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| toh:linksys:mr8300 [2024/02/05 09:51] – [Debricking] add owrt forum link to serial tftp openwrt recovery. bill888 | toh:linksys:mr8300 [2024/12/04 11:26] – [Installation of 23.05/24.10 or snapshot] typo badulesia | ||
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| {{ media: | {{ media: | ||
| - | The Linksys MR8300 is very close to the [[toh: | + | The Linksys MR8300 is very close to the [[toh: |
| The Linksys MR8300 is a MU-MIMO Tri-Band WiFi router, which has one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz WiFi Interfaces, making it an interesting choice for wireless backhaul or repeater applications. The radios support MCS 0-9 (up through 256 QAM) for devices and paths that are compatible with those high-density modulations. | The Linksys MR8300 is a MU-MIMO Tri-Band WiFi router, which has one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz WiFi Interfaces, making it an interesting choice for wireless backhaul or repeater applications. The radios support MCS 0-9 (up through 256 QAM) for devices and paths that are compatible with those high-density modulations. | ||
| Line 17: | Line 17: | ||
| ===== Supported Versions ===== | ===== Supported Versions ===== | ||
| - | ---- datatable ---- | + | <!-- ToH: { |
| - | cols | + | " |
| - | headers | + | " |
| - | align : c,c,c,c,c,c,c | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | ---- | + | |
| + | } --> | ||
| - | ---- datatable ---- | + | <!-- ToH: { |
| - | cols | + | " |
| - | filter | + | |
| - | ---- | + | " |
| + | " | ||
| + | " | ||
| + | } --> | ||
| ===== Hardware Highlights ===== | ===== Hardware Highlights ===== | ||
| - | ---- datatable ---- | + | <!-- ToH: { |
| - | cols | + | " |
| - | header | + | " |
| - | align : c, | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | filter | + | |
| - | ---- | + | |
| + | } --> | ||
| As of 2021, a version v1.1 is shipped. It is uncertain about some hardware change from v1. The wifi card is reported as QCA9886 which is almost identical to QCA9888 (both use the same driver anyway). | As of 2021, a version v1.1 is shipped. It is uncertain about some hardware change from v1. The wifi card is reported as QCA9886 which is almost identical to QCA9888 (both use the same driver anyway). | ||
| The same OpenWrt files works fine on both versions. | The same OpenWrt files works fine on both versions. | ||
| - | :!: **WARNING** : the USB port seems to be incorrectly managed due to a faulty hardware design. This issue is solved since 21.02.7, 22.03.5, 23.05.0 and main snapshot, and should be of no concern anymore. You can read about in this thread [[https:// | ||
| ===== Installation ===== | ===== Installation ===== | ||
| /* stable release */ | /* stable release */ | ||
| - | ---- datatable ---- | + | <!-- ToH: { |
| - | cols | + | " |
| - | headers | + | " |
| - | align : c,c,c | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | ---- | + | |
| + | } --> | ||
| - | The MR8300 is a dual partition device. Each time you install/ | + | OEM stock URL: [[https://store.linksys.com/support-article? |
| - | + | ||
| - | :!: **WARNING about 21.02.6 and 22.03.4** | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | **DO NOT install or upgrade to 21.02.6 or 22.03.4**. Early march 2023, a kernel change introduced a regression causing mtd detection to fail: hence the device stops after a couple of seconds. It took several weeks to fix the issue. Unfortunately, | + | |
| - | Commit to kernel [[https:// | + | |
| + | The MR8300 is a dual partition device. Each time you install/ | ||
| + | [[http:// | ||
| <WRAP center alert> | <WRAP center alert> | ||
| - | **Installation of 23.05 or main snapshot | + | **Installation of 23.05/24.10 (also main snapshot) requires |
| </ | </ | ||
| + | :!: **KNOWN ISSUES SOLVED** | ||
| + | * **USB port** seems to be incorrectly managed due to a faulty hardware design. Solved since 21.02.7, 22.03.5 and later. [[https:// | ||
| + | * **21.02.6 and 22.03.4** faulty mtd detection. **DO NOT** install these versions, they won't boot. Forum threads about the issue [[https:// | ||
| + | |||
| + | :!: **KNOWN ISSUES with 24.10** | ||
| + | * **LAN to LAN performance**. While running 24.10 and main, LAN to LAN transfer suffer from low performance and high CPU usage. This may possibly affect other ipq40xx devices. [[https:// | ||
| ==== Flash Layout ==== | ==== Flash Layout ==== | ||
| - | <WRAP BOX> | ||
| - | FIXME // | ||
| - | Please check out the article [[docs: | ||
| - | </ | ||
| + | Result of '' | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | dev: size | ||
