<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Geoffrey <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lists@serioustechnology.com">lists@serioustechnology.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I don't know why, but reading this gave me the image of two little kids<br>
playing in a sandbox.... ;) </blockquote><div>with BEER!<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Sounds like a fun day.</blockquote>
<div><br>It was a fun day. Tinkered with hardware. Didn't get shocked. Made something work again. Drank good beer. Hangin' with long-time friend :-) <br><br>I've known Charles longer than I've known my wife. It's funny how our paths have crossed over the years. Although he can still juggle and I just drop stuff :-}<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
Charles Shapiro wrote:<br>
> (Apologies to Sandy Denny)<br>
><br>
> Well, I'm pretty stupid. But I have smart friends. I've been experimenting<br>
> with radio networking on the Linksys WRT54GL. This is the Linksys router<br>
> which allows you to use openwrt ( <a href="http://openwrt.org/" target="_blank">http://openwrt.org/</a> ) to do various<br>
> advanced radio networking tasks. In particular, I want to have a radio<br>
> hotspot with an intro page which'll display the first time you try to use a<br>
> browser to connect to a site through it, as many coffee shops have. I<br>
> managed to get coova ( <a href="http://coova.org/" target="_blank">http://coova.org/</a> ) loaded on the WRT54GL the first<br>
> time without difficulty, but I had some troubles and decided to go back the<br>
> the original Linksys firmware to aid in diagnosing them. That's when I<br>
> foolishly destroyed the resident kernel, probably by unplugging the device<br>
> before it had finished writing the new kernel to its NVRAM.<br>
><br>
> The device still responded to a ping(1) request, but I couldn't ssh(1) to it<br>
> or get any web pages off of it. Hence, it was pretty much out of control,<br>
> yet not fully bricked. These routers are designed to let you use tftp to<br>
> load a clean kernel in this situation. I installed the Ubunutu Edgy Eft tftp<br>
> client on my laptop, started the WRT54GL in tftp server mode by holding down<br>
> the reset key while cycling the power, and tried to load a new kernel on it.<br>
> My client said the transfer worked, but the new kernel persistently failed<br>
> to boot -- the power light kept flashing, the "dmz" light never came on, and<br>
> I couldn't bring any web pages up on it.<br>
><br>
> Sunday afternoon I went over to Jim's place to hang out and drink homebrew,<br>
> and I brought the recalcitrant router and my laptop with me. We futzed<br>
> around with it for a while, permanently destroying the warranty by<br>
> disassembling it, doing various arcane hardware things (like, shorting<br>
> various pins on the board to other pins) to see if we could figure out my<br>
> problemo. Much entertainment, and yet no joy.<br>
><br>
> Finally, it was Jim Kinney who noticed that my tftp client had a "binary"<br>
> mode, but it was not the default. We switched the client to binary, did the<br>
> "hold down reset key and power on" thing, and then transferred a VALID<br>
> kernel onto it. The machine proceeded to write the kernel to NVRAM, boot,<br>
> display a steady power light and a steady "DMZ" light, and display the<br>
> linksys configuration page to my browser. Then I turned it off and put it<br>
> aside.<br>
><br>
> Moral of the story: Make sure you're transferring binary files in binary<br>
> mode (d'OH!).<br>
><br>
> -- CHS<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
</div></div>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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<br>
<br>
</div><font color="#888888">--<br>
Until later, Geoffrey<br>
<br>
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little<br>
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.<br>
- Benjamin Franklin<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III <br><br>
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