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Hi folks!
It seems like i bricked my brand new Asus WL-500g deluxe while playing with OpenWRT WhiteRussian RC1.
I messed up the firewall rules and locked my self out.
I did "iptables -F", but the default policy for INPUT is DROP... sad
Unfortunately, rebooting the router did not make it accessible again.
I tried to reflash the firmware but tftp says Timeout.
The ASUS firmware utility doesn't help either.
Any ideas are welcome!
Edit: The router responds to arp request, but not to ping.
The people at the #openwrt channel told me how to do a proper reset.:
Removing power, wait 20 sec, put power back, wait 3 sec, push reset for 10 sec.
Then you should be able to telnet/ssh again.
It works, but all my configuration is lost :(
Hi there,
I recently flashed my wl-500gP with Olegs pre4 and it worked for a few minutes. I was just transfering data via samba onto the external harddisk when it passed out and did not respond anymore. I cannot enter the restoration mode, when I press the restore button and plug in AC it reacts just as if I not push the restore button at all. I read similar effects on other routers of the wl-500 series and also read something about pin 10. Is there a similar workaround for the 500gP?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanx in advance
sMiLe
Are you sure you're pushing the "reset" and not the "ez setup" button ? If yes, try holding it pushed for at least 10 seconds before plugging the AC back.
Yes, I'm sure it's not EzSetup. I did use the Restore button before and it worked, but now, it's not doin anything :(
Hello again,
I finally found out which flash memory is used in the wl-500gP. It's an spansion S29GL064M90. The specs are here: http://www.spansion.com/datasheets/s29gl-m_00_b5_e.pdf
Unfortunately, I honestly have no clue about flash memory and hence do not know if and how the pin 10 trick can be applied to the wl-500gP. Maybe Oleg can provide any help? I read a similar procedure was done with the wl-500b before...
Kind regards,
sMiLe
yes you can apply the pin 10 trick. i did it myself !
Hi,
can you give me some details? I tried it but nothing happened :( Did you ground pin 10?
Nevertheless, I think I already trashed my Flash by messing around with the pins...
OK, talking to myself here, but Oleg proposed a fix in the firmware discussion. For anybody having the same problem and reading this thread: Pin 9 has to be grounded while powering up, afterwards, the restoreation mode will work again...
Hi,
I have just bought a WL500g Premium router.
And on the 1st day I have lost control over it: flashing with OpenWRT (worked), then trying some network settings ... and it stopped responding.
Before I broke it (even after flashing with openWRT) I could see it's wireless interface (appeared on my Windows box, I could recognize it by MAC), I could also work with SSH over one of 4 LAN ports.
Then after changing some nvram parameter is ttopped responding.
No ping, no wireless interface.
Blind.
But hapily it still accepts tftp upload using the WAN port (lan port do not work although the port lights seem to flash as expected).
Using WAN i could upload some firmwares, but I found that only after using
wl500g-recover.trx (as described here http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=515 )
it constantly responds for pings to 192.168.1.1 on WAN (LAN ports are quiet).
But I cannot access it using telnet or ssh. These ports do not respond.
I have also tried the wl500g-clear-nvram.trx but with no success - after uploading it, and then some other firmware (eg. the wl500g-recover.trx firmware) - I still did not go any further.
Does telnetd start only on LAN interfaces (not responding for me) that I cannot access it?
How to enable telnetd on WAN using 192.168.1.1 ?
Any other firmware?
Now only ping works, but I cannot reset any settings, nothing ...
Any help?
Darek
connect serial console or use pin9 hack...
Hello all,
I know this may be slightly off topic, because I was using dd-wrt rather than Oleg's firmware but:
Last night I got v23 SP2 ASUS VPN version running on my wl-500. I initially set the clockfreq to 300 (by doing nvram set clkfreq=300, then nvram commit, the reboot).
Box came back up fine, reported 300mhz (cpuinfo).
I then proceeded to enable jffs, usb support, knockd, etc.
For jffs, the original command line commands didn't seem to work, so i grep'd nvram show for all jffs variables, and set the following to 1 (it worked then for a while after this... and through other reboots.. so I modified the wiki's for the subject)
nvram set jffs_mounted=1
nvram set enable_jffs2=1
nvram set sys_enable_jffs2=1
nvram set clean_jffs2=1
nvram set sys_clean_jffs2=1
nvram commit
reboot
So, a couple of hours later after getting things figured out a bit with knockd, etc, I noticed that the wireless 'signal quality' was quite poor for the laptop right next to the router (30-55 %, cycling, sometimes dropping).
