Now HLK-RM04 is supported by OpenWrt (r39237), please check the latest trunk to compile.

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OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04

Openwrt patch and installation guide for HiLink HLK-RM04

Introduction

HLK-RM04 is a small wifi module which is produced by HiLink. It is based on the Ralink RT5350 with some GPIOs raised out.
HLK-RM04 has 4M flash and 16M SDRAM on-package, 1 USB port, 2 UART ports (lite and full), 1 I2C, 2 GPIO (GPIO0, RIN), and 2 Ethernet ports (LAN and WAN). In different configurations, you can get different numbers of GPIO pins (for example 8 GPIOs + 1 serial port).

Files

• openwrt-add-support-for-hilink-hlk-rm04.patch -- patch to add "HILINK HLK-RM04" to OpenWrt
• openwrt-fix-enable-uartf-kernel-panic.patch -- patch to fix the kernel panic after enabling UARTF
• openwrt-hlk-rm04-firwmware-tool.patch -- this patch was written by Jeff Kent form openwrt forum; this patch allows us to upload firmware from official webUI upload firmware interface
• openwrt-rt5350-add-AP+STA-support.patch -- this patch was made by jonsmirl from OpenWrt mailing list. It allows one to use AP and STA modes simultaneously. For now, the user needs to enable STA first.
• hlk-rm04-boot-log.md -- some hardware information and openwrt bootlog of HLK-RM04
• image/uboot128.img -- uboot for 16M SDRAM; if you don't modify the HLK-RM04, use this uboot image
• image/uboot256.img -- uboot for 32M SDRAM; if you have modified the HLK-RM04, use this uboot image to access the additional memory.
• image/hlk-rm04-16m-luci-ser2net-usb2serial-r38025.bin -- image with luci, usb2serial and ser2net. luci runs slowly, sometimes would also run out of memory.

Patch and Compile Openwrt

In order to build OpenWrt for "HiLink HLK-RM04", you need to:

• download the latest OpenWrt trunk sources from svn
• download the patch
• apply the patch
• choose your target/subtarget/profile for the build
• compile the firmware

This is achieved using the following code snippet:

mkdir openwrt
cd openwrt
svn co svn://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk@38333 <--@38333 means force to check out Revision 38333
git clone https://github.com/JiapengLi/OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04.git
cd trunk
patch -p0 <../OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04/openwrt-add-support-for-hilink-hlk-rm04.patch
patch -p0 <../OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04/openwrt-hlk-rm04-firmware-tool.patch
patch -p0 <../OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04/openwrt-fix-enable-uartf-kernel-panic.patch
patch -p0 <../OpenWrt-HiLink-HLK-RM04/openwrt-rt5350-add-AP+STA-support.patch

Also you may want some extra package(if not, skip then) :

./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a

Then, empty the ./tmp and configure your openwrt. Run: rm -rf tmp make menuconfig

In the configuration menu, you need to select the following options:

Target System: Ralink RT288x/RT3xxx Subtarget: RT305x based boards Target Profile: HILINK HLK-RM04

If this is the first time you're loading OpenWRT on the HLK-RM04, please select: Target Image: ramdisk
By selecting this option, you can get a file named openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-initramfs-factory.bin. Use this bin file to load the HLK-RM04 module for first time.

To use OpenWrt with LuCI Web UI, you can additionally select following options:

• LuCI --> Collections --> luci
• LuCI --> Protocols --> luci-proto-3g

After all the needed options are selected, exit the menu, save the configuration, and proceed to build:

make

After compiling is done without any error, you'll find the image in bin/ramips/ which is named openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin.

Warning

Before installation, you need to make a choice. The memory configure resistors of the HLK-RM04 is in the wrong position, so we can't use it to automatically configure OpenWRT. Once the memory node can be used to force set the memmory size, but now it does not work in the latest trunk, maybe OpenWrt Developer changed the name. Two ways are found to solve this, hardware modification or force setting of the SDRAM size in Kernel_menuconfig.

• Hardware
  Follow http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/hilink/hlk-rm04?s#memory.configuration, change the 2 memory configure resistors to 16M mode.

• Software
  Run command:

    make kernel_menuconfig
  

find kernel hacking, press Enter and then find (rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2) Default kernel command string
press Enter again and manually set SDRAM value rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 mem=16M
At last, recompile the OpenWrt:

	make

Installtion

Jeff Kent made the firmware upload much easier. We can upload the OpenWRT firmware to the HLK-RM04 directly through the upload firmware WEBUI interface.

