Running OpenWRT on the Plusnet Hub One (& BT Home Hub 5a)

[#1]

I've put together a draft copy of a PDF describing how you can use 32 bit Microsoft Windows to install OpenWRT/LEDE.  ie. no Linux !

I welcome any feedback.

Links to updated versions of this PDF will be posted on the ebilan forum.

https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=138#p1079

[#2]

Each to their own, UNIX FTW!!! 

[#3]

Very cool.  When I was last on Plusnet I was using OpenWRT extensively - the only thing that was particularly annoying was the Plusnet RADIUS server annoying habit of leaving stale PPP connections up for too long in the event of an uncontrolled disconnection - I had a hack which would fire the required PADT down the line to tear down the stale PPP connection.  I wonder if that is still required?

I seem to have amassed a huge collection of HH5A based kit now (2x BT, 1x Plusnet) - definitely going to do this to one of them.  Thanks for the post, I hadn't realised HH5A support was so advanced now for OpenWRT.

[#4]

The PPP timeout issue you refer to was fixed long ago.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Broadband/Long-timeouts-for-stale-PPPoE-connections/td-p/980118/page/5

Latest I've heard is there is a lot of patches waiting to be incorporated into LEDE project, which may (or may not) find their way back into OpenWRT.  To cut a long story short, the LEDE version for HH5A continues to be delayed until some patches are approved and applied to the kernel.   

OpenWRT r48886 and r49337 as posted in this thread are probably as good as OpenWRT for HH5A is going to get for now.  fyi, I'm informed if you were to try to compile anything more recent, there is actually a bug which breaks the ethernet WAN port. (The cause has been fixed in LEDE but has not yet made its way into OpenWRT).

[#5]

That's an old thread I was posting in.  It used to take 6-8 minutes, it was "fixed" to bring it down to 1.5-2mins (which is still in contravention of the 20sec BT spec for how the ISP kit should perform - ironic given Plusnet's ownership...)

I wonder if the inflexible Juniper kit has been replaced yet.  Anyhow, job for another day.

The main reason I'd like to run OpenWRT would be to get the thinkbroadband monitor running again; but having a family that depend on the net being up and running for my sanity mean I might leave it for a little while before having a play...

[#6]

Just a heads-up that LEDE (OpenWRT fork) for the HH5a bleeding edge snapshots are now finally available.   More info here:

https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=145&p=1151#p1151

The snapshots do not include LUCI.

One key enhancement, is the Reset button on back of the hub, and 'Perform Reset' button within LUCI actually work when using the LEDE Squashfs image.

[#7]

Just hacked up an old HH5A with an external serial port and boot select pin on a slim connector hot glued to the underside of the router.  Not very pretty, but hidden when in use and easily accessible.

Just going through the install process now.  See you on the other side

[#8]

Kudos to all the posters with their guides; got a HH5A up and running with OpenWRT, using my Raspberry Pi as a server / TTL serial port.  

The first old HH5A I had (which didn't actually work with BT's firmware anymore) had too many flash bad blocks, and so couldn't be used.  The second one had no bad blocks whatsoever, and flashed fine.

Just a quick gotcha at the moment if you do use a LEDE snapshot - for the moment there doesn't seem to be any working wifi in it.  VDSL etc is working fine, mind, and connected now  Lovely to have a reasonably fast, cheap and FOSS box doing VDSL and routing (and wifi eventually!)

[#9]

The wireless related packages seem to be missing from the current LEDE snapshot for HH5A - reasons unknown at time of writing.  

However, I've managed to identify and install the missing packages using LUCI, and wireless is now working. 

[#10]

@all experts. i need help. i have attempted to flash a redundant hh5a. managed to get as far as backing up the calibration data, but when entering the command "ubiattach -m 5" i get the below  error:

root@OpenWrt:/# ubiattach -m 5
[29066.080000] UBI: attaching mtd5 to ubi0
[29066.084000] UBI: MTD device 5 is write-protected, attach in read-only mode
[29066.148000] UBI error: scan_peb: bad image sequence number 302102762 in PEB 13, expected 1019015774
[29066.160000] Erase counter header dump:
[29066.164000] magic 0x55424923
[29066.168000] version 1
[29066.172000] ec 2
[29066.176000] vid_hdr_offset 512
[29066.176000] data_offset 2048
[29066.180000] image_seq 302102762
[29066.184000] hdr_crc 0xaa2a0a6a
[29066.188000] erase counter header hexdump:
[29066.200000] UBI error: ubi_attach_mtd_dev: failed to attach mtd5, error -22
ubiattach: error!: cannot attach mtd5
error 22 (Invalid argument)
root@OpenWrt:/#

have tried searching for a solution, but i cannot understand where this data is backed up to.

the full flash backup is stored on a usb stick, but i assume this data is attempting to store in onboard memory.

thanks in advance.

tevo5.

[#11]

The first line of your post suggests you have backed up the Calibration data. I presume you mean to say you backed up the entire flash ?

From the openwrt wiki https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/bt/homehub_v5a.

Can you confirm  in 'Creating a backup of original firmware', you completed step 3 to back up the entire flash, and you are now struggling to complete step 4(b) to back up the 'calibration data' ?

[#12]

@bill888

You are correct, i do have what i think is a full flash backup. name, pnhub_notpornhub.nanddump. size, 37,276 kb

but when entering the ubiattach -m 5 command, i get the error shown.

tevo5.

[#13]

37,276kb is too small.  Sounds like the nanddump backup failed a quarter of the way through the procedure.

When you used the    nanddump -f /mnt/hh5a.nanddump /dev/mtd6  (or nanddump -f /mnt/pnhub_notpornhub.nanddump /dev/mtd6)    command, did you see any errors?

The nanddump file it creates should be around 128 Mbytes in size.

Sounds like the 128 Mbyte flash Nand has too many bad blocks and can't be backed up.  It is probably why you can't execute the ubiattach command to back up the calibration data.  

I wouldn't try to proceed any further to put OpenWRT/LEDE on it.  You will probably brick the Hub.

[#14]

@bill888

will try again. how long should the backup take? using 1gb usb2 stick.

thanks for your help

tevo5.

[#15]

I think it takes up to 15 minutes to do a full nand backup.