Microsoft MN700 hack project

[roylund]

I'm glad I found this site. I dug and old MN-700 out of the garage dusted it off, installed the 12 pin header, built the jtag, and downloaded all necessary files. Unfortunately I don't know much about linux. I have Redhat on a dual boot laptop and Ubuntu in a recycled desktop but have spent little time using them. I use the syntax posted in the forum for creating the cfe file using nvserial but I keep coming up with command not found. I have all three files in the \home\ranylun directory I use root login in a terminal window, change to the driectory where the files are. I set the nvserial properties to executable. I'd like to learn what I'm doing wrong but if someone could also create the cfe file for me I would appreciate it.

Here are the contents of my mn700.txt file with my mac adress embedded.

# Microsoft MN700 board

boardtype=bcm94710ap
boardnum=mn700

# 4710 CPU clock frequency in Mhz
# Only valid value is 125, anything else defaults to 100Mhz
clkfreq=125

# 4710 SDRAM controller parameters
sdram_init=0x0419
sdram_config=0x0000
sdram_refresh=0x8040

# 4710 MAC and PHY parameters
et0macaddr=00:0D:3A:72:B6:F4
et0phyaddr=30
et0mdcport=0
et1macaddr=00:0D:3A:72:B6:F4
et1phyaddr=5
et1mdcport=1

# PMON variables
dl_ram_addr=a0001000
os_ram_addr=80001000
os_flash_addr=bfc40000
lan_ipaddr=192.168.1.1
lan_netmask=255.255.255.0
scratch=a0180000
boot_wait=on
watchdog=3000
hardware_version=WL500-02-02-01-00
regulation_domain=0X30DE

All help appreciated.

Thanks,
Roy
royan@spamcop.net

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I have made progress (for those who may have similar difficulty.) I downloaded Knoppix and ran it from CD. The nvserial runs but the file system is read-only so the cfe.bin that is generated doesn't write to disk. When I try to change permissions for the folder I get a response that I don't have sufficient privilege and I can't log in as root because I don't know what password to use. I think I'm close to getting this licked but work gets in the way.

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Issue solved!! For the benefite of others, I clicked the K in lower left (start equiv of Win), clicked KNOPPIX, clicked ROOT SHELL, typed psswd, typed a random password, hit enter, typed the password again, hit enter and password entered successfully. Typed exit.

Right clicked the drive icon on the desktop and from the menu clicked on change read/write mode. When asked if sure I want to changed partition to write I clicked yes.

Went to the directory containing the files, opened terminal window, executed nvserial -i mn700.bin -o cfe.bin mn700.txt and in a short time the command prompt returned and ls showed the cfe.bin in the directory (around 256 K in size). Since I'm self directing the process I hope it went correctly and will flash.

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I had a little difficulty with the flash. I used the windows version so I had to move all files to a directory I created in the root of C: drive so it would be asy to run dos in a command window. I started by using the command

wrtjtag -backup:cfe

It would properly i.d. the processor but would freeze after processor reset. After a couple of tries I decided to try

wrtjtag -backup:cfe /noreset

voila....the backup process started scrolling down my screen. After quite awhile it finished and I had the original microsoft cfe backed up on my drive.

I turned the router off and on and then did the flash

wrtjtag -flash:cfe /noreset

The flash started scrolling down my screen and about a half hour later that completed normally (it seems, I hope).
After power cycling the router the power LED alternately blinks yellow-green-yellow-green.....

I'm ready for the firmware upload and at this point I have a question if anyone if reading this.

WHAT IS MY BEST CHOICE (STABILITY VS. FEATURES)? Is Oleg's 1.9.2.7-6b best or should I go older or newer. Hope someone's reading this.

Thanks,
Roy