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

[#1]

At a guess, it looks like Gnd not properly connected between HH5a and serial USB adaptor.  What solder pad on HH5a are you using for Gnd?

What do you see over the serial connection when you boot stock BT firmware?

What serial adaptors are you using?

[#2]

Hi bill888, thanks for your help. I'm using one of the ground pads for the WPS button. I can see that it's directly connected to the ground plane on the PCB so I'm pretty sure that shouldn't be a problem.  Just in case, I've tried another ground point - where the 12V power connector is soldered to the PCB - but got exactly the same result.

If I boot stock BT firmware, I get this:

▒▒▒▒Su[▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ysq▒▒▒▒▒c}cw▒▒▒▒▒▒[5=7▒ai▒▒y▒▒▒▒▒!#-#1▒[5▒▒▒▒7▒▒ww[▒-
5▒3▒=▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒=▒333333▒▒▒▒▒▒z▒▒J▒
J▒=;!!-#1▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

So, it's different to when Boot_Sel2 is grounded, but still garbage!

I've tried a couple of USB/serial adaptors.  One was the Microchip PCB thing often used to connect to Arduinos.  The other is made by Prolific (USB to standard 9-way D connector).  Is there a particular adaptor which is known to work well?

Thanks again for your help,

Iain 

[#3]

If you have hard wired the TXD or RXD from the 9 pin D port RS232 port of your USB adapter, to your HH5a, it is totally incompatible. 

Vaguely recall RS232 interface can support up to +/- 25 volts and the signal is also inverted hence the garbage.  The high voltages could fry your HH5a too.

An Arduino compatible serial TTL to USB adapter should be compatible in theory, but it depends on the converter chip.  If you connect RX and TX together, does everything you type appear on the screen?

Suggest trying PL2303TA serial-TTL to USB adaptor as shown in the guide here:

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

[#4]

Many many thanks for that... I think I know what's going on now!  The instructions with my Prolific adapter must be for the wrong device. They specify 3.3V TTL levels, but I've just hitched up a 'scope and as you suspected it is RS232 signalling.  Fortunately no damage done as the swing is only about +/-2V (barely in spec for RS232).  Thanks for reminding me that RS232 is inverted - I had forgotten that, but it does of course explain the garbage, and the scope trace confirmed that the data is inverted.

Unfortunately the Microchip adapter was borrowed from a colleague who is now on holiday for a fortnight so unfortunately I can't play with that again.  I had very little information about that and I guess it's possible it was RS232 as well.

I was about to rig up an inverter and level shifter but honestly not worth the hassle so I've ordered a PL2303TA adapter as you suggest.  It should arrive later this week so I'll let you know how I get on... Thank you very much for your help once again.

[#5]

Hello bill888,

Just to let you know that thanks to all your help, I'm up and running with a new and 'known' USB/TTL adaptor.

Many thanks,

Iain

[#6]

I got myself a hh5a off ebay to try this. I have openwrt on it now. My eyes couldn't cope with soldering the boot_sel2 line so I used a ground probe instead to get the uart boot.

I am now trying to configure things by editing files in `/etc/config`. I have wired network running and also wireless as long as it is unencrypted. If I try to configure PSK2 then the wifi doesn't start. No errors reported, it just doesn't work.

config wifi-iface
    option device radio1 
    option network lan
    option mode ap
    option ssid Test
    option encryption psk2
    option key testtest

If I change `encryption` to `none` then it works and I can connect a device. But with the encryption configured the wifi goes down. Have I missed something, or messed something up along the way...?

(I have not yet tried to make an ADSL connection)

[#7]

If you have installed obsolete OpenWRT, suggest upgrading to LEDE stable release.

All configuration can be done through LUCI graphical user interface.

https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=196

Warning, if your HH5a has OpenWRT installed, you can try using the 'migrate' script to convert from OpenWRT to latest LEDE partition layout.  I presume you have a nanddump backup in case things go pear shaped while upgrading.

https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=180

See PDFs found here at end of first post of these two threads:

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

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

[#8]

Thanks @bill888   are you suggesting the openwrt doesn't work. I used the explanations listed in this thread and specificially the files obtained from the link in post 220 (https://hobbo.co.uk/index.php/s/DSoesx3nTT3nFEk).

