"Whether that decommissioned enterprise gear is useful or not depends on the device and whether firmware replacement is practical. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. As ever, this is a function of opportunistic and motivated reverse engineering."
Obviously, there is a time when something isn't supported, which moves towards being supported, sometimes at zero miles per hour, possibly forever, most particularly if you waiting for someone else to do the work. I think you misunderstand what determines the things OpenWrt developers spend their time on. Almost all of the enthusiasm for supporting new devices comes from the outside, by the people who are likely to benefit. Take a look at: git log --pretty=format:"%h [%an %ae] %s%n" | grep 'add support' | less in the openwrt git history and the vast majority of the device support is coming from people outside the core developers. -- Russell Senior [email protected] On Mon, Jan 12, 2026 at 1:35 AM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> wrote: > > Been around for the MR33 for a while: > > https://sagacioussuricata.com/posts/meraki-mr33/ > > More discussion on this here: > > https://watchmysys.com/blog/2024/04/breaking-secure-boot-on-the-meraki-z3-and-meraki-go-gx20/ > > And from here: > > https://openwrt.org/toh/meraki/z3 > > "... Thus, the only way to install OpenWrt is to physically remove the TSOP48 > NAND chip (U30 on the PCB) and flash it in an external programmer. You will > also need to reprogram the AT24 (24c64) EEPROM (U32 on the PCB)..." > > Now, granted, the Z3 isn't wifi6, it's 5. So even though the Z3's are > cheaply available on Ebay, etc. - they aren't worth the money to fuss with. > Unless your just wanting to get some cheap kit to learn on with your prom > programmer. > > There's also a long discussion thread on OpenWRT on the OpenWRT forum on the > Meraki MR46 which is an 802.11AX chip. Pretty much that one will end up like > the Z3 - unsolder chip, reprogram it, resolder it. > > Obviously, there's other devices out there that have secure boot bypasses > using that chipset - such as the Netgear WAX 220 - but it's going to be years > before these wifi6 devices are available cheaply in large quantity the way > that the Aps like the Luma, Meraki, etc. which fail to function if the > subscription is not paid, are. > > Buying 40 Meraki MR-52's for under $20 each to populate out a building with > wifi 5 - quite doable. > > Buying 40 Netgear WAX 220's for under $20 each? Not happening. > > Buying 40 Meraki MR-46's for under $20 each to populate out a building with > wifi 6? Well, not doable NOW since that device is currently sold - you can > get used ones as cheap as $75 - but the moment Cisco EOLS them the price on > them will crash on the used market. > > I simply don't see price crashing on the stuff sold to consumers like the > Netgear WAX stuff. And you won't see auctions like "lot of 20 WAX for $100" > the way you see for the Meraki stuff because it's generally 20 different > people buying those 20 WAXs while it's ONE org buying 20 or 200 of the > MR-46's. And when the 20 different people decide to get rid of WAX 220s, it > will be 20 different times over 2-3 years while the BigCo will just dump all > of them at once. > > This is why I spoke against the OpenWRT One on the forum although doing so > got me a lot of flak. > > With the used Enterprise gear, someone else has paid the depreciation. So, > it's always going to be dirt cheap. I felt instead of OpenWRT developers > sinking time into yet another $100 wifi AP, that they sink time into the > Enterprise gear so that we would have more $20 Aps. But the devs are techs > not businesspeople and to them, $100 is - apparently - nothing. They don't > consider the multiplicative factor of scale.... > > Ted > > -----Original Message----- > From: PLUG <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Russell Senior > Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2026 6:12 PM > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] Router recommendations for pending Ziply Fiber upgrade > > On Sat, Jan 10, 2026 at 5:22 PM Ted Mittelstaedt <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > Obviously I want to see OpenWRT ported to the new hardware but the latest > > porting efforts now, too much gear seem to start out with: > > > > Instruction #1 - heat up your hot air soldering station, desolder the PROM, > > put it into your PROM programmer and flash in our fixed boot loader.... > > I've never seen that. Can you point at an example? > > -- > Russell Senior > [email protected] >
