seems like the package "kmod-ledtrig-heartbeat" gives a flash action to the led if WPS button is trigged. Is that right?
I cannot see a WPS option via GUI so I am hopping its phisical button will works when needed.

I believe I got everything else working. My Pi-Hole working as DNS (wan and lan) but I found a page how to force it via Firewall just in case so I did.

Thank you guys :slight_smile:

For a device as limited as the C7 I always would recommend to extend the space with a usb stick.

Thank you for the reply @faser

That is okay then, I don't wanna this router working as a computer hahaha
I will leave as it is in this case.
I have a Pi-Hole so anything else like VPN which is already working there and so on I will leave there.

Thanks

The Archer c7 v5 comes with 16 MB flash, while not exactly huge, it's still sufficient to install a number of additional features without getting (too-) tight. E.g. adding luci-ssl will only require 500-600 KB, leaving you still with 9 MB for other tasks (20.xy.0 will come with luci-ssl installed by default).

While extroot can extend your storage, if needed, it also adds a lot of additional complexity, which simply isn't necessary unless you really need more space than your device offers, but you're still far away from that limit (with-, or without luci-ssl).

2 Likes

Thank you for the reply @slh
Nahhh, I don't need more space. I am planing to leave this little guy as "raw" as possible. Only necessary fatures will be installed.

The only thing that is still driving me insave are the LEDs, the system cannot find the package "kmod-ledtrig-heartbeat" and I have no idea which path to go here knowing that I am running:

Architecture: Qualcomm Atheros QCA956X ver 1 rev 0
Firmware: OpenWrt 19.07.4 r11208-ce6496d796 / LuCI openwrt-19.07 branch git-20.247.75781-0d0ab01

I am trying to solve the WAN orange issue when there is no active internet link.
I found a solution where you have 3 scripts from which one of them checks Google DNS every minute and set the LED to orange if it cannot reach. This solution is too bad for having to wait a minute before having a visual alert.
I was hoping the heartbeat solves that.

Regarding to the statistic graphic page per device, I checked my GL-AR750S-EXT and it looks like a custom page from its vendor rather than OpenWRT itself as I can only access it via its GUI. If I go to the usual Administrator portal, I have the basic graphics even in that router. Well, you cannot always have everything right?!?

I am closing this topic.

I got things sorted out as better as I could.
Graphic statistics: It's not a big deal, I have unlimited 100/40 fiber connection so that is okay for now.

LED: I solved buy setting up tp-link:green:wan as netdev triggered by "link on", and tp-link:orange:wlan as heartbeat. It is better this than having scripts that runs every minute. If only the orange light is blinking that means the internet is off or cable disconnected. Tested and I am happy with that.

Weird thing about the packages tho, I try to install it via browser and nothing was working, I manage to get this right via SSH.

Thanks guys for the help.

Enjoy! With a 100/40 link, your C7 shouldn't have problems, even running SQM. Top end, running Cake, was at least 115-120mbit before running out of CPU. I used to run one as my single box, before going the tiny x86 box router/C7 as AP path.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.