OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Asus RT-AC87U support?

The content of this topic has been archived between 20 Apr 2018 and 5 May 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Here's some more information resulting from my attempt to boot OpenWRT on my RT-AC87U.
Silly me didn't backup all the mtd partitions before doing this, lesson learned.

It appears that the install destroys the jffs2 (partition named brcmnand on the 87U) file system and it isn't possible to recover it using asuswrt-merlin (or stock) firmware.
So any functionality that depends on it no longer works, such as the Traffic Analysis system and others.

I suspect the partition named asus (I don't know what this contains, perhaps device specific asus info) has gone the same way.
I also suspect, but aren't certain, that this causes the asus firmware restoration utility to choke and refuse to restore firmware, I'll need to do more on this some time later.

raven-au wrote:

Here's some more information resulting from my attempt to boot OpenWRT on my RT-AC87U.
Silly me didn't backup all the mtd partitions before doing this, lesson learned.

It appears that the install destroys the jffs2 (partition named brcmnand on the 87U) file system and it isn't possible to recover it using asuswrt-merlin (or stock) firmware.
So any functionality that depends on it no longer works, such as the Traffic Analysis system and others.

I suspect the partition named asus (I don't know what this contains, perhaps device specific asus info) has gone the same way.
I also suspect, but aren't certain, that this causes the asus firmware restoration utility to choke and refuse to restore firmware, I'll need to do more on this some time later.

Do you need a copy of the original partitions?

foxcob wrote:
raven-au wrote:

Here's some more information resulting from my attempt to boot OpenWRT on my RT-AC87U.
Silly me didn't backup all the mtd partitions before doing this, lesson learned.

It appears that the install destroys the jffs2 (partition named brcmnand on the 87U) file system and it isn't possible to recover it using asuswrt-merlin (or stock) firmware.
So any functionality that depends on it no longer works, such as the Traffic Analysis system and others.

I suspect the partition named asus (I don't know what this contains, perhaps device specific asus info) has gone the same way.
I also suspect, but aren't certain, that this causes the asus firmware restoration utility to choke and refuse to restore firmware, I'll need to do more on this some time later.

Do you need a copy of the original partitions?

I don't think so since everything appears to be functioning ok.

I had to modify mtd-erase2 (actually the rc executable mtd-erase2 entry point) to allow brcmnand as a partition name, build asus-merlin (which of course failed, but not before producing the rc executable) then manually erase the partition using the built executable (via a symlink mtd-erase2 -> rc) so I could select the format option in the UI, then reboot.

(Last edited by raven-au on 14 Apr 2015, 06:27)

foxcob wrote:

Do you need a copy of the original partitions?

I do. So I can modify OpenWrt to detect them.

Hello, I like to use the Asus RT-AC87U with openwrt. (The router ist adverstised that openwrt is running on it)
In the wiki I could read:
"No wireless support"
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac87u?s[]=ac87u

Does this mean I can't use wifi with this router?

heinzanders wrote:

In the wiki I could read:
"No wireless support"
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac87u?s[]=ac87u

Does this mean I can't use wifi with this router?

This sentence does not get any clearer than that.
No wifi on this router

heinzanders wrote:

Hello, I like to use the Asus RT-AC87U with openwrt. (The router ist adverstised that openwrt is running on it)
In the wiki I could read:
"No wireless support"
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac87u?s[]=ac87u

Does this mean I can't use wifi with this router?

The on-board native WiFi interface/s won't work.  But there is nothing to stop you adding a WiFi access point connected to it via ethernet.

Ok thanks. I was just wondering because the router ist advertised with "openwrt". Is openwrt the firmware which is already running on the device by factory default?

I was just wondering because the router ist advertised with "openwrt".

I looked at Asus Homepage and the manual and I could not find a single occurence of "OpenWrt".
Where did you read that ?


Is openwrt the firmware which is already running on the device by factory default?

I dont think so - according to GPL source code its "asuswrt" and contains some parts of OpenWrt in the build system. There is asuswrt-merlin and dd-wrt as alternative firmware only.

I would love to get OpenWRT on it, but with Wireless support. It's a bummer that the chip manufactuer does not like or has issues with providing open-source drivers for linux.

I have this device can i help to imrove work OpenWrt on this device ?
Asus allow to get source code for firmwire can i use driver for wifi from it to start wifi on openwrt? how ?

Hi all,

it there by any chance an update on wireless support for the RT-AC87U?

Thanks a lot!

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