Unable to flash or restore defaults after installing 1.3.11

[Pilot_51]

I have a WRT54G v1.0 router and I recently upgraded from DD-WRT to Gargoyle 1.3.11 (gargoyle_1.3.11-wrt54g-squashfs.bin). The upgrade didn't go as smoothly as expected and I needed to do a 30/30/30 reset to get the web interface to load. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the rest of the issues, but I suspect it might.

Once I noticed that even simple settings took a long time to be applied (according to the "Please Wait While Settings Are Applied" dialog), in the range of 30 seconds to a few minutes, i figured the flash messed something up or 1.3.x probably just isn't ready, so I tried flashing 1.2.5. The flash appeared to progress normally, but after the router rebooted I found that 1.3.11 was still installed and all my settings still there. I tried resetting to default configuration and it's a similar story, nothing changed after reboot. I tried the 30/30/30 reset and "management mode" reset with no result. I've also tried flashing DD-WRT, OpenWrt, and stock.

I tried TFTP according to directions here and it just times out. I'm not entirely sure if I was missing something, but I tried several different ways and no luck. I can access it over SSH where I set boot_wait=on and wait_time=20 for TFTP and I could view the filesystem, but not sure what else I can do in it to help.

I've noticed that sometimes a soft reset will fail to initialize the WAN interface (no Internet lights or connection). The router even rebooted by itself once and I had to cycle power to get the WAN back. It also seems that it might be dropping connections, but my modem has been doing that off and on for over a year so I can't be sure of that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Gargoyle looks like nice firmware. I was mainly interested in the per-client bandwidth monitoring and quota features that DD-WRT doesn't have. I hope I can get Gargoyle working properly, but first and foremost I need a stable router.

[DoesItMatter]

You mentioned that the TFTP times out.

Are you using Windows 7 or Windows Vista?

Because of the upgraded TCP/IP stack in those, it is VERY easy
to miss TFTP windows when recovering.
You need to use a Windows XP machine, or a Linux machine/LiveCD

1) TFTP recover with a dd-wrt build (XP or Linux machine!)

2) load up Gargoyle 1.2.5 from the DD-WRT GUI (you can do this!)

Then see how it works out.

[Pilot_51]

I'm on Ubuntu and tried both tftp and atftp. I've specifically been trying to flash DD-WRT (dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin).

I've configured Ubuntu to connect with these settings:
IP: 192.168.1.5
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

From the directory containing the DD-WRT image, I run one of these commands immediately after powering up the router:

Code: Select all

echo -e "binary\nrexmt 1\ntimeout 60\ntrace\nput dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin\n" | tftp 192.168.1.1

or

Code: Select all

atftp --option "mode octet" --verbose -p -l dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin 192.168.1.1

tftp returns this roughly 50 times before "Transfer timed out":

Code: Select all

sent WRQ <file=dd-wrt.v24-13064_VINT_std.bin, mode=octet>

atftp returns "timeout: retrying..." 6 times before aborting.

[1an]

Have you tried with a switch or spare router between ubuntu box and router?

I've configured Ubuntu to connect with these settings:
IP: 192.168.1.5
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

If you set a static address for the ubuntu box as above (192.168.1.5), you can use arp to set addresses of 192.168.1.2 for the switch (disable dhcp first if actually a router, via its configuration web page), and 192.168.1.1 for the WRT54G

Code: Select all

arp -s 192.168.1.X MAC:address:of:target

leave WRT54G powered off, power on switch(spare router), ping switch on 192.168.1.2 to check link is working, start tftp as you were, then finally turn on WRT54G.

With this method you shouldn't miss the tftp window on the WRT54G.
I have successfully used this method to unbrick my wzr-hp-g300nh (this particular router actually listens tftp sent to ip address of 192.168.11.1, so all ip addresses need to be in form of 192.168.11.X but otherwise method is similar)

Ian

[Pilot_51]

Unfortunately that didn't work. I used a D-Link DI-624 router I had sitting around. Connected LAN ports with a standard Ethernet cable. Pings to both the D-Link (192.168.1.2) and Linksys worked, just tftp and atftp timing out as before.

[Pilot_51]

Got it! I was getting ready to buy a replacement (though a new router would still be nice).

I flashed it over tftp from my laptop, much like my previous attempts, using this command:

Code: Select all

echo -e "binary\nrexmt 1\ntimeout 60\ntrace\nput WRT54GV4.0_4.21.1_US_code.bin code.bin\n" | tftp 192.168.1.1

Apparently I missed the part of the directions about some versions of the CFE bootloader requiring "code.bin" at the end of the put. Also I first tried flashing DD-WRT mini and it didn't work (stayed on Gargoyle as before) even though it sent, so I guess it had to be stock firmware.

Now that I know what to do if it happens again, I might give Gargoyle another shot.