Bekijk de volledige versie : Microsoft MN700 hack project
dnaraG_1M
27-08-2008, 16:21
WHAT:
I owe a debt of gratitude to the folks of this forum - and some other pages - for the help in getting my MN-700 re-flashed with DD-WRT in a fairly quick and easy manner. It was a great learning experience.
WHY:
I bought a $10 MN-700 from a local thrift store with the idea of replacing my current, kludgy, ResetMeOften router. It works! And I've turned another piece of junk into a treasure. How's _that_ for recycling!!
HOW:
I read - and re-read - this forum and several other pages. like Liamm, for a day or so, then plunged in with both feet. The first problem was how to connect to the JTAG port in a way that would allow use in the future. (Having struggled with Murphy and his "Law" for about a half century, I always plan for Plan B!!!). I found an old keyboard extender cable to be an Organ Donor of miniDIN connector(s) which would fit in the box when closed.
Many folks here have noted the "noise prone" nature of the cable and the need to Keep It Short (Size Does Matter!). But, one person indicated that an extension cable could be used if the cable didn't reach the PC. Hmmmm. That sounds like the problem of noise might be due to the resistors being on the DB25 connector - thus, extending the internal JTAG nodes. Perhaps the cable length from the resistors to the DB25 isn't the limiting factor..??.. With that in mind, I decided on a ZERO LENGTH cable. IE, solder the resistors to the JTAG socket and extend the wire from the resistors to the DB25 connector. Remembering Murphy, I still made the total cable length SHORT. About 8".
(See Pix below.)
For whichever reason - resistor location, cable length, or both, that worked B-U-TEE-FLEA!!!! No hardware problems at all.
Take that you rotten, no good Murphy!
I had several software problems and it took three or four re-visits to these pages to iron them out. But, the bottom line is that 10 bucks, about a day or two of "study", an hour of hardware work and about two hours of software fiddling has left me with a GREAT router - love it. It's already looking more stable than the former POS.
I could not have done it without you all.
So thanks, ..........thanks, ............and thanks again.......
cheers,
johnd
fergulator
27-08-2008, 19:50
Is anyone able to provide me with a cfe.bin....
I'm not really Linux skilled...
My aversion was really based on my not wanting to mess around with a dual boot setup (as I don't have a Linux machine) on my XP box. The wonderful alternative I found, which I can't recommend highly enough, was VMware player (http://www.vmware.com/products/player/). It's a free utility that allows you to run a virtual machine in my case over XP. It was EASY to set it up and find a Linux appliance to run under it.
The rest of the install was silky smooth (clearly due to the very helpful instructions here).
Thanks all.
I successfully flashed the CFE using a JTAG cable. However, I cannot get the Asus Firmware Restoration Utility to load any firmware onto the router. When I turn on the router I can ping it while the light is flashing green-yellow. As soon as I click Upload on the Firmware utility, the light goes green, and I can no longer ping the router. The Firmware utility tries for 30 seconds, but always says, "No wireless device in recovery mode is found." What is wrong? I tried 2 versions of the Firmware Utility (1.3.8.2 and 1.3.8.0). I tried all 4 ports on the router. I tried a computer running Windows 2000 and another running Windows XP. I tried multiple Ethernet cables. I tried holding down the reset button when turning on the router. I tried hitting upload before plugging in the router, at the same time I plugged in the router, and after I plugged in the router. I tried getting a DHCP address, I tried setting a static IP to the DHCP address, I tried setting my computer's IP to 192.168.1.10. Is there anything I didn't try? My antivirus software is turned off, the Windows Firewall is turned off on the computer running XP (Win 2000 doesn't have a firewall). I've tried to load both DD-WRT and OpenWRT firmware files. Does anyone have any other ideas?
royitoroy
03-12-2008, 09:30
hi friends, im roy from venezuela and i think that i break my mn700 because sombody have just lost a few times ago the 12v energy adapter, so and i had to change it the conector in the mn700 for use another universal 12v energy adapter with a lot of plugs, and i just use the one for the conector that i change it in the mn700.
