OpenWRT for R7500 with package installation...

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Danielos
Danielos's picture
OpenWRT for R7500 with package installation...

Hi Guys,

I installed today on my R7500 on OpenWRT from Snapshot (https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ipq806x/generic/openwrt-ip...). which I upgrade from the NetGear FW. The bad think is that the 5G Wireless is not working. Anyway the build is working much faster than the build from here. A big Plus for me is that you can install normal packages like openvpn etc. which I needed for the LTE/4G connection I use.

The Image above is pretty basic and doesnt contain much packages, but those can be installed after flashing and configurung the WAN connection. What for shure is needed is to get wireless:

opkg update
opkg install ath10k hostapd luci

/etc/init.d/uhttpd start
/etc/init.d/uhttpd enable

This will install the basic wireless stuff and enables Luci. I have it running now a while and I did not see any issues with this build. 

docgigowatt
docgigowatt's picture
Hi Danielos,

Hi Danielos,

go on with testing, i have the same router and i'm waiting for a stable openwrt image to flash.

Good Job anyway, cheers.

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Danielos,

Hi Danielos,

Nice news!

Could you please check the following on your OpenWRT (if you can of course):

1) Does it support USB with HFS+ filesystem?
2) If you mount USB with ext2/3/4: does it change permissions of files/directories to 777?

Version of kernel is 3.18.21?

Sad that no 5GHz... Main obstacle.

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Hi Guys,

Hi Guys,

Kernel version:

root@GATEWAY:~# uname -r
3.18.21

I just figured out that just one USB Port is working at the moment. Need to check what is going on there. The working USB Port is connected to the LTE/$G Modem so I can test the USB Stuff in the evening when I do not need the modem to be connected to the Router.... wait... I have a active USB HUB ..... I will give it a try.... 
 
bombz
bombz's picture
Hello everyone,

Hello everyone,

 

I am new to WWRT etc, but I have been told there are a lot of benefits from using the firmware. Right now I have an

AC2350 Nighthawk X4 Smart WiFi Router

I was looking to flash WWRT which i found here....

http://www.myopenrouter.com/download?field_download_category_tid=2

I see the firmware is from 2014, which is fine, but are there updates? (for future notice). Also I looked at the flashing instructions for the router, and they seem good but generic.

What I basically want to do is have my router log into my VPN for me, basically putting my network behind my VPN. The stock firmware I have been looking into seems very lame, and you need a client per device to use your VPN service, that gets really annoying.... So here are my questiond

 

Few questions I have:

1. does it matter what STOCK NETGEAR firmware is on the router before flashing WWRT (in the link above to the device?

2. I am not a noob, just new to the WWRT scene, is the FINAL build in the link above stable? To get use to and play around with for the NETGEAR AC2350 R7500?

3. Does this WWRT support openVPN?

4. Any other input the community could forward to me to help me with this would be nice.

 

The router is kind of pricy, so I want to take the worry away from my brain, speaking with you guys, that have experianced WWRT, before I go ahead and flash a 3rd party firmware.

 

Please include any other points or thoughts you may have about my matter.

 

Thank you so much !!!

 

Danielos
Danielos's picture
It doesn’t matter from which
  1. It doesn’t matter from which FW Version you are Upgrading. Probably you will get a information that the FW you are trying to install is older than the current, but you can just ignore this.
  2. Well this is a good question. The Problem is that with this version you just got the basic and you would need to install additional packages from OPENWRT which isn’t working. There are some posts about running a chroot on the router, which will give you possibility to install entware packages. I just had this version last week and needed to reimage it 3 times, simple because I had a power off. After a power off this version isn’t booting anymore (or maybe it’s just mine). If you have a “normal” internet than the version will be OK for you. Just need to read all the post about entware if you need some additional stuff.
  3. It does natively support openvpn, but not on this version as you cannot install additional packages. So for this just entware or stock FW at the moment
  4. You will have some issues when reverting back to the netgear as one of the wireless Network probably will not work (maybe there is now a new revert back file). Performance itself I have better speed with the snapshot version from openwrt (WIFI 5GHZ not working but I can life with this). With the snapshot version you also be able to install all additional packages openvpn, nfs etc. But it depends on what you want and what you need. Still the Netgear FW is limited but in my opinion still running the best (cannot use this version as I use LTE).

