I'm considering replacing stock firmware. Should I use DDWRT, OpenWRT, or something else? Bonus gratitude for linking me to your recommended firmware binary and/or instructions. Thanks for whatever!

Traction would be with lede right now, imho.

I'm not having much success learning about lede on the Archer C7. Can you provide some links? Thanks.

It's a fork off of owrt, whatever you can read about owrt applies. It's just where the greatest development effort is today;i.e. latest bits including mac80211,ath9k,ath10k,etc. I run a current build of lede on my c7v2.

Thanks! I've read about OWRT being slower than stock AC7. Is that also true for LEDE? Is LEDE preferable to stock?

How do I find the correct binaries for LEDE on AC7? Do I need to install one binary and then a second one, as I would for OWRT?

I suspect this might be the correct directory: snapshots/targets/arc770/generic/

Nightly, luci warning still applies i.e. it is not there ootb, or maybe that is what you mean by one binary followed by another.
This will be of interest. Anything is better than OEM. I have not really run OEM on my c7v2, so really not comment on speed, wifi or otherwise.

I didn't understand your first paragraph. What's luci? What's ootb?

Do I need to flash a factory bin and then a sysupgrade one?

Why is LEDE better than OEM?

You would start from OEM by flashing factory, and only factory. Once running owrt/lede and wanting to upgrade, you would than flash sysupgrade. You do not need to do both just to get an image running. luci is the gui, ootb is Out Of The Box.

I will leave the critique of why owrt/lede over oem to you, I thought that is why were here asking how.

Ah, that made everything clear. Thank you! That combined with the directions at the LEDE webpage should be enough to get me going, if I can find a reason to switch.

(If you look at the title of the thread, it is asking which firmware is best, which is the main point of the thread, so that's why I need to know why LEDE is better than OEM.)

Hi there mate I run Gargoyle on my c7 and it's grate. It has a nice interface that is built ontop of Openwrt. It is much better for noobs to get up and running as all the options are lade out in a simple way, this dus not meen that it is not powerful! I use my c7 and have about 18 wifi devices and to bridges in my house + 3 wired PCS. You can see more here:
http://www.gargoyle-router.com/index.php
Gargoyle has loads of cool plugins  such as a grate addblocker, Email notifications for Gargoyle (with SSL support)
Services Manager for Gargoyle
logread for GargoyleDLNA Support for GargoyleOpenVPN Support for GargoylePing WatchdogPPTP Support for Gargoyle
Graphical WiFi scanning support for Gargoyle (Full)
Tor Anonymizer Support for Gargoyle
USB Printer Support for GargoyleWiFi scheduling for Gargoyle
Then ontop of all that the QOS is grate!
I am a mod on the Forum so if you need any help i will try my best to help.
Gargoyle Defaults
IP Address:
192.168.1.1
Password:
password   (Web Interface & SSH)
SSH User:
root
You can flash straight from the user interface the file you will need is gargoyle_1.9.1-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory.bin
http://www.gargoyle-router.com/download … actory.bin
Openwrt and Gargoyle are a tad slower than the OEM firmware that comes on the c7 but you will only noitce if your broad band is faster than about 120 meg. My wifi is nice and stable for me but i do not have any apple stuff and that is what i see people talking about wen it comes to wifi drops.

By the way pleas don't flash that file if you have a c7 v1 as you will have no 5ghz. Openwrt and Gargoyle can not use the 5 GHZ radios in the c7 v1.

While I personally run LEDE, considering all the follow-up questions I would also recommend OP to try Gargoyle first.

However, please be advised that:
1. If you have Archer C7v1 you won't have 5Ghz support in neither OpenWrt, LEDE or Gargoyle
2. If you have a recent Archer C7v2 (unfortunately TP-Link didn't mark more recent ones with the new revision number), you will soft-brick your router if you flash OpenWrt 15.05.1 or Gargoyle earlier than 1.9.1 (thanks @tapper).
3. Your safest bet would be LEDE, but you won't have Web UI management installed by default with that, you'd have to learn how to ssh to your router and copy-paste a few commands in terminal to install Web UI (luci).

Only switch away from manufacturer's firmware if you need extra security or extra features.

If anything OpenWrt/Gargoyle/LEDE should be faster on your router (leaner open source code), unless your ISP connection is faster than 300Mb (which is still rare these days). I have an honest 100Mb connection and all my traffic is encrypted and I still can't load CPU at 100% at peak traffic.

(Last edited by stangri on 13 Sep 2016, 18:36)

gargoyle. 1.9.1 has the soft brick fix.

I should tell you that I used to run Tomato on another router and that I have used SSH before.

