TP-Link TL-WR810N v1 - ath79

I recently tried to upgrade my TP-Link 810N v1.1 (EU) from the 18.06 branch to 19.07.0-rc1. As I understand ar71xx won't be supported much longer and therefore I wanted to switch to ath79. The device name changed in ath79 so I had to force the upgrade to make it work.

At first it seemed fine, but it didn't boot properly and was softbricked as a result. After the tedious process of opening that device and getting serial access, my suspicions were confirmed as it was stuck in a bootloop caused by kernel panic.

I tried flashing a known working image using TFTP recovery, but didn't succeed. Eventually, I was only able to restore to OEM firmware using TFTP and serial. After that I flashed the 19.07.0-rc1 default image for ar71xx target and it worked fine.

Then again tried the latest snapshot image for ath79 resulting in bootloop.
So it seems to me that there is some issue with the current ath79 images for this device.

Didn't find any information regarding switching to ath79 or known bugs for this particular device, hence I'm writing this.

bootlog
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep 18 2015 - 11:52:31)

ap143-2.0 - Honey Bee 2.0

DRAM:  64 MB
Flash Manuf Id 0xef, DeviceId0 0x40, DeviceId1 0x17
flash size 8MB, sector count = 128
Flash:  8 MB
Using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ath_gmac_enet_initialize...
ath_gmac_enet_initialize: reset mask:c02200
Scorpion ---->S27 PHY*
S27 reg init
: cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7114
eth0: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 4 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 4 :10
eth0 up
Honey Bee ---->  MAC 1 S27 PHY *
S27 reg init
ATHRS27: resetting s27
ATHRS27: s27 reset done
: cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7214
eth1: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 0 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 0 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 1 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 1 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 2 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 2 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 3 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 3 :10
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
Setting 0x181162c0 to 0x60c1a100
is_auto_upload_firmware=0
Autobooting in 1 seconds
## Booting image at 9f020000 ...
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.19.81 (builder@buildhost) (gcc version 8.3.0 (OpenWrt GCC 8.3.0 r11473-5dc535419f)) #0 Sun Nov 10 23:33:34 2019
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
[    0.000000] MIPS: machine is TP-Link TL-WR810N v1
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9533 ver 2 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 04000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] random: get_random_bytes called from start_kernel+0x98/0x4b0 with crng_init=0
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 16240
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200n8 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 57252K/65536K available (4507K kernel code, 184K rwdata, 1056K rodata, 1220K init, 213K bss, 8284K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS: 51
[    0.000000] CPU clock: 650.000 MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5880801374 ns
[    0.000010] sched_clock: 32 bits at 325MHz, resolution 3ns, wraps every 6607641598ns
[    0.008273] Calibrating delay loop... 432.53 BogoMIPS (lpj=2162688)
[    0.074874] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.080023] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.086996] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.100086] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.110544] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.117167] pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
[    0.126098] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.169596] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.176430] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.182227] tcp_listen_portaddr_hash hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.190444] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.197804] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.204546] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.211461] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.217645] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.224765] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.233713] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.241412] workingset: timestamp_bits=14 max_order=14 bucket_order=0
[    0.256399] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.262621] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.290458] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.294599] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.301134] ar7200-usb-phy 18030000.usb-phy: phy reset is missing
[    0.309928] pinctrl-single 1804002c.pinmux: 576 pins, size 72
[    0.317226] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.326870] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.330766] 18020000.uart: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 9, base_baud = 1562500) is a 16550A
[    0.339893] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.339893] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.347444] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.347444] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.369843] m25p80 spi0.0: unrecognized JEDEC id bytes: 00, 00, 00
[    0.376286] m25p80: probe of spi0.0 failed with error -2
[    0.383210] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.391624] ag71xx 19000000.eth: invalid MAC address, using random address
[    0.730702] ag71xx 19000000.eth: Could not connect to PHY device. Deferring probe.
[    0.738880] ag71xx 1a000000.eth: invalid MAC address, using random address
[    1.420059] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    1.425546] libphy: ar8xxx-mdio: probed
[    1.436088] switch0: Atheros AR8229 rev. 1 switch registered on mdio-bus.0
[    1.491508] ag71xx 1a000000.eth: connected to PHY at fixed-0:00 [uid=00000000, driver=Generic PHY]
[    1.501638] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode: gmii
[    1.510926] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    1.522843] Segment Routing with IPv6
[    1.526769] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    1.531583] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    1.544994] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    1.551369] ag71xx 19000000.eth: invalid MAC address, using random address
[    1.891925] ag71xx 19000000.eth: connected to PHY at mdio-bus.0:1f:04 [uid=004dd042, driver=Generic PHY]
[    1.902933] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode: mii
[    1.910468] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    1.917102] VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
[    1.924927] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
[    1.933587] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[    1.942812] Rebooting in 1 seconds..

