Xiaomi mi wifi 3 support

For Developers
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Hey, all miwifi-r3 owners
We know that latest kernel (probably 4.17/18) will break the nand driver and unless someone come up with a solution we r not seeing new builds very soon. By the time we can use PandoraBox that was taken down by the Chinese Govt. in last year. It looks like they r back again with new builds and new address https://downloads.pangubox.com/ .Those who don't know PandoraBox is basically the chinese version of openwrt which uses closed source ralink drivers to get better wifi performance. Ya, the wifi performance is even better than stock firmware. I'm gonna post the flash and recovery process with details so hang tight cause this will be a big post. All necessary files r linked here https://mega.nz/#F!WY0FiTIS!Cl_Dzm4yhzrQZFazYG3i8Q

Flash instructions:

  1. get ssh access via dev firmware https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/xiaomi/mir3
  2. we need the pandorabox bootloader and flash it, transfer/get the necessary files to cd /tmp
  3. in ssh:
cd /tmp
mtd write pb-boot-xiaomi3-20180726-0d8505f.img Bootloader
reboot

wait until the led turns into blue

  1. switch off the router through plug then hold the reset button and switch on the router, release the reset button. router will flashing breath style yellow led
  2. now go to 192.168.1.1, u will see a PandoraBox firmware upgrade page. select ur pandorabox firmware and upload it.
  3. access the PandoraBox openwrt by 192.168.1.1, default password is "admin". This has english language, just select the auto in language option.

Revert to stock:
So, we changed the bootloader and pandorabox firmware messed our kernel0 partition. We have to flash our stock bootloader and kernel0 partition back to their initial state. But there is a catch, the bootloader partition is locked in pandorabox firmware or any other normal openwrt firmware, u can't flash the bootloader back. We need a special version of lede/openwrt firmware for miwifi-r3 that compiled with unlocked bootloader option. I already added it in my mega link.

  1. access the pandorabox firmware upgrade page like before (see 4,5 above)
  2. select the firmware "lede-ramips-mt7620-miwifi-r3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" and upload it.
  3. login to the router 192.168.1.1, no password, just press login, configure password and enable ssh
  4. transfer/get ur necessary files (Bootloader.bin & kernel0.bin) to cd /tmp
  5. in ssh:
cd /tmp
mtd write Bootloader.bin Bootloader
mtd write kernel0.bin kernel0_rsvd
reboot
  1. access ssh again
fw_setenv flag_try_sys2_failed 1
reboot
  1. shortly after reboot router will start blinking red (means it's in recovery mode)
  2. insert a usb stick fat32 formatted with stock firmware renamed to miwifi.bin
  3. press the reset button for 1~2 sec until the red blinking turns into yellow.
  4. now chill the eff down for 4-5min and login to the router 192.168.31.1

If u have any ques just shoot it.

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