building firmware from sources (RT-AC65U)

[Pyro]

Hello everyone

I was looking recently for a new wireless router to replace the dying 10 yo one I had, and after some homework I decided to go with the RT-AC65U. Many people around me have an ASUS router, and according to them it was no problem to have it in english, but it seems that changed since.
https://wikidevi.com/wiki/ASUS_RT-AC65U

Living in Japan, it seems to be locked in japanese language. After looking around, I thought I would just modify the source code and then rebuild and flash it to enable extra languages.

However, after downloading the sources and setting up a VM, I just can't see the end of it.
First, I had errors with prebuilt files

make[4]: *** No rule to make target 'private.c', needed by 'private.o'. Stop.
make[4]: Leaving directory '/home/guillaume/asuswrt/release/src/router/shared'

I'm not a Makefile expert, so I just added rules for every single file that was causing problems.
Then, I get other complains about bwdpi.o having no rule either once in router/rc folder...

So I'm just wondering...

1. Did Asus really try to build the firmware with their own code dump ?
2. Did anyone succeed building with the latest source ? any trick good to know perhaps to make it work ?
   
3. My router is not listed in the compatible HW for asuswrt-merlin, and indeed there is no src-ra-5010 folder in the source tree out there... does this mean I'm just out of luck and must stick to asuswrt ?

Thanks for any info
My japanese is not bad, but still I'd feel much more comfortable setting things up in another language...

 

[RMerlin]

Unfortunately, the GPL drops they publish are often missing proprietary files. This is probably the case for the RT-N65U GPL. Not much you can do beside contact Asus to ask them for the missing files I'm afraid.

My router is not listed in the compatible HW for asuswrt-merlin, and indeed there is no src-ra-5010 folder in the source tree out there... does this mean I'm just out of luck and must stick to asuswrt ?

That's correct, I don't support that model.

 

[Pyro]

Well, there are some "prebuilt" modules in the GPL drop that are supposed to be reused. But it seems that the Makefile is not correctly written.
For that "private.o" file to be generated, there should be a rule I guess stating that files from the prebuilt folder shall be copied to the current folder.
I'm not a Makefile expert, so I just added rules for each file like this

private.o: prebuilt/private.o
@cp -f $< $@

By doing so, I can go one step further, but still get errors later on

make[4]: *** No rule to make target 'bwdpi.o', needed by 'rc'. Stop.
make[4]: Leaving directory '/home/pyro/asuswrt/release/src/router/rc'

In your source tree from asuswrt-merlin there is indeed a bwdpi.c that is absent from mine... guess I'll have to ask to support indeed :/

 

[Pyro]

Ok, so THAT was disappointing...

Thank you for contacting ASUS Service Center.
It's our pleasure to help you with your problem.
We are so sorry to tell you that we do not provide personal user with the service and support on modifying firmware or compiling source code.

I did also try to build the toolchain to compile the padavan firmware, but after looking at the source, it doesn't seem to provide anything for the AC65U either.