2021 Installing Openwrt

I will be installing Openwrt on black cylindrical Xiaomi mi router ac2100.

As of 2021, I’ve found the openwrt to be incorrect or outdated. This guide will tell you how to flash your xiaomi mi router ac2100 to a snapshot build then upgrade to a stable build.

Why not just flash directly to a stable build? Simply because I followed the Openwrt wiki then realized only later a stable newer build existed. yea… OpenWrt Wiki is not maintained well at all…

• For xiaomi mi ac2100 you must first downgrade the firmware.
  • If you have brand new mi router, you need to connect it to the internet and create a password and set up SSID.
    • Do not just connect to the default passwordless SSID that comes right out of the box because it will not work, I tried it.

Once you set up your ssid login to the router panel by going to http://192.168.31.1

The Url should show
http://192.168.31.1/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=\<STOK\>/web/home#router

For each of the below, replace <STOK> with your STOK After each command you should see a page that display “Code: 0”

1. http://192.168.31.1/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=\<STOK\>/api/misystem/set_config_iotdev?bssid=Xiaomi&user_id=longdike&ssid=-h%3Bnvram%20set%20ssh%5Fen%3D1%3B%20nvram%20commit%3B

2. http://192.168.31.1/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=\<STOK\>/api/misystem/set_config_iotdev?bssid=Xiaomi&user_id=longdike&ssid=-h%3Bsed%20-i%20's/channel=.*/channel=%5C%22debug%5C%22/g'%20/etc/init.d/dropbear%3B

3. http://192.168.31.1/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=<STOK>/api/misystem/set_config_iotdev?bssid=Xiaomi&user_id=longdike&ssid=-h%3B/etc/init.d/dropbear%20start%3B

4. http://192.168.31.1/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=<STOK>/api/misystem/set_config_iotdev?bssid=Xiaomi&user_id=longdike&ssid=-h%3B%20echo%20-e%20'admin%5Cnadmin' %20%7C%20passwd%20root%3B

ssh root@192.168.31.1

On windows, Download WinSCP in WinSCP, connect to your router and select protocol “SCP” Download snapshot files on your windows

kernel1.bin
rootfs0.bin

On WinSCP, on the remote router folder, go up one level to the root folder then go to “/tmp/” folder Then drag the two files you downloaded onto your windows machine into that the remote “/tmp/” folder

Then on your ssh session

mtd write /tmp/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mi-router-ac2100-squashfs-kernel1.bin kernel1

mtd write /tmp/openwrt-ramips-mt7621-xiaomi_mi-router-ac2100-squashfs-rootfs0.bin rootfs0

nvram set uart_en=1
nvram set bootdelay=5
nvram set flag_try_sys1_failed=1
nvram commit

Then disconnect your router by unplugging the power. You may notice this portion of the guide differs from the OpenWRT wiki.

Well that is because when I followed the wiki, everytime I ran the commands in their order, the router just factory reset back to the original mi firmware.

ssh root@192.168.1.1
uci show
uci set wireless.radio1.disabled='0'
uci commit wireless
wifi up

opkg update
opkg install luci