Flashing OpenWrt in WL-HDD

[ineiti]

I'm trying to flash the latest (rc4) openwrt to a wl-hdd. I have no troubles flashing the latest asus-firmware, Oleg's firmware works, too (1.9.2.7-7b), but for openwrt (whiterussion rc4: openwrt-brcm-2.4-jffs2-4MB.trx) I always get

Firmware Upgrade Fail !

Firmware upgrade fail. It may result from incorrect image or error transmission.
Please check the version of firmare and try again.

[mutejute]

same problem here. if i flash through the web admin page, i receive an error. if i use tftp, theres a timeout problem. it could be because im connecting wirelessly. my pc is far from my router and im lazy to disconnect all the cords and wires. so i settled to just use the oleg's fw. so far oleg is ok and i just successfully installed zina mp3 server today and it streams so well.

[joebush]

I had the same irritating problem. I finally found a reference to how to flash with firmware that isn't supported via the gui.

After starting the unit while holding the reset button the power LED should be flashing. Use the Recovery utility to attempt to upload the firmware. This will fail (it even fails with official firmware which makes the utility useless except for doing this). After the 31 seconds have passed and the firmware update failed, you need to use tftp to upload the firmware. This shouldn't take but a couple of seconds before you get confirmation of success.

tftp -i <ip-address> PUT openwrt.bla.bla.trx

I hope you're as happy as I was when the firmware finally got uploaded. Good luck.

[mutejute]

hi joebush. hope you could post a step by step tutorial on installing openwrt even just a brief/short instructions. or maybe you could answer some of my questions:

1) prior to the recovery utility and tftp process, was your wl-hdd connected to your router?

2) prior to the recovery utility and tftp process, was your wl-hdd set to a static ip address? that static ip address should be the one to use in "tftp -i <ip-address> PUT openwrt.bla.bla.trx"?

3) where can i download the recovery utility? or is it stored in the cdrom that came with the wl-hdd?

4) if flashing openwrt is not successful, will the wl-hdd still boot-up and use the current firmware installed in it?

i think thats all for now. many thanks.

[mutejute]

its ok now. i have successfully flashed openwrt using fw restoration tool. it worked the first time i tried.

[beachboy]

Hi All,

is there a site, where I could get some
information what the advantage is of using
openwrt.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Beachboy

[mutejute]

if you will be using it as a storage device only, play media files via my network places in windows, the default asus firmware is fine. if you want a light webserver with php functionality, you can try oleg. for openwrt, i still havent explored much on the features, but of course, it can do what asus and oleg provide (samba, web server, etc..) and more features.

based on my experience, with my mp3 jukebox project, openwrt + lightttpd + php performs better than oleg+thttpd+php. php webpages load faster and more php functionality. i am using zina mp3 server. the latest version of it is not working properly with php-thttpd (oleg), even the earlier versions of zina, is not stable. im not sure if lighttpd is available for oleg. lighttpd is the reason i switch to openwrt.

asus and oleg are easier to install and manage. openwrt is not. you need the firmware restoration tool to install openwrt. once installed, its pretty basic. you cant do anything with it. you have to manually install modules from samba to web server to mounting harddisk, etc.. so you must know some unix/linux and the vi editor for editing configuration files. sometimes i get frustrated because i cant get the applications/modules work. it took me some time to install and configure them.

you know, i was really happy with oleg. its better than the default firmware because you can customize it. but in the back of my mind, i was wondering maybe openwrt is better for me. so ive got to try it otherwise i will always be wondering. so i did.

so if you really want to know the answers to your questions, you have to try it. the good thing is, you can always revert back to oleg or asus firmware, so you will not be stuck with openwrt in case you dont like it.