My ath10k-based router now has serial headers, after I managed to crash it a few times over the weekend while testing out some patches. Thank you, TP-Link, for making the pins so easily accessible, to the extent that it’s easier to whip out the soldering iron than remind oneself how to setup kexec/kdump.
I do need to get one of these nifty usb-serial cables so that the JTAG ribbon cable + FTDI-breakout-on-a-breadboard monstrosity can go back into the
parts bin, but it is working fine otherwise. [The pictured 7-segment display and TTL chips are just misdirection, by the way.]
There was a momentary bit of confusion on my part when the console showed the router stuck in a loop requesting recovery firmware over TFTP instead of the normal boot process…until I realized that the reset button was wedged in the depressed state by the case. Whoops.