I've used OpenWRT with great praise on The Archer C7 v2.0's in the past, despite the somewhat convoluted loading sequence.
(1) Load factory-to-ddwrt-US.bin (The "blessed" version that lets you load older TP-Link firmware)
(2) Load old C7 firmware ArcherC7v2_webrevert.bin
(3) Load openwrt-15.05-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory.bin or openwrt-15.05.1-ar71xx-generic-archer-c7-v2-squashfs-factory.bin
(4) Profit!!!
But, this one seems to be totally unable to run OpenWRT. We can load DD-WRT, no issues. Then, loading the older C7 firmware, no problems. But, as soon as we install OpenWRT, the router can't boot. In fact, we needed to go into the TFTP mode to load anything further.
The error we get with OpenWRT is:
[ 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)
[ 82.540000] random: nonblocking pool is initializedThe uBoot console looks like:
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Oct 14 2015 - 13:34:14)
ap135 - Scorpion 1.0DRAM:
sri
Scorpion 1.0
ath_ddr_initial_config(178): (32bit) ddr2 init
tap = 0x00000003
Tap (low, high) = (0x4, 0x1e)
Tap values = (0x11, 0x11, 0x11, 0x11)
128 MB
Flash Manuf Id 0xc8, DeviceId0 0x40, DeviceId1 0x18
flash size 16MB, sector count = 256
Flash: 16 MB
Using default environment
*** Warning *** : PCIe WLAN Module not found !!!
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Net: ath_gmac_enet_initialize...
athrs_sgmii_res_cal: cal value = 0xe
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
ath_gmac_enet_initialize: reset mask:c02200
Scorpion ----> S17 PHY *
Vlan config...
TEST: FINAL REG VAL after TX Calibration - 0x46000000
TEST: FINAL XMII VAL after RX Calibration - 0x56000000
TEST: FINAL ETH_CFG VAL after RX Calibration - 0x00028001
athrs17_reg_init: complete
: cfg1 0x80000000 cfg2 0x7335
eth0: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
eth0 up
athrs17_reg_init_wan done
SGMII in forced mode
athr_gmac_sgmii_setup SGMII done
: cfg1 0x800c0000 cfg2 0x7214
eth1: ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
Setting 0x18116290 to 0x58b1214f
Autobooting in 1 seconds
ap135> tpl
p135> printenv
bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200 root=31:02 rootfstype=jffs2 init=/sbin/init mtdparts=ath-nor0:256k(u-boot),64k(u-boot-env),6336k(rootfs),1408k(uImage),8256k(mib0),64k(ART)
bootcmd=bootm 0x9f020000
bootdelay=1
baudrate=115200
ethaddr=0xba:0xbe:0xfa:0xce:0x08:0x41
ipaddr=192.168.1.111
serverip=192.168.1.100
dir=
lu=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}u-boot.bin&&erase 0x9f000000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f000000 $filesize
lf=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}ap135${bc}-jffs2&&erase 0x9f050000 +0x630000&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f050000 $filesize
lk=tftp 0x80060000 ${dir}vmlinux${bc}.lzma.uImage&&erase 0x9f680000 +$filesize&&cp.b $fileaddr 0x9f680000 $filesize
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
ethact=eth0
Environment size: 688/65532 bytesWe can use TFTP boot to reload the TP-Link firmware which works A-ok. Then we can use that to flash the new OpenWRT firmware, no issue. But, as soon as it tries to boot the OpenWRT the system kernel panics and we make no further progress.
The product s/n is 2167193001064 (if that matters)
Just purchased in august 2017.
Any ideas? Questions.
BTW: In order to TFTPBoot the factory version, the file needs to be offset by 28 bytes, not 257 sectors.
dd if=ArcherC7v2_webrevert.bin of=ArcherC7v2_tp_recovery.bin skip=28 bs=1(Last edited by cnlohr on 13 Sep 2017, 05:45)