To catch the eye of someone more familiar with the device, here's some "interesting" lines from the boot log

I didn't see the kernel bootargs there -- @openwrtuserx, would you be able to check what U-Boot is providing to the kernel?

1 Like

I'm not that experienced with low-level stuff - so not sure if this helps.

ap143-2.0> printenv
bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200 root=31:02 rootfstype=jffs2 init=/sbin/init mtdparts=ath-nor0:32k(u-boot1),32k(u-boot2),3008k(rootfs),896k(uImage),64k(mib0),64k(ART)
bootcmd=bootm 0x9f020000
bootdelay=1
baudrate=115200
ethaddr=0xba:0xbe:0xfa:0xce:0x08:0x41
ipaddr=192.168.1.1
serverip=192.168.1.10
dir=
lu=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}tuboot.bin&&erase 0x9f000000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f000000 $filesize
lf=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}ap143-2.0${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
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
ethact=eth0

Environment size: 684/65532 bytes
1 Like

I can confirm that the current ath79 OpenWrt 19.07.0 image does not work for the TP-Link TL-WR810N v1(.1).
The sysupgrade via web interface from 18.04 failed (image not supported); the sysupgrade tools also failed with a simmilar error. Issuing sysupgrade -F did result in an unbootable device.
I recovered via the tftp-method to ar71xx OpenWrt 19.07.0.
Since I didn't have serial access, I have no logs. I think it might be the same error as @openwrtuserx posted above.

@jeff I can see the cmdline args and this are the values from the dtb.

This seems the problem...

@openwrtuserx Can you provide a bootlog of a working ar71xx 19.07 build?
And if you have opened your device, can you also post the data of the spi nor flash chip?

1 Like

This is the boot log coming from original TP-Link firmware, flashed with ar71xx 19.07 factory image.

Bootlog ar71xx 19.07
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep 18 2015 - 11:52:31)

ap143-2.0 - Honey Bee 2.0

DRAM:  64 MB
Flash Manuf Id 0xef, DeviceId0 0x40, DeviceId1 0x17
flash size 8MB, sector count = 128
Flash:  8 MB
Using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ath_gmac_enet_initialize...
ath_gmac_enet_initialize: reset mask:c02200
Scorpion ---->S27 PHY*
S27 reg init
: cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7114
eth0: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 4 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 4 :10
eth0 up
Honey Bee ---->  MAC 1 S27 PHY *
S27 reg init
ATHRS27: resetting s27
ATHRS27: s27 reset done
: cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7214
eth1: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 0 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 0 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 1 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 1 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 2 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 2 :10
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_CONTROL 3 :1000
athrs27_phy_setup ATHR_PHY_SPEC_STAUS 3 :10
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
Setting 0x181162c0 to 0x60c1a100
is_auto_upload_firmware=0
Autobooting in 1 seconds
## Booting image at 9f020000 ...
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...