ok thats fine its not a problem and it works fine, but.. im trying to change the firm to ddwrt and i am doing all of this post and thats good too, the problem its by mistakes i change the polarity of the universal 12v energy adapter and now, it doesnt do anithing, dont turn on the ligth , it do nothing, and i think its burn some transistor o anything...
but a really think that is the little thing (capasitor, transistor, anything:confused: ) black rounded with written stuffs in white on it, that its down to the energy conector and of the hole of the bold, in the picture it just saw.:(:(
it says: <PS>E
JET
bel
T1.25A 250V
PLEASE :o let me know if you know what could ill do? wath its that? can i foud anything like that to change it? can you help me to fix it? or at least tell me if can i buy anyting to change that or fix it? pleaaase i want my ddwrt in that sh.. its about a junior hacker proud :)
[EMAIL=royroyers@gmail.com
very very sorry for my english its 4 am and im learning it and im desperate
and for the image i dont know how to get it smaller soory;)
thanks
http://scatcat.fhsu.edu/~cmhansen/router.jpg
akcam2006
16-01-2009, 06:48
dnaraG_1M, thanks for the help. I moded my router just like you did and it worked perfectly. I played with the idea of using a longer cord and with the resisters on the board my 18" cord worked perfectly.
Thanks to everyone for the help... My old POS is now running at light speed. Well not really but its much better than it was.:D
akcam2006
akcam2006
16-01-2009, 07:08
Did anyone ever answer the question about adding a USB to the MN700?
akcam2006
slimPickens
13-03-2009, 15:51
First off, I apologize for dragging this thread out again, many years after it was started. And please believe me I used this as a last resort and have been struggling with this for some time.
The trouble:
Asus Restoration tool says: Upload Fails! Please check the connection.
tftp says: Timeout occured.
Some background:
My mac: 00:0D:3A:70:C4:F0
I can get it into firmware restoration mode.
I can ping the router, (if I clear nvram on the previous boot)
I used nvserial and the magical files within mn700.zip, both in Knoppix and Ubuntu, with identical results.
I can flash the cfe and back it up to get the same file.
Using the wan port on the router I get the "No router found in restoration mode" error. Using the lan port I get the upload fails error.
My suspicion:
I'm consistently making a bad cfe.
My question:
Anybody got any suggestions?
slimPickens
16-03-2009, 19:22
I'm trying to get the Microsoft MN700 to accept some new firmware. Anybody feeling helpful today?
The trouble:
Asus Restoration tool says: Upload Fails! Please check the connection.
tftp says: Timeout occured.
Some background:
My mac: 00:0D:3A:70:C4:F0
I can get it into firmware restoration mode.
I can ping the router, (if I clear nvram on the previous boot)
I used nvserial and the magical files within mn700.zip, both in Knoppix and Ubuntu, with identical results.
I can flash the cfe and back it up to get the same file.
Using the wan port on the router I get the "No router found in restoration mode" error. Using the lan port I get the upload fails error.
My suspicion:
I'm consistently making a bad cfe.
My question:
Anybody got any suggestions?
triscross
10-05-2009, 19:06
Is anyone able to provide me with a cfe.bin for my router MAC ID 00:0D:3A:72:C2:5E
ive been trying to use nvserial but it just wont work :(
BATMANTAS
25-06-2009, 17:45
I've followed all of the threads to refresh the firmware on my MN700 router.
- Have a jtag cable with the correct wiring, resistors and pinouts
- I've been able to locate a copy of nvserial (is difficult to find)
- have edited the mn700.txt file with the MAC address of my router
- have created a cfe.bin in Knoppix using the nvserial command
- have successfully backed up the cfe from my router, cleared nvram, and flashed the new cfe.bin using wrjtag-modified
- when i do a diff or comp on the new cfe I've created it is different, from everything I've read it should be the same
- router starts and the power flashes alternating green and orange
- i can ping the router at 192.168.1.1
- i am not able to use any of the asus utilities as it doesn't see the router
- i've tried tftp to put the new .trx file on the router and this doesn't work.
