What's a reason to use 'menuconfig' after 'defconfig' if you don't change anything?
Sounds wrong.
As far as I know, factory and sysupgrade have no difference in partition handling.
DTS is included quite similarly in the kernel image in both images.
Usually the only difference is the OEM ID header so that the OWN flash routine will accept the factory image...
...is to maintain the possibility to fully revert back to the OEM firmware. Contents of the unused "netgear" partition have been left intact.
Oh definitely you're right. I'll remove it now. no need for that.
That make sense, thanks Hnyman.
I have another question, if I flash firmware with a different DTS structure in sysupgrade format via sysupgrade(lede webui), it leads a infinite unsuccessful boot loop on R7800, just like a bricked router.
If flashing firmware via sysupgrade take cares of DTS, how this could happen?
As far as I tested 
log time ago (@hnyman, do You remember my post Netgear R7800 - only 19MB Flash available? ?) upgrading 'standard' LEDE image with modified DOES NOT change partition layout, only 'factory' image does it.
Hmm.
Then the difference is somehow in the mtd flashing, as the images themselves contain the same compiled Device tree (DTS / DTB).
The difference is just in the final packaging of the image:
https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=blob;f=target/linux/ipq806x/image/Makefile;hb=HEAD#l61
https://git.lede-project.org/?p=source.git;a=blob;f=target/linux/ipq806x/image/Makefile;hb=HEAD#l214
Looking at the DTS extract above in post #1 (or the live DTS extract below), the partition "netgear" has been marked "read-only". That is likely the reason, why sysupgrade does not work.
partitions visible via the DTS in a live system:
ls -R /proc/device-tree/soc/nand@1ac00000/cs0/partitions/
It is possible that the OEM flashing and TFTP flashing routine allow erasing additional partitions, while LEDE mtd keeps some of them "read-only" protected (including "netgear").
So, it might be that you need to either
- flash the factory image (via OEM tools) to override theread-only, or
- first flash otherwise unmodified image that has "netgear"s "read-only" status removed and then use that to flash the sysupgrade.
Sorry for the noise 
The original advice to use the factory image may well be valid.
Well, it doesn't matter if You flash 'factory' image over OFW or LEDE, it always change partition layout while sysupgrade don't.
I've checked it twice before posting my tutorial (in Polish, in my mentioned thread there is Google Translate 'd link).
Just wondering - why is this not in the official lede build for the R7800?
Discussed last time six mesages ago in this thread...
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You were too fast. I was about to delete my posting. Many thanks to you, shame on me.
Looking for some solution to get full flash without recompiling I put the script that converts ready made images:
Can someone share with me backup of the original "netgear" partion?
dd if=/dev/mtd7 of=/mnt/sda1/mtd7.backup
I have builded FW with changes from the first post. Something wrong with this patch. Lagging... Luci not working out from the box (see screen). Im receiving opkg lock error during package installation from GUI.
If i roll back changes - FW working as it shoud.
Can someone help me what i did wrong?
root@LEDE:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00c80000 00020000 "qcadata"
mtd1: 00500000 00020000 "APPSBL"
mtd2: 00080000 00020000 "APPSBLENV"
mtd3: 00140000 00020000 "art"
mtd4: 00140000 00020000 "artbak"
mtd5: 00200000 00020000 "kernel"
mtd6: 06280000 00020000 "ubi"
mtd7: 00700000 00020000 "reserve"
mtd8: 06480000 00020000 "firmware"
root@LEDE:~# nandtest -k /dev/mtd8
ECC corrections: 0
ECC failures : 0
Bad blocks : 0
BBT blocks : 0
06460000: checking...of 1)...
Finished pass 1 successfully
I try this for 18.06.0-rc2 but the partitions to change look differently. I have no idea what to delete / change:
partitions {
compatible = "fixed-partitions";
#address-cells = <1>;
#size-cells = <1>;
qcadata@0 {
label = "qcadata";
reg = <0x0000000 0x0c80000>;
read-only;
};
APPSBL@c80000 {
label = "APPSBL";
reg = <0x0c80000 0x0500000>;
read-only;
};
APPSBLENV@1180000 {
label = "APPSBLENV";
reg = <0x1180000 0x0080000>;
read-only;
};
art: art@1200000 {
label = "art";
reg = <0x1200000 0x0140000>;
read-only;
};
artbak: art@1340000 {
label = "artbak";
reg = <0x1340000 0x0140000>;
read-only;
};
kernel@1480000 {
label = "kernel";
reg = <0x1480000 0x0400000>;
};
ubi@1880000 {
label = "ubi";
reg = <0x1880000 0x6080000>;
};
reserve@7900000 {
label = "reserve";
reg = <0x7900000 0x0700000>;
read-only;
};
};
};
};--> too
Is there a chance to change it in 18.06?
openwrt-18.06 and master give you 96.5 MB to play with on the r7800 by default, isn't that enough?
Yes, indeed - I have realised that I have 60 MB free after installing all required stuff.
For my understanding: Why is there only <100 MB reserved if I have a total of 500? Why is there so much needed for e.g. /tmp ?
500? R7800 has indeed 512MB but RAM 
, flash is "only" 128MB.
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Will we ever see this ported to the little sister device? The R7500v2. I don't think the partitions are different at all.
Feel free to compile and test a suitable patch, maybe based on my original for R7800. See discussion at https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/1003
Before this kind of changes are committed, somebody with the actual device should test it. I only did R7800 as that is the only device that I have access to. (For R7800 the change is now both in master and in 18.06.0-rc2)