Flashing OpenWRT on Xiaomi Mini Router

1. Preparation

1. Prepare a toothpick to press the reset button on the router;

2. Prepare a USB drive and format it to FAT32;

3. Prepare an Ethernet cable to connect the router and the computer;

4. Download the official development version ROM for the corresponding router (official website);

5. Download the official SSH tool for the corresponding router (official website) and record the root password;

   

   Download the SSH tool

6. Download the corresponding breed file, for Xiaomi Mini Router it should be breed-mt7620-xiaomi-mini.bin;

7. Download the OpenWRT firmware for the corresponding router, here we use <span>openwrt-ramips-mt7620-xiaomi_miwifi-mini-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin</span>

8. Install SSH on the computer, refer to here for Win10, here for Win7, or you can use PuTTY to connect.

2. Flashing the Router to Development Version

The default system version of the Xiaomi router is stable and does not support enabling SSH permissions. Therefore, you need to upgrade to the development version of the system first. Open the router’s settings interface in a browser on the computer, click the dropdown menu in the upper right corner, select system upgrade, then click manual upgrade, and finally choose the development version ROM we prepared earlier. After the system is updated, the router will automatically restart, and you can re-enter the management backend to check the router’s system status.

If you forget the router password, you can refer to the official website for using a USB drive to flash the device. It is worth mentioning that using a USB drive to update the system will delete all data on the hard drive.

3. Enabling SSH on the Router

Once we enable the SSH function on the router, we can connect to the router using SSH and start tinkering with it. Let’s start:

1. Please copy the SSH tool bin file we prepared in the previous step to the root directory of the USB drive and ensure the file name is miwifi_ssh.bin;

2. Disconnect the power from the Xiaomi router and insert the USB drive into the USB port;

3. Press and hold the reset button, then connect the power; release the reset button when the indicator light turns yellow and blinks;

4. After waiting for 3-5 seconds, the installation will complete, and the Xiaomi router will automatically restart. A blue indicator light means success.

4. Flashing Breed

Breed is a bootloader developed by users that claims to be “unbricking”. Once the router successfully flashes Breed, we can use it to back up and flash router firmware. We will use Breed to flash OpenWRT. Let’s start flashing Breed:

1. Power off the router and remove the USB drive;

2. Rename the breed-mt7620-xiaomi-mini.bin file to breed.bin, copy it to the root directory of the USB drive, and ensure there are no other bin files in the root directory;

3. Insert the USB drive into the router, power it on, open the cmd terminal on the computer and type ssh [email protected], then press Enter to connect to your router (this is the default IP address of the Xiaomi router; if you have modified the subnet, change it to the modified router address), after connecting, execute the following command:

mtd -r write /extdisks/sda1/breed.bin Bootloader

1. After the following interface appears, remove the USB drive, power off the router, press and hold the reset button, then connect the power; release the reset button when the blue indicator light blinks;

   

   Breed flashing successful

5. Flashing OpenWRT

With Breed successfully flashed, we can now start flashing OpenWRT:

1. Access the Breed management interface via http://192.168.1.1

   

2. Click “Backup Firmware” to back up the firmware in case you want to revert later;

3. Click “Firmware Update”, select the firmware file from our prepared OpenWRT firmware, and click upload;

   

   Select OpenWRT firmware

4. Click update;

   

5. When the update is complete and the following interface appears, disable and then re-enable the network card;

   

   OpenWRT flashing completed

6. Access the OpenWRT management interface via <span>http://192.168.5.1</span>, initial management password: password;

   

   OpenWRT flashing successful

7. Congratulations! You have successfully flashed OpenWRT!

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All content above is excerpted from online platforms.