Xiaomi Mi Router 4A Gigabit Edition (R4AG/R4A Gigabit) -- fully supported and flashable with OpenWRTInvasion

wimpie007 · May 7, 2020, 7:32pm

what firmware is most stable?
zorro firmware from 28/04?

makku71 · May 8, 2020, 7:25am

Thanks @Zorro,
excellent work. This is indeed easy enough to become a fully supported hardware on OpenWRT.org. Unfortunately they are working on Version 20.
Is there a stable Version 19.07 flying around for this Mi Router 4Gigabit with acceptable performance ?
I need one of my Routers to be flashed for a friend with something not "too experimental" .

Zorro · May 8, 2020, 12:52pm

@wimpie007 @makku71 kernel 4.14 is the most stable choose one :
1)https://anonfile.com/16y6d6x7of/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mir3g-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade_zip

2)https://anonfile.com/Xf2adfxaof/mir3g-v2_owrt_19.07.2_zip

3)https://anonfile.com/ld6dd9xao1/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mir3g-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade_bin

wimpie007 · May 8, 2020, 1:10pm

seems to be kernel 4.14.171
and 3) have the same name, but differten size...
which is what?

Thanks!

Zorro · May 8, 2020, 2:02pm

(1) and (2) are kernel 4.14.171 and (3) is kernel 4.14.167 difference between them are pre-installed packages if you want openvpn and wireguard install (1) if you need sqm qos and adblock install (3) if you need a light build with only luci install (2).

rubee · May 8, 2020, 2:11pm

Just renaming the openwrt build to sysupgrade.bin and the rest process is the same as zorro's guide @#525.This process worked flawlessly for me uptill now.Used firmware at this link:https://anonfile.com/LbueT2n8o4/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mir3g-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade_bin.

Kernal 4.14.172 Working Great.

Please keep me updated if there's a more stable and robust performing build comes up.

For all.Thank You.

Zorro · May 8, 2020, 2:15pm

with new update you don't have to rename it to sysupgrade.bin you just put the .bin file in "firmwares" directory...

rubee · May 8, 2020, 2:17pm

@Zorro the updated R3GV2+Patches mediafire link doesnt work for me.When requested for downloading idm shows cannot download this file.Error 'Internal Server Error'

Zorro · May 8, 2020, 2:22pm

mediafire link works for me but here is new update :
https://anonfile.com/X3B8e4xdo2/R3GV2_patches_21.04.2020_zip

makku71 · May 8, 2020, 2:40pm

Hi @Zorro,
have taken second option/Binary.
Deleted Russian Luci Files (not needed) and installed Material-Design.
Thats it. Works flawless and should do until we have Version 20.
Will also do some IPerfing later. Thanks

makku71 · May 8, 2020, 3:06pm

IPerf3 Results in '--bidir' Mode are

Ethernet-Based
[ 5][TX-C] 0.00-30.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 789 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 5][TX-C] 0.00-30.04 sec 2.76 GBytes 788 Mbits/sec receiver
[ 7][RX-C] 0.00-30.01 sec 284 MBytes 79.3 Mbits/sec sender
[ 7][RX-C] 0.00-30.04 sec 283 MBytes 79.0 Mbits/sec receiver
WiFi 5GHz Optimal Link Speed 866,7MBit/s
[ 5][TX-C] 0.00-10.01 sec 411 MBytes 345 Mbits/sec 0 sender
[ 5][TX-C] 0.00-10.06 sec 411 MBytes 343 Mbits/sec receiver
[ 7][RX-C] 0.00-10.01 sec 64.2 MBytes 53.8 Mbits/sec sender
[ 7][RX-C] 0.00-10.06 sec 63.7 MBytes 53.1 Mbits/sec receiver

with Zorro's 2nd Link here.
No decrease/dipping to lower-link speed.
That will do to let it out in the field until we have an OpenWRT V20 for this.
Thanks again to everybody.

