Phicomm PSG1218 K2 HW Rev.A2 OpenWRT - How To - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Black Phoenix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2019, 06:14:07 am
content: Well I had this router at home that I wanted to install the OpenWRT on it. Although being only sold in Asia, most of the instructions are on Chinese were there is a big community associated to it with their own versions of OpenWRT just for their own market, with OpenVPN and ShadowSocksR Plus+, functions tailored to bypass the GFW.The Router is based in the MediaTek MT7620A with 64MB of DDR2. The procedure are the same to all the HW Revs available in the market, from A1 to B2.For this we are going to need the TFTP program or OpenFTP (TFTP was used here), a program to Serial connection, it can be the Putty (I used the SecureCRT), the BreedWeb version for our router -https://breed.hackpascal.net/.In our case it's going to be thebreed-mt7620-phicomm-psg1208.binwhat we are going to rename to breed.bin and put in the same folder as the TFTP exe and the firmware we are interested in since there are various forks from the OpenWRT from Pandora to LEDE to Padavan etc. We are going to use the Fork from coolsnowwolf LEDE released by RealKiro -https://github.com/RealKiro/lede/releases. For this model as before we use the MT7620 one again.The equipment itself from start came with the dared firmware V22.6.532.231 that doesn't allow downgrades and most of the known vulnerabilities to allow to install non official firmware were patched, including deactivating the telnet option.For that the only way to unlock the bootloader was to locate the diagnose port and solder contact points for serial access and firmware upgrade via TFTP. First we locate the 2 screws under the bottom sticker that we need to remove:For that we going to solder contacts onto the TX, RX and GND, and connect the opposite of the USB UART adapter. VCCIO is not needed.Select 3,3V on the adapter and load it up with the following config for the serial connection program of choice:Baud Rate: 57600Data bits: 8Parity: NoneStop bits: 1No Flow Control options.If everything is Ok, the connection to the USB TTL adapter should be on in the program and when connected to the router diagnostic pins it should light up one of the leds:Let's then see what the equipment says to us:QuoteOkay now lets prepare the installation of the new bootloader. First with the router off we going to connect to the router on Port 1 with the ethernet cable to the pc and define the Static IP of the PC as 192.168.2.10, Subnet 255.255.255.0 and Gateway as 192.168.2.1. On TFTP Server Tab we going do choose the Server Interface as the one we defined on our ethernet card, so 192.168.2.10, the directory is the one were the breed.bin is located.We are going to turn on the router but at the same time we are going to press the button on the back for 2 sec. On the Serial connection we going to see that it says the button was pressed. Release and when it shows the following log hit 9 only once. Don't hit other keys or it will restart the loading again. It may need a couple tries to get the time right. Basically is Power ON with the back button pressed, release the button and less than a second after hit 9. It should show following log if it was successful:QuotePress Y and configure the as follows, following with an enter after each insertion.QuoteAfter the last command press enter and the router should find the file, and start downloading, and you will see in the TFTP window the file being uploaded to the router.QuoteAfter its done, turn off the router, change the Static IP configuration to 192.168.1.10 and keep the subnet, removing the gateway. Turn on again the router. If no action is taken the router will load his default image, the original phicomm one and work as before. But when turning on the router if the back button is pressed for more that 4 sec or via Serial a key is hit the router will enter in the bootloader mode, with the IPs 192.168.1.1 and subnet 255.255.255.0.QuoteOpen your browser of choice and you should see the following page after input of the router IP, 192.168.1.1:Now let's change the firmware.Select the 2nd option on the menu on the left and load the file in the respective field, and hit the bottom button.Next window confirm the operation on the bottom button again.Then wait for the file to load to the router. It will take some minutes and the router LED will flash blue for a while. When the LED stays blue fixed the operation is finished.Turn off the router and on again, let it load and it's done. The new IP of the router will be 192.168.2.1, so put the Ethernet adapter from the PC from Static IP to DHCP.Using the IP of the router on the browser it will result on his default home page:His default password is, well, password.And done. From there it's to configure the router as you wish. It's possible to use other images as the OpenWRT non china specific.To change the Image, redo the steps from the "After its done, turn off the router, change the Static IP configuration to 192.168.1.10 and keep the subnet(...)".Here with the Official English OpenWRT 18.06.4.