Newbie here. I purchased a Xiaomi 4A gigabit from Aliexpress. The model is DVB4218CN and is listed in the table on this openwrt page:
I tried the openwrtinvasion exploit, and it failed. It gave an error and said to try telnet, but telnet did not work. My motherboard does not seem to match and of the motherboards covered on the above openwrt page. I found the below post where a fellow has the exact same motherboard (Id on PCB=MB02EU, version=0103, date=20211216, firmware=2.30.280):
He notes that he has tried using serial to upload various openwrt firmwares, and none worked. That was almost a year ago.
I'm not familiar with the history of how/when routers are supported, so I'm wondering...should I hold my breath for this motherboard to be supported by openwrt, or is the router headed to the trash bin?
If I do have to search for a different router, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to increase my chances of finding a router that is both supported and cheap. With this Xiaomi 4A router, even though it is a model 4A, it appears there is a plethora of different routers that can be shipped, and it is a crap-shoot as to whether they are supported. If I just pick any other router from the supported list, I don't want to fall into the same trap where anything could be shipped to me. If you do have a suggested router, could you suggest something cheap and available in Canada. That's why I selected the 4A, as it is cheap, and I could get it from Aliexpress.