I wasn’t aware that [Wayback/Archive] [OpenWrt Wiki] MikroTik was available. Many devices are incomplete in support, but it is good to know there is an alternative to the buggy scripting interface of RouterOS.
For the hEX series, support seems good enough to give it a try this summer, but I need to figure out of the hEX PoE RB960PGS is supported. I have good hopes as other models of the RB9* series are.
A few warnings from the below links:
- First Things First: Don’t Lose Your RouterOS License
- OpenWrt is not compatible with the bootloader of RouterOS v7. Do NOT upgrade the firmware on your device to RouterOS v7 or, if you did, downgrade to RouterOS Firmware v6 before installing OpenWrt. RouterOS doesn’t allow to downgrade below factory firmware version, but OpenWrt boots and works fine with versions up to 6.49.10 or beyond. Confirmed working: 6.47.10 (tested on SXTsq 5 ac), 6.49.10 (tested on SXTsq 2nD).
- If the installation fails, you might need to upgrade/downgrade to RouterOS 6.49.2
- Warning: Don’t upgrade RouterOS packages & bootloader to 7.2.1 otherwise ‘sysupgrade image’ install will fail!
- If latested release of RouterOS does not work, try an older version. 6.45 is reportet to work as a first debrick, you can upgrade later with the Winbox Software to latest release
These hEX related models are supported on the web-site (which also explains major differences with Fast Ethernet (100 Mbit/s) and Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbit/s) models:





