Compiling and toolchain questions for RT-AX86U Pro

[wifi_robot]

Hi,
I am attempting to compile for an RT-AX86U Pro. I thought I had succeeded but then realized I had compiled for an RT-AX86U and attempting to install the firmware failed of course. Backtracking I verified that the pre-built RMerl firmware image for RT-AX86U Pro works great so I know that it can be built. I'm clearly doing it wrong.

Reading the docs (https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Compile-Firmware-from-source) there is no option mentioned for setting up the toolchain for RT-AX86U Pro, only the RT-AX86U. So I've taken an educated guess and come up with these options:


sudo ln -s ~/am-toolchains/brcm-arm-hnd /opt/toolchains
echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$LD_LIBRARY:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-arm-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/lib" >> ~/.profile
echo "export TOOLCHAIN_BASE=/opt/toolchains" >> ~/.profile
echo "PATH=\$PATH:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-arm-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/bin" >> ~/.profile
echo "PATH=\$PATH:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-aarch64-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/bin" >> ~/.profile

cd ~/amng-build/release/src-rt-5.04axhnd.675x (what exactly is 5.04 and 675x referring to? I understand axhnd)
make rt-ax86u_pro

Things proceed as normal...and I should mention I have tried the Docker build environment, multi-pass and a plain Ubuntu 20.04 vm with similar results e.g. failed builds for the Pro.

CONFIGURED MODEL: RT-AX86U_PRO
SPECIFIED MODEL: RT-AX86U_PRO
DEFINED MODEL: RTAX86U_PRO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clean old model configuration
Update model configuration

Copy router-sysdep.rt-ax86u_pro content
make bin

...<normal make output>

until here:
make[5]: Entering directory '/home/ubuntu/amng-build/release/src-rt-5.04axhnd.675x/kernel/linux-4.19'
scripts/kconfig/conf --olddefconfig Kconfig
/home/ubuntu/am-toolchains/brcm-arm-hnd/crosstools-aarch64-gcc-9.2-linux-4.19-glibc-2.30-binutils-2.32/bin/../libexec/gcc/aarch64-buildroot-linux-gnu/9.2.0/cc1: error while loading shared libraries: libisl.so.15: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I'm hoping to get a clearer understanding of which toolchain and which release directory to use for building. The docs are great if the specific router is listed but I'm at a loss when the router is supported but no clear instruction exists in the docs to build the firmware. Any help/guidance would be appreciated and I suspect others would benefit too. Thanks all.

 

[wifi_robot]

Looks like at least one problem was a missing LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Updated build .profile is

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-aarch64-gcc-9.2-linux-4.19-glibc-2.30-binutils-2.32/lib/:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-arm-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/lib
export TOOLCHAIN_BASE=/opt/toolchains
PATH=$PATH:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-arm-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/bin
PATH=$PATH:/opt/toolchains/crosstools-aarch64-gcc-5.5-linux-4.1-glibc-2.26-binutils-2.28.1/usr/bin

Notice the addition of the aarch64 libs

 

[RMerlin]

The RT-AX86U_PRO needs to be built from the 5.04 SDK folder.

 

[dave14305]

Your paths don't look right for HND5.04. See the toolchain README.

am-toolchains/README.md at master · RMerl/am-toolchains

Asuswrt-Merlin toolchains. Contribute to RMerl/am-toolchains development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[wifi_robot]

Thank you.
Looking at the build folders the only one with 5.04 is listed as src-rt-5.04axhnd.675x. is that correct? If so that's the one I'm using and so far it looks to be building successfully with the above addition to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH

~/amng-build/release$ ls
image src-rt src-rt-5.02axhnd src-rt-5.02hnd src-rt-6.x.4708
src src-rt-5.02L.07p2axhnd src-rt-5.02axhnd.675x src-rt-5.04axhnd.675x src-rt-7.14.114.x

 

[wifi_robot]

Got it.

This is what I ended up with:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 62687360 Jan 11 00:09 RT-AX86U_PRO_3004_388.6_beta1_nand_squashfs.pkgtb

I will flash it tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

[kernol]

Got it.

This is what I ended up with:
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 62687360 Jan 11 00:09 RT-AX86U_PRO_3004_388.6_beta1_nand_squashfs.pkgtb

I will flash it tomorrow. Thanks again.

I have found this utility provided by @Adamm to be most useful - and works for my routers - including the RT-AX86U-PRO ...
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/amcfwm-asuswrt-merlin-custom-firmware-manager.63227/
https://github.com/Adamm00/amcfwm

I use VMWare Workstation Player 17.5 [free version] to create a VM running Ubuntu 20-04-5.