OpenWRT WiFi Router (Topton N5105) [Download]

[knuxyl]

I have spent about a year configuring a custom build of OpenWRT to turn my Topton N5105 into a dual band WiFi router with security camera and storage capability and I'm finally done.

This is the router this supports but it should work with any other Jasper Lake or silvermont architecture CPU boards.
Topton Fanless Mini PC 4 Intel i226-V 2.5Gb LAN N6005 N5105 2*NVMe TPM2.0 Switch Soft Router VPN Server ESXI Firewall Appliance
4 x 2.5GBe Intel i226
1 x M.2 M Key PCIe/USB NVME -> Adapter to A/E Key -> MT7922
1 x M.2 A/E Key PCIe/USB WiFi >- MT7922
1 x SATA 3 -> 2TB SSD for Storage
1 x SD Card - > 64GB for OS
1 x HDMI
1 x DisplayPort
2 x USB 2.0 A -> Connected to UPS
2 x USB 3.0 A
1 x USB 3.0 C
12V 5.5mmx2.1mm -> Using 90W grounded adapter



Nothing was customized except the .config file. All files are original to the OpenWRT build system. It's using the latest snapshot as base.

Features

• Kernel 6.6.32 (latest in snapshot)
• Silvermont optimizations (jasper lake is silvermont, used -march=silvermont for kernel and packages)
• GCC optimizations (used -O3 for kernel and packages)
• FFmpeg full build
• Docker
• Adblock
• irqbalance
• DDNS
• Tor
• LXC (reboots router for me)
• Policy Based Routing
• DLNA
• UPS
• Samba4
• FTP (no gui, vsftpd)
• Torrent (transmission)
• Terminal over HTTP
• uPnP
• Relay Bridges
• Cellular support
• QoS
• OpenVPN
• Wireguard
• Block mounting
• Ext4 rootfs
• Supports most filesystems
• All WiFi drivers
• Tons of utilities (htop, byobu, nano, etc)

This build took some modifications to the case. I had to drill 2 more holes for 2 extra WiFi antennas.
I used a M.2 M/B key 2280 to M.2 A/E key adapter for the second WiFi card.
Amazon | M.2 M -> E Key Adapter Card
I am using a 2TB SSD in the SATA port. The OS lives on the SD card and the bios fully supports booting from it.
I am using 2 MT7922 (RZ616) WiFi cards. 6GHz AP is iffy at best. Regulatory restrictions are not correct, ie US has No IR.
Amazon | RZ 616 (MT7922) Card

You can use the attached config.buildinfo to build this yourself. This will keep the router updated because without using the official stable version you can not update the router from the router. You will have to build a new release. You can backup your configuration and restore it after updating which is what I've been doing and it works perfect.

Notes

• My WiFi cards are really client cards that can be access points. For best range and results a better card would be MT7916AN, like the AW7916-AED. I am not entirely sure about compatibility with the adapter card because this is a 2252, modifications may need to be made.
• OpenWRT is severely limited. A better option for a server would be Debian with Webmin but there are no plugins for WiFi hotspot on Webmin. It should be really simple to make with hostapd. I wrote a bash script to parse card capabilities and generate a config file. I looked into making a WiFi plugin but for now OpenWRT is working fine.
• I am using a 90W power supply. It did not come with the router but I wanted something that is grounded (3 prong outlet connector) and higher power.
• Router max power draw during boot is 27 watts, idle is 11.8-12.4 watts. It's a little high for idle, but considering the feature set and cpu power available I would say it's reasonable.
• For comparison, I have a Rock 5B that is all core mining monero with a hashrate of 474.9 H/s that only draws 7 watts. We need some RK3588 boards with this boards port set.
• Using MediaMTX to restream my 2 IP cameras and also recording those streams to the SSD the idle draw only goes to 12.8-13.6 watts.
• HDMI output works
• I am using a Cyberpower 1500VAC UPS connected through USB and nut to view the status, which is included in this build.
• GCC will not build on this. It always gives errors about a hash. There aren't many dev packages anyways so I just build everything on my PC targeting silvermont.
• I mine monero on this router with xmrig using 2 threads to not overload the CPU and irqbalance to help balance everything. While mining the router draws 21.6-22.6 watts. The hashrate for 2 threads is about 542.3 H/s. Huge Pages are supported but 1GB Huge Pages aren't, I don't know what to do about that.
• Router idles around 48 C and while mining gets up to 69 C, but I've seen it hit 80 C but no higher, typically on all core mining. The router is passively cooled with the heatsink, no fans. Hanging on the wall helps heat dissipation due to ceiling fan and central A/C.
• Some packages such as lscpu and watch are missing. I'll add those later and update this post. Done
• vsftpd FTP server won't work unless seccomp_sandbox=NO is in /etc/vsftpd.conf
• I don't like Docker but it was the only way I was able to get SearxNG (a search engine) working perfectly fine but I couldn't get a World of Warcraft Azerothcore server working. I don't know much about Docker and the image for wow was old so Docker should be fine. It has a GUI accessible in the menu.
• My setup uses one of the WiFi cards to connect to the home internet and the other card as a WiFi AX 5GHz 80Mhz bandwidth access point and all of the 2.5GBe are on the lan. I have had the WiFi access point just stop working before but not on this build so far. We need around kernel 6.9+ for full MT7922 support but OpenWRT does backport device drivers.

For more information about this bios I have a post here for the latest
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...rt-2-5gbe-bios-update-v107.41558/#post-393143

To install this image, just dd it to your wanted boot device. I recommend SD card. (this will wipe the entire device)
Example:
sudo dd if=thisimage.img of=/dev/sdc

Download this OpenWRT build
OpenWRT N5105 6.6.32 (7zip archive 284.4MB, decompressed 2.4GB)

 

[ncat]

Hello, just to confirm, were you able to use both m2 slots and SATA port simultaneously? I have almost similar box from cwwk (N100) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005838190783.html? and it's not picking up SATA port when both m2 slots are occupied by WiFi cards. In such configuration I had to install OS to SD card, but I'd rather prefer adding SATA SSD.

 

[knuxyl]

Hello, just to confirm, were you able to use both m2 slots and SATA port simultaneously? I have almost similar box from cwwk (N100) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005838190783.html? and it's not picking up SATA port when both m2 slots are occupied by WiFi cards. In such configuration I had to install OS to SD card, but I'd rather prefer adding SATA SSD.

Sorry it took so long, responding in case anyone else wants answer as well
Yes I can confirm it works. I've been using it and a Nano Pi R5C on and off since I posted this. I currently have a 2.5" dual SATA M.2 drive in the SATA port and the 2 wifi adapters with one as a AP and the other as a client. There are some overheating issues though, wifi can't have heatsinks because they are stacked and the SATA drive is in the way, so I wouldn't recommend this configuration anymore. I have this thing crash all the times if I hit 80MBps on wifi.
The N5105 will be a different chipset so it'll be configured differently. I have no idea why it wouldn't work unless the sata isn't from the chipset or cpu but instead from a pcie sata controller that shares pcie with one of the slots. I would check and tweak bios settings.