OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: TP-link 3040 with small (4MB) flash, 15.05 and USB file systems?

The content of this topic has been archived on 28 Mar 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Hi,

I tried to install 15.05 on a TP-link 3040v2, and even though it works, I could for the life of me figure out how to clear up enough space so that I could mount a USB thumb drive to overlay. However, I downloaded and installed the older image (14.07), which leaves enough space to mount the USB drive, and then extroot / overlay was easy. I'm happy to get it to work at all, but concerned about using an older version of the OpenWRT distort.

The questions I have are:

1) Is there a way to get a smaller 15.05 (or future) image? I'm thinking it'd be really useful to have a minimal image, that does come with USB/ext4 kmod's, but perhaps not all the other bells and whistles?

2) Is there any way to upgrade my 14.07 to 15.05? I suspect the answer here is "nope", but figured I'd ask anyways.


Cheers,

-- Leif

At least your asking the right questions.
There is a discussion on this very topic going on in the LEDE forum
https://forum.lede-project.org/t/should … sh/1018/72
Bottom line is 4MB devices are becoming harder to support with the standard image as the firmware grows. 

If the device works and your happy with the functionality, great. 

If you want more then you will need to learn how to use the various build tools to customize your images and expect that it may be a juggling act to get what you want in the firmware.  As you have USB, getting extroot working in the 15.05 or higher versions is the goal and then you can use a USB for the rest.

Thanks for the link, very interesting! Yeh, I have other WiFi routers with much more storage, but I just really like this TP.Link 3040 with its built in battery. But as you say, 14.07 works fine with the extroot, so things are good. Amazing what that extra 200K makes smile.

Cheers,

-- Leif

The discussion might have continued from here.