Not sure if this will help you... If you want to know some more just post :-)

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Few comments to post above:

Few comments to post above:
 

There are some posts about running a chroot on the router, which will give you possibility to install entware packages.

 

Not quite correct. Entware could be installed to this router w/o such tricks as chroot. Independently,it is possible to use chroot to have Debian for armel devices. You can use Entware w/o Debian, you can use Debian w/o Entware< you can use both: Entware and Debian on this router.

Neither Entware nor Debian will add kernel functionality such as LTE modem support of webcam support (what I miss too). But such stuff as OpenVPN, nginx, proxy, SSH server etc will be possible with Entware (and with chrooted Debian).

 

Still the Netgear FW is limited but in my opinion still running the best (cannot use this version as I use LTE).

 

Why don't you use some additional cheap device like TP-Link MR3020 (~$25) as a connection to Internet by LTE and R7500 connected by ethernet to TP-Link? W/o cutting R7500 functionality... 

Regards,
Voxel.

 

 

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Hey Voxel,

Hey Voxel,

its not much about me as I can manage my stuff pretty good. For the Openwrt Version I compiled the modules missing and they worked. Anyway with the OpenWrt version I had the issue that after a power off (what happens on a villag) they rooter would never boot again and needs to be reimaged. Do now I put the LTE Modem into my server, played a bit with iptables Masquarading and connected the router to it with the latest Netgear Firmware. Thats working out for me and the server is running anyway 24x7 so it can be the gateway. 

Thos was just my expiriences with the different version availible at the moment :-) 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Danielos,

Hi Danielos,

This is fine silution, sure, but I liked much more your idea with kernel objects for OpenWRT (LTE support). I re-used your idea but tried to assemble kernel onjects not for OpenWRT firmware (version available from this forum), but for latest Netgear FW (1.0.0.94). I was able to compile them. So I think use of these *.ko with 1.0.0.94 would be interesting, right?

I cannot test results yet (I'll be in my village powered by LTE modem only during weekend). But at least insmod could "eat" my resulting modules under Nethear's FW 1.0.0.94 (so I hope that they will work):
 

root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new# ll
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         7080 Oct 20 13:34 cdc_ether.ko
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         8556 Oct 20 13:34 rndis_host.ko
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root        20452 Oct 20 13:35 usbnet.ko
root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new# insmod usbnet.ko
root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new# insmod cdc_ether.ko
root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new# insmod rndis_host.ko
root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new#
root@nighthawk:/tmp/mnt/optware/tmp/new# uname -a
Linux nighthawk 3.4.103 #1 SMP Wed Jun 24 08:36:31 EDT 2015 armv7l unknown
 
 
My modem is Huawei E3276 with HiLink FW.
 
Are you interested in these modules? Can you check them before weekend?

Regards,
Voxel.

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

yeah sure I can try them. I do not have the Hilink with the E3276, but I also do have the ZTE Modem which is kind of Hilink version. I used it also with the Modules you mentiones. So when you give me access I can try them. I had compiled them to the prev. Frmware but I had there some issues with this. Ahh yeah I remember... Somehow somewhere NetGear filters the devices and accepts only Storage Devices. But when you give me them, I could try them.

BR

Daniel

Danielos
Danielos's picture
by the way... looks like I

by the way... looks like I have with the .94 version difficulties to get in to telnet.... I tried the thinclient and the telnet enable tool.... You got the same ?

Login failed.
Connection to host lost.
Press any key to continue...

I did not login yet :-)

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Danielos,

Danielos,

I put these modules for downloads, link is:
 

https://yadi.sk/d/AxrcLcC8juqbE

Try with 1.0.0.94. Please let me know results. I'll check too of course, but not in nearest time. Only when visiting my "village".
 

by the way... looks like I have with the .94 version difficulties to get in to telnet.... I tried the thinclient and the telnet enable tool.... You got the same ?

