This repository provides a method to install OpenWrt on a factory-flashed TP-Link ER605 hardware version 2 router.
The initramfs image is based on OpenWrt version 23.05.0. If you would like to build your own initramfs image, see the files in the image-build-files directory. The initramfs image needs to be 5,242,880 (0x00500000) bytes or smaller in size to fit into the factory kernel UBI volume.
- Enable SSH on your ER605 by logging into the web configuration GUI, navigating to System Tools > Diagnostics > Remote Assistance, and enabling Remote Assistance.
- Generate your shell password by clicking here.
- SSH into your ER605. Use
ssh -o hostkeyalgorithms=ssh-rsa
if your ssh client complainsno matching host key type
. Follow the steps below for the firmware version you have installed:
v2.0.1 and below: Login using the usernameroot
and the "root password" generated in the previous step.
v2.1.1 and above: Login using your web configuration GUI credentials. Then run theenable
command followed by thedebug
command. When you are prompted for a password, enter the "CLI debug mode password" generated in the previous step. - Backup your MTD partitions (recommended). The backup process will not be covered in these instructions. You can find some more information on how to do this here: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.backup?do=#create_full_mtd_backup
- Download openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin and er605v2_write_initramfs.sh to the ER605 (run these commands in the SSH shell):
cd /tmp
curl -o er605v2_write_initramfs.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chill1Penguin/er605v2_openwrt_install/main/er605v2_write_initramfs.sh
curl -o openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chill1Penguin/er605v2_openwrt_install/main/openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin
chmod +x er605v2_write_initramfs.sh
- Verify the checksum of the openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin image. It should match the checksum found in the md5sums file. You can get the checksum by running:
md5sum openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin
- Run er605v2_write_initramfs.sh script to flash the initramfs image.
./er605v2_write_initramfs.sh openwrt-initramfs-compact.bin
- Reboot the ER605 and wait for it to reboot.
- Open a web browser and navigate to http://192.168.1.1/. If the page does not load, try waiting a bit longer or clearing your browser cache.
- Follow the steps on the web page. You can find a sysupgrade image at https://downloads.openwrt.org. Click here to download the v23.05.0 sysupgrade image.
- After rebooting, your ER605 should boot into OpenWrt! 😄