OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Sysupgrade for TP-Link MR200 v1

The content of this topic has been archived on 21 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Hi,
I got the same problem as lordcapy (see forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=70498 ): I have a TP-Link MR200 v1 from an ISP (Orange) who put on a custom version of the 0.9.1_00 TP-link firmware. Like lordcapy, I want to put on a regular version of the firmware on the device and also upgrade it to version 1.6

I read wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-mr200#oem_installation_using_the_tftp_method which decribed roughly how I need to to do the sysupgrade (especially since simply uploading it via the web-based interface (url address 192.168.1.1) doesn't work (it gives the error: 4503: the uploaded file was not accepted).

Setting up a tftp server seems easy enough but having a pre-made version of the 160412 EU version of the firmware for the v1 MR200 (see static.tp-link.com/res/down/soft/Archer_MR200(EU)_V1_160412.zip ) would be useful and make things a lot safer for me and other MR200 users.

Is such a file available via the openwrt website ?
If it isn't available, is this because it isn't legal to post such a file (I thought the file was made available under the GPL 3 license since there's a GPL booklet supplied with the device) ? Even if the firmware isn't entirely open-source, is it still illegal to post the file (given that we wouldn't alter the firmware, just change it somewhat to make it able to be accepted by the router via tftp) ?

(Last edited by flybox on 29 Nov 2017, 14:38)

WWTK wrote:

it appears to be but without 5ghz radio working

That's the MR200 download for Linux Embedded Development Environment.
I don't want LEDE, just the basic firmware. Also suitable would be the OpenWrt version, but then having it uploadable to the MR200 in one go (so if I don't need to update teh firmware first, and then do the OpenWrt upload).

Openwrt lede and dd-wrt are all Linux based.  Lede is for the most part just newer openwrt as most of openwrt developers left openwrt and formed lede.

The question remains whether I can do the sysupgrade (well actually "factory install", reading forum.lede-project.org/t/firmware-lede-install-url-for-tp-link-archer-mr200/2667) on a way that is convenient and safe.

I read that I need to:
download the sysupgrade file, then download the tp-link firmware and then cut the tp-link header from the stock firmware (using a hex editor ?), extract the Das U-boot bootloader from the firmware, and append the sysupgrade firmware, rename, the file and put it on the tftp server.

I'm not going to do any modifying of the file myself, since that brings the risk that I could corrupt the file and make it brick my router when I upload it.
So my question is; can I just use a certain file that I can upload as is using the tftp server ? I'm thinking on the lede-ramips-mt7620-ArcherMR200-squashfs-sysupgrade
or the Archer_MR200(EU)_V1_160412.zip

I was thinking that for the "factory install", the boot loader, ... would need to be present ? So, it would not be needed to strip this of or do any more modifications on the file, and I could upload it as is ? Or won't that work ?

Also, I'm not sure whether the file will actually upload at all, given that orange seems to have implemented some sort of write protection, preventing file uploads (see lordcapy's post, and my first post above).

Personally I wouldn't attempt it without a ttl serial cable, and even then with no 5ghz radio that seems to me to be a lot to go through to not have that.

The discussion might have continued from here.