Login failed.
Connection to host lost.
Press any key to continue...

I did not login yet :-)

I use telnet very rarely. I did not feel any problems with telnet from Windows after telnetenable. 1.0.0.82 or 1.0.0.94. Only initially, when I could not point proper form of MAC addres of my router using its MAC of LAN port with ":" separators like "6C:B0:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX". Correct usage is:
 

telnetenable 192.168.1.1 6CB0XXXXXXXX admin password

 

then

 

telnet 192.168.1.1

 

Check that you use it properly. I did mistake initially.

 

And again, I used telnet only after unpacking router. Only to setup SSH server. After this I use SSH client, not telnet.

If you are interested in dropbear (ssh client/server) for this router, you can download it from this link:
 

https://yadi.sk/d/Oq-6VgUDjuqZx

This dropbearmulti is compiled by me. I used last version of dropbear. Host keys should be placed to /etc/dropbear directory created manually.

 

root@nighthawk:~# ls -l /etc/dropbear
-rw-------    1 root     root          243 Oct 21 10:48 dropbear_ecdsa_host_key
-rw-------    1 root     root          803 Oct 13 13:25 dropbear_rsa_host_key
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          268 Oct 21 10:48 ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root          396 Oct 21 10:39 ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
root@nighthawk:~#
 
 
Permissions are obligatory. And root's home should be changed from /tmp to e.g. /root (because of 777 permission of tmp does not allow use of keys authorization). Then I use scheme with SSH key authorization. More convinient then telnet with telnetenable. No needs in external USB drive. Works always.
For test it is enough to set password (temporary) for root (will work until reboot) and run dropbear. Then you can use SSH client to login router's root.

Also, archive contains fsck.hfsplus allowing to check/correct HFS+ partitions. 

 
Regards,
Voxel.
 

 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Small "add-on" to my post

Small "add-on" to my post above:

1) To change root's home from its default /tmp directory to /root (to have properly configured SSH server) it is necessary to correct two files in Netgear's FW:

/usr/config/passwd and /usr/sbin/update_user

 

archive with my corrections for these purposes could be download from this link:
 

https://yadi.sk/d/ujzEt74MjuygT

2) To start SSH server dropbear automatically after each reboot of R7500 it is better to create own script in /etc/init.d directory. Examle of my init.d script "optware" is available in archive above. It starts dropbear server (plus some services I need from external drive if it is connected). It can be re-used "as is". You can enable it by command:

/etc/init.d/optware enable

or disable it:

/etc/init.d/optware disable

Results of enable/disable will be in /etc/rc.d directory (symlinks).

Regards,
Voxel.

Danielos
Danielos's picture
thanks Voxel,

thanks Voxel,

I got at the moment the FW 1.0.0.94 and with this version I had always issue that the telnet isn`t working anymore. But maybe thats an issue I`m not using 192.168.1.1 as IP for the router. I will check this later and will let you know.

Daniel

 

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

needed to Downgrade the Router, Reset it... Configure it again and Upgrade to 1.0.0.94 and than the telnet started working. So far I setup the SSH which works fine now. I added the modules for the LTE Modem and connected the modem to the Router....

Now I becoming this:

