ZBT Z8103AX-D: upgrading from 21.02 to 23.05

Hi @saladin,

It is still pending for reviews. 2 contributors have already approved though.

That is good news so far :+1:

hello dear devs, I am new to this and i dont know how I can contribute, but I have also this router and I am willing to contribute somehow, could you please share some start steps in order to me support your work. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum
Here you can follow the updates on adding this router to openwrt

Hi @engfabiom, it is already merged on main branch, would be great if you can also test it on your router :slight_smile: Thanks

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Hello. I can't find anywhere the Z8103AX-D for purchase. However there is the Z8101AX-D (AliExpress) which looks identical and even the HW specs looks identical. Does anybody know if this is actually the same device just with different name?

I bought a new piece of this router [old one is my main router, don't want to disturb it] and do sysupgrade with the snapshopt image from original luci. Upgrade failed. now trying to get back to original image.
How are you all testing the snapshot? any help is much appreciated.

I bought that same model from AliExpress. Once in the web page, it shows model number as Z8103AX-W !!

I think it is better to ask the seller first if what they are selling has OPENWRT installed or at least it has OpenWrt firmware as option and that the specs is similar to this one:

ZBT Z8103AX-D
Specifications:
SoC: MediaTek MT7981B
RAM: 256MiB
Flash: SPI-NAND 128 MiB
Switch: 1 WAN, 3 LAN (Gigabit)
Buttons: Reset, Mesh
Power: DC 12V 1A
WiFi: MT7976CN
UART: 115200n8
UART Layout:
VCC-RX-TX-GND

I haven't tried this yet but you can also order from Alibaba https://zbt.en.alibaba.com/ I believe that this is the official store of ZBT. They are also the one who sent me the OpenWRT firmware that is a fork of OpenWRT (outdated and heavily modified by them).

Maybe ask the Alibaba seller if the Z8103AX-W is the same as the Z8103AX-D. BTW they (ZBT from Alibaba) can customize your router, if for example 256MB ram is not enough, they can increase it based on your needs but of course you have to generate/create your own firmware. The good thing is the template is already there.

If for example, the only difference between W and D variant is the RAM, then it is just a matter of changing 1 or 2 lines of code.

How are you all testing the snapshot? any help is much appreciated.

The first firmware I generated bricked my router so I had to reflash it using the TFTP method. It took some trial and error, but I kept making code changes, generating new firmware, and flashing it until I got it right.

If OpenWRT firmware is installed on your router, you can send it here and then I'll try to compare it with mine.

My both routers came with OpenWRT [customised by ZBT] installed. I wanted to upgrade it to the full OpenWRT version, so that I can install adguard etc. on it. When I so the official snapshot https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/mediatek/filogic/openwrt-mediatek-filogic-zbtlink_zbt-z8103ax-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin I thought I can just use it in the luci upgrade page. but I was wrong, the router is not responding after the upgrade. The power LED is on, and the lan port where I plug in my existing network is flashing green. But I can't see the router on the network.
By the way, this router has only 4 ports, one of them is marked as WAN.
My main router, also from the same seller is working ok with the image they shipped it with. My second router, though sold as the same model number, the OpenWRT has wireguard module pre-installed. that's the only difference I noticed. Now it's bricked. Don't know how to boot it back to original image!!!

Now it's bricked. Don't know how to boot it back to original image!!!

Can you open the router? If it is bricked then the only thing you can do is open it and flash the firmware via TFTP method. Do you have USB serial port adapter or raspberry pi? Do you also have the original firmware for your bricked router?

But I can't see the router on the network.

Have you tried connecting it via ethernet and then pinging 192.168.1.1? (Make sure it is not connected to any network when doing the test)

This router has only 4 ports

Same with mine.

When you open up your router, please take some pictures of the insides. This would help us diagnose and potentially create a firmware for that device.

Maybe the reason you bricked your router is that you used the sysupgrade.

According to this https://openwrt.org/releases/23.05/notes-23.05.0, upgrading via sysupgrade is not supported.

Sysupgrade from 21.02 to 23.05 is not officially supported.

I think you should be using the kernel one if your current OpenWrt is v21.x.x

192.168.1.1 pings ok.
Thanks for the guidance so far.

Can you access it on a web browser?

Oh! My bad!
Hopefully I can recover somehow.
I don’t have a copy of the firmware. I checked the manufacturer website and found none.
Contacting the AliExpress seller for some help, not very optimistic about them.

Nope. Just pings.
Tried ssh. But no.

Have you tried performing a reset (holding the reset button for about 15 seconds)?

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@joshmg If you can ping the router then it means it is not totally bricked. And if I remember it correctly, snapshots builds/firmwares don't have web interface by default, you have to manually add that package via terminal. Regarding SSH, I'm unsure why you're unable to access your router through SSH. Perhaps the previous firmware installed on the router doesn't allow SSH, or a "Do not enable SSH" setting persisted after the update.

If SSH won't work, the only option you have is to communicate via UART.

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Good news!! I got the UBOOT website after a few resets. Now waiting for the firmware files.
Any idea which one from openwrt downloads to use here?

I recommend that you flash the opewnrt firmware with web interface. Do you know how to do this?

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