Xiaomi R4A Gigabit International CFeon Chip - Can't unbrick 2nd time

Installing and Using OpenWrt
41

Hi @SaeedMalek , Xiaomi 4AG, many troubles:

  1. old V1, GD25Q128 spi flash..., fw 2.28.xx, openwrt official supported,
  2. V1 + EN25QX128A spi flash, need modified code to install openwrt, likes my build above.
  3. V2 (R4Av2), fw 2.30.xx, refer to Not working R4A (Xiaomi 4a Gigabit) 2.30.20

If you want to install openwrt, please check your device, open the back cover, better connect the serial out.

  1. check your device
  2. connect serial
  3. using OpenWRTInvasion to get SSH
  4. enable the serial console input, boot waiting
  5. backup your flash chip
  6. flash openwrt code
  7. if no luck, try to debrick to factory fw, then repeat again from 3
    .....
1 Like
42

Dear @lukestu, thank you so much for your reply. And also, thank you for your previous insightful posts. I can't thank you and @RadioOperator enough. Your help is much appreciated.

1 Like
43

Dear @RadioOperator, thank you so much for your detailed response. I think my router is a V1 + EN25QX128A, or at least I hope so :slight_smile:
When I connect it to my modem router, its assigned name by DHCP is not "MiWiFi-R4AV2". Nonetheless, I will make sure that it isn't a V2 before any attempts to flash it.
About the provided flashing process, I have absolutely no idea. Yet. I'm a complete newbie in this area. I will start learning soon. Thanks to you and @lukestu, now I know where to begin.
Thanks again for your time and consideration. Keep up the great work.

44

what is your factory fw version?

45

@SaeedMalek before you go on, I just noticed that my 4AG router is stuck at 3dbm TX power for the 5ghz wifi network. It seems like this is an issue with the driver in this version. I'm still looking around to see if there is a way to resolve it, but if that is a deal-breaker for you then you might want to hold off on upgrading for a while.

@RadioOperator have you seen that? Do you know if there is a fix for it?

This: MT7612E tx power locked in 3bm - Installing and Using OpenWrt - OpenWrt Forum

46

Hi @lukestu , I did not use my 4AG / 5G wifi before.
Just now I set the 5G wifi in AP mode and 3dB Tx power, and use my mobile phone connect it for youtube playing.
at least this one hour did not find any problems.

47

@RadioOperator Thanks for checking. It does work well enough for basic usage. However I'm using it as a bridge for a media server that serves some very large data streams, so I need it to perform just a bit better. For example, I get better performance from the 2.4ghz wifi then the 5ghz.

I'm looking at mt76 TX power not working in multiple chipsets (mt7610, mt7613, mt7615, mt7603) · Issue #633 · openwrt/mt76 · GitHub to try and see if there is a correlation.

48

This seems to be a problem with the MT76 drivers in linux generally. From what I read I get the impression that it affects many MediaTek chipsets, not just the mt76X2e.

It's been ongoing for some years, seems like there's no solution yet, besides some scripting hacks which look terrible.

Am I understanding it right though? My rx is great, but tx not so much:

image

Thats with the Xiaomi <5 meters from the receiving station. Tx seldom gets above 100 Mbit's...

49

For the record: there is a PR from @Ansuel which would solve the OpenWrt bootloop with that cfEON chip once it lands.

Of course it wouldn't solve the TFTP recovery part of the problem. :confused:

50

but this PR still not merged into the master branch, waiting approved?

1 Like
51

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.