TP-Link EAP245 v3 "Bad file." when attempting to flash

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I have a EAP245 v3 that is apparently a US model, though I purchased it in Canada. I first upgraded the stock firmware as specified in the wiki, but flashed the Canadian firmware (specifically EAP245(CA)_V3_5.0.0 Build 20201022). When I attempt to flash the openwrt factory image, I receive a "Bad file." message. I am first running cliclientd stopcs over ssh as the wiki specifies. Any advice?

Thanks also for the work porting this device, hopefully I can get mine to work!

Edit: I had a look at the datasheet and it seems to suggest there are only 2 HW variants (US and EU). So my difficulties presumably must be associated with the CA firmware.

2

You are probably right in assuming the issue lies with the CA firmware.

We've noticed that on other EAP-devices that the CA-firmware performs an extra check that isn't present in the EU/US firmware.

1 Like
3

Does the label say "US"?

4

Yes, it says EAP245(US) Ver:3.0

5

See if it can be flashed with US stock firmware.

6

I've just tried to flash the US firmware, and it also complains with "Bad file." I tried 2.20.0, 2.21.0 and 5.0.0.

7

Then it should most likely be possible that a similar approach would work on the EAP245 v3. I'll have to spend some time learning more about this stuff.

8

If you're building your own images (or feel comfortable trying), you can try patching the existing EAP245v3 code hack together a CA image. Basically, you need to add a 'product-info' partition to the firmware image that contains "region=CA".

EAP225-Outdoor CA patch 
diff --git a/tools/firmware-utils/src/tplink-safeloader.c b/tools/firmware-utils/src/tplink-safeloader.c
index 888e252389d3..00f0bd80a406 100644
--- a/tools/firmware-utils/src/tplink-safeloader.c
+++ b/tools/firmware-utils/src/tplink-safeloader.c
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ struct device_info {
 	const char *id;
 	const char *vendor;
 	const char *support_list;
+	const char *product_info;
 	enum partition_trail_value part_trail;
 	const char *soft_ver;
 	uint32_t soft_ver_compat_level;
@@ -1341,6 +1342,47 @@ static struct device_info boards[] = {
 		.last_sysupgrade_partition = "file-system"
 	},
 
+	/** Firmware layout for the EAP225-Outdoor v1 CA */
+	{
+		.id     = "EAP225-OUTDOOR-V1-CA",
+		.support_list =
+			"SupportList:\r\n"
+			"EAP225-Outdoor(TP-Link|UN|AC1200-D):1.0\r\n",
+		.product_info =
+			"EAP225-Outdoor(TP-Link|UN|AC1200-D):1.0\r\n"
+			"key=BgIAAAAkAABSU0ExAAQAAAEAAQDZtUNzD6KsxO4Tfx/Sp8S7"
+			"w8TwPWwoppXy77wSPNs5WoV+Wr4kh09nu70vHVmSPji5KFUG+hmR"
+			"japsJsIJj+M0Zmd4EycKY8r0Ea3D4XO/uvloX4VHVPsDZkm8Kria"
+			"n5iNy6BgApVlebx0zQxto0GkgvPBq1nhoZxJNapLghGO7w==\r\n"
+			"rsaKey=BgIAAACkAABSU0ExAAQAAAEAAQDZaGCNzHjzrgNoCjyHK"
+			"a0TIkgmqE5kheNhZHs23TmAbHXN0dFwdNOqqDOTmTdoN1+zW6KY3"
+			"YkkwNypoZbDTR3sKdSdIDTNnftfHhRAlR9l4lNnnvfbUWRDqaGD2"
+			"nAkdasXXfD5c23COMvAEjLJXzwqZjNmj27ZgrrTlH9SoDPerg=="
+			"\r\nHWID=25D5A049380DDBA7AF3A96CC2DCB5986\r\n"
+			"region=CA\r\n",
+		.part_trail = PART_TRAIL_NONE,
+		.soft_ver = NULL,
+		.soft_ver_compat_level = 1,
+
+		.partitions = {
+			{"fs-uboot", 0x00000, 0x20000},
+			{"partition-table", 0x20000, 0x02000},
+			{"default-mac", 0x30000, 0x01000},
+			{"support-list", 0x31000, 0x00100},
+			{"product-info", 0x31100, 0x00400},
+			{"soft-version", 0x32000, 0x00100},
+			{"firmware", 0x40000, 0xd80000},
+			{"user-config", 0xdc0000, 0x30000},
+			{"mutil-log", 0xf30000, 0x80000},
+			{"oops", 0xfb0000, 0x40000},
+			{"radio", 0xff0000, 0x10000},
+			{NULL, 0, 0}
+		},
+
+		.first_sysupgrade_partition = "os-image",
+		.last_sysupgrade_partition = "file-system"
+	},
+
 	/** Firmware layout for the EAP225 v3 */
 	{
 		.id     = "EAP225-V3",
@@ -2431,6 +2473,16 @@ static struct image_partition_entry make_support_list(
 	);
 }
 
+/** Generates the product-info partition */
+static struct image_partition_entry make_product_info(
+	const struct device_info *info
+) {
+	uint32_t len = strlen(info->product_info);
+	return init_meta_partition_entry(
+		"product-info", info->product_info, len, info->part_trail
+	);
+}
+
 /** Partition with extra-para data */
 static struct image_partition_entry make_extra_para(
 	const struct device_info *info, const uint8_t *extra_para, size_t len
@@ -2734,8 +2786,11 @@ static void build_image(const char *output,
 		parts[5] = make_extra_para(
 			info, extra_para, sizeof(extra_para)
 		);
+	} else if (strcasecmp(info->id, "EAP225-OUTDOOR-V1-CA") == 0) {
+		parts[5] = make_product_info(info);
 	}
 
+
 	size_t len;
 	void *image;
 	if (sysupgrade)
9

I wrote a Python script that should allow you to build CA-compatible factory images, using the OpenWrt factory image and a TP-Link firmware image for the CA-version.

Usage is as follows to make an OpenWrt factory image compatible with a CA-region:

  1. Download the OpenWrt factory, e.g. from snapshot builds
  2. Download and extract the original firmware upgrade image for the CA region
  3. Run the patching script: patch-safeloader.py --factory openwrt-ath79-generic-tplink_eap245-v3-squashfs-factory.bin --input EAP245v3_5.0.0_\[20201022-rel59827\]_up_signed.bin --patch product-info --output factory-ca.bin

You should then be able to flash the resulting factory-ca.bin image.

3 Likes
10

Wow! Thank you so much! That worked perfectly.

1 Like
11

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