wl-500g deluxe problems

[kiewer]

where are you quoting this from?

from this http://wl500g.info/showpost.php?p=11987&postcount=4

But now I guess that Oleg had in mind RETAIL - not SAMPLE (i.e. issued by ASUS for evaluation purposes only).

Nevertheless it's strange that ASUS marks some products as RETAIL and other not (as we can see from web-shops).

[Antiloop]

from this http://wl500g.info/showpost.php?p=11987&postcount=4

But now I guess that Oleg had in mind RETAIL - not SAMPLE (i.e. issued by ASUS for evaluation purposes only).

Nevertheless it's strange that ASUS marks some products as RETAIL and other not (as we can see from web-shops).

Asus does not mark them as retail, the webshops or their distributors do this

the evaluation routers are in fact the same (same box, same cd, same manual etc..), but had the wrong bootloader together with some retail units

[kiewer]

Asus does not mark them as retail, the webshops or their distributors do this

the evaluation routers are in fact the same (same box, same cd, same manual etc..), but had the wrong bootloader together with some retail units

so, what do you think Oleg means when says "only RETAIL"? not OEM? But I can't imaging that wlan routers saled as OEM, because it mostly end-user oriented products.

[Oleg]

Yes, RETAIL (production) is not SAMPLE (pre-production sample). I've never heard of OEM versions at all (except wl500g clone sold as Mitsubishi in Australia).
Everything bought in the stores (including web) are RETAIL products, regardless of their labelings (as guys in this stores usually just copy paste info typed by blonde girl which has no idea of technical things).
If you got it boxed with manuals, cables, AC/DC adaptors, CDs - think of it as of RETAIL (production) unit. Pre-production samples are mostly used for promotions/certification and should not hit stores.

[kiewer]

Oleg, thanks for reply.

Just inform you, that I got wl-500g deluxe with nvram ver. 1.33 and 32Mb ram already enabled. Serial number begins with 51*.

[Oleg]

Oleg, thanks for reply.

Just inform you, that I got wl-500g deluxe with nvram ver. 1.33 and 32Mb ram already enabled. Serial number begins with 51*.

This is really interesting. Could you please send your bootloader to me? Type the following:

cat /dev/mtd/0 > /tmp/harddisk/cfe.bin

This should put it to your usb drive.

[kiewer]

ok, bootloader is attached.

[Oleg]

ok, thanks. You could remove your attachment now.
I've checked it. It has 32MB enabled by default, but it appears that WAN port problem is still there. Could you please try the following: switch wl500gx to firmware restoration mode: turn off, push button, turn on (keeping button pressed), wait one second, release the button. It should start blinking with power led. Assign 192.168.1.2 static IP to wired PC, connect it to LAN port and try pinging 192.168.1.1. It should reply to you, indicating, that you've done everything above correctly. Then connect your PC to the WAN port and try pinging again (the device still should be in the firmware restoration mode). If you get an answer - WAN port still have problems and you need to update your bootloader...
Please let me know of your results.

[kiewer]

Hi Oleg,

you are right, it answers when connected to WAN port as well. So there is still a problem.

Generally I don't have so much concerns about this bug, because my home network is really simple - just one PC which is not always online and sometimes wlan connected laptop. So if you say that pmon upgrade somehow risky I would prefer not to do it. But may be will try on weekend

---
spasibo tebe ogromnoe za novoe firmware i za etot forum voobsche
---

regards,
Gennadiy.

[Oleg]

Ok, thank you for your findings.

[guerby]

Hi, my WL500GX (bought in Paris) has a serial number starting with 53 and hardware version WL500gx-01-03-01-33. cat /proc/cpuinfo gives 200 MHz and meminfo says 32MB of RAM.

Anything special I should know? I haven't seen those serial/hardware numbers in the forums yet (not read everything yet too .

I have only Linux machines at home, is MS windows necessary for some firmware upgrade operation?

Thanks in advance,

Laurent

[Oleg]

Hi, my WL500GX (bought in Paris) has a serial number starting with 53 and hardware version WL500gx-01-03-01-33. cat /proc/cpuinfo gives 200 MHz and meminfo says 32MB of RAM.

I've just updated serials to mention 53. You need to upgrade your bootloader, as it still have WAN port issue.

[Oleg]

And yes, you need Windows box.

[guerby]

And yes, you need Windows box.

Thanks Oleg for your messages.

Problem is I don't have Windows at all.

I tried "wine burnboot.exe" and the first steps were fine, then it got a timeout (normal since my 192.168.1.1 gateway is currently not the WL500GX). Looking at "strace wine burnboot.exe", it first tries to run arp probably to try to find the WL500GX:

stat64("/home/guerby/.wine/dosdevices/c:/windows/system/arp -d 192.168.1.1", 0x406ddb78) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

It fails (of course), then it does a few TFTP sendmsg to 192.168.1.1 (probably harcoded if arp fails):

sendmsg(20, {msg_name(16)={sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(69), sin_addr=inet_addr("192.168.1.1")}, msg_iov(1)=[{"\0\1ASUSSPACELINK\1\1\250\300\0", 20}], msg_controllen=0, msg_flags=0}, 0) = 20

It does stat64 pmon.bin but I can't see a succesful open in the trace, may be it opens it later and at first is just checking the file is there.

If it's just a TFTP, does someone have a contact with ASUS people? The protocol to update the bootloader might not be that complicated, so a Linux tool or simple tftp script should be doable.

Otherwise I'll have to do the thing for real from wine, did anyone try those exe with wine before me?

Laurent

[Oleg]

Yes, it's driven by tftp, but it use extra "fake" transfer. It appears to be similar to flashing firmware from linux.
But I would not recommend playing with it, as it could make a brick from your router. It's better to use real Windows box.