Support for WS-WN577A2 : works using Wavlink WL-WN575A3 firmware

Hi,

I have a Dodocool AC750 router, whici is a rebranded Wavlink WL-WN577A2 version 1.1 from the marking on the PCB.

I have installed the OpenWRT firmware for Wavlink WL-WN577A2 and it works.

I installed it in a different way than specified because I did not manage to get uboot download from the TFTP server at 192.168.10.100 and I didn't want to solder the console on the PCB (it also has the T and R serial pads) :

  • Install a TFTP server as specified, with firmware.bin as specified
  • Log into the router using telnet
  • Go to /tmp : cd /tmp
  • Download the firmware using tftp : tftp -g -r firmware.bin 192.168.10.100
  • Verify MD5 both on computer and on router : md5sum firmware.bin
  • Proceed to flashing : mtd_write write firmware.bin Kernel
  • Immediately reboot by unplugging/plugging the router as soon as firmware is flashed

Note: if I had to do it again, I would add -w to verify, and -r to automatically reboot. But it is untested.

When rebooting, the router will be on 192.168.1.1 on the LAN ethernet interface.

The WS-WN577A2 uses a MT7610E for the 5GHz radio. So the corresponding module must be installed :
opkg update
opkg install kmod-mt-76x0e

Then the 5GHz wifi will work, in addition to the 2.4GHz wifi which was already enabled as it is in tne MT7628 SoC.

Beside that, the unit looks identical to the WL-WS575A3, except that the 3 RSSI LEDs are not populated on the PCB of the WL-WS577A2.

I would recommend :

  • Rename the support pages and firmware to WL-WS57x
  • Add the driver for MT7610E directly in the firmware image
    This way, it can be a unified firmware image for both models.

If someone needs it, I have kept a backup copy of all mtd partitions with the original firmware.
Also, if someone wants to do some reverse engineering, there is a upload.cgi ELF binary executable, which received the firmware file uploaded from the webpage of the OEM firmware and flashes it. It seems to be a very basic file that looks for a header with a magic number, checks a CRC, and applies the upgrade. There are some debug symbols in it. I would have done it, but I do not have a proper disassembler for this (anyone with a IDA license with MIPS supprot ? :slight_smile:)
Doing so would allow crafting a special image file to be uploaded from the installer, and also, because I have a dump of the mtd images, we could also make an image file to restore the OEM image.

If someone would like to work on this, let me know.

Hope this helps !

FYI - Official OpenWrt support for WL-WN577A2 has been added recently with https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=dbaf0d20bb6afec4a592456af6b1238b46fa1acb

This includes already kmod-mt76x0e, no need to install it after flashing anymore.

OpenWrt firmware downloads for WL-WN577A2 (Currently only snapshot support, therefore LuCI needs to be installed manually after flashing).

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