Old tp-link's u-boot, new toolchain: 4.3.3 -> libreCMC 5.5.0

1) Download a GPL package from TP-Link for TP-Link TL-WR841ND v9:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/gpl-code/

TL-WR841ND V9 361.54 MB

https://static.tp-link.com/resources/gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl.tar.gz

and unpack it somewhere, i.e. to

/home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/

cd /home/anon/
mkdir /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/
cp /home/anon/Downloads/wr841nv9_en_gpl.tar.gz /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl.tar.gz
cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/
tar -zxvf /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl.tar.gz

2) TP-Link TL-WR841ND v9: change from 4MB to 16MB

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/

and apply this patch:

diff --git a/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/configs/board953x.h b/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/configs/board953x.h
--- a/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/configs/board953x.h
+++ b/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/configs/board953x.h
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 #include <atheros.h>

 #ifndef FLASH_SIZE
-#define FLASH_SIZE 4
+#define FLASH_SIZE 16
 #endif
 /*-----------------------------------------------------------------------
  * FLASH and environment organization
=== last line above ^

patch -p1 < ./16mb.patch

3-4.2, PATH A) Prepare an old toolchain, to see the "desired" directory tree:

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/
make DEV_NAME=wr841nv9_en toolchain_prep

This toolchain is ancient, built by unknown person at TP-Link, and is x86 - did not work on Arch/Artix without these changes:

{

According to

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories#multilib

uncomment "multilib" :

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

then install these packages :

pacman -Suy lib32-glibc lib32-zlib gcc-libs lib32-gcc-libs

}

I want a good GCC toolchain, i.e. a fresh musl 5.5.0 from libreCMC
( musl seems to be better than uclibc - http://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html )

4) Using another toolchain's files, replace an old toolchain with a new one:

4.1) /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_24kc_gcc-5.5.0_musl-1.1.16/ = /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/ :

rm -rf /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/
cp -R /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_24kc_gcc-5.5.0_musl-1.1.16/ /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/

4.2) /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/host/ = /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/host/

rm -rf /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/host/
cp -R /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/host/ /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/host/

===> 3-4.2, PATH B) Or, even better,

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/
rm -rf ./gcc-4.3.3/
mkdir ./gcc-4.3.3/
mkdir ./gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/
mkdir ./gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/
cp -R /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/toolchain-mips_24kc_gcc-5.5.0_musl-1.1.16/ ./gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/
cp -R /home/anon/libreCMC/staging_dir/host/ ./gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/host/

4.3)

export STAGING_DIR="/home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/"

4.4 - PATH A)

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/gcc-4.3.3/build_mips/staging_dir/usr/bin/

ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-addr2line mips-linux-uclibc-addr2line
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-ar mips-linux-uclibc-ar
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-as mips-linux-uclibc-as
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-c++ mips-linux-uclibc-c++
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-c++filt mips-linux-uclibc-c++filt
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc mips-linux-uclibc-cc
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-cpp mips-linux-uclibc-cpp
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-elfedit mips-linux-uclibc-elfedit
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-g++ mips-linux-uclibc-g++
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc mips-linux-uclibc-gcc
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gcov mips-linux-uclibc-gcov
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gdb mips-linux-uclibc-gdb
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-gprof mips-linux-uclibc-gprof
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-ld mips-linux-uclibc-ld
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-nm mips-linux-uclibc-nm
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-objcopy mips-linux-uclibc-objcopy
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-objdump mips-linux-uclibc-objdump
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-ranlib mips-linux-uclibc-ranlib
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-readelf mips-linux-uclibc-readelf
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-size mips-linux-uclibc-size
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-strings mips-linux-uclibc-strings
ln -s mips-openwrt-linux-musl-strip mips-linux-uclibc-strip

4.4 - PATH B)

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/

and apply this patch:

diff --git a/build/products_config/wr841nv9_en/basic.config b/build/products_config/wr841nv9_en/basic.config
--- a/build/products_config/wr841nv9_en/basic.config
+++ b/build/products_config/wr841nv9_en/basic.config
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 export BOARD_TYPE=ap143
 export CFG_BOARD_TYPE=$(BOARD_TYPE)
 export TOOLCHAIN=gcc-4.3.3
-export TOOLPREFIX=mips-linux-uclibc-
+export TOOLPREFIX=mips-openwrt-linux-musl-
 export TOOLARCH=build_mips/staging_dir/usr
 export UBOOT_GCC_4_3_3_EXTRA_CFLAGS=-fPIC

=== last line above ^

patch -p1 < ./toolchain.patch

5) According to

https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod/issues/95
https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod/commit/6d509b9219dc0e87f06ac2f24df60505fc1af707

do

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/asm-mips/

find . -type f -name "bitops.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "io.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "mipsregs.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "processor.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "string.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "system.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'

find . -type f -name "bitops.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'
find . -type f -name "io.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'
find . -type f -name "mipsregs.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'
find . -type f -name "processor.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'
find . -type f -name "string.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'
find . -type f -name "system.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'

6) According to

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58206403/multiple-definitions-of-error-while-linking-two-archives-using-the-same-source

do

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/ap143/boot/u-boot/include/

find . -type f -name "pci.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern __inline__/static __inline__/g'
find . -type f -name "pci.h" -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/extern inline/static inline/g'

7) Now you can

cd /home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/build/
make DEV_NAME=wr841nv9_en uboot

and your file will be called

/home/anon/tp-link-gpl/wr841nv9_en_gpl/ap143/boot/u-boot/tuboot.bin

=== ;-)