TL-WR1043ND V3

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erez669
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 4:52 pm

TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by erez669 »

tp-link released version 3 of this router, it seems that the hardware is the same like v2.1 but supports ipv6, if i flashed firmware that compatible to version 2.1, i will brick my unit or not?

thanks.

sarmad06
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:07 am

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by sarmad06 »

Dear All,
This is my first post in Gargoyle Router forum. Just wanted to share my experience related to TP Link WR1043ND. In past, this forum has helped me a lot regarding many issues faced in open source router OS/firmwares, hence in return i wanted to give something back to the community as well.

[FYI: as per FCC documentation {officially provided by TP-Link} V3 has exact same electrical hardware as V2 & the snapshots provided show same external look as well, hence i went ahead with the following]


How I successfully flashed WR1043ND V3 firmware on V2 hardware.

[Disclaimer: This is the process i followed to achieve my goal. You yourself will be responsible in-case you end up bricking your router by following in my foot steps.]

Things that you will need:
a). TP-Link's official firmware for V3 with U-Boot included.
b). a U-Boot stripped {WITHOUT U-Boot} file for this same firmware.
c). Gargoyle 1.6.2 firmware image for WR1043ND V2.
d). Winscp.exe for scp access to router's RAM /tmp directory.
e). Putty.exe to gain SSH access to Gargoyle router.

The process that finally worked for me.
1). Flash V2 hardware with Gargoyle 1.6.2 through webpage/GUI interface.
2). Enable SSH access to Gargoyle router.
3). Use winscp to copy "U-Boot stripped" TP-Link firmware file (for V3) to ram directory i.e. /tmp
4). Use putty to SSH into router, go to /tmp directory & force flash this stripped TP-Link firmware file to router's ROM. [Hence bypassing any TP-Link firmware upgrade security checks]

[Hint: /tmp# mtd -r write firmware.bin firmware] where firmware.bin is your "U-Boot stripped" TP-Link firmware file that you copied to /tmp folder.

5). After reboot login to your TP-Link V3 firmware with default login/pass, go to firmware update page & now flash the original/complete/official TP-Link V3 firmware WITH U-Boot file.
6). After final reboot For all intents and purposes, now you have a fully working TP-Link WR1043ND V3 Router.
7). Please note as of yet the V3 firmware WILL NOT allow you to flash Gargoyle WR1043ND V2 file from its web interface. Hopefully this will be fixed once Official Gargoyle WR1043ND V3 image is released.

Work around: I used TP-Link's tftp emergency firmware recovery mode to flash this Gargoyle WR1043ND V2 image.

[Hint: Google TP-Link tftp firmware recovery & use "wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin" as file name for Gargoyle WR1043ND V2 image]

PS: In-case you stop or get stuck after step 4), pls. do remember that at this stage you are running V3 firmware over V2's U-Boot layer, hence for the official tftp emergency firmware recovery method to work, you will have to use "wr1043v2_tp_recovery.bin" as firmware image file name instead of "wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin"

I hope this long description helps. Good Luck.

Regards,
Sarmad
Pakistan.
Last edited by sarmad06 on Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

erez669
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by erez669 »

sound really complicated to do, wait for official image release for V3 hardware.

nworbnhoj
Posts: 916
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 10:08 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by nworbnhoj »

sarmad06 wrote:i wanted to give something back to the community as well.
Great post @sarmad06 - thank you and well done. :-)
Can you help someone else get Gargoyle up and running?
TL-WDR3600 : Gargoyle 1.9.0 : NBN FixedWireless
TL-WR1043ND-V2 : Gargoyle 1.8.0 : 3G Huawei E160E

sarmad06
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:07 am

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by sarmad06 »

erez669 wrote:sound really complicated to do, wait for official image release for V3 hardware.
Yes, from my description this process might sounds a bit completed but I believe as far as "tinkering" with open source firmware goes, the difficulty level was next to nothing.

And I do agree with you, for a beginner this might not be the best way as a lot of things could go wrong during the process. Hence a beginner with TP-Link WR143ND V3 hardware should wait for official Gargoyle Router firmware support.

Regards,
Sarmad
Pakistan.

sarmad06
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:07 am

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by sarmad06 »

nworbnhoj wrote:
sarmad06 wrote:i wanted to give something back to the community as well.
Great post @sarmad06 - thank you and well done. :-)
Thanks,
I shared my experience because I believe TP-Link will be soon stopping its firmware support for V2. {So that they can increase sales numbers for V3}

& I wanted all the guys out there with WR143ND V2 to know that now they do have a way to remedy this situation.

As you are a much more active member of this community, kindly do spread this word around for those who need it. Thanks.

Regards,
Sarmad
Pakistan.

