TL-WR1043N/ND v1 - Update OpenWrt from 17.01 to 19.07

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,

I have a TP-Link TL-WR1043N/ND v1, indeed with 64MB RAM, and OpenWRT 17.01.
I'd like to update to 19.07, but I read, that my device is discontinued due to poor RAM (32MB).
Since I have 64MB, do you think, that I can upgrade or I'll have a non-functionally device?
My plan is to expand the FileSystem using an USB-Stick, too, as I already did with a previous version (Upgrading to 17.01 ignored the USB-Stick). Is it possible, too?

Thanks a lot
Luca Bertoncello

2

Welcome.

In the device page https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr1043nd (if this is your device), there is no mention of limitation for installing 19.07.2 (other than a technicality of downgrading OEM firmware to an older OEM before flashing OpenWrt for the first time, and only where 1.1<versions<2.

I think the famous 4/32 warning is more about the storage than the RAM. I mean the RAM limitations cause issues, might require you to disable non essential services or restart the device periodically, but the storage limitation is much more definite, as it's just not feasible to put 19.07 on 4 MB of storage space.

But your device has 8 MB and there is in fact 19.07.2 image for it, so I expect it to work.

It would still involve some risk like any flashing process.

3

Please don't cross post, the answers won't be different from those on the mailing list: http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/openwrt-devel/2020-April/023062.html

a) yes, you can install 19.07.x on the tl-wr1043nd v1, https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning is usually an issue on this device, but as you've already been told in that thread, the RAM size is auto-detected, so you can use all 64 MB RAM.
b) it still makes sense to look out for something better, as this device has seen better days (only single-band 2.4 GHz, only 400 MHz CPU, rather buggy draft-n silicon), perhaps not today, but soon.

…and yes, the 32 MB RAM limitation is just as much of a problem as the 4 MB flash size, https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/432_warning applies to both issues. To the best of my knowledge, a 64 MB RAM variant of the TL-WR1043ND v1 doesn't exist, so one can only assume that your device has been modified by a previous owner - either way, it makes the situation easier for you.

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