DISCLAIMER: This guide is for WHOEVER might find themselves in the specific situation I found myself in this week. (no I'm not kidding)

Even if that somebody is me in 3 months. (shut up. No one asked you.)

Imagine that while walking, you come across a tree. Most would walk around it, while I climb over the damn thing.

With that image in mind, here's what you need to know; I'm stubborn and kind of dumb.

Anyway, after screwing my windows pc, (no worries, it was a GPD WIN so no huge loss), I was forced to use my chromebook to install, set up and configure OpenWRT on my new Netgear router.

First obstacle, locating all the damn files I actually needed to do this install.I need the snapshot bc there's no stable release? K, got it. Here it is: https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/

You need "openwrt-ramips-mt7621-netgear_r6260-squashfs-factory.img" Don't bother with anything else, it won't work. (bc fuck your sanity, that's why)

​

Next you need to actually put that damn file onto your router. God willing you actually have a mote of sense in your head and don't do it the way I did. (2 chromebooks, download on one, transfer via google drive, then upload from the other)

Do the smart thing and upload it to your router with the computer you downloaded the file on. You can find the firmware upgrade page in the advanced tab, and within the administration section.You may need to upgrade twice. If the router doesn't give you some bull about the new FW being older than the current one, flash it again.

Once done, reboot your router. A good way to do this is to press the helpful button on the back to kill the power. Once the router is back online you can then ssh into it using crosh.

Now, it took me HOURS while being snowed into my house to figure this out so trust me when I say, this is super simple. Press ctl alt t to open crosh, and from there type shell and hit enter to open your chromebooks actual command line. (YOU DO NOT NEED TO DOWNLOAD ANY EXTRA BULLSHIT. TRUST ME.)

Now, I tried to connect my Netgear router to the internet by setting up a TP-Link WA801ND as a client and plugging it in to the WAN port, which did fuck all, so Now we have to download all of the files needed to install Luci (the GUI for OpenWRT) onto the bastard. Cool, here's a helpful list I've lifted off someone who did the same thing I'm doing and did NOT do it the same way I did. (bc of course they didn't)

liblua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/liblua5.1.5_5.1.5-7_mipsel_24kc.ipklua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/lua_5.1.5-7_mipsel_24kc.ipklibuci-lua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/libuci-lua_2020-01-27-e8d83732-3_mipsel_24kc.ipklibubus https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/libubus20191227_2020-01-05-d35df8ad-1_mipsel_24kc.ipklibubus-lua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/libubus-lua_2020-01-05-d35df8ad-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkuhttpd https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/uhttpd_2020-02-12-2ee323c0-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkrpcd https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/rpcd_2020-01-05-efe51f41-2_mipsel_24kc.ipk

luci-base https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-base_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkliblucihttp https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/liblucihttp0_2019-07-05-a34a17d5-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkliblucihttp-lua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/liblucihttp-lua_2019-07-05-a34a17d5-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkluci-lib-ip https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-lib-ip_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkluci-lib-nixio https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-lib-nixio_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkluci-theme-bootstrap https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-theme-bootstrap_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_all.ipkluci-mod-admin-full https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-mod-admin-full_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_all.ipkluci-lib-jsonc https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-lib-jsonc_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkluci-mod-status https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-mod-status_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkluci-mod-system https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-mod-system_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_all.ipkluci-mod-network https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-mod-network_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_all.ipk

libiwinfo https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/libiwinfo20200105_2020-01-05-bf2c1069-1_mipsel_24kc.ipklibiwinfo-lua https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/libiwinfo-lua_2020-01-05-bf2c1069-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk

Additional packages to support pppoe

wget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/rpcd-mod-file_2020-01-05-efe51f41-2_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/rpcd-mod-luci_20191114_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/base/rpcd-mod-iwinfo_2020-01-05-efe51f41-2_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/kmod-ledtrig-default-on_4.14.172-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/kmod-ledtrig-heartbeat_4.14.172-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/kmod-ledtrig-netdev_4.14.172-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ramips/mt7621/packages/kmod-ledtrig-timer_4.14.172-1_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/packages/cgi-io_19_mipsel_24kc.ipkwget https://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mipsel_24kc/luci/luci-proto-ppp_git-20.076.61489-c259369-1_all.ipk

​

Next we have to get these files onto the router. follow along kids, I get confused easily.

1. ssh into the router- ssh root@192.168.1.1 (you'll get some shit about something or other, just type yes and hit enter. ACTUALLY TYPE YES. Y will not suffice here.)
2. create your working directory- mkdir /tmp/luci-offline
3. exit the session- exit

You should now be back in your shell window, from here you need to move all the ipk files to the folder you created on your router and you can do so this way.

1. assume they are all in your downloads folder
2. type scp ~/Downloads/\.ipk* [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]):/tmp/luci-offline

You can now ssh back into your router with ssh [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

You can now (finally) install all the files you just uploaded by typing opkg install /tmp/luci-offline\.ipk*

You may get a bunch off errors, don't worry about it.

Delete the evidence. rm -f -R /tmp/luci-offline

Now restart your router.

By now you've figured out that luci did not install correctly AND you've idiotically been using your TP-link router as a client, so now you need to reset the tp-link router and use it as a wireless bridge instead and fix your fuckup with luci.

Now you need to go to bed bc it's 2 am and your partner is yelling at you not to stay up all night.

​

At this point (if you're anything like me) you've gotten tired of dealing with the stock options on your tp-link router so you decide to flash it with openwrt instead of using your OTHER tp-link router of the same model and version that's flashed with ddwrt (Don't ask me how I did it, I don't remember).

So flash that bitch with https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.9/targets/ar71xx/tiny/tl-wa801nd-v2-squashfs-factory.bin and set it up the way you should have in the first place.

you'll need https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.9/packages/mips_24kc/base/relayd_2020-04-25-f4d759be-1_mips_24kc.ipk
and https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.9/packages/mips_24kc/luci/luci-proto-relay_git-20.356.64372-1259bb1-1_all.ipk

set up the tp-link router wifi relay-bridge mode via this guide https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/relay_configuration

you'll need to send the relayd package and the proto package to the router via the same steps above (make sure to only send relayd and luci-proto-relay) scp ~/Downloads/\.ipk* [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]):/tmp/relayd-offline

install opkg install /tmp/relayd-offline/\.ipk*

ice the witness rm -f -R /tmp/relayd-offline

reboot the tp-link router, finish the guide and continue

​

At this point you may now plug your configured tp-link router into the WAN port of your netgear router, and reboot the netgear to make sure of established contact.

ssh into the netgear- ssh root@192.168.1.1

check internet connection- Ping openwrt.org

get impatient and manually reboot, having established internet connection by navigating to google.com or facebook.com via the omnibox in chrome.

reestablish connection with netgear via ssh ssh root@192.168.1.1

change your ip settings on the netgear via ssh with these-

uci set network.lan.ipaddr="192.168.2.22"
uci set network.lan.gateway="192.168.2.1"
uci set network.lan.dns="192.168.2.1"
uci commit
/etc/init.d/network restart

(again) reestablish connection with netgear via ssh ssh [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) (type yes to whatever)

update - opkg update
install luci- opkg install luci

(take a break here to hydrate and get laid, if applicable. This may take about 5 minutes. so after you and your partner are done fooling around, you can use the remaining 4 minutes and 30 seconds to have a smoke.)

Then (for shits and giggles) install relayd and luci-proto-relay -
opkg install relayd
opkg install luci-proto-relay
reboot

Congratu-fucking-lations. You've now installed OpenWRT on your Netgear AC1600 R6260

Enjoy, dumbass.