[    0.000000] Linux version 4.14.162 (builder@buildhost) (gcc version 7.5.0 (OpenWrt GCC 7.5.0 r10860-a3ffeb413b)) #0 Mon Jan 6 16:47:09 2020
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
[    0.000000] SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9533 ver 2 rev 0
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 04000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] random: get_random_bytes called from 0x804ee740 with crng_init=0
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 16256
[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=TL-WR810N  console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs noinitrd
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 59320K/65536K available (3946K kernel code, 193K rwdata, 516K rodata, 328K init, 212K bss, 6216K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS: 51
[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:650.000MHz, DDR:391.455MHz, AHB:216.666MHz, Ref:25.000MHz
[    0.000000] clocksource: MIPS: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 5880801374 ns
[    0.000010] sched_clock: 32 bits at 325MHz, resolution 3ns, wraps every 6607641598ns
[    0.008270] Calibrating delay loop... 432.53 BogoMIPS (lpj=2162688)
[    0.074883] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.079998] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.086977] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.097137] clocksource: jiffies: mask: 0xffffffff max_cycles: 0xffffffff, max_idle_ns: 19112604462750000 ns
[    0.107587] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.115574] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.122050] MIPS: machine is TP-LINK TL-WR810N
[    0.625673] clocksource: Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.632335] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.638024] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.645386] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.652178] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.659093] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.665273] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.672287] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.681798] Crashlog allocated RAM at address 0x3f00000
[    0.689116] workingset: timestamp_bits=30 max_order=14 bucket_order=0
[    0.701811] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.708031] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.730800] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.734944] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.740949] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
[    0.750043] console [ttyS0] disabled
[    0.773999] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11, base_baud = 1562500) is a 16550A
[    0.783116] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.783116] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.790677] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.790677] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.808151] m25p80 spi0.0: found s25fl064k, expected m25p80
[    0.825944] m25p80 spi0.0: s25fl064k (8192 Kbytes)
[    0.831298] 5 tp-link partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.837100] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.842054] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    0.848946] 0x000000020000-0x0000001a34b4 : "kernel"
[    0.856699] 0x0000001a34b4-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.862775] mtd: device 2 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.868769] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    0.875164] 0x000000410000-0x0000007f0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    0.883514] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "art"
[    0.890248] 0x000000020000-0x0000007f0000 : "firmware"
[    0.899346] libphy: Fixed MDIO Bus: probed
[    0.935822] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    1.568719] ag71xx ag71xx.0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.1:04 [uid=004dd042, driver=Generic PHY]
[    1.578925] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode: mii
[    2.208252] ag71xx-mdio.1: Found an AR934X built-in switch
[    2.261553] eth1: Atheros AG71xx at 0xba000000, irq 5, mode: gmii
[    2.269881] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    2.280153] Segment Routing with IPv6
[    2.284045] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    2.288798] bridge: filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables is no longer available by default. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    2.302945] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    2.309361] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
[    2.320612] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
[    2.330718] Freeing unused kernel memory: 328K
[    2.335314] This architecture does not have kernel memory protection.
[    2.535692] random: fast init done
[    3.067543] init: Console is alive
[    3.071362] init: - watchdog -
[    4.150087] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.215779] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    4.221559] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    4.227247] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    4.239224] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[    4.248035] ehci-platform: EHCI generic platform driver
[    4.253549] ehci-platform ehci-platform: EHCI Host Controller
[    4.259627] ehci-platform ehci-platform: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    4.269965] ehci-platform ehci-platform: irq 3, io mem 0x1b000000
[    4.305724] ehci-platform ehci-platform: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
[    4.313194] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    4.317620] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
[    4.323169] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules-boot.d/*
[    4.333306] init: - preinit -
[    5.037352] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[    5.070788] random: procd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
[    8.354321] mount_root: jffs2 not ready yet, using temporary tmpfs overlay
[    8.393614] urandom-seed: Seed file not found (/etc/urandom.seed)
[    8.575069] procd: - early -
[    8.579163] procd: - watchdog -
[    9.223018] procd: - watchdog -
[    9.226761] procd: - ubus -
[    9.337022] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.389430] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.396684] random: ubusd: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read)
[    9.404283] procd: - init -
Please press Enter to activate this console.
[   10.127704] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   10.209710] urngd: v1.0.0 started.
[   10.242962] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.274197] Loading modules backported from Linux version v4.19.85-0-gc63ee2939dc1
[   10.282110] Backport generated by backports.git v4.19.85-1-0-g8a8be258
[   10.308678] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
[   10.335379] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (1024 buckets, 4096 max)
[   10.480083] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[   10.597961] random: crng init done
[   10.601491] random: 6 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[   10.614227] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   10.621840] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[   10.695114] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9531 Rev:2 mem=0xb8100000, irq=47
[   10.786135] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   27.499343] jffs2_scan_eraseblock(): End of filesystem marker found at 0x0
[   27.520860] jffs2_build_filesystem(): unlocking the mtd device...
[   27.520936] done.
[   27.529392] jffs2_build_filesystem(): erasing all blocks after the end marker...
[   27.927725] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered blocking state
[   27.940950] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered disabled state
[   27.946774] device eth1 entered promiscuous mode
[   28.043463] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered blocking state
[   28.048959] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered forwarding state
[   28.054775] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   28.138401] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   28.896225] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered disabled state
[   29.548525] eth1: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[   29.553367] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered blocking state
[   29.558824] br-lan: port 1(eth1) entered forwarding state
[   29.595798] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   39.054886] done.
[   39.056963] jffs2: notice: (1228) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[   39.356954] overlayfs: upper fs does not support tmpfile.