I decided this was possibly because of the oveclocking or the increase in txpower to 70, so:
1. i decreased the txpower to 30, still no change, so
2. Changed clkfreq to 266.
On reboot, the router never came back- the power LED would stay on. That is not the problem at this point, story continues---
So, the router would still go into recovery mode (by pressing the reset button during reboot), so I knew it was saveable. It would not reply to ping requests.
Then I shorted the solder connection by pin 9 (as listed in the sticky at the top of the forums) for 15 seconds. The power LED went out, and i could again ping the unit YAY! Smile ... WELLLL... Went about my way resetting things. This time I set the JFFS in the web GUI (as well as 'clean jffs'), and the router never came back from reboot.
So, now the power led on the router never lights up, not even if trying to go into 'recovery mode'.
The router does appear to work as a switch still. And with the case off, you can see that the wlan led lights dimly at boot (and stays lit), as do all of the eth connections if a single device is conected (the one led for the connected port is full brightness)
I see on http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Oxo that someone is working on console connectivity to the unit, but the specifics are not listed. It looks like it requires building an external rs232 circuit.
Comments/suggestions anyone?
Have you tried pin9 trick again?
Oleg--Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
Thanks for your reply. Yes, i've tried the pin9 trick again, to no avail.
I found schematics for a rs232/uart converter, but am not 100% sure this is what I need.
Have you worked with the uart/serial interface much?
take care
Camden
yes, i've 2 serial cables made of nokia phone cables...
Hmmm..Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
Does the board natively support rs232?
If not what all is required?
From what I was reading, it would require a rs232 chip (which i have), as well as a uart chip of some sort. is this correct? Or was this for a previos version of the wl500?
The instructions here (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/User_talk:Oxo) are quite cryptic.... would you mind clarifying? Maybe i understand...if UART2 an external uart chip in the circuit that he built, and he is using UART1 on the circuit board, and not using UART0 at all. That would make sense...
[quote]
Ok, the connector is soldered on, so now we need to check software.
* start for example minicom and connect to ...UART2
* check that there is no echo of characters
* connect UART2 tx to rx
* check that there IS echo of characters
* connect UART2 tx to UART1 rx and UART2 rx to UART1 tx
* try and connect to prompt...
[end quote]
If a uart and max232 chip are required, how did you build these into the nokia cable with a power supply/voltage regulator?
Thank you very much, Oleg!! I am hoping to learn a little something doing this... have done some circutry, but not much. As well as hopefully find that my wl-500 is not totally bricked :)
take care
Camden
you do not need uart for the wl500g premium.
the thing you need is level shifter, which usually built using max 3232 or max232 ic.
just search for any wrt54g tutorial - it's exactly the same (except the board pin out).
Thank you again, Oleg.
I will look into it later tonight :)
take care..
Camden
On the circuit board there is a silkscreen showing the spot for a header that has uart0 and uart1 tx and rx, as well as ground, 3.3v reference, and something labled 'reset' (i believe).
Oleg-- if you're listening-- Do you use that 3.3 volt feed as your supply for the rs232 chip? I assume yes.....
Hope this helps.. I will be trying to find the right capacitors for the max232 chip today after work, or at least find the spec sheet for the ones I have...
take care
Camden
Is somewhere described the pinout of the UART in WL500gp ?
Thx, ric.
Please try to get MAX3232.
This chip is well designed for 3,3V logic level.
Please keep this in mind. Do not use MAX232!!!!
And yes, please use the 3,3V port pin from asus connector to power the MAX3232 chip.
You also need 5 capacitors.
Thank you, I would have made that mistake-- did not realize the difference, hadn't looked at the data sheets yet.
I will source a max 3232 :) Thank you!
Camden
Okay, no one locally has 3232's so I will have to order one.
Seeing as Digi-Key's minimum order is 20 or 25$, is there anyone that needs one in the US, my treat? First come first serve.... i'll pick up the units and the caps needed for the charge pumps....
Camden
better buy usb phone cable with prolific chipset... It should be cheaper...
OK, so the USB phone adapters have a 3 volt rs232 converter built into them? hmmmmQuote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
What model of phone are your converters from? Or is this in another forum/howto for the wrt?
Thanks, Oleg!
Camden
Hey all,
Thanks for the help, I have found the wiki pages for openwrt describing what phone cables to use, etc.
Unfortunatly I don't have any old cables around, and none of the stores in town carry cables with inline boxes... so it will be a little while before I end up set up.
Thanks again for the help, will reply to this forum as things come up (particularily just how hosed the unit is)
take care
Camden
Hey all--
I ended up finding a serial cable for a siemens c55. After checking the tx -> ground voltages, and them being right around 3.4 volts (as per http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddASerialPort), I decided that this must be an okay cable to use.
