AVM FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB-C

FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB-C is a WLAN repeater by AVM featuring 2.4GHz, 5GHz, a gigabit LAN port and DVB-C (TV).

It's got 64MB of RAM and 16MB of flash and runs on MIPS.

Sourcecode: http://osp.avm.de/fritzwlan/fritzwlan-repeater-dvb-c/

In the first seconds after Power is connected, the bootloader will listen for FTP connections on 192.168.178.1. Firmware can be uploaded like following:

ftp> quote USER adam2
ftp> quote PASS adam2
ftp> binary
ftp> debug
ftp> passive
ftp> quote MEDIA FLSH
ftp> put openwrt-sysupgrade.bin mtd1

This procedure might take up to two minutes. You need to powercycle the device afterwards to boot OpenWrt.

Note for Windows: The ethernet interface might take too long to start after you restart your router, so that you miss the time window for your FTP connection. Putting a network hub/switch between your computer an the router removes this problem. Also, upload with ftp.exe present in Windows 10/11 might not work (even if you set passive mode with “quote pasv”). Using WSL however works.

AVM provides a recovery tool for Windows: https://download.avm.de/fritzwlan/fritzwlan-repeater-dvb-c/other/recover/

Here are interesting hardware infos from the boot log:

[FLASH:] WINBOND Uniform-Flash 16MB 256 Bytes WriteBuffer
[SYSTEM:] QCA955x on 720/600/200MHz
CPU0 revision is: 00019750 (MIPS 74Kc)
SoC: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9556 ver 1 rev 0
[plat_mem_setup] memsize 0x4000000, memstart 0x00000000
Atheros on-chip NAND FLash Controller Driver, Version 1.0 (c) 2014 AVM GmbH, 2010 Atheros Communications, Ltd.

According to the boot log, there's a USB interface and a USB hub gets detected

[module-alloc-by-name] give 0x1000 bytes at 0x810e2000 to module 'usb_common' (0x381000 total bytes left)
[module-alloc-by-name] give 0x22000 bytes at 0x810e3000 to module 'usbcore' (0x35f000 total bytes left)
usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[module-alloc-by-name] give 0x9000 bytes at 0x81105000 to module 'ehci_hcd' (0x356000 total bytes left)
ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver
[module-alloc-by-name] give 0x2000 bytes at 0x8110e000 to module 'ehci_ath79' (0x354000 total bytes left)
ehci-ath79 1b000000.usb: EHCI Host Controller
ehci-ath79 1b000000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci-ath79 1b000000.usb: TX-TX IDP fix enabled
ehci-ath79 1b000000.usb: irq 88, io mem 0x1b000000
ehci-ath79 1b000000.usb: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00
usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
usb usb1: Product: EHCI Host Controller
usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.4.60 ehci_hcd
usb usb1: SerialNumber: 1b000000.usb
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected
avm_net_trace: New net trace device 'usb1' registered with minor 161.

Later in the log it's revealed that the DVB-C adapter is hooked up through USB (internally):

em28174 #0: FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB
DVB: registering new adapter (em28174 #0)
usb 1-1: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (MxL251)...
em28174 #0: FRITZ!WLAN Repeater DVB
DVB: registering new adapter (em28174 #0)
usb 1-1: DVB: registering adapter 1 frontend 0 (MxL251)...
Successfully loaded em28xx-dvb
Em28xx: Initialized (Em28xx dvb Extension) extension

Here's some info on em28xx devices: https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Em28xx_devices

The WiFi chip seems to be the Atheros AR9380 according to the boot log:

ath_hal: 0.9.17.1 (AR9380, REGOPS_FUNC, WRITE_EEPROM, 11D)

[LED] use GPIO 106 for 'gpio_avm_led_power'
[LED] use GPIO 105 for 'gpio_avm_led_tv'
[LED] use GPIO 107 for 'gpio_avm_led_wlan'
[LED] use GPIO 100 for 'gpio_avm_led_fsi0'
[LED] use GPIO 104 for 'gpio_avm_led_fsi1'
[LED] use GPIO 103 for 'gpio_avm_led_fsi2'
[LED] use GPIO 102 for 'gpio_avm_led_fsi3'
[LED] use GPIO 101 for 'gpio_avm_led_fsi4'
[BUTTON] use GPIO 4 for 'gpio_avm_button_wlan'

Serial can be used to get a root shell

# screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

The boot log reveals the following:

Enabling UART-Input for Pin 9

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