Support for D-Link DGS-1210 (-16) rev G2

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello,

I have a D-Link DGS-1210 (-16) rev G2, I see that there is no such page:

but there is a g1 page:

I cannot find any reference to a g2 version.

I was not able to find any spec/diff from g1 to g2.

There is the vendor site where the same firmware supports g1 and g2 (and g3 and g4). See for example: https://support.dlink.com/resource/products/dgs-1210-series/revg/

My device has a label with firmware 7.30.004 and I see in the above link to firmware versions:

  • v7.00.006
  • v7.10.008
  • V7.31.002

None of those match the known working version, as stated in the g1 page:

Known working G1 firmware versions for this procedure: 7.20.003

I cannot find the mentioned version for download, maybe some deep search can help, I know dlink has a lot of country/regional site with different versions... and maybe one will match.

I can experiment, but prefer to not go for the serial console if possible.

Thanks for your suggestions!

2

You did not phrase a question or I was unable to understand your request. I assume, however, that you want to install OpenWrt on your G2 device and are asking for help.

If there is no specific information available, chances are that nobody has tried to run OpenWrt on such a device, yet. Hence the answer is: you will have to find it out yourself. When doing so, be prepared to have a serial console cable ready in order to restore the switch.

3

Thanks for the generic suggestion, maybe the question was hidden in the title "Support for"... I look for any suggestion for easy installation.

I did not state questions because I do not know meaningful ones, maybe some expert can say g2 is a minor variation of g1, or is better to try with older vendor firmware instead of newer (in respect of the know working version)... or there are any tricks in order to discover g1/g2 differences with the device available...

4

There is no easy installation for a device not explicitly listed as supported. No, there is no easy way to “try” this without a serial console and enough time to recover in case you brick it.

You could try the OpenWrt build for the closest device, but there is a high chance that it won’t work out of the box (yes, it may not boot and it may not react to the network) and you will have to use a serial console and maybe even a flash programmer to recover. Due to that, connect a serial console first and check if you can interact (yes, not just see the output, but also get meaningful responses to your key presses) with the bootloader. Then, back up the current firmware and verify the backup before you start flashing anything.

This thread probably belongs into the “For developers” category if you’re willing to experiment yourself. If not, it’s a hardware support request and the usual answer will be “get a serial console and try it”.

1 Like
5

Most of the time, D-Link sticks to the letter revision for hardware revisions and numbers for differences in software. So you have a good change of getting OpenWrt working on your G2 if G1 is supported, but I'd test a ramdisk first.

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6

Thanks, after some research i found some pages that do not pop up in search engine that contains the version mentioned as safe in the wiki:

https://media.dlink.eu/support/products/dgs/dgs-1210/driver_software/dgs-1210_fw_revgx_7-20-003_eu_multi_20200903.zip

The name "Gx" seem to indicate that works for G1, G2, Gx... so i will try starting with this version. Edited: the release note states explicit support for "G1/G2" for this firmware, even a better confirmation.

The ramdisk method you mentioned seems to require a custom build and a serial console from what I see here: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.flashing?s[]=reboot&s[]=select#method_4via_jtag or there are easier alternatives for this board?

7

The initramfs image:

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/24.10.2/targets/realtek/rtl838x/openwrt-24.10.2-realtek-rtl838x-d-link_dgs-1210-16-initramfs-kernel.bin

Then you TFTP boot it:

If that works, you can follow the regular flashing instructions.

8

Update: success. I downgraded the firmware 7.30.004 to 7.20.003 followed the instruction like G1 (there is only one partition like in G1) and it works, tested login via luci via port 1 and 20.

I noted from the original fw also: Boot Version 1.02.001

Please let me know if there are some test to run for declaring a device as supported and if there is some command to collect the hardware info to further improve the documentation.

I will try to add the success in the wiki in the next days.

Thanks for your nice tips!

9

Just found out that it was know that openwrt works on G2 (unfortunately is not possible to search the forum only for G2, so I missed that before) some time ago:

@rkunze do you think that is safe to add to the wiki that the G2 -16 now works with the -16 image?
For me now the reboot works fine with: openwrt-24.10.3-realtek-rtl838x-d-link_dgs-1210-16-squashfs-factory_image1.bin

10

Yes. I’ve been running the -16 images pretty much since the PR got merged without any problems.

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