I set minicom for 115200 8 N 1 as per http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/AddASerialPort and http://www.rwhitby.net/nslu2/serial.html
I double checked my minicom settings by tying tx and rx together, and got character echo.
Still no connection on either uart pair.
So, i moved on to reading more about wtzm's issues here: http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=859
as well as wvr's post here:
http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?t=...ighlight=pin10
And it appears that wvr's unit showed the same characteristics as mine, but shorting A20/pin10 to ground for even a long period of time had no effect.
If no one has any other suggestions or ideas, I am ready to can the unit and get another.
If someone would like to play with the unit and see if they can figure out what happened, I will ship it to them free of charge. It will probably be missing the mini-pci card, however.... :)
Camden
Hey guys!
I got myself a bricked router (don't know how it was bricked exactly because I received it in this state from its former user)... still I wonder if someone has an idea as to what course of action to take when the following serial console output is the only thing that the router will output:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤@ 6¤ë 12 16:31:07 CST 2006 (root@localhost.localdomain)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.
Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29006: 264MHz
Total memory: 33554432 KBytes
Total memory used by CFE: 0x80800000 - 0x8089B670 (636528)
Initialized Data: 0x808317E0 - 0x80833EC0 (9952)
BSS Area: 0x80833EC0 - 0x80835670 (6064)
Local Heap: 0x80835670 - 0x80899670 (409600)
Stack Area: 0x80899670 - 0x8089B670 (8192)
Text (code) segment: 0x80800000 - 0x808317E0 (202720)
Boot area (physical): 0x0089C000 - 0x008DC000
Relocation Factor: I:00000000 - D:00000000
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-XX-XX-XX-XX-XX, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Null Rescue Flag.
Boot program checksum is invalid
Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (Check error)
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
[this continues forever]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional notes:
1) Although it seems that an IP address is assigned to eth0 I can not ping the router (of course I have set a static IP in the same subnet on the computer I'm trying to connect from)!
2) The MAC address in the console output above has been altered for this posting, in real life looks like it should.
2) Recovery mode: same output except that it says "Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (Forced!)"
3) Pin shorting has not changed anything (Pin 9)
4) Neither TFTP or the ASUS Utility can connect to the router, not even in forced recovery mode.... probably because the router can not even be pinged (cp. point 1).
... sombeody got an idea how I can get some life back into the device?
What's port you are used, when you connect your desktop to router? MAN or LAN? Try to used different port...
tnx, tronix. I tried the following:Quote:
Originally Posted by Tronix
1) as usual one of the LAN ports ... tried all four (just to make sure)
2) tried WAN (which should not work) and which also did not work
what worries me when looking closely at the console output is especially the following:
--------from console output -----------------------
Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
---------------------------------------------------
... should't there be also the eth0 LAN adapter that is initialized at this point?
Try folowing (from Oleg's russian FAQ):
1) Turn off router power.
2) Push (and keep pushed) RESTORE button and turn on router power.
3) Still wait, when POWER led is blinking (about 1 sec.) and push-out RESTORE button.
4) Connect by cross-over or patch-cord to anything LAN port on router.
5) In Windows TCP/IP config set static IP 192.168.1.2 (if router has address 192.168.1.1) and network mask 255.255.255.0. Disable all firewalls.
6) ping 192.168.1.1
7) tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put your_firmware.trx
Still wait, until your see: ransfer successful: 3706880 bytes in 7 seconds, 529554 bytes/s
8) Wait about ~10 minutes.
PS: Sorry my poor English (
tronix, tnx for your input but this problem unfortunately goes much deeper!
I have restored many WL-500gP the way you referenced but this works only works if 192.168.1.1 can be successfully pinged!
In my case now, even in forced recovery mode, the router does not answer to 192.168.1.1 ... nor does it send any packets out (I checked with ethereal/wireshark).
So looking at the serial console output I fear that the network interfaces are no longer initialized properly (cause unknown!).
On a WRT54G I'd know it's time for JTAG in such a case .... but so far I have not found information about the JTAG pins for the WL-500gP ...
Hello all,
I managed to brick two brand new wl500gp routers, just call me dum and dumer :). If anyone wants them just drop me a email and i will give you the address so you can arrange pickup (Brisbane).
I strongly recommend anyone considering using the wl500gp with alternative firmware, DD-WRT, OLEG, or OpenWRT to stick with the linksys hardware. These WL500's are technically better but the units are bugger, in that hardware reset and update process do not work very well at all.
I have tried all the methods suggested, reset, Firmware restoration, etc, with the expection of adding a serial port, which is just not worth my time!
update: the router is still dead...
from the console output I got the idea that maybe USB could be an option:
-----
Initializing Devices.