HLVolante
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:04 am

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by HLVolante »

OK. I just purchased a new TP Link TL-WR1043ND v3 hardware running v3 firmware. I think this is a different situation than described in this post:
sarmad06 wrote: How I successfully flashed WR1043ND V3 firmware on V2 hardware.
I am guessing that since I am not upgrading on to V2 hardware, that really the only steps needed should be:
sarmad06 wrote: 6). After final reboot For all intents and purposes, now you have a fully working TP-Link WR1043ND V3 Router.
7). Please note as of yet the V3 firmware WILL NOT allow you to flash Gargoyle WR1043ND V2 file from its web interface. Hopefully this will be fixed once Official Gargoyle WR1043ND V3 image is released.

Work around: I used TP-Link's tftp emergency firmware recovery mode to flash this Gargoyle WR1043ND V2 image.
So this is what I tried:
1.) Upgraded to latest v3 firmware from TP-Link
2.) Downloaded the latest stable Gargoyle firmware for this router gargoyle_1.8.1-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v2-squashfs-factory.bin
3.) Installed TFTP
4.) Renamed firmware to wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin
5.) Disabled the firewall
6.) Setup static ip to 168.192.0.66 on computer connection. Started TFTP and pointed at the recovery file
7.) Reset the router to initiate the ftp transfer

Problem: Transfer seemed to run, but then only showed 78% on the TFTP monitor and then cleared. Router power and system lights went solid. Waited and restarted. New firmware did not load and we are still running TP Link default v3.

Anyone have any ideas as to what went wrong or additional changes required? Anyone using Gargoyle on v3 hardware?

Here are the logs from TFTP

Code: Select all

Connection received from 192.168.0.86 on port 2365 [26/11 14:25:59.836]
Read request for file <wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin>. Mode octet [26/11 14:25:59.836]
OACK: <timeout=2,> [26/11 14:25:59.852]
Using local port 55062 [26/11 14:25:59.852]
<wr1043v3_tp_recovery.bin>: sent 15873 blks, 8126464 bytes in 5 s. 0 blk resent [26/11 14:26:04.990]

flexiondotorg
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 4:34 pm
Contact:

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by flexiondotorg »

Hi,

My TL-WR1043ND v1 died so I've ordered a TL-WR1043ND v3 to replace it. Long story short I've modified the Gargoyle v2 firmware so it can be installed via the stock TP-LINK webui on v3 units. Links to the modified Gargoyle firmware images for v3 units are included below.

Method

I got the idea after reading this:
So I downloaded the v2 Gargoyle firmware images, hex edited the hardware id in the header so it is compatible with v3 units, calculated a new MD5Sum and hex edited the new MD5Sum into firmware image.

Here is the recent commit in OpenWRT that adds support for the v3 units, as you can see this confirms they are hardware identical to the v2 units with only the hardware id changing.
The OpenWRT wiki also confirms the v3 units are the same hardware as v2.
This is what I used as reference for changing the hardware id and calculating the new MD5Sum.
The hardware id for TL-WR1043ND units starts at offset 0x40 and ends at offset 0x43, it is the byte a 0x43 that needs changing from 02 to 03.
  • The v2 hardware id is: 10 43 00 02
  • The v3 hardware id is: 10 43 00 03
Downloads

I make no guarantees that these images will not brick your router. Use them at your own risk.

Code: Select all

md5: ff1927f36b5b2e38c8c697ecac946b9e

Code: Select all

md5: 7015629c7f7636d44323bed50f1d15fb


I hope this post is helpful to other TL-WR1043ND v3 owners.

Regards, Martin.

erez669
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun May 12, 2013 4:52 pm

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by erez669 »

thanks, will give it a try.
it works on your router? are you a programmer?

oviano
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 7:41 am

Re: TL-WR1043ND V3

Post by oviano »

Hi all

I am new to Gargoyle but having installed it today I'm impressed. Previously I've tried DD-WRT and more recently Tomato but in my opinion they are overcomplicated for what I need and there are so many different builds and branches flying about that it's hard to really keep track of what has or hasn't been fixed in a given version.

In contrast I have found Gargoyle just about the right balance of simplicity and functionality. Plus it's nice to have a central place/forum where it can be discussed.

Anyway, the reason for this post is that I had ordered a TL-WR1043ND but I didn't know whether I would be receiving a v2 or a v3. I only knew it wouldn't be a v1 from the picture.

I assumed a v3 but having read the post above about modifying the v2 Gargoyle firmware to work on a v3 I discovered the links above no longer work. At least they don't for me anyway.

So I followed the instructions and made a new Gargoyle 1.8.1 and a 1.9.0 to work on a v3 TL-WR1043ND.

You can find them here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zc7r3i60yemj6 ... y.bin?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wirn7v0ljdt6t ... y.bin?dl=0

Of course, as luck would have it, it was a v2 that turned up at my house today so in the end I didn't need either of the above. That will teach me for jumping the gun!

*** This also means, of course, that I haven't tested either of the above two files ***

However, so that my efforts weren't wasted, I am still posting them in case anyone finds them useful. I see no reason why they shouldn''t work, I followed the instructions carefully and would certainly have applied one of them to my router had I received a v3 instead of a v2.

I hope it benefits someone somewhere, but please use at your own risk :)

All the best

Oliver

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