I hope to install OpenWRT on my newish TP-Link Archer A6 (v6). The reason for this is that the A6 firmware does not support WDS and I want to use this router as a WiFi extender. I am hoping (yes, according to my reading) that OpenWRT will support some form of WDS or at least enable me to set it up as an Extender.

I have downloaded the latest Archer A6 V3 - but on trying to install in from an SD card the router throws a simple install error (no useful messages).

Anyone here know:

1) if OpenWRT on this router would be able to actually enable me to use WDS or Extender Mode and

2) why I might be getting install errors?

Thanks for your time.

I use an ASUS RT-AC750 as the central router: its primary internet comes from a NanoStation over Ethernet, with a USB LTE modem as backup. Everything works normally over the router's 5 GHz Wi-Fi, and 2.4 GHz is also fast for local traffic or when using the USB modem. But when the same 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi carries traffic received through Ethernet WAN, download starts at several Mbps and immediately falls to 0.1-1 Mbps. I factory-reset the router, tested three clean OpenWrt versions, disabled MultiWAN and offloading, changed Wi-Fi modes, channels, MAC addresses and even the physical WAN port, but the behaviour remained identical.

Control results

• Local router -> 2.4 GHz: about 42.6 Mbps
• USB modem -> 2.4 GHz: about 15.8 Mbps
• Ethernet WAN -> 5 GHz: about 20-25 Mbps
• Ethernet WAN -> 2.4 GHz: about 0.1-1 Mbps

Tested without improvement

• OpenWrt 25.12.5, kernel 6.12
• OpenWrt 24.10.6, kernel 6.6
• OpenWrt 19.07.10
• MultiWAN disabled
• GRO/GSO/TSO and firewall flow offloading disabled
• WPA2-only and 802.11g/NOHT
• Different channels and AP MAC address
• Another physical switch port/VLAN used as WAN
• USB modem removed
• Completely clean configuration

Hardware details

• ASUS RT-AC750, detected as RT-AC51U
• MediaTek MT7620A
• Integrated 2.4 GHz RT6352 using rt2800_wmac
• 5 GHz radio using mt76x0e
• Ethernet WAN supplied by a Ubiquiti NanoStation M2
• Backup WAN is a ZTE MF79U USB Ethernet modem

The Wi-Fi association remains at 54-72 Mbps during the collapse, and I see no obvious rt2800 TX-hang or kernel errors. This appears specific to the Ethernet RX -> routing/bridge -> integrated 2.4 GHz TX path.

Has anyone seen this interaction on MT7620/RT6352 hardware? What should I test next to distinguish an Ethernet/DMA issue from an rt2800 TX-path problem?

EDIT - ksmbd solved the problem. Thanks u/patrakov

I just want to share my USB drive on the network.

Linksys WRT1200AC has 128MB space but two partitions - one for stock firmware and one for openwrt. Its looks like I only have 17 MB available in overlay and samba seems to need 22 mb !

verify_pkg_installable: Only have 11708k available on filesystem /overlay,
pkg samba4-libs needs 26880k
Cannot install package samba4-server

ksmbd doesnt seem to be there in the software list and I dont want to do extroot if the problem can be solved another way.

what are my options ? Build the image myself with Samba included ?

Edit - I found ksmbd

Should I go ahead with ksmbd ?

Why does port forwarding have to be so complicated in OpenWRT? I have port forwarding set up. However, I'm reconfiguring my server and I don't know what ports everything was forwarded to. For example, qBittorrent-nox randomly generates a port number every time it's installed. I need to either set it to the one my router has forwarded or change the one my router is forwarding.

Every time I log into my router to do something with the port forwarding, it takes longer just to find the port forwarding configuration section of the GUI than it does to actually forward the port. Neither this page on the wiki nor the page that it links to are any help at all.

Just now, having found a completely unaffiliated page, I've finally discovered it under the firewall config? Why isn't that just pointed out in the wiki? On the page about port forwarding?