Tips to build a router with BPI-R4-8P model

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4/BPI-R4 Pro(MT7988)
1

Hi folks,

I bought a BPI-R4-8P (still needs to arrive), and I’m wondering how can I put OpenWrt on it.

I saw plenty of discussions about 4GB x 8GB RAM, also there is a special image for POE, which this model has, special image for 2.5GbE, which this model also has, and beside that, I will use a BE14 card, and also there are specific problems with the tx power.

Do you have more details about how to OpenWrt in this model that has such different features than the default one?

2

Hi, you can use the search:

grafik

Example:

3

I searched about the model, BPI-R4-8P and couldn’t find anything about it. this model has a lot of different things, so I was wondering if there would be an image that enable all features. Memory is just one thing, but there is also PoE, 2.5GbE interface and the wifi card I’m using.

4

I believe that the model should come with a default image on NAND that has everything working, but I still didn’t receive the board to test it, and I would like to have the image available to write on an SD card in case I need to restore, but there is no where I can find. I found an image for PoE, tips to replace BL2 for 8GB, but I don’t know if this BL2 file that I will use enables 8GB of RAM but makes other features unavailable. I found an image to enable 8GB, but it for BE13500, not BE14.

Got it?

5

Poe and 2.5g board are same from software pov. Poe itself has no sw change…it is only hw addition to the phy variant. So in mainline i named the dts 2g5 instead of poe like openwrt does currently. For 8g only bl2 has to be replaced, else image is same (openwrt and also debian/ubuntu).

6

Thanks. I just received the new board couple hours ago, I flashed the latest PoE image in my SD card, after that written in the NAND, boot in NAND, written in eMMC, and also rewrite to use the correct BL2 that I sent over ssh. Now my next task is dealing with the Wi-Fi card that just got 7 dBm.