Hello! Ater some poking around, I found out that TP-Link offers the entire GPL sources for the AC4000 V3 router, along with what appears to be the SDK, original firmware sources, and a OpenWrt fork that's buildable. Unfortunately, I'm unsure where to go, as I can't build anything. I think my Linux system is too new for the source code present.
You mean breadcom opensourced wifi driver and told no one but anonymous fork of yours?
I honestly have no clue, but it was on their GPL webpage, and I found a full openwrt build folder and some broadcomm sources in the original firmware folder. However, if I can figure out how to, it will let me build the original firmware using a makefile. Here's the link to what they offer for my router: https://static.tp-link.com/resources/gpl/C4000v3_US_GPL_20190412.tar.gz
To summarise - all facts stated in your first post were false.
Broadcom wifi ac barely works if at all. For any effort porting OpenWrt you should undetstand that end result may not have wifi at all.
So were the sources provided only limited? As in, the broadcomm drivers provided aren't the ones that provide the wifi I currently have with their proprietary firmware?
Well, you make ton of unfounded claims. Broadcom wifi will not become supported even if you keep repeating opposite.
I'm fully aware; that's why I said I think I found the GPL sources needed to port OpenWRT. I want to see if what's provided can be used to port OpenWRT and what's preventing me. I haven't done a deep inspection, nor know where to start. My current wifi situation also wouldn't be impacted much by a loss of wifi on the router, I have a WiFi access point that already does most of our wifi heavy lifting.
Typically those dumps are SDKs based on ancient OpenWrt versions and ditto kernels. If there are wireless drivers in that dump, they are fully closed and won't build against mainline kernels. The fact you think your Linux setup might be too new is a further indicator.
Some Broadcom AC chips are supported by Linux, but I'm not sure if they support AP mode at all.
So is there really anything I can do? From what I found it’s a brcm469xx platform.
If you can see tplink boot log in their web ui it should identify wifi cards to some degree
some detail https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx
doesn't say which version of device, but ICs can be seen at https://fccid.io/TE7C4000/.
I do know there’s a boot log, but I’m not sure how much it spits out. I can say that there is an open ssh port on the router, but it uses a weird key exchange method that my computer doesn’t have. I’ll get back with more info later this afternoon or this evening.
After looking at the fcc photos, they were submitted in 2017, 2 years before the gpl code was put out for the v3 skew of this router. The latest firmware from tp link was built in 2023 and is not encrypted, so there could be clues hidden in the Linux filesystem of what chips are used in the router.
Established wisdom[0] is that Broadcom wifi >= 802.11n is not going to work[1].
If you question this, the onus of proving that would be on you.
Being able to rebuild the 'GPL tarball' can be a first quarter-step on the way, but insufficient in itself. The only proof is in the pudding, either you can provide mainline wireless driver support and add device support to BCM4908 or no one else will, rendering this -already rather academic- discussion moot.
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[0] which has been proven itself over and over again for the last quarter of a decade.
[1] there are some nuances, but those are -IMHO- irrelevant, as that implies your 802.11ac being capped to (half of-) 54 MBit/s and even with that barely works.
Unfortunately I’m no expert in c or the Linux kernel, so I can’t really help on implementing such a driver. Are there any recommended routers I could look into that are similar in the feature set? What I really like about it is the tri-band WiFi and it’s incredibly fast, responsive, and has a <30 sec boot time.
Then this discussion is moot anyways, because someone would have to do the work - and that someone would be either you or no one.
The ToH lists around 2700 devices, filogic 830/ 820 and ipq807x (ipq50xx/ ipq60xx) are the current crop of devices.
Cool, thanks! I’ll keep doing some research, it’s unfortunate Broadcom is this iffy with their chips.
Broadcom has been a bane on WLAN (and everything else they touch) for ~23 years already, that's barely newsworthy.
If you want supported devices, you avoid Broadcom like the plague they are and choose with your wallet (currently the choices are Mediatek or Qualcomm-Atheros, in that order). Just be aware that the absence of clear documentation (device pages/ wiki/ git commit message) that a device is fully supported usually (~always) means that it isn't.
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