Supporting ZSUN Wifi Card Reader (16MB Flash, 64MB RAM, AR9331)

brunompena · May 23, 2020, 1:11pm

The pre-compiled image for OpenWrt 19.07.3 (main firmware) and upgrade instructions are now available (link).

The documentation has also been updated with instructions on how to use the patches for the official OpenWrt Image Builder (link).

gaiageek · August 28, 2020, 4:03am

A big thanks to brunompena for putting together those detailed instructions and pre-compiled images. I was able to use them to upgrade from 15.05 to 19.07.03. Testing it in repeater mode I noticed Wi-Fi throughput was higher than on 15.05 (closer to 15Mbps instead of 10Mbps).

Since it's not directly linked in the above post, the specific instructions I used are linked here.

will67 · October 23, 2020, 11:03pm

Does anyone have problems with using ftp with zsun running 18.06 or 19.07?
I have 2 devices running these versions and when i transfer files after 5 minutes the tranfer fails and the zsun reboot itself.
I also have a zsun running 15.05 and ftp is perfectly usable with this version, no reboot at all.
I tried to solve this problem with several solutions in vain.

0pointnrg · January 31, 2021, 8:03am

@brunompena Just followed all upgrade instructions for for OpenWrt 19.07.3 and all went OK
When I try to boot into recovery the zsun led starts flashing very quickly but no Recovery SSID is showing .
Main firmware is accessible ... instructions to reflash the recovery image done 2 times md5sum matches.
But no recovery SSID.

Regards Benny

brunompena · January 31, 2021, 8:52am

@0pointnrg Please double check that your device is detecting the SD card events correctly:

Disconnect your Zsun from the USB, eject the SD card but don't remove it
Connect your device to the USB and let it boot the Main firmware
Login to an SSH console and then type: logread -f -e sdcard_event
Try to push your SD card in (no need to lock it in place, just push it in for a second or two) and then let it go
If everything is working properly then you should see two messages similar to:

Sat May 16 18:36:39 2020 user.notice sdcard_event: SD Card inserted
Sat May 16 18:36:42 2020 user.notice sdcard_event: SD Card removed

If everything is detected correctly then please try once more the instructions to boot to the Recovery firmware:

Disconnect your device from USB
Eject the SD card but do not remove it (you'll need to push it back in during the initial boot process)
Connect your Zsun to the USB
When the LED flashes/blinks for the first time, immediately push the SD Card in (hold it for a second or two and then let go) to boot into the recovery image

0pointnrg · January 31, 2021, 10:58am

ok got timing right to trigger recovery ... I'm on the safe side now

Thx Bruno

Goossens · August 19, 2021, 12:21pm

@brunompena Have you been able to compile a 21.02 image yet based on your patches?

brunompena · August 19, 2021, 11:20pm

The pre-compiled image for OpenWrt 21.02.0-rc4 (main firmware) and upgrade instructions are now available here.

Goossens · August 21, 2021, 1:59pm

Your pre-compiled image works flawlessly, thanks! Building an image by patching the imagebuilder doesn't work for me though... I can run the patch and build an image, but after flashing the image, WiFi doesn't turn on (so need to restore from recovery). Has anyone been able to use the imagebuilder yet?

brunompena · August 21, 2021, 9:50pm

I have re-checked the Image Builder patch and it looks to be OK (all files checksum match).
I also successfully built and tested an image using the instructions I have on the repository page:

IMAGEBUILDER_VERSION="21.02.0-rc4"    # OpenWrt version to build
IMAGEBUILDER_PACKAGES=""              # Test image with no package customization

IMAGEBUILDER_PATCH="$(pwd)/zsun-resources/zsun-sd100.imagebuilder.ath79[v${IMAGEBUILDER_VERSION}].patch"
IMAGEBUILDER_NAME="openwrt-imagebuilder-${IMAGEBUILDER_VERSION}-ath79-generic.Linux-x86_64"
IMAGEBUILDER_URL="https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/${IMAGEBUILDER_VERSION}/targets/ath79/generic/${IMAGEBUILDER_NAME}.tar.xz"
IMAGEBUILDER_IMAGE="$(pwd)/${IMAGEBUILDER_NAME}/bin/targets/ath79/generic/openwrt-${IMAGEBUILDER_VERSION}-ath79-generic-zsun_sd100-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin"

wget -qO- "${IMAGEBUILDER_URL}" | tar xJvf -
cd "${IMAGEBUILDER_NAME}"

patch -p1 < "${IMAGEBUILDER_PATCH}"
find files/ -type f -exec chmod 0755 {} \;

make image PROFILE="zsun_sd100" FILES="files/" PACKAGES="${IMAGEBUILDER_PACKAGES}" && \
echo -e "\n\nOpenWrt image was built successfully and can be found at:\n  ${IMAGEBUILDER_IMAGE}\n\n"

If I have to guess, you probably forgot to set the executable attribute to the files under files/.

Can you please try the above instructions (copy & paste) and see if that works for you?

Goossens · August 23, 2021, 11:11am

I did the copy paste, but still resulted in an image that I could flash but wouldn't work. I then decided to create a new VM to run the imagebuilder in, and then the resulting image suddenly worked. So there must have been something odd going on in my old VM... Anyway, no issues with your patch and/or instructions

brunompena · August 23, 2021, 5:56pm

Glad to hear you got it working!

jjrbfi · August 24, 2021, 6:54am

Hi! Great work.

I haven use my Zsun after quite many years. I have right now the version:
LEDE Reboot 17.01-SNAPSHOT r2993+618-b9a408c

Could you let me know a safe way to upgrade to the last version you made?
Regards

brunompena · August 24, 2021, 7:23am

Please follow the instructions on the README.md found on the main repository page.