I would prefer to do things via the command line if at all possible, so I can gain a better understanding of how it works and so I can maintain my config in git.

But I will take a look at those links...

[#9]

The link on my server doess work and is stable, however as Bill888 pointed out the LEDE releases seem to be more up to date and maintained. 

As for WiFi I can confirm this does work, and specifically with WPA2-PSK encryption and works both in AP and Pseudo bridge mode. I would probably recommend setting up things such as WiFi using the LuCI GUI, this is simply a front end webUI and any config changes are written to the relevant files as you would if it was done via the CLI, once you have a working config you can then add these in your Git repo as a base then go from there. 

[#10]

It turns out that my test password was too simple. I changed to a longer more complex one and then it worked.
(it was looking at the settings in the LuCI gui which showed the password in red, so I changed it (by editing the text file so I knew only that one thing changed) and it worked first time!

[#11]

As pointed out by @core2lee, wifi in the MikeSmith openwrt image does indeed work. I've used it myself before moving to LEDE snapshot.

I seem to recall LUCI is included in the MikeSmith compiled image too.

I recall there were some ADSL driver issues with the above OpenWRT image. You may wish to check out this old thread:

https://openwrt.ebilan.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=138&p=1130#p1130

[#12]

LuCi does indeed come pre-compiled in this version, along with a few other niceties such as OpenVPN.

Unfortunetly I cannot vouch for the ADSL firmware, however I can confirm (at least on Plusnet VDSL) that the VDSL driver is as solid as a rock. 

[#13]

Well I want OpenVPN and I will be using ADSL, at least for now, so I'll stick with the OpenWrt install and report back on successes/failures

[#14]

Just wanted to report that ADSL works fine with the OpenWrt firmware. My configuration in /etc/config/network is shown below (obviously one needs to substitute their own username and password).

    config dsl 'dsl'
        option annex 'a'
        option firmware '/lib/firmware/adsl-a.bin'
        option xfer_mode 'atm'
        option line_mode 'adsl'

    config interface 'wan'
        option proto 'pppoa'
        option username 'username@plusdsl.net'
        option password 'password'
        option vpi '0'
        option vci '38'
        option encaps 'vc'
        option ipv6 '0'

To my amazement this worked the first time I tried it. It's giving me a better download rate than my other router - previously 4562/1196 and now 5507/1081. But upload is slightly lower.

update: to give the wan interface a mac address, add

config device 'wan_dev'
        option name 'pppoa-wan'
        option macaddr '90:72:82:86:60:71'

Otherwise the MAC will be 00:00:00:00:00:00.

One thing I don't understand is why my interface shows in LUCI in red even though it appears to work ok...

[#15]

7Well the euphoria was short lived.

I turned off the router a few hours ago and went off to do other things. I just came back and started it up but it failed to boot. Looking at the serial port I find this

[    2.559511] UBIFS error (ubi0:0 pid 1): ubifs_recover_master_node: failed to recover master node
[    2.686657] UBIFS (ubi0:0): background thread "ubifs_bgt0_0" stops
[    2.693301] VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
[    2.700243] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
[    2.708577] 1f00             256 mtdblock0  (driver?)
[    2.713598] 1f01             256 mtdblock1  (driver?)
[    2.718663] 1f02             128 mtdblock2  (driver?)
[    2.723694] 1f03            2048 mtdblock3  (driver?)
[    2.728742] 1f04          128384 mtdblock4  (driver?)
[    2.733805] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[    2.744024] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

(full log here)

Before powering off everything looked great (and I have successfully powered off/rebooted many times). The last things I was doing was network configuration as described in earlier post, all of which worked. Nothing that would trigger this kernel panic. I'm investigating, but just in case anyone else has experienced this...

update I've bitten the bullet - reset to BT firmware and then installed latest LEDE snapshot (r4782-80e2ee3e64). So far so good. It's also cleared up some other minor issues I needed to solve, so that's good too

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.