Dear @anikishov thank you so much, I'm successfully updated my A6 v 2.0 (RU) router to openwrt.
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Hello everyone,
I am really new to OpenWRT so I'm posting in this thread as I do have 2 Archer A6 V2.0 (EU) for which I am trying to swap the stock firmware with OpenWRT.
Currently, I have tried everything in this post without any luck. Web interface flashing and TFTP flashing both gracefully fail.
For the Web method, I get "Invalid file type"
For the TFTP method, I get the ArcherC6v2_tp_recovery.bin file successfully transferred on the router and after ~60s it reboots on the stock firmware.
When it comes to the recovery, I have tried several OpenWRT versions, starting from 19.7.4, up to 22.3.3. None of them work. I've also tried the file from @mobilizedport and the one from the git repo shared by @anikishov. None of them want to get written on the router.
Currently, both devices are running stock firmware 1.3.6.
Can anyone please give me a hand here?
Thanks in advance!
Bump.
Anyone that has recently succeeded in switching from stock firmware to OpenWRT on Archer A6? Please post some ideas / experiences / how you did it.
One thing that I have recently noticed is that even using stock firmware, right from TP-Link, it cannot be flashed using TFTP recovery method.
To be specific, I tried downgrading from 1.3.6 to 1.3.5 (we are talking about stock firmware here) using TFTP, which did not work, yet, when I uploaded the bin file through the Web GUI the downgrade worked like a charm.
In the same time, upgrading from 1.3.5 to 1.3.6 is not working through TFTP, yet, once again the Web GUI does its job for whatever reason.
What am I missing?
Bump, anyone?
Thanks! I was able to flash my own Archer A6 (RU) only by this approach. As a final step I just downloaded official image for TP-Link Archer C6 v2 (EU/RU/JP) 22.03.5 and flashed it with mtd
It works! I'm using Archer A6 (RU) v2. But can you explain what is so special about OpenWrt 19.07.4 build and why should I flash it first? Specialy prepared image with special magic bytes? Or small size? I would like to create my own initial/bootstrap flash image of openwrt 19.07.4 from source if possible.
It is a "custom" build with modified tplink-safeloader to add A6 with the same magics as the C6.
You can do the same with any version on your own.
Recent openwrt 23.05 release already has patched version of tplink-safeloader.c but flashing using tftpd fails even using additional switch (hardware) in between router and tftp server.
EDIT: I guess that is why:
original firmware:
# strings ArcherA6v2_ru-up-ver1-3-3-P1\[20230808-rel60959\].bin | grep special
{product_name:Archer A6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:52550000}
working (19.07.4) openwrt image:
# strings openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_archer-c6-v2-squashfs-factory-bootstrap.bin | grep speci
{product_name:Archer C6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45550000}
{product_name:Archer A6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:45550000}
{product_name:Archer C6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:52550000}
{product_name:Archer A6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:52550000}
{product_name:Archer C6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:4A500000}
{product_name:Archer A6,product_ver:2.0.0,special_id:4A500000}
Most likely that's the reason.
After you modify the magics and TFPT falshing still fails, try to flash with HTTP recovery method and *-factory.bin
It works. Following patch is missing for Archer A6 (RU) V2 version.