Could OpenWrt support the Netgear WAX214v2 in a future release? Other Netgear WAX2xx APs are already supported, could the Netgear WAX214v2 also be supported in a snapshot/future release
OpenWrt support depends more on the specific chips used. By lookup up its FCC ID (PY322300569), we can take a look at its internals. Good news is that it appears to be a MediaTek chipset, so in principle it's possible to get OpenWrt working on it.
But OpenWrt is developed by volunteers and device support is no exception. Someone has to take the initiative and time to add the device. Do you have this device on hand?
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yes, i do own it and it uses an mt7915
Divine providence?
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Looks like someone is already working on getting WAX214v2 working on this device. It hasn't been merged yet, which explains why I didn't see it on git.openwrt.org when I searched for it. Thanks to @Borromini for that find!
You could try building that particular branch and following the instructions in that commit. Not at all a trivial process for those that haven't compiled for embedded Linux before. If you're not up for the challenge then it might be best to wait.
The WAX214v2 is supported by the latest 24.10 openwrt release. I've flashed -rc2 and it's working really well so far. My installation experience was moderately painful:
- Trying to upload openwrt via the stock Netgear firmware updater failed with an unhelpful error message. Looking at the javascript, the firmware image has to be greater than 10 * 1024 * 1024 bytes. I tried padding the firmware image with dd, which passed the first check but then failed on the next step so I gave up.
- I then tried to use tftp but I couldn't get it to work (it seems that there is a very tiny window of time for everything to come together, even using a switch and adding a manual arp entry as suggested in the openwrt installation guide). I tried using atftp and tftp and neither worked; I also reset the AP but that didn't help either.
- Finally after many attempts with tftp I used nmrpflash (https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash) which worked first time (the ip address of the AP is 192.168.1.1). The command I used was
sudo nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.1 -A 192.168.1.10 -f openwrt-24.10.0-rc2-ramips-mt7621-netgear_wax214v2-squashfs-factory.imgwhich is run before powering up the AP.
In fact I used nmrpflash several times in the end, as I locked myself out of the management interface trying to configure the multiple VLANs I had setup in the Netgear firmware.
So far I am very happy to have made the switch. The wifi is much more stable, the VLANs actually work properly, 5GHz radio speed is up to 1.2GBps rather than the 800MBps or so Netgear limits it to and the interface is much more responsive.
Strangely, the radio LEDs are a different colour and I can't see an option to change them. Although nmrpflash works a treat, it would be very nice if it were possible to install the firmware from the Netgear interface.
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