Some questions regarding debricking a 500gx

[fusterjj]

Hello all,

I am not sure how, but soon after installing openwrt I managed to brick my new 500gx. Searching the forums seems to suggest that this usually happens when some NVRAM setting gets changed to a value that the bootloader cannot deal with. Since I only used "nvram show," I can only presume that the NVRAM was changed by some other program, possibly the web interface (which I did use to change some settings such as IP address, hostname, etc.).

Anyways, here are my symptoms, and then I have some questions regarding my recovery options.

1) SSH, pings, etc no longer work (over wireless or wired)
2) The Air LED comes on and stays on a few seconds after power-up.
3) I am able to associate to the wireless connection, and the LAN ports are acting as a switch
4) Holding down the reset button during power-up (plugging power cable in) no longer activates firmware flashing mode (i.e the power LED does not blink, it just stays on)

My questions are:
1) Based on the behavior of the LEDs, is "pmon" functional at all? Any idea what state it might be in?
2) If I were to connect up a serial port as described here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=1993
should I be able to get a command prompt for pmon (assuming it were functional)?
3) If I were able to get a command prompt for pmon, are there any commands that would allow me to reset the NVRAM?

My other options seem to be grounding an address pin on the flash, which I am loathe to do since that would definitely prevent warranty service...(as a side note, any success stories on getting Asus to fix routers with non-Asus firmwares?)

Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your help and for all the good info already on the forum!

[Oleg]

(as a side note, any success stories on getting Asus to fix routers with non-Asus firmwares?)

If it is still covered by warranty, send it to repair. ASUS guys do not have any tools to check the firmware version, etc. Your unit would be replaced.

Adding a serial port will void your warranty too, as long as your remove warranty seal on one of the pads, unless you attach a cable by unscrewing two screws only. Getting CFE (not the pmon) prompt could help you to find out the problem.

[fusterjj]

Hi,

Thanks for your help, Oleg. I went ahead and added the serial port. It looks like OpenWrt is actually booting, but the network interfaces are not brought up. Also, the bootloader was giving an "Error" when attempting to do TFTP at the beginning, and was not showing the "Device eth0:" message. I was able to fix this by setting "lan_ipaddr" with "nvram set".

For some reason linux is only recognizing the wireless network interface, as can be seen in the kernel message output for eth0. I suspect there are more nvram settings that are missing (the list is now very short!). Any ideas which ones could be necessary for the wired ethernet interface to work?

Thanks!

P.S. I have tried setting wl0_ifname=eth1, but it keeps getting reset to eth0.

[fusterjj]

OK, it looks like I got it working. Apparently I needed to set "et0phyaddr=254", and then for OpenWrt's benefit, "boardnum=45"...everything seems OK so far.