WL700gE "neutered" (?) after returning from ASUS service - PLEASE help !

[idu]

Hello, everyone, first of all let me introduce myself with this first post and, please, accept my thanks for your wonderful work and the plethora of information to be found here.

I have a horribly annoying problem with my (almost) new WL700gE (which I am starting to believe to be cursed, somehow). The scenario is as follows:

- mid March: happy owner of a brand new ASUS WL700gE router + storage server, with a 250GB internal HDD (which was a very pleasant surprise, since the specs were advertising an 160GB HDD).
- start of April: installed OpenWRT by flashing the router with the image found on http://wl700g.homelinux.net/drupal/?q=node/19 . Wonderful website, lots of info. Result: flawless instalation, brand new, out-of-the box OpenWrt. Due to some problems with my company, I had to postpone the fine-tuning of the installation, as well as the installation of new services, espacially of a VPN solution (based on OpenVPN, PPTP or OpenSwan).
- mid May: At last I decided to start the big step of installing the VPN, since I badly need a solution to adding an extra layer of encryption to my wireless network. The disaster: while getting the router from the shelf, I accidentaly dropped it, from about 1m (3ft), on the parquet floor. After pluging it in, the "READY" led kept flashing, without any further activity. At that time, I did not think to test if it responded to pings and, as a result, if maybe a new flash might have done some good. The truth is that I was convinced that it was a hardware thing (i.e. a "smashed electronic thingie" problem). As a result I took it to the ASUS Authorized Service Provider (in Prague, Czech Republic, where I live), hoping that they'll repair it, if I would hide the fact that I dropped it (I'm sure that this would void the warranty).
- first week of June: surprise ! They repaired it, even though it took 3 weeks. I took it back, fully functional. Found the original ASUS firmware 1.0.4.6 installed. No surprise here, I was expecting that.

Here comes the annoying thing: after this service "operation", I cannot install Openwrt anymore. I tried repeating the steps on the tutorial quoted above, no luck. After flashing, I can telnet to it, dmesg will show an error which I do not remember right now, but which depicts a lack of space in the flash memory (apparently, the firstboot procedure depletes the storage space). Fdisk shows no discs installed. After reboot, the router will no longer come alive (READY led lit steady, no reply to pings on none of the interfaces, no DHCP client on the WAN inteface, otherwise said, dead). I tried the "micro" version. After reflashing and restarting the router, no leds will light up, the router appears as having no power. I tried compiling my own image in a Ubuntu VMWare installation, no luck. The same behavior, no lights, apparently no power. All I can install is the original firmware and the modified firmware posted by Back2Basics (I also found it posted by kfurge, hello guys, thanks a lot !). This works alright, exactly as it worked before, but, unfortunately, I cannot install any VPN solution on it, due to obvious lack of functionalities.

My suspicion is that the router has been somehow neutered while being serviced. Obviously, I cannot take it back it complain that I cannot install other software than the supported ASUS firmware. The worst part is that I am not even sure about its "neutering", this hypothesis seeming a little far fetched.

The conclusion of this ultralong post (my apologies for the its length) is: does anybody know anything about this ? has anyone bumped into this problem before ? Could anyone guide me into restoring a healthy OpenWRT environment on this router ?

I end the post by mentioning: before the accident, the first OpenWRT flash was made using a Windows XP installation and the built-in tftp program of XP. After returning from service, the subsequent flashes have been made with Windows Vista and the built-in tftp program of Vista.

Thank you for your patience in reading this and I am really looking forward to a constructive reply.

[gratitude182]

i don't know if this could help

but when you have the custom 1.0.4.6 onto it, telnet to it and try to clean up nvram.
2.7. How do I clean up the NVRAM variables (the safe way)?
= http://wiki.openwrt.org/Faq

and then try install openwrt

if it won't work you have to reset the box (5-10 seconds reset button) to go back to the asus firmware.

grat182

[idu]

Thanks for the tips, gratitude182. I never tried wiping the nvram variables, so there's yet hope. I'm gonna try it today and post the result. As about the resetting of the box, I think I've done it almost a thousand times, no result.

[idu]

Unfortunately, wiping the nvram with the script seemed to have destroyed some ASUS variables for the original firmware. Now, when I reflash it with the original firmware, the router starts, I have samba, but when trying to logon to the web interface, I get a purple page with the error: "Bad Request Not authenticated -- press the physical authentication button on the WL700gE and try again."
Regarding the installation of OpenWRT, it ends up failing similarly, with a few small differences. Now I got a rather strange behaviour, after reflashing latest Kamikaze and restarting the router, I can logon with telnet, dmesg shows no errors, but fdisk command is non-existant. Moreover, all network activity ceases after ~1 minute after boot (my telnet session hanged up on me, without any interference from me, I was just contemplating that I had no fdisk).

Any new ideas, anyone ?

[idu]

Some new insight after carefully watching the behaviour of the router after flashing the latest OpenWRT Kamikaze:

The reflash procedure is successful, power down the router after 20 seconds, restart. READY light turns on briefly, then goes off. Getting ping replies from the beginning. Telnet works ok. Dmesg shows no errors. Trying fdisk gets an error from the shell, /bin/ash: unknown command (apparently the fdisk binary cannot be found). Then I try accessing the /sbin executables using the autocompletion feature of the shell (typing /sbin/ and pressing <TAB> to get a list of the executables from the directory). In that moment the router locks up. No ping replies, nothing. Power off, reboot, steady READY led on, no further network activity.

