All:

I've gone over the wiki notes provided in (https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/ar … 7-wdr7500,).   The wiki mentions support for this device in:  is supported in trunk as of r47588 and in custom compiles of 15.05.1 newer than r49220.

So several questions:
1) When I use the squashfs-factory provided by zioncluster.ca, I am unable to then use the available packages provided for the 15.05.01 build.  (problem with kernel compatibility).  What does squashfs-sysupgrade provide and will it allow me to add any needed packages.

I have tried going the build route, have done a git clone and am building a firmware image.

2) Can anyone provide with the required .config to properly enable the Archer C7.  Beyond the basic menus targetting the device, I can't tell what I should or should not include in the build.  What .config is used for each of the binary builds available on the https://downloads.openwrt.org site?

3)How does one know what branch one is using?  I can't find any notes regarding what rXXXXX version has been pulled with the git clone I have.

Appreciate any help you can offer.

Peter

Hi Peter,

I also got this router.  Love OpenWrt but I'm not really willing to run trunk or beta builds on my routers.  I'll try to answer your questions and hopefully provide you with my result.

1) sysupgrade images are just to upgrade already installed OpenWrt installs.  It won't fix the kernel compatibility issue with the zioncluster.ca firmware.  That firmware is using kernel 3.18.27, where CC 15.05.1 is kernel 3.18.23.

2) See link below for the config I generated.  I have no idea where to find what the OpenWrt maintainers use (seems this would be pretty important for generating repeatable builds, but maybe they don't care about that).  My config includes the ath10k stuff as well as what appears to be the "stock" packages for other ar71xx firmwares (I based my list on a stock WNDR3700v2 which is also ar71xx generic).

3) Easily the biggest pain in the ass.  What I ended up doing was logging into my WNDR3700v2 running CC15.05.1 and noticed its r48532.  From there I could download the tree from https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/branche … order=name (use the download link at the bottom of the page).  That gets you the tree for 15.05.1 but the feeds.conf.default just references git branches.  And those branches have seen updates since 15.05.1 was built.  So for that, I just ended up going through each of the 5 default feeds and correlating the latest commit to what's on my stock WNDR3700v2.  I can't guarantee they're exactly the same, but they should be damn close.

4) Lastly, I applied the 49220 changeset to enable support for gd25q128 in my build.

The whole goal here was to build something as close as possible to stock 15.05.1, but with support for gd25q128 (and kmod-ath10k and ath10k-firmware included).  Since its very close or identical to stock CC 15.05.1, it should work with those packages as well.

Unfortunately, I did not have time to port the mktplinkfirmware changes such that it builds region compatible firmwares.  You'll still have to use tftp or the "flash to dd-wrt, flash revert, flash openwrt" process.

Links:

config: https://xenserver.underpants-gnomes.biz … -v2-config
feeds.conf: https://xenserver.underpants-gnomes.biz … feeds.conf
mydiffconfig: https://xenserver.underpants-gnomes.biz … diffconfig
factory: https://xenserver.underpants-gnomes.biz … actory.bin
sysupgrade: https://xenserver.underpants-gnomes.biz … pgrade.bin

(Last edited by johndoe on 30 Jun 2016, 02:07)

If you CBA with all this you could just flash Gargoyle. It has all the fixes for the c7. The latest build is here and is rock stable for me.
https://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/v … amp;t=8877
It's baste on the latest CC branch code.

Sure, Gargoyle is an option - if you don't want to run OpenWrt.  For me, I'm trying to maintain a consistent environment (not everything is just your home router) so having multiple routers running different firmwares is just more work for me.  It is worth the initial pain to get an image that ultimately suits me much better.

Regarding my previous post:

2) I did find OpenWrt publishes a changes.diff in the downloads folder.  This can be used with a make menuconfig to seed a full blown .config file.  You'll still need to do some things like pick your profile, but it gets you closer.

I've updated the links in my previous post to my final build.  As best I can tell, its the same as CC 15.05.1 release version.  Kernel modules can be installed, etc.  ath10k and ath10k-firmware are included automatically.  And thankfully, when DD is released it'll natively support this platform/flash chip combo so this won't be necessary anymore.

CC @15.05.1 is EOL for OpenWrt. DD, in its trunk state, has been abandoned with the exception of Broadcom development by Zajec since 7 June 2016

I installed johndoe's build on my TP-Link Archer C7 v2.0 with gd25q128 chip (serial number later than 215C). I can confirm that it works as expected. Haven't yet installed any kmod-* packages, but other packages that I tried installed OK.

(Last edited by ao77 on 1 Nov 2016, 12:08)

Do you mind help walking through it in real time, just got the router today, spent several hours on it. Essentially whenever I firmwareupdate anything on there, my router goes into a state unresponding to wsp reset and I have to run
Tfpd to get it back. And it keeps  cycling to the same issue

Is the flashing process the same as the one described in the wiki?

hi folks,
I have the same issue as bowen_789852 is talking about.

Tried to flash to the factory.bin firmware as explained in the wiki, but it keeps bricking my new router.

Thanks to the TFTP method, I'm always able to restore to the stock TP-Link firmware.

Any advice/help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.