ATF and u-boot for mt798x with DHCPD

A modified version of hanwckf's U-Boot for MT798x by Yuzhii, with support for DHCPD and a beautiful web UI. (Builds available for versions 2025/SP1/SP2)

Supports GitHub Actions for automatic builds, and can generate both normal and overclocked BL2.

[!CAUTION] Warning: Flashing custom bootloaders can brick your device. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.

About bl-mt798x

[!NOTE] How to use it? Click here for usage instructions.

U-Boot 2025 adds more features:

• System info display
• Factory (RF) update
• Backup download
• Flash editor
• Web terminal
• Environment manager
• Theme manager
• I18N support
• Device reboot
• UBI volume management

You can configure the features you need.

• MTK_DHCPD
  • MTK_DHCPD_USE_CONFIG_IP
  • MTK_DHCPD_POOL_START_HOST default 100
  • MTK_DHCPD_POOL_SIZE default 101
• MTK_TELNETD
• Failsafe Web UI style:
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_UI_BOOTSTRAP
    • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_I18N
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_UI_GL
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_UI_MTK
• WEBUI_FAILSAFE_ADVANCED - Enable advanced features
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_SIMG - Enable Single Image upgrade
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_FACTORY - Enable factory (RF) update
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_BACKUP - Enable backup download
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_ENV - Enable environment manager
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_CONSOLE - Enable web terminal
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_FLASH - Enable flash editor
  • WEBUI_FAILSAFE_UBI - Enable UBI volume management

Prepare

sudo apt install gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu build-essential flex bison libssl-dev device-tree-compiler qemu-user-static nodejs npm

If you want to build for armv7l devices, you also need to install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi

The failsafe web UI assets are minified at build time. If you build U-Boot manually, run npm install once in uboot-mtk-20250711/failsafe/embedded so the local minifier dependency is available. It will be installed automatically by the build.sh tool.

Build

Configure once with:

make menuconfig

Then build the current .config selection:

make

In make menuconfig, you can control whether make runs FIP (build.sh), ATF (compile_atf.sh), and GPT (generate_gpt.sh) with:

• BUILD_FIP
• BUILD_ATF
• BUILD_GPT

Build every board with the selected version by using:

make all

For help:

make help

Single model examples:

# mt7981, emmc device
make BOARD=sn_r1
# mt7981, spi-nand device, nonmbm device, multi-layout support
make BOARD=zbt_z8103ax-c VARIANT=NONMBM
# mt7986, spi-nand device, multi-layout support, single image upgrade support
make BOARD=ruijie_rg-x60-new VERSION=SP1 SIMG=1

List available boards for a version:

make boards VERSION=2025

• Version (default: 2025. Optional, for different versions of ATF and U-Boot)

SP1: For some devices, still use the kernel 5.4 firmware, may cause some issues on version 2025, like hwrng wrong, in this case, you can try SP1.

SP2: With some modifications for better compatibility with new platforms, like mt7987, or newest kernel.

• VARIANT (default: default. Optional, for different firmware variants)

Normally, VARIANT is prepared for MTD devices.

---

Other options:

CAN'T ENABLE MULTI_LAYOUT=1 and FIXED_MTDPARTS=0 at the same time

Generated files will be in the output

For direct *.sh usage details, please see doc/tools.md.

Use Actions to build

You need to fork this repository to your own account, and then you can use Actions to build the binaries. The generated files will be in the artifacts or releases page.

• Build FIP
  • single-board/all/all-mt798x
  • Version 2025/SP1/SP2/all
  • VARIANT
  • Extra Options

  VERSION:all only for single-board

• Build GPT
  • Official layout
  • Custom layout
• Build BL2
  • RAMBOOT
  • OC profiles

if you want to build old versions(<2025), you can checkout the "old-version" branch

This branch only keeps 2025/SP1/SP2 support.

Generate GPT with python2.7

install dependencies

sudo apt-get install python2 python2-dev

run

make gpt

Generated files will be in the output_gpt

You need to add your device's partition info JSON file in the "mt798x_gpt" directory, e.g. "atf-dir/tools/dev/gpt_editor/example/gpt.json".

When you enable SDMMC=1 (e.g. make gpt SDMMC=1), the generated GPT image will support MTK SDMMC.

Show GPT info

Create a directory named mt798x_gpt_bin in the repository root directory, and put your GPT bin files in it.

Then run:

make gpt SHOW=1

Then it will display the GPT partition info of all GPT bin files in mt798x_gpt_bin directory, and output the results to gpt_info.txt in the output_gpt directory.

Draw GPT layout

Install Pillow library:

pip3 install Pillow

Then run:

make gpt DRAW=1

Compile ATF

make atf

Then it will generate BL2 in the output directory. Normally, it will generate a ramboot BL2.

Overclocking profiles

Adjusting ARMPLL frequency is a very dangerous operation.

It may cause some issues if you don't know what you are doing, and may cause your device to be bricked!

So it's default to the stock frequency for safety, but you can enable the OC profiles to adjust the ARMPLL frequency, but please be careful when using it.

• For mt7981, now support OC to 1.4GHz~1.8GHz, and the OC profiles are in the mt798x_atf/mt7981 directory.

  e.g. to build the 1.6GHz OC BL2 you need configure:

  MT7981_ARMPLL_FREQ_1600=y
  

• For mt7986, now support OC to 2.5GHz, or underclock to 1.6GHz, and the OC profiles are in the mt798x_atf/mt7986 directory.

  e.g. to build the 2.3GHz OC BL2 you need configure:

  MT7986_ARMPLL_FREQ_2300=y
  

Limit each adjustment to 100MHz for mt798x, and limit each adjustment to 50MHz for mt762x. It is recommended to adjust the frequency step by step, e.g. from 1.6GHz to 1.7GHz, then to 1.8GHz.