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
-----
so now I tried rndis as well
Would mean that at least the USB ports are initialized in a RNDIS compatible mode, unfortunately a USB Link cable (with PL-2501NW chipset ... supposedly remote ndis and peer to peer capable) did not establish a link....
somebody every used this interface for a recovery ... or does sombody have another idea about how to reanimate my dead router?
Okay, I'am sorry, I not understood your problem. Unfortunately, i don't know, how help you.
May be this log help you:
Code:CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: ¤T 12¤ë 14 15:54:18 CST 2005 (root@localhost.localdomain)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Broadcom Corporation.
Initializing Arena
Initializing Devices.
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.90.23.0
rndis0: Broadcom USB RNDIS Network Adapter (P-t-P)
CPU type 0x29006: 264MHz
Total memory: 33554432 KBytes
Total memory used by CFE: 0x80800000 - 0x8089B590 (636304)
Initialized Data: 0x80831700 - 0x80833DE0 (9952)
BSS Area: 0x80833DE0 - 0x80835590 (6064)
Local Heap: 0x80835590 - 0x80899590 (409600)
Stack Area: 0x80899590 - 0x8089B590 (8192)
Text (code) segment: 0x80800000 - 0x80831700 (202496)
Boot area (physical): 0x0089C000 - 0x008DC000
Relocation Factor: I:00000000 - D:00000000
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-17-31-D6-3C-DD, ipaddr 10.84.0.220, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Null Rescue Flag.
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: .. 3560 bytes read
Entry at 0x80001000
Closing network.
Starting program at 0x80001000
...etc...
tronix, tnx for the log of a working device!!! I suspected it but your log now definitively confirms it: my network interface eth0 is no longer initialized properly!
the line
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 3.90.23.0
is missing when my router initializes... this explains why a) I can not ping the router and b) I don't see any packets in wireshark.
Now I guess the only possible way to get it to work again would indeed by JTAG but since there are no visible jtag pin headers on the wl-500gp pcb I have no idea where to start ...
Type these lines in the cfe prompt:
Code:nvram erase
flash -offset=65536 flash0.os flash0.os
oleg, tnx for the input!! so far I have had no success, perhaps I didn't try it the right way... what I did:Quote:
Originally Posted by Oleg
1) Connect serial port to my USB-Serial 3.3v converter (which was used to receive the console output and should therefore work also in the other direction)
2) Power on the bricked unit
3) Enter "clear nvram" and "flash -offset=65536 flash0.os flash0.os" in the terminal program (I tried it a different times, e.g. directly after boot and later).
Still I see the endless loop of:
------------------------
Reading :: TFTP Server.
Failed.: Timeout occured
------------------------
And no change in the state of the router. Later today I'll check if my TX connection is connected properly (just to make sure).
How exactly should the router react to the two commands?
Ghm... Just type Ctrl+C before entering commands (to get CFE prompt).
BTW, once cleared - you've to flash firmware using recovery tool or tftp (your router should init et0 and also should answer to ping).
oleg, thanks very much for the help! I could successfully enter the commands you posted and the router successfully completed the programming. Towards the end of the programming cycle the power led switched off.
Unfortunately I could neither reach the router directly after programming nor after disconnecting the power supply for a moment ... the power LED is now off and no longer blinking.
the only thing my serial console dump shows is now:
-----------
<0>
-----------
... just these three caracters, no change, nothing more... any ideas?
It's a lot easier to just purchase a TTL<->RS232 shifter from sparkfun. It's only $10.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...roducts_id=449
Just solder some wires from TX, RX, Gnd, and Vcc on the shifter to the corresponding points on the wl500gp. Works great for me. Your minicom settings are correct.
Also, I wouldn't mind taking a look at it if you want.
Hey there--
Yes, if you are interested in looking in the Unit, I would be happy to ship it to you no charge.. and you can keep it when you're done as well!
PM me with your address... :)
take care
Camden
Hi
Can anyone help me or point me in the right direction?
I've tried to upgrade my firmware to Oleg's using the built-interface but my computer crashed whilst this was happening and since then I have not been able to access my router. The power led flash slowly and all the lan and wan ports seem to light fine. Pings and the Asus recovery disk tells me the router can not be found and the pin 9 trick does not put the router back into recovery mode ( btw I didnt realise that I had to put the router into recovery mode before I update firmware :( ).
Am thinking about soldering a serial pinout connection but not sure if this is worth it.. how could this help anyway?
Any ideas?
Wie.
I do not think i will use the wl500 again, they just are not up to the job. As for giving them away i am not sure how much your time is worth but mine is worth a lot more than the cost of these things.
Lets just say in regard to wl500 I Have the tshiet, i live and learn and now move on!