2. I have an Archer C7 v2. How do I check to see if I have one of the newer ones? I bought it on September 2, 2015.

3. Why is LEDE safer/better? Why is Gargoyle better (it's more intuitive, right?)

hi there Gargoyle is more intuitive with less setting up to do. LEDE is the very latest code including newest kernel, but can have bugs and after you have bin on trunk for a wile, if the kernel is updated in the trunk then it gets impossible to install packages with out first upgrading your firmware. I can say for shore that Gargoyle 1.9.1 has bin tested on a lot of c7s and is stable. It's only released after it's bin tested. Trunk builds for LEDE are never tested so if you don't know how to unbrick your router then you will be a bit stuck. Wen you first flash LEDE there is no user interface so you will have to SSH in and install luci.
(opkg update)
(opkg install luci)
If you have flashed the latest OEM fermwair then you will have to flash to ddwrt first and then flash over to Openwrt or Gargoyle. As there is a block on installing third party fermwair because of the FCC. Sorry I did not point this out be for as I flashed my c7 a long time ago and forgot about it.
You can see how to flash to ddwrt and then to wich ever firmware you go with here:
http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi … amp;t=9140
Try and flash your LEDE or gargoyle befor flashing to ddwrt you will know if you have to flash to ddwrt first as it will say code 18005. It will not brick.

(Last edited by tapper on 13 Sep 2016, 16:04)

Is this helpful?

Firmware Version:   
3.13.34 Build 131217 Rel.60903n
Hardware Version:   
Archer C7 v2 00000000

Just try and flash the file that i posted up first the one for gargoyle. If you have the fermwair with the block on it it just will not flash. it will not brick, If it will not flash then try and flash the ddwrt file and then flash to gargoyle.

Installed. Seems much better. Thanks!

Hi mate wich firmware did you go with then mate

Gargoyle.

Hi guys,

I have already bought about 5 Archer C7 V2 in the past (about one year ago) and successfully flashed OpenWrt CC 15.05, and I have bought one more now, still a V2, but I couldn't flash CC 15.05.1 and neither CC 15.05. It just wouldn't boot and I got it restored with the TFTP WPS button trick to original stock firmware which is 3.14.3 Build 150427 Rel.360706n and seems to be prior to the locking rules.

After I restored the stock firmware I tried several times reflashing OpenWRT until I opened the case and connected to serial to see what was going on and I stumbled into this:

[    2.100000] VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
[    2.100000] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
[    2.110000] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[    2.110000] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

After a lot of searching, I found that TP-Link for some reason may have changed the router flash chip without changing the version number and without any additional changes. After this I found this topic and read stangri's quote:

Is it real that TP-Link really changed the hardware without changing the version number? Did it create a somewhat V4?

I also got successfully flashed OpenWRT Designated Driver (r49928) but it didn't detect the 5GHz card whatsoever and also iw list didn't show it, even though it seems to still be the same 5GHz card (QCA9880-BR4A).

Do you guys have any clue if there is any workaround to make the card work on the newest trunk version or to flash CC 15.05 on the router or any other better idea?

Thanks to all of you for the valuable information

Hi again guys,

I haven't noticed but the OpenWRT wiki about Archer C7 has moved to wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-c5-c7-wdr7500. I didn't read the notice on the previous one about the change.

This new one has information regarding this V2 variant on "Quick Start Guide" and also has links to a version of 15.05.1 that some user made work with this variant. I have tested this and everything worked for me including 5GHz even though I haven't installed the firmware for the QCA9880-BR4A and the kmod-ath10k that it recommended, they seemed to be already included somehow.

What I don't understand is why don't the OpenWRT team host this working version alongside with the original or replace it (replace if this version works with both V2 versions, which is something I don't know).

Thanks

I had the same issue on my recently purchased one.
Some GoogleFU showed me Archer C7 v2 with Serials numbers that are over 215C..... got the new flash chip. Mine starts with 216.

If you're like me and would prefer a stable release over a daily built LEDE, another member "johndoe" has patched and recompiled CC 15.01 (same release number and kernel as the official release). Search for his post in a thread "Archer c7 (TP-Link Wl1750 with gd25q128 chipset) - Need clarification"

Would love to post a direct link, but my account is too recent to allow URLs

His FW recompile works nicely, and is compatible with all kernel modules (same kernel version) and packages I've added to it.

I definitely prefer a stable one, I have stopped using trunk a quite long ago. The link I posted previously of zioncluster's firmware doesn't work with any kernel modules of 15.05.1, it only works with packages that doesn't have any kernel stuff (example: luci-ssl).
But I found the post you were referring to, it is this one: forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=330100#p330100. I also can't post links, but somehow they work if you put between url tags and remove the htt'p and ww'w parts (the ' was used on purpose, I guess there is some word match expression to block these words).
I confirmed that it really works with everything from 15.05.1. Why don't OpenWRT team post this firmware on the official download location (if someone confirms it works with the older V2 versions)? I bet it will help out a lot of people.

Thank you MarioT!

(Last edited by arthur.and on 22 Sep 2016, 17:56)

Hmm, LEDE comes without Luci? If i download latest (http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/lede/ … x/generic/) i get the system without GUI? No problem overall, but i dont like to try around.

Does a dirty flash working or do i have to make a clean install? Im on a Archer C5, flashed to a C7v2 with Openwrt build by arokh