Huawei EchoLife HG622u

Huawei EchoLife HG622u

The HG622 is an ADSL wifi router mainly distributed by O2_Czech_Republic to their customers.

This device is NOT RECOMMENDED for future use with OpenWrt due to low flash/ram.
DO NOT BUY DEVICES WITH 4MB FLASH / 32MB RAM if you intend to flash an up-to-date and secure OpenWrt version onto it! See 4/32 warning for details.

1) This device does not have sufficient resources (flash and/or RAM) to provide secure and reliable operation.
This means that even setting a password or changing simple network settings might not be possible any more, rendering the device effectively useless. See OpenWrt on 4/32 devices what you can do now.

2) OpenWrt support for this device has ended in 2022.
19.07.10 was the last official build for 4/32 devices.

DSL will not work at all on devices with BCM63xx DSL chipset (due to unavailability of FLOSS driver for Broadcom chips). Consider this when choosing a device to buy, or when deciding to flash OpenWrt on your device because it is listed as supported.
See Broadcom DSL, Unsupported: DSL modem and Broadcom BCM63xx for details.

Supported Versions

Hardware Highlights

Installation

→ Install OpenWrt (generic explanation)

Installation using a modded CFE bootloader

It seems the original bootloader doesn't allow to boot OpenWrt images, see → Huawei EchoLife HG622u corrupted image. You will need to upgrade the CFE bootloader with a modded one before installing OpenWrt.

CFE_HG622-dummy_firmware.bin (dummy firmware, only CFE and void firmware)

Upgrade the bootloader via TFTP using the serial console:

CFE> f 192.168.1.100:CFE_HG622-dummy_firmware.bin
Loading 192.168.1.100:CFE_HG622-dummy_firmware.bin ...
Finished loading 87360 bytes

Flashing CFE: ..

After upgrading CFE you will have a web server at http://192.168.1.1/ for uploading new firmwares. You only need to upgrade the CFE once, the bootloader will remain forever installed.

It's recommendable to install an old Openwrt version to avoid running out of memory. But don't install any version between 17.01.5 and 18.06.3 (both included), they likely erase the wifi caldata partition. Version 17.01.4 should run fine:

https://archive.openwrt.org/releases/17.01.4/targets/brcm63xx/smp/lede-17.01.4-brcm63xx-smp-HG655b-squashfs-cfe.bin

Firmwares from HG622 (not u) model aren't compatible with this device due to bigger flash size (16MB). We use images from the HG655b model (8MB flash).

Install OpenWrt via new CFE:

After power power cycling the device, press the reset button when powering on the router and wait some seconds
Release the reset button
Browse to http://192.168.1.1/.
Install OpenWrt binary image.

OEM installation using the TFTP method

A serial (UART) adapter is required to install OpenWrt.

For installing the Openwrt firmware you will need to use the CFE serial console:

Connect a serial TTL cable to send commands to CFE via serial console software, for loading the firmware via TFTP.
Start a TFTP server in your PC. Copy the firmware.bin file to the TFTP server's directory.
Set the IP at your pc to 192.168.1.35 (or any compatible), and connect the ethernet cable to the router.
Power ON the router, press any key in the serial console to break into the CFE command line interpreter.
Execute the command: f 192.168.1.35:firmware.bin

This is a session of flashing via TFTP:

CFE> f 192.168.1.35:firmware.bin
Loading 192.168.1.35:firmware.bin ...
Finished loading 2686980 bytes

Flashing root file system and kernel at 0xb8020000: ............................................

.
*** Image flash done *** !
Resetting board...\0xff

Flash Layout

Please check out the article flash.layout. It contains an example and a couple of explanations.

partition	name	filesystem	function
mtd0	CFE	n/a	bootloader
mtd1	kernel	RAM executable	kernel
mtd2	rootfs	squashfs	root
mtd3	rootfs_data	jffs2	configuration, install new packages
mtd4	cal_data	n/a	wifi calibration data RT3062F eeprom is at 0x0FA0000 offset.
mtd5	nvram	n/a	OEM configuration data
mtd6	linux	n/a	OpenWrt upgrade

Hardware

Info

Instruction set	MIPS
Vendor	Broadcom
bootloader	cfe
Board ID	96368MVWG_hg622
System-On-Chip	Broadcom BCM6368
CPU/Speed	BMIPS4350 v3.1 dual core / 400 MHz
Flash-Chip	MX29GL128EHT2I-90G / 128KB block size x 128 blocks
Flash size	8 MiB
RAM	32 MiB / DDR-400
Wireless	Ralink RT3062 802.11b/g/n (onboard)
Antenna	2x PCB
Ethernet	Broadcom integrated, fast ethernet
USB	1 x USB2.0
ADSL Modem	Yes, NOT SUPPORTED
Power adapter	?
Serial	Yes
JTAG	Yes

PCB pictures

Serial

→ port.serial general information about the serial port, serial port cable, etc.

How to connect to the Serial Port of this specific device:

J4
TX
GND
VCC
nc
RX

Serial works at 3.3V 115200 8N1, see pin assignments above

Speed (baud)     - 115200
Data bits        - 8
Stop bits        - 1
Parity           - None
Flow control     - None

GPIOs

LEDs

Read: System configuration: Leds to configure the leds

GPIO	symbol	Active
2	adsl	Low
5	inet	Low
11	usb	Low
22	power	Low
6 (PINMUX_EPHY0_ACT_LED)	lan1	Low
7 (PINMUX_EPHY1_ACT_LED)	lan2	Low
8 (PINMUX_EPHY2_ACT_LED)	lan3	Low
9 (PINMUX_EPHY3_ACT_LED)	lan4	Low

Buttons

→ hardware.button on howto use and configure the hardware button(s).

BUTTON	Event	GPIO
RESET	reset	34
WPS		12
WLAN		23

Bootloader mods

bootloader	download link	description
CFE	CFE-HG622-CUSTOM.bin	moded bootloader: web interface added, reset button detect for stopping the bootloader, no double image, no rootfs CRC check

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