FreshTomato ARM

Alternative open-source firmware for Broadcom ARM-based routers.

Supported routers

Manufacturer	Models
ASUS	N18U, AC56S, AC56U/AC56R, N66U C1, AC66U B1, RT-AC1750 B1, AC67U, AC68U (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, E1, V3)/R/P, AC1900P/U, AC3200, AC3100, AC88U, AC5300, DSL-AC68U (no xDSL support)
Netgear	AC1450, R6200v2, R6250, R6300v2, R6400, R6400v2, R6700v1, R6700v3, R6900, XR300, R7000, EX6200, EX7000, R7900, R8000
Linksys	EA6200, EA6350v1, EA6350v2, EA6300v1/EA6400, EA6500v2, EA6700, EA6900
Tenda	AC15, AC18
Huawei	WS880
D-Link	DIR-868L (rev. A1/B1/C1)
Xiaomi	R1D
Belkin	F9K1113v2
Buffalo	WZR-1750DHP

Caution

Flashing alternative firmware can permanently damage your router. The author is not responsible for bricked devices. Proceed entirely at your own risk.

Project resources

Resource	Link
Project website	freshtomato.org
Source code	GitHub · GitLab mirror
Changelog	CHANGELOG
Downloads	Download images
Issue tracker	GitHub Issues
Pull requests	GitHub Pull Requests
English forum	LinksysInfo
Polish forum	OpenLinksys
Donations	Support FreshTomato

Preparing the build environment

The following instructions target Debian 13 (64-bit).

1. Install Debian

Install Debian using the graphical installer. For simplicity:

• enable the SSH server;
• create a standard user account;
• keep the remaining options at their defaults.

In the commands below, replace <username>, <name>, and <email-address> with your own values.

2. Update the system

Log in as root, then run:

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

3. Install basic packages

apt-get install build-essential net-tools

4. Configure the time zone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

If the command is unavailable because of the current PATH, run:

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/sbin"

5. Grant sudo access

apt-get install sudo
adduser <username> sudo
reboot

After the reboot, log in as <username>.

6. Install build dependencies

sudo apt-get install \
  autoconf autoconf-archive m4 bison flex g++ libtool gcc binutils patch \
  bzip2 make gettext unzip zlib1g-dev libc6 gperf automake groff minisign

sudo apt-get install \
  lib32stdc++6 libncurses6 libncurses-dev gawk gitk zlib1g-dev autopoint \
  shtool autogen mtd-utils gcc-multilib lib32z1-dev pkg-config libssl-dev \
  automake

sudo apt-get install \
  libmnl-dev libxml2-dev intltool libglib2.0-dev texinfo dos2unix xsltproc \
  libnfnetlink0 libcurl4-openssl-dev libgtk2.0-dev libnotify-dev \
  libevent-dev git

sudo apt-get install \
  re2c texlive libelf1 nodejs zip mc cmake ninja-build curl \
  libglib2.0-dev-bin libglib2.0-dev sqlite3 dconf-editor python3-dev \
  python3-setuptools

sudo apt-get install "linux-headers-$(uname -r)"

7. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/FreshTomato-Project/freshtomato-arm.git

8. Reboot

sudo reboot

9. Configure Git

cd freshtomato-arm
git config --global user.email "<email-address>"
git config --global user.name "<name>"

Compiling FreshTomato

Prepare the repository

Enter the repository:

cd freshtomato-arm

Before each compilation, clean and reset the working tree:

git clean -fdxq
git reset --hard

Optionally, download the latest changes:

git pull

Warning

git clean -fdxq and git reset --hard permanently remove untracked files and local changes.

SDK 6

Example: build an AIO image for RT-N18U/AC56S without SMP.

git checkout arm-master
cd release/src-rt-6.x.4708
make help
make n18z

SDK 7

Example: build an AIO image for RT-AC3200.

git checkout arm-master
cd release/src-rt-7.x.main/src
make help
make ac3200-128z

SDK 7.14

Example: build an AIO image for RT-AC5300.

git checkout arm-master
cd release/src-rt-7.14.114.x/src
make help
make ac5300-128z

make help lists the build targets available in the selected source tree.