Killed WL-500 b with nvram :-(

[megy]

Hi,
I played with the nvram utility, because I wanted to be able to save the etc directory, so i wanted to store tared gziped uuencoded etc directory in nvram, so i packed the file and did this

nvram set backupetc="`cat etc.uu`"

this went ok and I was able to retreive the file back with
nvram get, unchanged.

But then I did nvram commit and rebooted the unit the unit
was dead.

The pwr on led shines, but that's all.

When I tried to recover with restore button, It did nothing, just
the pwr led shines.

Normal recover procedures for Asus do nothing, so I tried some other hacks,described on openwrt forum, but with no success.

When I run ethereal, I receive nothing even when playing with the restore button, so I think i've messed up the PMON.

I don't have a serial console to be able to see what happens.

I think that when I nvramed the 10kB string to the flash, I must have messed up something in PMON.

Is there any way how to recover the unit???

And do you have any idea how to make a writable part of flash for storing some files(for example 50kB) and not to mess up the unit??

[Snigel]

RMA or warranty maybe?

[megy]

I think so.

[Oleg]

This is really hard to kill the wl500. :) To check the pmon please do the following. Turn off the power. Press the restore button on the back, do not release it. Turn on the power, keep the button pressed for 1 second or so. If your power led starts flashing - everything is ok, pmon is waiting for transfer. If it does not flash - pmon is probably dead.

[Antiloop]

you could also send me the unit, so i can add it to my Asus WL-Collection :D

[megy]

To Oleg:

Yes, I know this, but this just does not work. I even tried other hacks. Nothing works.

When the reset button is pressed, the pmon should wait for TFTP transfer, but it does nothing.
The pwr led is always always on.