Flashing Movistar Zyxel P870HNU-51B with OpenWRT 14.07

With enough coffee I managed to compile OpenWRT 14.07 for Zyxel P870HNU-51B distributed by Movistar.

It was the first time I ported a new router to OpenWRT. I learned a lot. Here are some references:

• BCM63xx Firmware Image Information
• CFE
• Adding new device support
• GPIO
• Image Generator (Image Builder)
• The OpenWrt Flash Layout
• Changing CFE defaults
• Router: ADB P.DG AV4202N
• Router: ZyXEL P-870HN-5xb
• Router: Netgear DGND3700 v1 / DGND3800B
• Router: Huawei HG655a/b/d/m
• Router: ZyXEL P-870HW-51a

This router is the successor of ZyXEL P-870HW-51a and have almost the same hardware specs as ZyXEL P-870HN-5xb but with a 16MB of flash memory instead of 8MB. It's a VDSL-Only router.

Downloads:

• Original Movistar Firmware (.bin file) or if needed, the original installable assistant (.exe) which includes that .bin file in its installation folder)
• OpenWRT 14.07 (r42625) with LuCI, 3G Modems Support, RelayD, IPv6, NTFS-3G, vFat, Ext4, USB v2, USB 1.1 OHCI, usb-storage-extras, block-mout, fdisk, Kernel with FPU +  Drivers for USB Wifi Cards (ath9k-htc, brcmfmac, carl9170, libertas-usb, zd1201, zd1211rw, p54-usb, rt2500-usb, rt2800-usb, rt73-usb, rtl8187, rtl8192ce/cu/de/se)
• A lighter OpenWRT 14.07 (r42625) with LuCI, 3G Modems Support, RelayD, IPv6, NTFS-3G, vFat, Ext4, USB v2, USB 1.1 OHCI, usb-storage-extras, block-mout, fdisk, Kernel with FPU. [WITHOUT] the extra USB Wifi cards support
• A patch for Barrier Breaker if you need to compile it yourself.
• OEM Bootlog if needed
• OEM extra info if needed
• OpenWRT Bootlog if needed

Flashing either from:

• Router's web interface: Maintenance > Tools > Firmware
• CFE (powering up the router while pressing the reset button a few seconds then access CFE web interface http://192.168.1.1  your OS needs a static network config)
• Serial UART (USB-to-TTL) from CFE Bootloader. issue ATUR. Then send the firmware via XModem
• tftp from telnet. login with 1234/1234. then issue sh to get a busybox shell, then: tftp -g -t i -f zz112BKW0b11.bin 192.168.1.2    or   tftp -g -t i -f openwrt-P870HNU-51b-squashfs-cfe.bin 192.168.1.2  (but you need to have a tftp server set up first)

The router is stable and running well. However:

• This router's WIFI works only with b43 or with the proprietary driver, not with brcmsmac.
• LEDs are working except for USB. I couldn't find its GPIO. Also, Lan LEDs  become on only if the cables were already attached when the router was booting up.

Enjoy it.