First Time

Make sure you've gotton the openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-initramfs-factory.bin, be careful with this. It may brick your hlk-rm04 module, so you may need save your hlk-rm04 firmware first.

1. set your PC's IP address to 192.168.16.100, Gateway 192.168.16.254, may be different if you have changed it already.
2. connect HLK-RM04 LAN port to your PC, power up HLK-RM04
3. Navigate to http://192.168.16.254/HLK_RM04.asp; replace 192.168.16.254 with the IP address of your HLK-RM04 if you've changed it.
4. click the Upload Firmware on the left side, choose the openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-initramfs-factory.bin, Apply and wait, then you got openwrt run on your hlk-rm04 module.

Sysupgrade

After install openwrt first time, you can use openwrt sysupgrade command to upgrade hlk-rm04. See wiki

Installtion(This method is out of date)

So far, I don't make WEBUI upgrade firmware work for flash openwrt image. This installtion need two steps:

• replace the HiLink official uboot
• use the new uboot to flash Openwrt image

Prepare

• USB2Serial or USB2TTL tool
• One Network cable
• serial concole(Eg: putty)
• tftp server, (ubuntu tftp-hpa; Windows Tftpd32.exe)

Step by Step

Replace the uboot

1. set your PC ipadress to 192.168.16.100, Gateway 192.168.16.254, may be difference if you have changed it once.
2. connect HLK-RM04 LAN port to your PC, power up HLK-RM04
3. access http://192.168.16.254/adm/hlk_update_www_hlktech_com.asp, replace 192.168.16.254 with yours, if you've changed it once.
4. in Update Bootloader option, click Choose File, then select uboot128.img, click Apply then click OK to make sure.
5. Here, we have replaced the uboot of HLK-RM04 successfully. And now the hlk-rm04 works fine, only thing what we change is let Uboot 'talk' to us, so that we can use uboot to download the openwrt image.

Flash Openwrt with Uboot

1. configure a tftp server.

   • For Ubuntu, See more Install tftp info

   	sudo atp-get install tftpd-hpa 
   	sudo service tftpd-hpa 
   	cp bin/ramips/openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin /var/lib/tftpboot/	

   • Download Tftpd32.exe, make `openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin' to be in the same directory with Tftpd32.exe, choose a right server ip.

2. open serial use 57600,8,n,1, make sure you have connect the serial cable.

3. Restart your HLK-RM04 module. Push '2' rapidly to enter the tftp write flash mode.

4. Set device ip 192.168.16.1, Set server ip 192.168.16.100.

5. input the file name openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

   	2: System Load Linux Kernel then write to Flash via TFTP.
   	 Warning!! Erase Linux in Flash then burn new one. Are you sure?(Y/N)
   	 Please Input new ones /or Ctrl-C to discard
   	        Input device IP (10.10.10.123) ==:192.168.16.1
   	        Input server IP (10.10.10.3) ==:192.168.16.100
   	        Input Linux Kernel filename (tim_uImage) ==:openwrt-ramips-rt305x-hlk-rm04-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
   

6. Wait flashing finished, then you can use Openwrt on HLK-RM04.

About Patch

openwrt-add-support-for-hilink-hlk-rm04.patch

This patch is based on previous work by Squonk42 (https://github.com/Squonk42/OpenWrt-RT5350), shmygov (https://github.com/shmygov/OpenWrt-HAME-MPR-A2) and others from OpenWrt forum (https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=37002&p=19), adapted for the new "Device Trees" structure based on dts files used in the latest OpenWrt trunk. Because need to change the order of uart and uartlite node in the rt5350.dtsi file, so that linux kernel register uartlite and uart in ttyS0 and ttyS1 sequence, so didn't use the rt5350.dtsi file just create a new one.
Note This patch use GPIO0 for system status LED, you may need solder one on you HLK-RM04. And WPS button is connected to "RIN/GPIO14" pin.

openwrt-fix-enable-uartf-kernel-panic.patch

After enable uartf we come across a kernel panic, this patch fixes it. Reference OpenWrt Ticket #13590

End

This patch is made with the help of many guys, Jeff who find the the extra at command, Tao Zhou who help to solve the ttyS* sequence problem, and John Crispin and Sebastian Muszynski from the openwrt mail list.