ARMPLL frequency range adjustment support for different platforms:

Other Options

These options only work for the normal directory.

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FIT support

You MUST test it yourself, and there is a risk of BRICKING your device!

There are two ways to build:

• Local Build

  make BOARD=your_board VERSION=2025 VARIANT=ubootmod
  

• Use Action to build

How to flash:

1. Use failsafe WEB UI to back up 1* all your flash and partitions; this is very important!

2. Update BL2 in the WEB UI to flash the preloader provided by OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt ubootmod firmware.

3. Update U-Boot in the WEB UI to flash the FIT version FIP.

4. Use Flash Editor in the WEB UI to erase the UBI partition (or use the command line: mtd erase ubi); this step is only for NAND devices.

5. Try upgrade in firmware upgrade page with the OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt ubootmod firmware2* 3*, if not work, try next step.

6. Use failsafe WEB UI Initramfs to boot the OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt ubootmod Initramfs image.

7. If the device can boot into OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt successfully, then you can try upgrade in firmware upgrade page with the OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt ubootmod firmware again.

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The best practices

1. Use TTL tools to connect to the serial port, and use MTK UARTBOOT/MTK-LAUNCHPAD to ramboot

2. In the Web UI(Quick Access http://failsafe.lan), back up all your flash and partitions 1*; this is very important!

3. Update U-Boot in the WEB UI and upgrade firmware

4. Restore the backup if something goes wrong

Enter failsafe by uBootEnter/BreedEnter

We can enter failsafe mode by network without physical operation, more details can be found in the uBootEnter and BreedEnter projects.

Change failsafe WEB UI start key

Default set glbtn_key=reset,wps,mesh, it means the glbtn command will search for GPIOs with labels "reset", "wps" and "mesh" in order, and use the first one found as the failsafe WEB UI start key.

The following priorities are now supported:

• glbtn_gpio=<gpio> → Directly read the GPIO.
• glbtn_key=<label> → Still search by label.

e.g.

• Specify only GPIO: setenv glbtn_gpio 0
• With the gpio: prefix: setenv glbtn_gpio gpio:0

  0, gpio 0, pio 0, gpio:0, pio0.

• Flip the signal: setenv glbtn_gpio !0

  !gpio 0, !pio 0, !gpio:0, !pio0.

• Scan gpio-keys: setenv glbtn_key wps

  wps, reset, mesh...

Then you need saveenv and reboot to apply.

Change MTD partition layout manually

Only for multi-layout devices

Set mtdparts environment variable to the partition layout you want to use, and reboot to apply.

# Current method
setenv mtd_layout <label>
# legacy method
setenv mtd_layout_label <label>

Then you need saveenv and reboot to apply.

Disable auto-reboot after upgrade

Set failsafe_auto_reboot environment variable to 1/true/yes/on to enable auto reboot after upgrade(New WEB UI).

Some commands in firmware

fw_setenv env_invalid 1 # Reset environment to default values in next boot
fw_setenv failsafe 1 # Reboot to failsafe mode in next boot

You need to install uboot-envtools and configure package/boot/uboot-envtools/files/mediatek_filogic correctly for your device before compiling firmware; otherwise, the environment variables will not work.

Telnet support

You can connect to the device with telnet, default port is 23, and you can set the telnet_port environment variable to change the port.

TelnetD is enabled by default, but you can set the telnetd_enable environment variable to 0 to disable it.

Unified env-controlled NMBM enablement(Only for MTD devices)

You can set nmbm_enable environment variable to 0/false/no/off to disable MTK-NMBM.

Only for MTD devices which enable MTK-NMBM configs before compile.

More information about the NMBM enablement can be found in the unified env-controlled NMBM enablement documentation.

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Endnote

1*: If your device is a MMC device, back up all flash is not feasible. It depends on the size of the firmware, which is usually 200MB to 300MB.

2*: If your device is a MMC device, you need upgrade GPT table which has production partition, then you needn't use ubootmod firmware, you can use the OpenWrt official firmware directly.

3*: The OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt ubootmod firmware is a special firmware with FIT support, in this firmware, devicetree is loaded from the FIT image(bootargs = "root=/dev/fit0 rootwait"), and loaded from ubi_rootdisk. You'd better use a version after OpenWrt/ImmortalWrt 24.10.

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Old Version ( < U-Boot 2025 )

Current branch only supports 2025/SP1/SP2.

You can find old versions (such as 2022/2023/2024) in the "old-version" branch, but they may have some issues, so it is recommended to use the current branch for a better experience.

• https://cmi.hanwckf.top/p/mt798x-uboot-usage

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MTMIPS

It only for development and testing, not recommended for production use.

chmod +x mtmips.sh
SOC=<mt7620|mt7621|mt7628|mt7688> BOARD=<board_name> ./mtmips.sh

but it not preferred, because the mt7621 u-boot has some issues on uboot-mtk-20250711.

It may cause some issues if you don't know what you are doing, so it's recommended to use the uboot-mt7621-dhcpd project for mt7621 devices, which is more stable and has better support for mt7621 devices.

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Acknowledgement

• u-boot
• mtk-openwrt
• hanwckf
• Tianling