I thought the warning on the front page was not to but routers with 4mb flash so I thought 16mb should be ok.
Mmm.
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The specs of this router (assuming that it gets supported one day) are good (including the flash size), but it's just too expensive for what it can offer (single core mips, 16 MB flash, 128 MB RAM). There are better devices around for just about the same or even slightly less money.
I have Archer C7, which has similar specs (although the processor is a bit slower), and after fresh insustituible of OpenWrt, there is only a few MBs of flash left. So if you happen to want to install something that requires rs python for example or some packages that have many or large dependencies, you could run or of space.
If, however, the specs are good for your requirements, then you could just get a used C7 for $20 or even less, and it's well supported.
Plus C7, for example, has 2 USB ports, which can be a lot more useful than just one.
But then again, as @slh says, there are much better devices in the range of $40 to $80, so if you outline your needs, people may be able to recommend some.
I bought the A9 in sweden last black friday, it was approx 40 usd with shipping.
But there is no custom rom/fw anywhere for it and the last update it got was sometime early 2019.
Is there something a total noob at this could do to port openwrt to it?
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I think the hardware is
- CPU: Qualcomm QCN5502 WiSoC (MIPS 74Kc)
- WLAN: Qualcomm QCN5502/QCA9984
802.11n 4T4R:3SS (600Mbps, 2.4GHz)
802.11ac 4T4R:3SS (1300Mbps, 5GHz) - USB: 1x USB 2.0 ports
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bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200 board=APJET01 rootfstype=squashfs init=/etc/preinit mtdparts=spi0.0:128k(factory-uboot),192k(u-boot),64k(ART),1536k(uImage),14464k@0x1e000
here is the boot args from the FW.
TFTP info
bootcmd=bootm 0x9f0c0000
bootdelay=0
baudrate=115200
ethaddr=0x00:0xaa:0xbb:0xcc:0xdd:0xee
ipaddr=192.168.0.2
serverip=192.168.0.10
dir=
lu=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}tuboot.bin&&erase 0x9f000000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f000000 $filesize
lf=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}apjet01${bc}-jffs2&&erase 0x9f010000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f010000 $filesize
lk=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}vmlinux${bc}.lzma.uImage&&erase 0x9f300000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f300000 $filesize
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I was drawn to this router by the same review as OP.
Based on the firmware source on the TP-link support site, it appears that this router's firmware is openwrt.
So I guess the review site wasn't entirely wrong..
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Hi Mbowie,
I also get this router based on one of the recommendation sites. But those seem to be completely fake.
Where did you see the information about the firmware being based on Openwrt? That would be very surprising.
Otherwise, does anyone know if someone is working on making openwrt work on this router?
Regards,
Bert
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Wow, indeed, TP-link provides the whole openwrt source as in their GPL code package. Version 12.09 if I looked at it correctly.
Wonder if there is something useful to get out of it, or if all the required magic is in a binary blob.
Regards,
Bert
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The readme states that on building the code from the zip file, OpenWrt binary images are generated.
Archer A9 is on sale in many countries in the third world, which is why I bought it, and some site recommended it as well for open source firmware. Infact many of my colleagues bought one to replace their wifi4 routers. I assume this is similar to the a7 in terms of source code
I hope a kind hearted dev reads this and tries their best on this.
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This guy who wrote this piece of information does not do fact checking first........... before posting on the site.
https://www.gadgetreview.com/best-openwrt-routers
Old topic, but I just included support for this device:
Big warning!
Due to missing support for QCN550x in ath9k, the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi is at the moment unsupported (I'm looking into that).
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Hello everyone, my can you confirm that it is possible to develop OpenWrt also on the Fritz 2400 since it uses very similar hardware (or the same)? Thank's
I want to revert back to the stock firmware (for 2.4Ghz) but TFTP upload always gets stuck around 74-75%. I was trying various things and managed to brick, TFTP upload worked fine with openwrt firmware but not with stock firmware (oldest and newest firmwares on TP Link website). I am out of ideas, can someone please help me.
I suspect it is due to the partitions sizes, as stock firmware is ~16MB but i am not sure.
please help. thanks
Update: I believe it is due to the check by the bootloader for device verification. Reference:https://github.com/sowbug/archer-c9-back-to-stock
Update 2: I figured it out. Thanks
Hello @pepe2k,
I'm seeking information about the status of 2.4GHz band support for the TP-Link Archer A9 v6 on OpenWRT. The commit 9c335acc and the pull request #9389 by @looi have been highlighted, and I'm eager to know if these efforts have made any progress. As it is now 2024, I am still hopeful for a positive update that would enable me to transition to OpenWRT for my Archer A9 AC1900. I also kindly request assistance from any other developers who may have this device, urging them to contribute to resolving any unsupported issues. I remain hopeful that the development for this device is ongoing and not abandoned.
Can you elaborate on how you managed to solve it, might help the rest in future 
If someone can provide the dd-wrt team, the serial boot log and a full flashdump for this router it can help them i guess.
https://forum.dd-wrt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1296351#1296351
@spike0en patches sent upstream with support for QCN550x in ath9k are marked as "under review": https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-wireless/list/?submitter=204553&state=*
When they get merged we will probably have them backported during some of next mac80211 upgrade. I no longer have access to device with this radio so I'm not able to help.
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