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This adds support for the TP-Link Archer C50 v4.
It uses the same hardware as the v3 variant, sharing the same FCC-ID.
CPU: MediaTek MT7628 (580MHz)
RAM: 64M DDR2
FLASH: 8M SPI
WiFi: 2.4GHz 2x2 MT7628 b/g/n integrated
WiFI: 5GHz 2x2 MT7612 a/n/ac
ETH: 1x WAN 4x LAN
LED: Power, WiFi2, WiFi5, LAN, WAN, WPS
BTN: WPS/WiFi, RESET
UART: Near ETH ports, 115200 8n1, TP-Link pinout
Create Factory image
--------------------
As all installation methods require a U-Boot to be integrated into the
Image (and we do not ship one with the image) we are not able to create
an image in the OpenWRT build-process.
Download a TP-Link image from their Wesite and a OpenWRT sysupgrade
image for the device and build yourself a factory image like following:
TP-Link image: tpl.bin
OpenWRT sysupgrade image: owrt.bin
> dd if=tpl.bin of=boot.bin bs=131584 count=1
> cat owrt.bin >> boot.bin
Installing via Web-UI
---------------------
Upload the boot.bin via TP-Links firmware upgrade tool in the
web-interface.
Installing via Recovery
-----------------------
Activate Web-Recovery by beginning the upgrade Process with a
Firmware-Image from TP-Link. After starting the Firmware Upgrade,
wait ~3 seconds (When update status is switching to 0%), then
disconnect the power supply from the device. Upgrade flag (which
activates Web-Recovery) is written before the OS-image is touched and
removed after write is succesfull, so this procedure should be safe.
Plug the power back in. It will come up in Recovery-Mode on 192.168.0.1.
When active, all LEDs but the WPS LED are off.
Remeber to assign yourself a static IP-address as DHCP is not active in
this mode.
The boot.bin can now be uploaded and flashed using the web-recovery.
Installing via TFTP
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Prepare an image like following (Filenames from factory image steps
apply here)
> dd if=/dev/zero of=tp_recovery.bin bs=196608 count=1
> dd if=tpl.bin of=tmp.bin bs=131584 count=1
> dd if=tmp.bin of=boot.bin bs=512 skip=1
> cat boot.bin >> tp_recovery.bin
> cat owrt.bin >> tp_recovery.bin
Place tp_recovery.bin in root directory of TFTP server and listen on
192.168.0.66/24.
Connect router LAN ports with your computer and power up the router
while pressing the reset button. The router will download the image via
tftp and after ~1 Minute reboot into OpenWRT.
U-Boot CLI
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U-Boot CLI can be activated by holding down '4' on bootup.
Dual U-Boot
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This is the first TP-Link MediaTek device to feature a split-uboot
design. The first (factory-uboot) provides recovery via TFTP and HTTP,
jumping straight into the second (firmware-uboot) if no recovery needs
to be performed. The firmware-uboot unpacks and executed the kernel.
Web-Recovery
------------
TP-Link integrated a new Web-Recovery like the one on the Archer C7v4 /
TL-WR1043v5. Stock-firmware sets a flag in the "romfile" partition
before beginning to write and removes it afterwards. If the router boots
with this flag set, bootloader will automatically start Web-recovery and
listens on 192.168.0.1. This way, the vendor-firmware or an OpenWRT
factory image can be written.
By doing the same while performing sysupgrade, we can take advantage of
the Web-recovery in OpenWRT.
It is important to note that Web-Recovery is only based on this flag. It
can't detect e.g. a crashing kernel or other means. Once activated it
won't boot the OS before a recovery action (either via TFTP or HTTP) is
performed. This recovery-mode is indicated by an illuminated WPS-LED on
boot.
Signed-off-by: David Bauer <mail@david-bauer.net>
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