Modify Ufiber UF-Instant

This repo will contains modified RootFS and files used to convert UF-Instant SFP GPON stick from Vendor Lock-in to UFiber production to an open solution GPON SFP is based on Realtek RTL9601CI chip. On the market there are ready OOB alternative, all mods are just for fun.

Please refer to Anime4000 repo for all other information and compatible sticks

https://github.com/Anime4000/RTL960x/

GUI on the modded firmware was made by Anime4000 :)

Original firmwares from Ubiquiti

All files were extracted from OLT original firmware. rootfs files can be extracted with unsquashfs (parts of squashfs-tools)

Partition Layout

Layout of MTD of UF-INSTANT is a little bit different from other Realtek Stick:

# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00040000 00001000 "boot"
mtd1: 00002000 00001000 "env"
mtd2: 00002000 00001000 "env2"
mtd3: 0003c000 00001000 "config"
mtd4: 00300000 00001000 "k0"
mtd5: 004b0000 00001000 "r0"
mtd6: 00300000 00001000 "k1"
mtd7: 004b0000 00001000 "r1"
mtd8: 00010000 00001000 "hw"
mtd9: 00010000 00001000 "sec"
mtd10: 00001000 00001000 "Partition_010"
mtd11: 00001000 00001000 "Partition_011"
mtd12: 00300000 00001000 "linux"
mtd13: 004b0000 00001000 "rootfs"

mtd0 -> u-Boot
mtd1/2 -> u-Boot Configuration
mtd3 -> /var/config mount point where all stick configurations are saved
mtd4-5 -> kernel0/rootfs0, for the first image. This can be booted setting flags "sw_commit/sw_active" to 0 on u-Boot configuration
mtd6-7 -> kernel1/rootfs2, for the second image. This can be booted setting flags "sw_commit/sw_active" to 1 on u-Boot configuration
mtd8 -> used by Europa Driver (laser controller), it contains all information about laser calibration, pay attention because is uniq for each stick!
mtd9 -> partition used by original UF-INSTANT firmware to write parameters, not used by modified firmware
mtd10-13 -> overlay partitions

Firmware switching

It's possible to switch between the two images in two ways:

1 - changing env sw_active and sw_commit env from u-Boot prompt (can be done using UART console
2 - changing env sw_active and sw_commit from running Linux using command nv setenv

Env	Value	Boot Bank
sw_active & sw_commit	0	kernel0/root0
sw_active & sw_commit	1	kernel1/root1

nv setenv sw_active 0 && nv setenv sw_commit 0 && reboot <-- these commands switch to first image (if booted from second), using 1 doing the reverse

Factory reset after 10 boot

The stick with original firmware and without any other modification, use an u-Boot env called bootlimit that is configured with a value of 10. There is another variable called bootcount, this one is increased on each CPU reset. When bootlimit == bootcount, u-Boot format partition mtd3 and tries to download new configuration from tftpboot. With the modified firmware, that is using mtd3 for configuration, create a little headache.

To avoid this problem there are two solution:

1 - reset bootcount env on each boot of Linux OS, adding the command nv setenv bootcount 0 on rc35 file
2 - disable bootlimit env setting it to 0. Can be done with command nv set bootlimit 0 on Linux OS\

I prefer first approach, because if you screw up the mtd3 partition with wrongs values, doing a fast swap for ten times (avoiding full Linux OS boot) will erase config partition and in sequential boot restore factory defaults

Factory default parameters

Env	Value
LAN_SDS_MODE	1 (Fiber 1G)
IP_ADDRESS	192.168.1.1
PON_MODE	1 (GPON)
WAN_MODE	1
PASSWORD	admin