Introduction

I was using the Raspberry Pi as my wifi router, but I have to admit I reached it’s limit quite soon. Even with a good wifi usb dongle, I couldn’t get a stable and fast connection.

I then bought on Amazon a TP-Link WR841/ND, a small and cheap router but quite strong and that can run OpenWRT. It provide 4 ethernet ports + one for the inbound internet connection + Wifi n 300Mbps. You can find the complete information about the model on the wiki of OpenWRT.

The first thing I have done is checking the version of the router, I have the v9 meaning I won’t be able to use the last stable version of OpenWRT (12.09) but only the bleeding edge (from r40695). I can confirm that the last build is working perfectly well (Chaos Calmer r42263). Because of the lack of space left after installing Luci (the administration panel), I wanted to create my own image to build into the squashfs the needed packages.

Building image

Following the guide on the wiki, here is the step I’ve done to have Luci + miniupnpd installed directly in my image. All the commands need to be run as normal user.

  1. Downloading the image creator of the last build : 
    cd ~
mkdir openwrt && cd openwrt
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/OpenWrt-ImageBuilder-ar71xx_generic-for-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
tar -xvjf OpenWrt-ImageBuilder-ar71xx_generic-for-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
cd OpenWrt-ImageBuilder-ar71xx_generic-for-linux-x86_64
  2. Updating theĀ repositories.conf with the repositories of OpenWRT. Adding this to the end of the file : 
    src/gz chaos_calmer_base http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/base
src/gz chaos_calmer_luci http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/luci
src/gz chaos_calmer_management http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/management
src/gz chaos_calmer_packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/packages
src/gz chaos_calmer_routing http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/routing
src/gz chaos_calmer_telephony http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/generic/packages/telephony
  3. Build the image with all the needed package and Luci +Ā miniupnpd : 
    make image PROFILE=TLWR841 PACKAGES="luci luci-app-upnp"
  4. Once build you’ll find the firmware into the folder bin/ar71xx : 
    	 1,6K elo   25 12:06 md5sums
	 2,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-root.squashfs
	 2,3M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-root.squashfs-64k
	 3,8M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v3-squashfs-factory.bin
	 3,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v3-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
	 3,8M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v5-squashfs-factory.bin
	 3,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v5-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
	 3,8M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v7-squashfs-factory.bin
	 3,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841nd-v7-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
	 3,8M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v8-squashfs-factory.bin
	 3,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v8-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
	 3,8M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v9-squashfs-factory.bin
	 3,4M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v9-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
	 1,5M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-uImage-gzip.bin
	 1,1M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-uImage-lzma.bin
	 3,2M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-vmlinux.bin
	 3,3M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-vmlinux.elf
	 1,5M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-vmlinux.gz
	 1,1M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-vmlinux.lzma
	 1,2M elo   25 12:06 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-vmlinux-lzma.elf
  5. If you are updating a current installation of OpenWRT use openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v9-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
    Or if you are changing the firmware for OpenWRTĀ openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v9-squashfs-factory.bin

Downloads

OpenWRT Sysfactory for TL-841v9

This is a system factory to installĀ OpenWRT on TP-Link 841v9 that have the manufacturer firmware.

This image has been build the 25 January 2015 and has been tested on the router.

You need to unrar it and then update the firmware of the router using the *.bin and be patient, that can take up to 10 minutes.

Disclaimer

Antoine Aflalo is furnishing this item “as is”. Antoine Aflalo does not provide any warranty of the item whatsoever, whether express, implied, or statutory, including, but not limited to, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any warranty that the contents of the item will be error-free.
In no respect shall Antoine Aflalo incur any liability for any damages, including, but limited to, direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages arising out of, resulting from, or any way connected to the use of the item, whether or not based upon warranty, contract, tort, or otherwise; whether or not injury was sustained by persons or property or otherwise; and whether or not loss was sustained from, or arose out of, the results of, the item, or any services that may be provided by Antoine Aflalo.

Download Now!11595 Downloads
OpenWRT SysUPDATE for TL-841v9

This is a system update for an existing installation of OpenWRT on TP-Link 841v9.

This image has been build the 25 January 2015 and has been tested on the router.

Disclaimer

Antoine Aflalo is furnishing this item “as is”. Antoine Aflalo does not provide any warranty of the item whatsoever, whether express, implied, or statutory, including, but not limited to, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or any warranty that the contents of the item will be error-free.
In no respect shall Antoine Aflalo incur any liability for any damages, including, but limited to, direct, indirect, special, or consequential damages arising out of, resulting from, or any way connected to the use of the item, whether or not based upon warranty, contract, tort, or otherwise; whether or not injury was sustained by persons or property or otherwise; and whether or not loss was sustained from, or arose out of, the results of, the item, or any services that may be provided by Antoine Aflalo.

Download Now!2968 Downloads