[ale] Unhalfbricking WRT54GL

[Jim Kinney]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Geoffrey <lists at serioustechnology.com>wrote:

> I don't know why, but reading this gave me the image of two little kids
> playing in a sandbox.... ;)

with BEER!


> Sounds like a fun day.


It was a fun day. Tinkered with hardware. Didn't get shocked. Made something
work again. Drank good beer. Hangin' with  long-time friend :-)

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 :-}

>
>
> Charles Shapiro wrote:
> > (Apologies to Sandy Denny)
> >
> > Well, I'm pretty stupid. But I have smart friends. I've been
> experimenting
> > with radio networking on the Linksys WRT54GL. This is the Linksys router
> > which allows you to use openwrt ( http://openwrt.org/ ) to do various
> > advanced radio networking tasks. In particular, I want to have a radio
> > hotspot with an intro page which'll display the first time you try to use
> a
> > browser to connect to a site through it, as many coffee shops have.  I
> > managed to get coova ( http://coova.org/ ) loaded on the WRT54GL the
> first
> > time without difficulty, but I had some troubles and decided to go back
> the
> > the original Linksys firmware to aid in diagnosing them. That's when I
> > foolishly destroyed the resident kernel, probably by unplugging the
> device
> > before it had finished writing the new kernel to its NVRAM.
> >
> > The device still responded to a ping(1) request, but I couldn't ssh(1) to
> it
> > or get any web pages off of it. Hence, it was pretty much out of control,
> > yet not fully bricked.  These routers are designed to let you use tftp to
> > load a clean kernel in this situation. I installed the Ubunutu Edgy Eft
> tftp
> > client on my laptop, started the WRT54GL in tftp server mode by holding
> down
> > the reset key while cycling the power, and tried to load a new kernel on
> it.
> > My client said the transfer worked, but the new kernel persistently
> failed
> > to boot -- the power light kept flashing, the "dmz" light never came on,
> and
> > I couldn't bring any web pages up on it.
> >
> > Sunday afternoon I went over to Jim's place to hang out and drink
> homebrew,
> > and I brought the recalcitrant router and my laptop with me. We futzed
> > around with it for a while, permanently destroying the warranty by
> > disassembling it, doing various arcane hardware things (like, shorting
> > various pins on the board to other pins) to see if we could figure out my
> > problemo. Much entertainment, and yet no joy.
> >
> > Finally, it was Jim Kinney who noticed that my tftp client had a "binary"
> > mode, but it was not the default. We switched the client to binary, did
> the
> > "hold down reset key and power on" thing, and then transferred a VALID
> > kernel onto it. The machine proceeded to write the kernel to NVRAM, boot,
> > display a steady power light and a steady "DMZ" light, and display the
> > linksys configuration page to my browser.  Then I turned it off and put
> it
> > aside.
> >
> > Moral of the story: Make sure you're transferring binary files in binary
> > mode (d'OH!).
> >
> > -- CHS
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>
> --
> Until later, Geoffrey
>
> Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
> temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
>  - Benjamin Franklin
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>



-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
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