# OpenWRT for TP-Link MR200v1

**Follow all steps at own risk!**

Before downloading anything, consider reading the blog post:

<https://peterbabic.dev/blog/how-verify-openwrt-integrity-files>

## Recovery image preparation

The recovery image is used to replace the stock firmware with OpenWRT via
TFTP. Citing the MR200 OpenWRT
[manual](https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/archer-mr200):

> Turn on the device while pushing the WPS button until the WPS light turns
> on. At that point, the bootloaders integrated tftp client with the ip
> address of 192.168.1.1, tries to connect to a tftp server running at
> address 192.168.0.66 and getting the file named
> **ArcherC2V1_tp_recovery.bin**. so you need to be running a tftp server
> with the ip/netmask of 192.168.0.66/23 and connect it to lan port1. It is
> vital that your firmware includes the bootloader at the very beginning
> (without any extra tp-link header) as the bootloader will start writing
> the firmware to flash with the starting address of 0x00000000.

Manual recovery image preparation:

```bash
cd firmware
dd bs=512 obs=512 skip=1 count=256 if=Archer\ MR200v1_0.9.1_1.2_up_boot_v004a.0\ Build\ 180502\ Rel.53881n.bin of=ArcherMR200_bootloader.bin
cat ArcherMR200_bootloader.bin openwrt-19.07.6-ramips-mt7620-ArcherMR200-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin > ArcherC2V1_tp_recovery.bin
```

Manual recovery image upload using TFTP:

```bash
sudo pacman -S atftp
sudo mkdir -p /srv/atftp
sudo cp firmware/ArcherC2V1_tp_recovery.bin /srv/atftp
sudo chown -R atftp:atftp /srv/atftp
sudo ifconfig enp0s31f6 192.168.0.66/23
sudo systemctl start atftpd.service
# Optionally test TFTP server is working properly
#curl -O tftp:/192.168.0.66/ArcherC2V1_tp_recovery.bin
```

## Revert to TP-Link stock firmware

**Important:** Always revert back to the same version in which you switched
from.

```bash
cd firmware
dd bs=512 obs=512 skip=257 count=15744 if=Archer\ MR200v1_0.9.1_1.2_up_boot_v004a.0\ Build\ 180502\ Rel.53881n.bin of=extracted_firmware.bin
scp extracted_firmware.bin root@openwrt:/tmp
/usr/bin/ssh root@openwrt
mtd -r write extracted_firmware.bin firmware
```

## 4G signal LED integration

OpenWRT does not enable working LED's for 4G signal by default. Manual
method:

```bash
cd files
scp -r root etc root@openwrt:/
/usr/bin/ssh root@openwrt
opkg update
opkg install curl
reboot
```

## Custom image with built in LED signal integration

Manual custom image build steps:

```bash
pacman -S --needed base-devel ncurses zlib gawk git gettext openssl libxslt wget unzip python
wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7620/openwrt-imagebuilder-ramips-mt7620.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz
tar xJf openwrt-imagebuilder-ramips-mt7620.Linux-x86_64.tar.xz
cd openwrt-imagebuilder-ramips-mt7620.Linux-x86_64
ln -s ../files .
make image PROFILE=tplink_archer-mr200 PACKAGES="curl" FILES=files/
```

The sysupgrade file is available at
`openwrt-imagebuilder-ramips-mt7620.Linux-x86_64/bin/targets/ramips/mt7620/openwrt-ramips-mt7620-tplink_archer-mr200-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin`
after the build and includes `curl` and the LED script.

Alternatively, the steps are automated in a [build.sh](./build.sh) script.
After running, the custom image file is conveniently symlinked to `mt7620`.

## Credit

The authors of the LED script are users **asenac** and **spamcop**,
published ad OpenWRT
[forum](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/signal-strength-and-4g-leds-on-tp-link-mr200/65978)