My suspicion is that my cfe is bad. Can anyone help with a working copy of nvserial, or send me a cfe.bin with the MAC 00:0D:3A:27:1A:60
thanks, Dan.
BATMANTAS
29-06-2009, 15:34
Turns out that the nvserial was good, the way that the mn700.txt was edited was correct, the created cfe.bin was good, however when flashed there was a problem with the flash so that the flashed cfe.bin ended up being different. I re-flashed, backed up the cfe did a compare and this time they were the same.
One of the things I learned is that the ASUS firmware restoration tool does not support Windows7 even with XP compatibility mode on. When I tried the tool again on an XP SP3 machine I was able to load the firmware that I wanted.
I am now enjoying my old MN700 router with Tomato firmware!
Thank you Oleg and the others that posted to this forum.
Thembones
10-07-2009, 18:45
hola, mas vale tarde que nunca, ese componente al que te refieres es un fusible, por eso no te enciende el router , las caracteristicas del fusibles son
1,25 Amperes y 250 V o sino reemplazalo con un filamento de algun cable,
Saludos
hi friends, im roy from venezuela and i think that i break my mn700 because sombody have just lost a few times ago the 12v energy adapter, so and i had to change it the conector in the mn700 for use another universal 12v energy adapter with a lot of plugs, and i just use the one for the conector that i change it in the mn700.
ok thats fine its not a problem and it works fine, but.. im trying to change the firm to ddwrt and i am doing all of this post and thats good too, the problem its by mistakes i change the polarity of the universal 12v energy adapter and now, it doesnt do anithing, dont turn on the ligth , it do nothing, and i think its burn some transistor o anything...
but a really think that is the little thing (capasitor, transistor, anything:confused: ) black rounded with written stuffs in white on it, that its down to the energy conector and of the hole of the bold, in the picture it just saw.:(:(
it says: <PS>E
JET
bel
T1.25A 250V
PLEASE :o let me know if you know what could ill do? wath its that? can i foud anything like that to change it? can you help me to fix it? or at least tell me if can i buy anyting to change that or fix it? pleaaase i want my ddwrt in that sh.. its about a junior hacker proud :)
[EMAIL=royroyers@gmail.com
very very sorry for my english its 4 am and im learning it and im desperate
and for the image i dont know how to get it smaller soory;)
thanks
http://scatcat.fhsu.edu/~cmhansen/router.jpg
I dug out my old MN-700 and tried to hack it.
I built the JTAG cable per directions, and wrt54g can communicate and gets a real processor ID (not 111111's or 00000's).
I created a cfe.bin based on my MAC address on a UNIX box.
I flashed the cfe using wrtjtag-modified to my router. Comparing the cfe.bin and the backup I made after flashing using the -backup:cfe command, the files are identical.
My problem is this: When I boot the router, it goes into firmware flashing mode (blinking green/orange power light). I connect a PC directly to the router with an ethernet cable, and set a static IP. I ping 192.168.1.1, but I get timeouts.
When I run the firmware update utility from Asus, the blinking light turns solid green, but the firmware utility says it cannot find a router to flash.
I am not able to TFTP into the router.
What am I doing wrong? Why doesn't the router work!
UPDATE:
I did it! The problem was the NVRAM. I needed to run the wrtjtag-modified.exe -erase:nvram /noreset command a half dozen times, which nuked any residual bits, and the Asus utility worked! Now the router boots as an Asus, and DD-WRT is coming tomorrow. Hope this tip helps somebody out there.
I recently hacked my MN-700, a feat I managed with considerable help from the advice on this forum, and from LiamM's tutorial. However, a lot of the information and files needed were scattered all over the net, and much of the advice presupposes some knowledge of Linux and embedded systems to follow. I wrote my own tutorial, and I thought I would post it for any router newbs like myself who feel like installing 3rd party firmware on their MN-700. I would also appreciate any feedback from more advanced members.
http://jozerworx.com/tutorials/mn700/default.htm