Firmware v1.6.5.3 Customized [Oleg]

[Antiloop]

i found difficult to find the customized firmware which was modified by Oleg, so i decided to put it in here

this firmware has been modified from the original 1.6.5.3 firmware using part of the linksys gpl source (for details search the customized firmwaretalk, should not be discussed here but BUGS found should!)

this text is copied from Oleg and modified:

DON'T TRY THIS FIRMWARE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, YOU COULD DESTROY YOUR UNIT BY DOING THIS!
WE CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR UNIT BY USING ANY OF THIS!

upgrade instructions:

first of all download the new firmware:
a) for WL-500g:
http://files.wl500g.info/asus/wl500g...en_custom1.trx
b) for WL-500b:
http://files.wl500g.info/asus/wl500b...en_patch1a.trx
DO NOT UPGRADE VIA WIRELESS LAN, ONLY VIA ETHERNET!

Powercycle the unit before upgrading
after upgrading it's possible your unit does not reboot automatically, don't be afraid but be sure the upgrade process has finished (if you're not sure wait 5 minutes)
and powercycle the unit

If your power led starts flashing - the firmware doesn't work, and you will need to run Firmware restoration tool.
If your router does not bootup and power led isn't flashing
perform the following steps: turn off the power, push the RESTORE key on the back, and turn power back on. Release the RESOTE key as soon as the power led starts flashing - then you can run firmware restoration.

This firmware contains the telnetd & the following things from
busybox-1.0pre5:

/bin/date
/bin/dd
/usr/bin/free
/usr/bin/head
/sbin/insmod
/bin/login
/bin/netstat
/usr/bin/nslookup
/usr/bin/passwd
/usr/bin/sort
/usr/bin/strings
/usr/bin/tail
/usr/bin/tee
/usr/sbin/telnetd
/usr/bin/time
/usr/bin/top
/usr/bin/uniq
/bin/watch
/usr/bin/wget

The required are: login, passwd, telnetd, insmod. Other tools are just my preference. ;-)

During the boot this new firmware will initialize passwd&group files, which is needed for login/telnetd. You will be able to telnet to your box using the 'admin' as login name, and password you've set for the web interface. The telnetd security: this firmware will block all access to telnetd from the WAN port, if you have the same setting for the web access.

This firmware has also an ability to execute arbitrary commands during the boot. You just need to put such a commands (all prefixed with bootCmd) to the nvram. Something like this:

nvram set bootCmd0="/usr/sbin/wl -i eth2 txpwr 50"
nvram set bootCmd1="/mnt/usbfs/init"

Also you need to commit this using

nvram commit

Then just reboot your wl500g, and check /tmp/bootCmd.log for the output messages if any.

[lekoala]

Thanks a lot !

Could you tell me if you know where I can find any tutorial or help about customizing Firmware ?
I'll would like to create my own firmware.

LeKoala

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by lekoala
Thanks a lot !

Could you tell me if you know where I can find any tutorial or help about customizing Firmware ?
I'll would like to create my own firmware.

LeKoala

for that follow the CFT forum

[andru123]

What is changed/added in this custom firmware?

[Wisi]

yeah
change list would be interesting

[Styno]

I have a problem with this firmware which I don't have in the latest official release from Asus (1.7.5.6), at least I think so:
The USB filesystem is mounted read-only. This way, its not possible to upload files to the FTP server or create subdirectories in 'ftp_pub'.

Can someone point me to the file I need to edit to enable writing for the USB filesystem? Thanks.

/edit:
There's another (weird) thing with the USB filesystem:
When I do a 'ls /mnt/usbfs' there's a lot of garbage going over my screen. Although it looks like the filesystem is screwed up, I'm still able to read known subdirectories on the disk, like 'ftp_pub'.

My filesystem is approx. 160Gb FAT32.

[RCR]

The file that contains the USB mounts is /init/ftpdserver. But the device is not mounted read-only. Does your USB drive have a write lock that's set?

[Styno]

Originally posted by RCR
The file that contains the USB mounts is /init/ftpdserver. But the device is not mounted read-only. Does your USB drive have a write lock that's set?

I'll look into that file, once I've downloaded the firmware source. About the write lock: The USB drive offers no locking options, so that should not be the source of the problem. Also, the drive is writable using the latest Asus firmware (1.7.5.6), but because of problems with that firmware (see my posts here) I switched to this version and find myself caught up in another bug...