GL MV1000W from GL iNet AKA Brume

...a great little device that doesn't seem to be made anymore: GL-iNet GL-MV1000W

• Dual 1 GHz CPUs
• 1 GB of RAM
• micro SD Card Slot
• PLUS
  • Small Form Factor
  • USB C Power
  • 3 Port Switch
  • Antennas can be removed and replaced with RP-SMA Connectors fairly easily
  • 8 GB MMC Storage Built in (but it has to be "earned")
• MINUS
  • USB 2.0 Only
  • No PCIe Bus, wireless is USB too
  • Wireless has to be "earned" too

https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-mv1000

Perquisites

GL-iNet GL-MV1000W Brume SystemBoard with TTL-Serial Pin Headers (courtesy of OpenWRT.org).jpg

• Connect Serial / TTL Port (optional, requires 'disassembly' (see Disassembly Section);
  • The Serial / TTL Header is just there. 3 Pins, already on the System Board (near bottom of image to the right of the grayish rectangle (Ethernet Ports) and just to the left of the silver rectangle(s) (USB A and USB C Ports)) with the 'PIN Legend' printed on the SystemBoard (GND nearest the closest edge, then RX (Receive), and TX (Transmit)).
  • Serial Port Settings for PuTTY, SecureCRT, etc: 115200, 8, None, 1, No (That's Baud Rate, Data Bits, Parity, Stop Bits, Flow Control).
  • Hook it up, plug it in, and OpenWRT is ready to go. Job done! Nope (but it really is OpenWRT that it boots to, just a special custom 'flavor' from GL-iNet)
• Configure Computer with IP Address of 192.168.1.2 (should be able to do anything on the 192.168.1.X subnet). The Device's IP Address will be 192.168.1.1
• "Official Instructions" state: WAN port cannot be connected (turns out that's not accurate, tested, and it can be connected)

Installing a New Install of OpenWRT from Command Prompt of the Device's OEM Version of OpenWRT is not Possible

...but to try it out and see;

After connecting to the TTL / Serial Port, plug a cable into the Internet Ethernet Port.

opkg install wget (the BusyBox version of wget won't work with modern TLS / SSL)

wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/23.05.0/targets/mvebu/cortexa53/openwrt-23.05.0-mvebu-cortexa53-glinet_gl-mv1000-ext4-sdcard.img.gz, or whatever the latest version of OpenWRT is. And no, the "SD Card" version doesn't have to be installed on an SD Card (funny thing is that the large internal storage on this device is based on an MMC (Multi-Media Card) that is soldered to the SystemBoard. The important part about which version (EXT4, InitRAMFS, or SquashFS) is that it uses the EXT4 file system which will be important later (part of the "earning" the 8 GB of storage thing). There is also not going to be a debate as to which file system is 'kinder' to Solid State Storage as only EXT 4 will be able to take FULL advantage of the 8 GB of storage (in a non-convoluted way).

gunzip WhatEverFileName.gz > WhatEverImageName.img

sysupgrade /WhatEverImageName.img See, it won't work as GL-iNet decided they weren't going to allow it (odd, since they seem so OpenWRT friendly compared to most manufacturers).

This was included as a long, passive agressive, 'Implicitish' (#Implicitish, come on, only 5 other instance of this word on the internet according to Google as of mid TwentyTwoFour) commentary for the person that decided to include the rather useless Upgrading OpenWrt Section for this device on the OpenWRT.org website.

Installing a New / Fresh Install of OpenWRT from the Built in Boot Loader GUI

The timing on this one is a bit tough. Confirmation can be seen if you have a TTL / Serial connection to the device via the Pin Header where it will show on the screen;

Reset button is pressed for: "6 or 7"* HTTP Server is starting at IP: 192.168.1.1

* "6 or 7": Usually 7 will be displayed even if the Reset Button is released at 6 (as it should be)

• 

  GL-iNet GL-MV1000W Brume - Firmware Update Web Page
  Plug the device in AND Hold the reset Button (firmly), just watch for the practice the first time;
  • All three lights on the front light up (Power, WiFi, and VPN)
  • All three lights on the front turn off
  • The Power Light turns on
  • The WiFi Light turns on
  • Let go of the Reset Button

GL-iNet GL-MV1000W Brume - Successful Upgrade

At this point use a web browser to navigate to 192.168.1.1 where the "Firmware update" Page should be seen. Also, the official documentation on the OpenWRT.org website uses the incorrect title for one of the lights on the installation instructions.

If connected with a Serial / TTL device: Watch the "count-up", 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and before 7, let go of the Reset Button

Installing a New Install of OpenWRT from U-Boot (plus a Tirade)

After connecting to the TTL / Serial Port, plug a cable into the Internet Ethernet Port (again), get ready to press the 'gl' key. Wait! What? The actual message you will see is;

• Hit "gl" key to stop booting in X seconds. (no kidding, that's the actual message)
  • First that's gl, as in g+lowercase"L" (l as in Larry, thank English Language and modern computer for making l I and 1 (That's a lower case l, Upper Case I (as in Insulting), and the number One) so wonderfully, perfectly, exactly the same. Seriously!?!?!?
  • OK, gl key, let's see, f1, f2, ..., f12... Hmmm. Crap, no g1, no, gl.
  • Hit? Did you mean Press?
  • G and L are two "keys", not one "key"
  • Stop Booting? No! I need a Boot Loader command prompt. Boot to that.
  • It is absolutely stupefying a sentence that is less than 10 characters long have so many issues. Here's the right way gentlement;
    • Press the G Key and then the L Key to enter the U-Boot Command Interface. (was that so difficult?)

OK, tirade over.

• ...don't even need to press it, although installation of OpenWRT can be done from U-Boot on this device in a similar manner to the Linksys EA8500: https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/ea8500?s%5B%5D=ea8500. It's easier using the method in the previous section

Disassembly

Remove the two rubber feet closest to the front. Unscrew the two screws that are now visible. Start at the back, above the USB Ports, and gently pry up, working around to the front on both sides.