TP-Link Archer C7 V4 AC1750 Optimized LEDE Firmware

Features

• Extended & optimized build for TP-Link Archer C7 V4 only based on latest LEDE trunk source
• Baked using latest GCC version 7.2 with -O3, 24kc, binutils 2.29.1 and various patches to maximize performance
• LuCI SSL Web Interface
• VPN ready (OpenVPN, L2TP, IPSec, GRE, IPIP, PPTP)
• DNSCrypt using Cisco OpenDNS for your security, privacy & freedom
• QoS with SQM (cake & more)
• Qualcomm FastPath
• BBR Congestion Control
• Simple Adblock available in LuCI
• Dynamic DNS support
• WiFi Schedule (disable/enable WiFi at specific times)
• HD Idle (spins down connected hard drives when idle)
• Wake On LAN (WOL)
• UPnP support
• Supports common filesystems (btrfs, exfat, f2fs, ext4, msdos, ntfs, nfs, xfs, fuse, reiserfs, squashfs)
• IPv4-over-IPv6
• Supports bonding, relays and bridges
• BCP38 anti spoofing
• Advanced statistics (graphs)
• vim, nano, tcpdump-mini, htop, rsync, iproute2, ipset, wget, curl, ethtool, dmesg, grep, tar & many more
• Partition management tools (blkid, cfdisk, lvm2)
• Harddrive management tools (hdparm, smartmontools)
• Filesystem maintenance tools (btrfs-progs, dosfstools, e2fsprogs, tune2fs, xfs-fsck, xfs-growfs, xfs-mkfs, ntfs-3g)
• Encrypted partition/harddrive handling (cryptsetup-openssl)
• Throughput monitoring [via CLI] (iftop)
• Wireguard support (non-tested)

FAQ

Can I block ads with this firmware?

Yes! Open /etc/config/dnscrypt-proxy with nano or vim and change option resolver 'fvz-anyone' to option resolver 'default.ns1.adguard.com'. Then restart DNSCrypt with service dnscrypt-proxy restart.

Do you offer any quality assurance?

Sort of. I push releases manually after testing the builds on my own C7, which prevents major issues with the releases you can find here. (no nightly builds)

My clients are unable to connect to the internet after flashing this firmware!

Just reboot your router once and it should work. If it still doesn't work, make sure that dnscrypt-proxy is enabled and working. SSH to your router and do service dnscrypt-proxy enable; service dnscrypt-proxy restart.

Can I get this firmware even faster?

Yes. If you don't use PPPoE or another tunneling protocol, you can remove the line option mtu_fix 1 in /etc/config/firewall to squeeze out another 20-30Mbps. In my case (kernelOfTruth) it even made a difference of night and day (e.g. 170 Mbps or 270 Mbps vs. 430 Mbps)

Changelog

• 2018-02-04

  • Added partition management tools (blkid, cfdisk, lvm2)
  • Added harddrive management tools (hdparm, smartmontools)
  • Added filesystem maintenance tools (btrfs-progs, dosfstools, e2fsprogs, tune2fs, xfs-fsck, xfs-growfs, xfs-mkfs, ntfs-3g)
  • exfat-utils is NOT available, so NOT included
  • Added encryption handling (cryptsetup-openssl)
  • Added throughput monitoring [via CLI] (iftop)
  • Added wireguard support, tcpbridge app
  • Added additional NLS "codepages" (cp850, cp852, iso8859-15)
  • Added luci support for wireguard, dnscrypt
  • removed usb-storage-uas (doesn't work on desktop for me, so there's no indication it'll work on the router; also: no usb 3.0)
  • removed the Archer C7 v2 build to avoid confusion and accidental flashing on v4 (yep, "shit happens", so let's avoid it)
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-12-08

  • Fixed compilation issues (odhcpd-ipv6only was "magically" added by upstream updates and caused conflicts)
  • Added rfkill support (might fix 5GHz issues, credits to @cliobrando)
  • Added kmod-usb-printer
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-11-06 v2

  • All patches ported to kernel 4.9
  • Switched to kernel 4.9
  • Enabled BBR & FQ (adjust your sysctl.conf)
  • Switched to GCC 7.2
  • Switched to binutils 2.29.1
  • .config file added to repo

• 2017-11-06

  • Switched from gwlim's to dissent1's Shortcut FE patches
  • Removed 464 to prevent bug (high CPU load, crash)
  • Patch updates
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-09-10

  • GRO support added
  • Patch updates
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-08-09

  • ssdk removed (useless for now)
  • Patch updates
  • Minor improvements
  • Nightlies fixed
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-08-03

  • Updated patches
  • Upstream Updates

• 2017-07-02

  • Re-added ath9k-htc and a couple of other recently "lost" kmods
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-07-01

  • Fixed issue with FastPath not being included
  • Adjusted several patches
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-06-29

  • Switched to MIPS 24kc, which means you can now use the official LEDE repository to install and update packages
  • Hardware NAT support added
  • Qualcomm FastPath added
  • Updated all of gwlim's patches & added a couple of new ones
  • Added ds-lite, map-t, xl2tpd and ssdk_sh
  • tor removed (install with opkg if you need it)
  • Used binutils 2.28
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-05-22

  • Added ath9k firmware modules
  • Added openvpn-easy-rsa
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-04-27

  • Moved from OpenNIC to OpenDNS (they dropped port 443 support)
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-04-08

  • Re-added netfilter modules present on vanilla LEDE
  • Removed AOE and ATA related kernel modules
  • Upstream updates

• 2017-04-04

  • ca-bundle added

• 2017-04-02

  • Upstream updates
  • Added patches and files source code
  • Added nightly builds based on latest release configs to keep up with upstream developments

• 2017-04-01

  • pppossh added
  • openssh-sftp-server added
  • Many netfilter modules removed to increase throughput
  • Kernel settings fine-tuned (sysctl)
  • Many of gwlim's patches cherry picked & ported
  • Many minor changes aimed at improving performance

• 2017-03-19

  • Upstream updates
  • LuCI Material theme added
  • TOR support added
  • rfkill support added
  • ca-certificates added
  • LuCI simple-adblock added
  • Possible performance improvements
  • MIPS16 instructions removed
  • Switched from ath10k-ct to vanilla ath10k
  • Tweaked kernel config

• 2017-03-01

  • Upstream updates

• 2017-02-22

  • Upstream updates

• 2017-02-19

  • Upstream updates

• 2017-02-14

  • Upstream updates
  • Replaced wpad-mini with wpad
  • Added hostapd-utils

• 2017-02-13

  • Upstream updates
  • Minor bug fixes

• 2017-02-09

  • Upstream updates
  • openssl-util added

• 2017-02-08

  • Upstream updates

• 2017-02-07

  • Upstream updates
  • More gcc optimizations
  • DNSCrypt added
  • Added config to GitHub repo

• 2017-02-06

  • Upstream updates
  • Added rsync
  • BCP38 added (including LuCI app)
  • Compile everything with -O3 and -march=74kc
  • Use GCC 6.3

• 2017-02-05

  • Upstream updates

• 2017-02-04

  • Initial release