The key factor here seems to be the fact that the error appears when I am trying to access the /sbin directory. Where is that directory stored in a fresh new installation of OpenWRT (physically) ? What would be the possible reasons for this behaviour ?

[gratitude182]

i'm sorry that i don't know the reason for the problems with openwrt (i have the custom firmware installed).

but if you wanna get back to the asus firmware (or custom asus firmware) you have to copy the 1.0.4.2.trx file. than start and reset (for 5-10 seconds) and then install the asus firmware (nas file) with asus restore tool.

grat182

[idu]

Thanks for the reply, grat. Done that already and, as I said in the post, now the original firmware has no web interface, due to the "NOT authenticated -- press the physical authentication button on the WL700gE and try again." error. Anyway, I managed to enable telnet and now I'm limping forward to... I don't know what, exactly.
Since you said you were running the custom firmware, I would have some questions for you:
- did you try/manage to install any vpn solution on the custom firmare ?
- did you try/manage to use any kernel modules from the OpenWRT packages in your installation ? (I'd like to use kmod-tun for the openvpn package, but I had no luck whatsoever, the openvpn server says it cannot open the tun interface, even though the module was inserted successfully, but this is another story)
- last, but definitely not least, could you send me a dump of your nvram, so I can manage what are the variables needed to re-enable the web interface ?

I'll leave my e-mail address in a PM for the nvram dump.

Thank you.

[gratitude182]

you have no web interface when you have only copied the trx file and the nas file. but when you copy the trx file than reset the box for 5-10 sec then install the nas file the asuswebinterface is there.

for the problem

- did you try/manage to install any vpn solution on the custom firmare ?
- did you try/manage to use any kernel modules from the OpenWRT packages in your installation ? (I'd like to use kmod-tun for the openvpn package, but I had no luck whatsoever, the openvpn server says it cannot open the tun interface, even though the module was inserted successfully, but this is another story)

no sorry, i don't tried/need this.

- last, but definitely not least, could you send me a dump of your nvram, so I can manage what are the variables needed to re-enable the web interface ?

i can send the nvram to you (but i'm currently not at home --> evening-night).
the problem is that i think that my nvram sucks (or somewere in the ram is something wrong), because also when i install openwrt, format the hd, and go back to the custom asus firmware i can only turn off/on the box for about 5 times and then i can install the firmware again or i have to do the steps with format the hd again. and so i'm not currently happy with the white box.
so i could install openwrt or i could send it to asus....

grat182

[gratitude182]

when you press the reset button (5-10 sec) then should be the nvram with asus variables again there. try this, and if this won't work i will send the nvram variables to you.

grat182

[idu]

No effect with the reset button. Once, I was thinking highly about the reset button, and, as a result, I tried it extensively, all the time, but I came to the conclusion that it doesn't do much to help. Ofcourse, I tried it now, but there is no sign of something being modified in the system. I'm pretty sure that it's something nvram-related, because the original fw works fine, only the web interface is broken and that appeared only after clearing the nvram.

[gratitude182]

and do you have installed the trx and the nas file?

grat182

[idu]

I cannot use the firmware restoration tool, it never worked for me (although I tried all the possibilities regarding the ez-setup button and its timing between press and release). I split the NAS file in its two composing TRXs with the ASUS TRX tool and I flashed the flash part of the NAS. Before wiping the NVRAM, that was all I needed, afterwards the web interface worked perfectly and I was completing the instalation by doing another flash with the NAS via the web interface. Now, since I no longer have access to the web interface, I installed only the flash part. I think I could install the complete thing with mtd, but I don't think this causes my problems. I am more and more convinced that the problem with the web interface comes from a nvram variable which got erased in the process of nvram cleaning, possibly a primitive authentication mechanism which gets its initial data from that variable. I'll try to dig into the web interface (more exactly into the cgi's) and determine the exact problem.

[idu]

Managed to reset the router back to original nvram values. The trick is to keep the reset button pressed while the router is powered (connected to electrical mains). I was doing it with the router completely powered down. To be more thorough, I observed that, if you ping the router while holding down reset, when the nvram values are reset, the router starts replying to pings. I'm completely unaware of its inside programming, but I suppose it's a recovery subroutine which also makes some use of the network.
Moreover, I found a solution for running openvpn on the original ASUS firmware, so I decided to trash the OpenWrt project (at least for the moment) because, as "enticing" as it can be, it tends to eat up way too much time. Anyway, I would be interested in finding out how some of other "OpenWrt over WL700gE" users managed this migration, maybe this will give me some insight over what went wrong.

[maradamc]

I found a solution for running openvpn on the original ASUS firmware, so I decided to trash the OpenWrt project (at least for the moment)

Can you please post more info where you found how to do this? I have a WL-500gP running openVPN with Oleg's firmware and an external drive and I'd like to know if I can simplify this setup.

Thanks