In order to improve the quality and bandwidth of the WIFI connection, we bought a networking device WAX206 as a wireless hotspot. At present, I have been using OpenWrt for more than a month. I simply record the process of compiling OpenWrt and the experience of using it.
Why buy it
The 2.5G switch was replaced. In order not to waste switch ports, we wanted to replace the long used Xiaomi Router Pro and K2P, so we searched for a wireless router with a 2.5G interface.
According to the reference of the mushroom, it fluctuates between the second-hand Xiaomi AX6000 and the new WAX206.
After careful consideration, there is no 4 × 4 equipment on hand, so the theoretical speed of the AX6000 is meaningless to me, so I choose the latter.
WAX206 has another advantage that people cannot refuse: handsome!
Unlike the ostentatious router, it has a low profile and looks handsome. This is the man's router.
Compiling OpenWrt Firmware
Several third-party firmware were used. All of these firmware are bloated. There are many unused extension software, some of which cannot be deleted.
In order to stabilize long-term use, we decided to compile a relatively pure firmware package.
Packaging is not difficult. The boss of Enshan 237 released the ImmortalwrtARM project with MTK closed source wireless driver on Github, cloned it, and packaged it according to the instructions of README.
0. Preparation environment
The recommended packaging environment is X64 Ubuntu 18.04 machine, and the packaging environment I prepared is Ubuntu Server 20.04 PVE virtual machine.
1. Clone engineering branch
git clone -b mt7622 --single-branch https://github.com/padavanonly/immortalwrtARM
2. Installation dependency
According to README instructions, there are two ways to install dependencies: manually install dependencies or one key script.
I choose to install manually. If some dependencies report errors during the installation dependency process, you can use the apt update --fix-missing And so on.
3. Pull the latest extension package
Enter the clone project directory and execute the following command:
./scripts/feeds update -a
4. Put the extension software package into the compilation directory
Execute the following command:
./scripts/feeds install -a
5. Start compiling
Execute the command to enter the menuconfig interface and set the packaging configuration:
make menuconfig
In this interface, you can select CPU, compilation template, software package, theme and other information through graphic options.
I need pure OpenWrt. After the default configuration is selected, only one network device theme is selected, and no additional software package is selected:
Execute the command to start compiling (after compiling, a menuconfig will still pop up, and the configuration information will be re selected again. I don't know why):
make
After hitting the Enter button, there is a long wait. The initial compilation time is about 4 hours.
Compilation time is related to the performance of the virtual machine. My virtual machine performance is not very strong.
6. Obtain firmware and upgrade
After compilation, the firmware is stored in the following directory:
bin/targets/mediatek/mt7622/
Since OpenWrt has been used before squashfs-sysupgrade.bin The image file can be upgraded.
user's experience
Briefly talk about WIFI speed, VR streaming experience, and stability.
1. WIFI speed
5G WIFI is configured as 160MHz and 44 channels:
For 2 × 2 MIMO devices, the maximum handshake speed can reach 2400 Mbps.
Using ipref multithreading test on the AX201 Windows tablet, it can run 1.76 Gbit/s at night.
For most WIFI6 routers, the performance is neither good nor bad, so so.
2. VR wireless streaming
Using the PICO4 VR all-in-one machine, the maximum speed of the current network handshake is displayed in the streaming software VirtualDesktop as 1200Mbps:
Compared with the previous 866 Xiaomi Router Pro, the WAX206 stream is more stable, and there is basically no frame jamming.
3. Stability
At present, the self compiled firmware has been used for more than a month, and there are no problems such as crash. I feel that the stability is OK.
