This my first attempt on compiling openWRT from sources so I decided to start by compiling an image for the super cheap (and powerful) router (A5-V11) that can be found on AliExpress for about $7.
The A5-V11 has very limited storage (4MB) that is not enough to get full advantage of the router (USB 2.0 Port, Wifi and Ethernet port) like installing the USB-related cool stuff like samba file sharing , USB-to-Serial drivers , file system ..etc
So I begun with de-soldered the spi flash and and saved it's contents as binary file (using usb spi progammer )
and programmed the file contents to the new 8M spi flash (W25Q64BV) to get a working image (openWRT still reads it as 4M) and Edited the /target/linux/ramips/dts/A5-V11.dts file to:
/dts-v1/;
/include/ "rt5350.dtsi"
/ {
compatible = "A5-V11", "ralink,rt5350-soc";
model = "A5-V11";
palmbus@10000000 {
spi@b00 {
status = "okay";
m25p80@0 {
#address-cells = <1>;
#size-cells = <1>;
compatible = "W25Q64";
reg = <0 0>;
linux,modalias = "m25p80", "W25Q64";
spi-max-frequency = <10000000>;
partition@0 {
label = "u-boot";
reg = <0x0 0x30000>;
read-only;
};
partition@30000 {
label = "u-boot-env";
reg = <0x30000 0x10000>;
read-only;
};
factory: partition@40000 {
label = "factory";
reg = <0x40000 0x10000>;
read-only;
};
partition@50000 {
label = "firmware";
reg = <0x50000 0x7b0000>;
};
};
};
gpio1: gpio@660 {
status = "okay";
};
};
pinctrl {
state_default: pinctrl0 {
gpio {
ralink,group = "i2c", "jtag", "uartf", "led";
ralink,function = "gpio";
};
};
};
ethernet@10100000 {
mtd-mac-address = <&factory 0x4>;
};
esw@10110000 {
ralink,portmap = <0x2f>;
};
wmac@10180000 {
ralink,mtd-eeprom = <&factory 0>;
};
ehci@101c0000 {
status = "okay";
};
ohci@101c1000 {
status = "okay";
};
gpio-leds {
compatible = "gpio-leds";
system {
label = "a5-v11:blue:system";
gpios = <&gpio0 20 1>;
};
power {
label = "a5-v11:red:power";
gpios = <&gpio0 17 1>;
};
};
gpio-keys-polled {
compatible = "gpio-keys-polled";
#address-cells = <1>;
#size-cells = <0>;
poll-interval = <20>;
reset {
label = "reset";
gpios = <&gpio0 0 1>;
linux,code = <0x198>;
};
};
gpio_export {
compatible = "gpio-export";
#size-cells = <0>;
usb {
gpio-export,name = "usb";
gpio-export,output = <1>;
gpios = <&gpio0 7 0>;
};
root_hub {
gpio-export,name = "root_hub";
gpio-export,output = <1>;
gpios = <&gpio0 12 0>;
};
};
};I successfully compiled the Chaos Calmer (r49087) with luci and flashed it with sysupgrade and the whole 8M flash is seen by openWRT:
and the pre-compiled images can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= … sp=sharing.
TODO:
* To compile a 16M image but the problem is that i don't have a 16M flash chip so I ordered 5pcs from AliExpress and I'm waiting to get them and to test them.
* Upgrade the RAM: I have one question is there any compatible 512MBIT 54-pin TSSOP RAM with the original 256Mbit (EM63A165TS-6G) and what changes that have to be made to the software and hardware to make this upgrade ??? I will dig more about that and any help is appreciated to Make this cheap router better.
and i find compiling is more fun and straightforward. 