bl-mt798x: ATF and u-boot for mt798x-based routers

The bl-mt798x bootloader project is based on ATF and uboot source code provided by the Mediatek (MTK) manufacturer, and has following features:

U-Boot comes with a simple web UI recovery interface developed by MTK, which allows directly flashing firmware or updating U-Boot via the web UI. You can also flash firmware via serial port + TFTP (activate by serial console command).
It supports entering web UI recovery interface after powering on + holding the RESET button for 15+ seconds, a feature found in GL.iNet routers (U-boot Debrick).
It supports multiple flash partition layout (SPI-NAND only), allowing users to switch between different partition layouts in the web UI, and is compatible with Xiaomi's original OEM firmware (but only supports a modified firmware binary format).

Created by the Chinese developer hanwckf and hosted on GitHub.

It supports many MT7981 and MT7986 based WiFi routers manufactured by China-based vendors, and is very popular in China.

However this bootloader is NOT compatible with OpenWRT Uboot Mod image, so only use OpenWRT Stock layout image if you plan to keep using it.

Downloading bl-mt798x bootloader

Source code: https://github.com/hanwckf/bl-mt798x
bootloader binary release: https://github.com/hanwckf/bl-mt798x/releases

Instructions on using bl-mt798x bootloader

Detail instructions in Simplified Chinese can be found in hanwckf's blog page. The page provides a list of supported devices
- Use any web-based translation service to translate the page to your language of choice.
- Devices that require flashing OpenWRT u-boot FIP image during install may not be compatible with this bootloader, since they probably occupy the same partition.
- As always: Exercise caution by backup all your mtd partitions before proceed. Conduct additional research on how to fallback to OEM u-boot when necessary.

The U-boot web interface does NOT offer DHCP service to client PC. You need to configure static IP address on your PC in order to access it.

Here is an example YouTube video on flashing & booting bl-mt798x bootloader on Xiaomi AX3000T.

Notice on using bl-mt798x bootloader

Flashing bl-mt798x bootloader would override & disable OEM factory recovery process, as the RESET button no longer functions to download factory firmware directly from your PC running tftp server. By design, you should access the U-boot recovery webpage to upload firmware.

Access to serial console will be required if you still want to use TFTP to upload firmware under this bootloader.