skylow · May 8, 2020, 4:58pm

I got a problem with my r3gv2.
I flash with april version of openwrt .bin posted were. I OpenWRTInvasion and ended ok but after reboot I got no boot on router. Then I restore with bootp/dhcp and Tftpserver to upload the original firmware.

were the Tftplog : Connection received from 192.168.1.3 on port 1833 [08/05 15:55:19.504]
Read request for file <test.bin>. Mode octet [08/05 15:55:19.504]
OACK: <timeout=3,> [08/05 15:55:19.504]
Using local port 49242 [08/05 15:55:19.504]
<test.bin>: sent 26114 blks, 13370296 bytes in 6 s. 0 blk resent [08/05 15:55:25.196]<
The router start to blink purple light faster and dont stop. If I disconect and conect again from power I dont have ethernet comunication. I have to press reset and power on to have to comunicate again with bootp/dhcp and Tftp but after flash test.bin the router start to flash purple again.
What I can do?

wimpie007 · May 8, 2020, 5:54pm

@makku71
from the zip file (2.), did you select
openwrt-19.07.2-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mir3g-v2-initramfs-kernel.bin
or
openwrt-19.07.2-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mir3g-v2-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
in the firmware script 5.start_write_OS.bat?

makku71 · May 8, 2020, 6:55pm

The xxx-sysupgrade.bin.
Did a full reset (press and hold Reset-Button until LED changes)
after complete boot, because I did not get a connection on first try.
MIght or might not be necessary. Don't know - just did it.
AND BE PATIENT. IT TAKES SOME TIME. DO NOT POWER OFF OR SO.

wimpie007 · May 8, 2020, 7:44pm

@Zorro do you also have a version with adblock?
or can i do an commandline upgrade (package install) afterworths?

Zorro · May 8, 2020, 9:45pm

Number (3) has adblock you can't install it via CLI commands .

snapshots are built daily, and that sets time limits to installing new packages with opkg. Due to kernel version checksums, you can only install “kmod” kernel modules and other kernel version dependent modules from the exactly same snapshot build. So, a few hours after flashing the firmware you may not be able to install new modules with opkg any more (as the next snapshot has been built into the download repo and has different checksums).

but before you flash number (3) you can try with (2) and see if it's possible to install adblock or not .
be sure to update without saving the settings...

podlaha · May 9, 2020, 12:55pm

Hello guys and thank you @Zorro !!!

I bought this 4A gigabit router and it came with chinese firmware and also I was not able to get the WAN
running properly, it had and older version 2.28.18 so might have been some bug.

I flashed it with the latest EN 2.28.132 firmware you provided, plus added english and everything now works like a charm!

I would really like to try openwrt in near future (never had before), so will definitely try using your method, and possibly come back here with the result.

God bless these guys, they are geniuses.

podlaha · May 9, 2020, 5:54pm

Oh by the way one question. The openwrt bin that you shared and includes Luci and other pre installed packages is for r3gv2 (dont remember exactly) - will it work on R4AGE or am i getting this wrong?

Thanks

Zorro · May 9, 2020, 6:52pm

R3GV2 and R4AGE are very similar they have same hardware if you want to flash third-party firmware like openwrt it doesn't matter which one you have but if you want to flash stock firmware it does matter there is no official firmware available for R3GV2.so if you have R3GV2 you can't revert to stock firmware in normal way you have to replace your bootloader with the one from R4AGE before you flash any third-party firmware .

podlaha · May 9, 2020, 7:08pm

Gotcha, I own R4AGE and have the official firmware on hand, in case i will need to revert.
Thanks for clarification, i will give it a try and hopefully soon running on OpenWRT.

I am new to flashing routers and I appreciate your scripts, as they helped me access the original firmware with telnet and flash the EN firmware. I tried acecilia's OpenWRTinvasion but it did not work for me, like the script passed, but no telnet/ssh access, idk why, but possibly I did something wrong and don't know what it was.