 
usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_ether
usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=19d2, idProduct=1225
usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 3-1: Product: ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM
usb 3-1: Manufacturer: ZTE,Incorporated
usb 3-1: SerialNumber: MF8230ZTED010000
INFO008C: Add device intf c29cf600, dev ca534000
INFO0C02: filter pure storage dev
scsi2 : usb-storage 3-1:1.0
scsi 2:0:0:0: CD-ROM CWID USB SCSI CD-ROM 2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
scsi 2:0:0:1: Direct-Access ZTE MMC Storage 2.31 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 2:0:0:1: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
usb 3-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
usb 3-1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using xhci-hcd
usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=19d2, idProduct=1405
usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 3-1: Product: ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM
usb 3-1: Manufacturer: ZTE,Incorporated
usb 3-1: SerialNumber: MF8230ZTED010000
INFO008C: Add device intf c6466400, dev ca778400
INFO05D5: dev bus_id 3-1
INFO05D6: control driver xhci-hcd
INFO05D7: bInterfaceClass 2
INFO0601: dev ca778400 : dev->actconfig->desc.bNumInterfaces 3
INFO04A3: usblp discard intf c6466400
INFO0631: usblp probe fail : -5
INFO008C: Add device intf c6467c00, dev ca778400
INFO05D5: dev bus_id 3-1
INFO05D6: control driver xhci-hcd
INFO05D7: bInterfaceClass 10
INFO04A3: usblp discard intf c6467c00
INFO0631: usblp probe fail : -5
INFO008C: Add device intf c6467a00, dev ca778400
INFO05D5: dev bus_id 3-1
INFO05D6: control driver xhci-hcd
INFO05D7: bInterfaceClass 8
INFO04A3: usblp discard intf c6467a00
INFO0631: usblp probe fail : -5
INFO1567: Bind to br0
[Warning] skb_warn_bad_offload!!!
[Warning] skb_warn_bad_offload!!!

I think the problem here is the following:

INFO0C02: filter pure storage dev

So it looks like the filtering only the storage devices from the attached USB. anyway it looks like its also finding the network device itself ???

INFO1567: Bind to br0

Need to play a bit with this.....

Daniel....

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Sad, sad... 

Sad, sad... 

I tried to seek in FW codes: what module displays this message ("filter pure storage dev") and result is that such a message exists only in NetUSB.ko file. Precompiled KO. No codes... Secret codes of Netgear.

 

Bad. My additional googling ended with information "Critical vulnerability in NetUSB driver exposes millions of routers to hacking". It is about TP-Link, D-Link and Netgear routers. So I suppose that Netgear closed this hole in security by rejecting all USB devices except USB drives... It means that neither USB modem, nor USB webcam (I tried to add) will work with stock FW...
 

The only hopes: relese of normal OpenWRT version.

 

Damn. ASUS routers are much more friendly in customization. But not so good hardware configuration as R7500.

 

OK, thank you anyway for testing.

Voxel.

Danielos
Danielos's picture
Hi Voxel,

Hi Voxel,

yeah me sad to. I was hoping that this will work out a bit..... I was sure that we can make it.... But again blocked :-(  I love this Router too but I have also a Asus AC56U Router which is much better from the interface. There you can customize all stuff you need. I think we will not seen soon a real good image of openwrt as there isnt the Source Code for Quantenna Chip availible in the linux kernel. I think they still struggeling with this. And not sure if we will see an "Real Openwrt" from here.... I really would like to se because this what is there is worthless for me and I can stick with the Genie Netgear FW. Even Genie has at least a VPN :-) 

Voxel
Voxel's picture
Hi Danielos,

Hi Danielos,

So the same results with my LTE modem.Even more short log:
 

usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=12d1, idProduct=1f01
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=5
usb 1-1: Product: HUAWEI Mobile
usb 1-1: Manufacturer: HUAWEI Technology
usb 1-1: SerialNumber: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
INFO008C: Add device intf caf92200, dev cd8b7800
INFO0C02:  filter pure storage dev
scsi2 : usb-storage 1-1:1.0
 

ASUS routers - yes, I own them too. I have a Zoo of routers: AC56U, AC68U, two Netgear R7500. Both ASUS are overclocked a bit (1000MHz). AC68U works perfectly with LTE modem.I intended to use my second R7500 for this role, but OK. Will be used as access point with AC68U as a main router. AC56U serves video surveillance with webcam and temperature monitoring. So R7500 here is practically idler: Wi-Fi AP only...
First R7500 is used as a router (my city flat) and mini-server serving two VPN servers, ownCloud, proxy with ads filtering, web server, FTp server, DLNA, samba, transmission, DDNS client etc.Under Debian of course. Here its CPU is very useful and used in full power.

 

I still hope to have OpenWRT for R7500...

Regards,

Voxel.

 

 

devz3ro
devz3ro's picture
I've tried flashing the

I've tried flashing the following to my R7500v1:

https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ipq806x/generic/openwrt-ip...

But it never boots, led stays amber. Is there something wrong with the latest version?