Build Your Own Fritzbox Firmware Image
Jalisa Landgren
Dear pstlr78,
I installed openWRT on an Fritz!Box 7530 as mentioned in the openWRT wiki which is quite similar to your post here (did you apply for an openWRT wiki account :-)?). I also read your post over here: Fritz!Box 7530 and 7490 as Modem+Router combo for 35b Supervectoring - #56 by slh
However - here i'm completely stuck :-(. Did you get the modem to work? And if yes, pleeeeeease tell me how (honestly, i'm unused to openWRT - used it years ago with a LinksysWRT54GLS it was if I remember correctly, but that was easy as I had an provider with an ethernet cable connection, so no modem in use).
image1327584 110 KB
I think the modem is only supported in current snapshot builds, and you will need to install a number of firmware images (that can not be distributed by OpenWrt at this time) before the modem can be used. See the section titled 'DSL modem" here:
Thanks for the fast reply! I followed the instructions in your link (section "DSL modem") and copied:
aca_fw.bin to /lib/firmware/09a9
ppe_fw.bin to /lib/firmware and
xcpe_8D1507_8D0901.bin to /lib/firmware
and selected the firtzbox 7520/7530 as model (then 'make defconfig' to get the default selected and then 'make menuconfig' to add all the stuff I wanted extra (like luci, and a bunch of extra packages)) then I copied the /lib/firmware created like you did to /files/lib/firmware ( is a stand-in for what ever directory your OpenWrt source lives in). Then I built it, configured it.
Snapshot installation is as easy as the stable image, just head over to and download the image. You can even install the image via LuCI web interface, just make sure that you do not keep settings. The network configuration structure has changed, your device won't come up if you keep settings.
Although your post is a bit off-topic (here is just a step-by-step installation guide to just flash the image on the router - not a setup guide for your configuration), I can share my thoughts:
I have used your build openwrt-19.07.7-ipq40xx-generic-avm_fritzbox-4040-squashfs-eva.bin
and made the echo performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_governor into
System -> Startup -> Local Startup
Now you will download the most recent development version of Freetz. This is important since the latest stable does not support the newest firmware images. Further, it doesn't include the most recent versions of OpenVPN and OpenSSL. The command to do so is
Exit menuconfig by going back to the main menu and go back once again. Comfirm with Yes and type make. (Now type make tea into your inner console to make yourself a cup of tea, building will take some time ) Your finished image will be located in the images directory.
After that go to your Fritz!Box web interface, login and navigate to the firmware update option. It depends on your model where to find it exactly, but it's always somewhere in the System tab. Additionally, you may need to switch to Expert mode to enable the option to upload an image from your computer. In all cases, you will be asked to backup your current settings (newer routers will force you to do so). I recommend doing so.
Choose the image file and start the upload. You will be notified of the fact the uploaded image is not an official one and that your warranty is void if you continue... I think you perfectly know that. Note that you will lose your internet connection for a short time.
You may encounter a warning like this. Don't worry, nothing's broken. Your image is just so big, your built-in answering machine has got no space to save recordings. That's only relevant for those who use telephony and AVM's built-in answering machine (AVM-DECT or old phones).
Based on the Freetz patch list (german) this is a listing of all the things you can remove from the original firmware to free up some space for other packages. The removal patches can be found in the menuconfig's main menu. If your model doesn't support all of them, the missing ones will be hidden.
As mentioned in the comment above, you can reset your Fritz.box by accessing the recovery mode. The recovery mode can be accessed via an external phone with a working keypad (numpad). Manual around page 129 (on phone) - It is noteworthy, that not all fritzboxes are able to use the international image, especially since some of them (e.g. most German versions) are not intercompatible with international Fritz.OS versions.
If anyone of you feels an urgent need to test already tomorrow feel free to do so and report back Be prepared for some Adrenaline while booting the first time after flashing a firmware packed by yourself
1. Download the factory image file (in this case ver. 111.06.32 v1 EWE edition image - newer versions without EWE are supposed to have also the same firmware file; check if your country uses AnnexA or AnnexB):
Download the files corresponding to your flash chip. Set your IP address statically to 192.168.178.20/24 and reboot the router. When the ethernet interface comes up after a few seconds, ftp 192.168.178.1 and upload the firmware as documented by OpenWRT:
1) you only have 30 Seconds to finish the flashing as some Bootloaders do a shutdown or hard-reset after this limit.
2)The DSL Sync Speed is much better if you extract the DSL Firmware from the 3370 or even 7490 firmware-image and use this one.
@dereitzHappy you found it handy, check also comment from @total with his experiences. About the files, sorry, I don't want to break any copyright. I would recommend you to create your own image, even for security reasons as some unofficial images downloaded from internet may contain malicious code.
However, if you don't have an option to create your own image, try to search for "ark:/13960/t5q864f63" or "Windows10PEX86" on google, it should point you to archive.org site, where someone shared one, but it is at your own risk.
For the life of me, I can't get VMware VM to boot efi image. I can boot if I change the firmware type to BIOS on the VM ( also need to change netboot.xyz.efi to netboot.xyz.kpxe in Unifi but the damn efi won't work :-/ All I get is "Downloading NBP file..." and then it jumps back to the Boot Managet of the VM ...
Remember that your box is primarily a router with a telephone switchboard. If you modify the firmware it might happen that the main functions of the box are affected by that. Usually this shouldn't happen, but it might cause your box to stall and unexpectedly reboot. When selecting packages you should follow this rule: If you can't tell someone more than two sentences about a package, it's not supposed to be on your box. Be careful with the patches. You won't need them all of them and not in every possible combination.
The use of "replace kernel", other comprehensive implementations or own modules is not recommended for beginners. Not everything that seems to be cool is really cool.
Recently there have been many issues with packages that use OpenSSL libraries. The reason is the incompatibility between the AVM and the Freetz version of this library. So please avoid using the SSL option in any package (vsftp, dropbear, curl) for your first build or if they require this option (OpenVPN, stunnel) avoid them in any case. When you have more experience you can use OpenSSL by embedding them into the binaries (compile them static) or use even more advanced solutions. But please, don't do this in the very beginning! You will surely fail.
You can ask yourself the following question: "What do I want to achieve by using Freetz"or"What function does my box lack and can I add it through Freetz?"
Freetz itself is no modification but a development environment which is used to to modify the box's firmware modularly. The list of packages reflects the current users' needs. Everyone can build hisown custom firmware from the existing packages, add his own or omit unneeded ones. This way you can decide to a certain degree which functions your FritzBox will have.
First of all you should find out which packages are useful for you: List of available packages and add-ons
To find out how Freetz works and what the menu looks like after flashing the firmware for the first time, we recommend beginners a to create a minimal configuration and flash that image. Supportrequests regarding Freetz and it's packages will only be answered after you have been able to upload a minimal image to your box.
After entering the previous command you should the the following screen:
Mainpage This is the acutal Freetz interface where you select your router. For this tutorial we selected the 7270-V3. After selecting the router type, exit menuconfig by selecting exit and hitting enter andconfirm the question with Yes. Then enter make and hit enter. Now you should see this:The creation process will start. For the first time it might take a very long time depending on your computer and internet connection since all inital packages have to be downloaded. Once this is donethe creation process will be a lot faster if you make only small modifications. There have been many warnings during the process but in the end there will be a message that an image has been created.The corresponding image will be created in the subfolder images of your Freetz directory. This will be the final message:Now we have to copy the image to your computer.