| + | mtd0: 00100000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd1: 00100000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd2: 00100000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd3: 00080000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd4: 00080000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd5: 00080000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd6: 00200000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd7: 00080000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd8: 00040000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd9: 00040000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd10: 05800000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd11: 05300000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd12: 05800000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd13: 05300000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd14: 00100000 00020000 " | ||
| + | mtd15: 04680000 00020000 " | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Result of '' | ||
| + | < | ||
| + | 0x000000000000-0x000000100000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000100000-0x000000200000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000200000-0x000000300000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000300000-0x000000380000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000380000-0x000000400000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000400000-0x000000480000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000480000-0x000000680000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000680000-0x000000700000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000700000-0x000000740000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000740000-0x000000780000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000780000-0x000005f80000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000000c80000-0x000005f80000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000005f80000-0x00000b780000 : " | ||
| + | 0x000006480000-0x00000b780000 : " | ||
| + | 0x00000b780000-0x00000b880000 : " | ||
| + | 0x00000b880000-0x00000ff00000 : " | ||
| + | </ | ||
| ==== Installation from OEM GUI ==== | ==== Installation from OEM GUI ==== | ||
| Line 81: | Line 127: | ||
| // | // | ||
| - | Before installation, read the paragraph that corresponds | + | **The very first OpenWrt you need to flash is latest stable 22.03**. You can't install a more recent version (23.05 or later) directly, you need to perform a change in the boot variables before |
| - | Download | + | Use either one of these methods |
| First method | First method | ||
| Line 95: | Line 141: | ||
| Official documentation from Linksys at [[https:// | Official documentation from Linksys at [[https:// | ||
| - | Wait for about one minute for the router to perform the installation and to reboot. Manually browse again http:// | + | Wait for about one minute for the router to perform the installation and to reboot. Manually browse again http:// |
| It is advised to install '' | It is advised to install '' | ||
| - | You will now have the Linksys OEM into the first partition as a fallback, and OpenWrt into the second partition as active. Setup OpenWrt as you like, and backup the settings. If you want to get rid of Linksys OEM, than just flash again the same OpenWrt factory image from the fresh installed OpenWrt. Since OpenWrt 22.03.3, you can easily restore back Linksys OEM by just flashing the firmware image. | + | You will now have the Linksys OEM into the first partition as a fallback, and OpenWrt into the second partition as active. Setup OpenWrt as you like, and backup the settings. If you want to get rid of Linksys OEM, than just flash again the same OpenWrt factory image from the fresh installed OpenWrt |
| + | ==== Installation of 22.03 ==== | ||
| - | ==== Installation | + | Installation |
| - | + | ==== Installation of 23.05/ | |
| - | **The latest | + | |
| - | Installation of 21.02 or 22.03 can be done easily from OEM GUI firmware as described previously. | + | |
| - | ==== Installation of 23.05 or snapshot ==== | + | |
| <WRAP important> | <WRAP important> | ||
| **WARNING FOR INSTALLATION** | **WARNING FOR INSTALLATION** | ||
| - | Installation of 23.05 or snapshot requires two steps. | + | Installation of 23.05/ |
| - | - a previous OpenWrt 22.03 to run several commands to change a bootloader variable. This is only needed once in the lifetime of the device. | + | - a previous |
| - | - flashing 23.05 or snapshot. | + | - flashing 23.05/ |
| - | **Don' | + | **Don' |
| </ | </ | ||