I think the flash chip is on the backside of the board and I'd have to break some additional parts to get the board out. It's all glued together pretty good. Just managed to solder serial connections on top of it.

ID bytes all zero suggest it is not an unrecognized flash chip type, rather there is no communication with the chip at all.

1 Like

I can also confirm the most recent 19.07.1 ath79 image does not work for the WR810N:
810n

Update: my device is hw version 1.1 btw

You can try forcing the upgrade or use the tftp method.
The problem is that your model version of your current firmware does not match the expected model version.

When going from ar71xx to ath79 you have to force upgrade. Also it is recommended to not save settings, so uncheck the keep settings box.

I tried this with the 19.07.0 ath79 image and it resulted in a soft-bricked device which I had to recover via tftp method. See above.

The ar71xx image worked fine though.

Not on every device. I successfully upgraded ar71xx to ath79 on WDR 4300, WR1043ND and several gl.inet devices without having to force upgrade.
Btw. I never use "save settings" on upgrading ... The screenshot was just to demonstrate the upgrade error message. I would have had unchecked keep settings.

Hello,

Any idea when the ath79 image for the TP-Link TL-WR810Nv1.1(EU) will be fixed?
Is it better to just flash with ar71xx image instead of waiting for the fix (for the moment - as from what I understood the ar71xx images will no longer be maintained)?

Thank you.

I just wondered if there is any update on ath79 for TL-WR810N, has anyone tried this recently?

I checked the bug tracker and couldn't find anything, no open or closed issue for this.

I tried it today with the 19.07.5 build.
Same error for me.
Still a bootloop...

Update: Also latest snapshot isn't working ...

Hello,

I didn't upgrade my TP-Link TL-WR810Nv1.1(EU) as I'm too afraid to brick it and not be able to unbrick it (not very familiar with tftp and never worked with serial cable).
Anyone knows if it is ok to flash the ar71xx image?

Thanks.

So, I finally flashed my TP-Link TL-WR810Nv1.1(EU) with latest ar71xx image (without keeping settings) and all seems good until now.
Just for others to know.

1 Like

Please try the fix here:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/staging/adrian.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/wr810n

Should work with either master or 19.07 branch.

@newfoundglory @creat @Malakai
If nobody wants to test this, it won't get fixed.

How can I test this? Just by flashing a development snapshot?