If you cannot identify your firmware version and you would still like to attempt the update, then I suggest the variant1 of the update firmware (be sure you want to go forward with it as you may brick your device!).

brunompena · September 15, 2021, 10:46pm

I have uploaded the patches and pre-compiled images for both main and recovery firmware:

Do not upgrade both at the same time, and only start the upgrade of one of them after you verified you can login to the other (so you can recover in case something goes wrong)!

Before upgrading the main firmware, be sure you can login to the recovery firmware.
Before upgrading the recovery firmware, but sure you can login to the main firmware.

Kopfpalme · September 25, 2021, 1:18pm

Hello, I'm on 17.01-SNAPSHOT, r2993+618-b9a408c on kernel version 4.4.103. My md5sum is 27af1351fbae86a9066a38b3b2093216 and want to flash 21.02.0 + recovery. What should I do?

brunompena · September 26, 2021, 9:55pm

This is the exact same question as @jjrbfi did, just 3 posts above yours...

Based on your firmware version alone I can only guess you are still running the stock u-boot, for which you should use the variant1 of the update firmware (with all disclaimers attached).

The update firmware will make the following changes to your device:

Install a new u-boot
Install OpenWrt 19.07.0-rc1 as the main firmware
Install OpenWrt 18.06.5 as the recovery firmware

Once this is done, you may go ahead and upgrade both main and recovery to the most recent versions.

jjrbfi · November 24, 2021, 7:27pm

Hello! I brick the device I tried variant1 but I used mistakenly the original firmware.

Few years a go I got connected by the pins. Do you think that U-boot is currently installed there to upload at least the original firmware? Do you have copy of that? Thanks!

brunompena · November 24, 2021, 10:21pm

Really sorry about that

Based on my old notes for the MTD layouts:

Original Firmware

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00010000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00010000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd2: 00e90000 00010000 "rootfs"
mtd3: 00130000 00010000 "uImage"
mtd4: 00010000 00010000 "NVRAM"
mtd5: 00010000 00010000 "ART"

Emeryth Firmware (example for variant1)

dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00010000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00010000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd2: 00e90000 00010000 "rootfs"
mtd3: 00b50000 00010000 "rootfs_data"
mtd4: 00130000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd5: 00010000 00010000 "nvram"
mtd6: 00010000 00010000 "art"
mtd7: 00fc0000 00010000 "firmware"

And assuming I understood you correctly, you wanted to:

~~Flash mtd4 (kernel) with part2 of the update firmware~~
~~Flash mtd2 (rootfs) with part1 of the update firmware~~

But instead you did:

Flash mtd3 (rootfs_data) with part2 of the update firmware (this is where you did the mistake)
Flash mtd2 (rootfs) with part1 of the update firmware (this actually overwritten the mistake from the previous step)

This means your device still has the old kernel but will not be able to boot since the rootfs has been overwritten and in its place is now the kernel of the main firmware (*).
It also means you are still running the same U-Boot since the update firmware was never booted!

I can provide you with the links to the following binaries for you to try recover your device from serial connection:

U-Boot images:
- Original u-boot
- Updated u-boot
Firmware images:
- ~~Original firmware as single file~~ (don't have anymore, perhaps someone else still has a backup at hand?)
- Update firmware as single file

(*) Side note regarding the Update Firmware (for those interested)

Although there are 3 variants the update firmware, the image itself is actually the same for all variants. The only difference between them is the size of the parts, as they had to be split according to the firmware each variant is targeting.

This means we have one single image that has to be compatible with all kernel locations from the known u-boots (original, puteulanus, puteulanus_rec) and must also be capable of preparing the device to even another u-boot variant:

Update Firmware (temporary layout for installing u-boot and recovery)

  <offset> | <size>   | <name>
  00000000 | 00010000 | u-boot
  00010000 | 00010000 | u-boot-env
  00020000 | 004E0000 | firmware: kernel + rootfs + uninitialized rootfs_data (main firmware)
  00500000 | 006E0000 | update: roofs + initialized rootfs_data (includes the update script, u-boot.bin and recovery.bin files)
  00BE0000 | 00130000 | update: kernel
  00D10000 | 001A0000 | <empty>
  00EB0000 | 00130000 | update: kernel
  00FE0000 | 00010000 | nvram
  00FF0000 | 00010000 | art

At the end of the boot process, the update firmware will call the update script to execute the following actions:

Flash the new u-boot
Reset/clear the u-boot-env
Flash the recovery firmware (overwrites the update kernel's from 00BE0000 to 00FE0000)
Reboot

Rebooting the device will trigger the new u-boot and start the main firmware which in turn will:

Initialize the rootfs_data (overwrites the update rootfs + rootfs_data from 00500000 to 00BE0000)

By the end of this process, all parts of the update firmware have been completely overwritten by the final images:

Final Layout

  <offset> | <size>   | <name>
  00000000 | 00010000 | u-boot
  00010000 | 00010000 | u-boot-env
  00020000 | 00BC0000 | firmware: kernel + rootfs + rootfs_data
  00BE0000 | 00400000 | recovery: kernel + rootfs + rootfs_data
  00FE0000 | 00010000 | nvram
  00FF0000 | 00010000 | art

dicamarques · September 16, 2022, 8:14am

Hello @brunompena , a few months ago i installed the recovery and the fw. Today I tried to use the device again and when I boot to the recovery partition (with the sd card insert) I can't find any ssid with "Zsun Recovery" when the LEDs are flashing really fast
Already updated the recovery to the latest available on the github and checked the MD5.