| - | **Preliminary**. Despite its fair amount of flash memory (256MB), the MR8300 has a tiny kernel partition limited to 3MB. This is sufficient to boot Linksys OEM and OpenWrt 22.03 (based on kernel 5.10). Meanwhile this is **not enough** to boot kernel 5.15 (23.05 | + | **Preliminary**. Despite its fair amount of flash memory (256MB), the MR8300 has a tiny kernel partition limited to 3MB. This is sufficient to boot Linksys OEM and OpenWrt 22.03 (based on kernel 5.10). Meanwhile this is **not enough** to boot kernel 5.15 (23.05) or 6.6 (24.10). There is a workaround for this situation, and it involves **changing a bootloader variable**. This is only needed **once in the lifetime** of the device, and can be done easily via SSH. Once the bootloader has been tweaked, the device can boot everything: Linksys OEM, OpenWrt 22.03, 23.05, 24.10 and snapshot. |
| + | |||
| + | <WRAP center round info 80%> | ||
| + | **Since 22.03.3, OpenWrt can flash any OpenWrt stable/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| - | Since 22.03.3, OpenWrt can flash any OpenWrt stable/ | ||
| === First step: install 22.03 to run commands from SSH === | === First step: install 22.03 to run commands from SSH === | ||
| - | You need to have 22.03.3 (or above but not 22.03.4) already installed. If you haven' | + | You need to have any 22.03 (**not** 22.03.4) already installed. If you haven' |
| - Check your previous bootloader variables. Enter:< | - Check your previous bootloader variables. Enter:< | ||
| Line 130: | Line 177: | ||
| - Reboot the device. <code bash> | - Reboot the device. <code bash> | ||
| - | Your device can now flash and run anything: Linksys | + | === Second step: install 23.05/24.10 or snapshot === |
| + | |||
| + | If you want to keep OEM GUI, than return back to it ('' | ||
| + | From OpenWrt | ||
| - | === Second step: install 23.05 or snapshot === | + | In any case, **DO NOT keep settings** while flashing. The device will use DSA and need to be configured from scratch. |
| + | Upgrading from 22.03 to 24.10 is not officialy supported. Meanwhile considering that the upgrade is done without keeping settings, it is assumed that it can be done confidently. | ||
| - | Subject to confirmation, it should be possible | + | Once in 23.05/24.10, to get rid of OEM GUI (if still present), just flash again with the same image you have just used. You will have both partitions running with 23.05/24.10. You can always reinstall OEM GUI by flashing it from OpenWrt in the same way as any upgrade. |
| - | See https://forum.openwrt.org/ | + | |
| - | Download a 23.05 or main snapshot '' | + | **DO NOT** try to restore any previous 22.03 config file, it isn't compatible |
| Original informations for installation of a kernel 5.15 based OpenWrt : [[https:// | Original informations for installation of a kernel 5.15 based OpenWrt : [[https:// | ||
| Line 165: | Line 215: | ||
| * OpenWrt on both partitions. Download a '' | * OpenWrt on both partitions. Download a '' | ||
| - | :!: **DO NOT upgrade from 22.03 to 23.05/main snapshot while keeping settings**: config syntax isn't the same (due to DSA) and it will lead to a soft-brick. | + | :!: **DO NOT upgrade from 22.03 to 23.05/24.10/main snapshot while keeping settings**: config syntax isn't the same (due to DSA) and it will lead to a soft-brick. |
| ===== Debricking ===== | ===== Debricking ===== | ||
| === Recovery (Automatic) === | === Recovery (Automatic) === | ||
| - | The MR8300 is a dual firmware device. | + | The MR8300 is a dual firmware device. |
| - Switch On and wait 10 seconds | - Switch On and wait 10 seconds | ||
| - Switch Off and wait 5 seconds | - Switch Off and wait 5 seconds | ||
| Line 174: | Line 224: | ||
| - U-boot will now boot the other partition. You should be able to access your router on LAN. | - U-boot will now boot the other partition. You should be able to access your router on LAN. | ||
| - | Since 5.15 kernel based snapshots (Jan 1st 2023) and 22.03.3, OpenWrt is now able to flash directly a Linksys OEM image. Force the flash as the warning message inform you to do so. You can easily reverse to Linksys OEM if you need to. | + | Since 22.03.3, OpenWrt is now able to flash directly a Linksys OEM image. Force the flash as the warning message inform you to do so. You can now easily reverse to Linksys OEM if you need to. |
| - | Here is a useful [[https:// | + | Here is a useful [[https:// |
| Line 233: | Line 283: | ||
| ===== Hardware ===== | ===== Hardware ===== | ||
| ==== Info ==== | ==== Info ==== | ||
| - | ---- datatemplatelist dttpllist ---- | + | <!-- ToH: { |
| - | template: meta:template_datatemplatelist | + | " |
| - | cols | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | filter | + | " |
| - | ---- | + | " |
| + | | ||
| + | } --> | ||
| ==== Photos ==== | ==== Photos ==== | ||