Hi everyone. I found a relatively old (however, still commonly found) router laying around and thought I could flash OpenWRT on it, however the problem is that this specific device is not supported. I found some devices with relatively similar hardware (i.e. C25) that are supported and was wondering if anyone could help me build a working image.
Stock fw: https://www.tp-link.com/in/support/download/archer-c20/v2/
Literally any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Winbond is 64MB RAM
One of unreadable prints must be flash.
8853A search yields ton of TP-link hardware, 4MB flash (no go) 8MB (usable as basic AP).
If it is indeed 8MB flash then you need to connect serial, try to find shell aka dropbear, at least dump flash layout and boot messages.
JP1 looks like serial header, but measure voltage before connecting anything.
the Archer C25 v1 looks strikingly similar.
there are pictures of all chips on the wiki page:
https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer_c25_v1
can you confirm they are all the same?
and yes, like @brada4 said, it would be great to confirm the flash layout with the OEM firmware.
you would need one of those:
https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/hardware/port.serial.cables#usb_serial_adapters
Safeloader list does not confirm 1:1 C25V1 (or C20V.other) but at least OEM fw is 8M size
SupportList:
{product_name:ArcherC20,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:00000000}
{product_name:ArcherC20,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:55530000}
{product_name:ArcherC20,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45550000}
The size of the firmware update file for this router (Archer C20(EU)_V2_160726.zip) indicates that the flash size is 8MB.
Yes, and I extracted safeloader compat list from it.
@dnd Partition layout for C20 v2 read from OEM flash (Archer C20(EU)_V2_160726.zip):
partition factory-boot base 0x00000 size 0x20000
partition fs-uboot base 0x20000 size 0x10000
partition os-image base 0x30000 size 0x100000
partition file-system base 0x130000 size 0x6a0000
partition user-config base 0x7d0000 size 0x04000
partition default-mac base 0x7e0000 size 0x00100
partition device-id base 0x7e0100 size 0x00100
partition extra-para base 0x7e0200 size 0x00100
partition pin base 0x7e0300 size 0x00100
partition support-list base 0x7e0400 size 0x00400
partition soft-version base 0x7e0800 size 0x00400
partition product-info base 0x7e0c00 size 0x01400
partition partition-table base 0x7e2000 size 0x01000
partition profile base 0x7e3000 size 0x01000
partition default-config base 0x7e4000 size 0x04000
partition merge-config base 0x7ec000 size 0x02000
partition qos-db base 0x7ee000 size 0x02000
partition radio base 0x7f0000 size 0x10000
GPL sources of his software are available, which is a significant convenience: https://static.tp-link.com/resources/gpl/Archer_C20v2_GPL.tar.bz2 (copy the link into the address field and press enter).
Hey. Sorry for the long wait. I checked the stores around for anything similar to what I saw in the link you've provided me and it seems that both USB to TTL and USB to RS232 aren't really commonly found around where I live. I also checked some local e-stores and sadly they could order it from a warehouse abroad and get it to me by the end of the month. I will also check if someone has a pre-owned one for sale to save up on time.
Either way, I will get one as soon as possible, but as of right now is there another way to check this flash layout?
There is a stock firmware file available and also a GPL (as another usr mentioned) if it helps in any way.
You need a way to revive router as first OpenWRT flash will go wrong in one way or another.
Understood. Will have to check around online if anyone could hook me up with one to save up on time. Thanks for the lightning fast response.
Don’t try to use one of those.
Completely wrong voltage levels.
Can fry your SoC potentially.
https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/hardware/port.serial#voltage_levels