TL-WR1043ND Ver:1.10 bricked

[ddahl]

Hello,

Just FYI, a factory new TP-Link TL-WR1043ND Ver:1.10 flashed with firmware "gargoyle_1.4.7-ar71xx-tl-wr1043nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin" via the firware upgrade menu item resulted in a bricked router. All is not lost, however, U-Boot appears to still be functional:

Code: Select all

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Mar 31 2012 - 10:40:21)

AP83 (ar9100) U-boot 0.0.11
DRAM:  
sri
32 MB
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 8MB, sector count = 128
Flash:  8 MB
Using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7100_enet_initialize...
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
: cfg1 0xf cfg2 0x7114
eth0: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
eth0 up
eth0
Autobooting in 1 seconds## Booting image at bf020000 ...
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...

Linux version 2.6.32.27 (eric@Osiris) (gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC) ) #3 Wed Feb 29 18:14:26 EST 2012
bootconsole [early0] enabled
CPU revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
Atheros AR9132 rev 2, CPU:400.000 MHz, AHB:200.000 MHz, DDR:400.000 MHz
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
Zone PFN ranges:
  Normal   0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
Movable zone start PFN for each node
early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
    0: 0x00000000 -> 0x00002000
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 8128
Kernel command line: rootfstype=squashfs,yaffs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200 board=TL-WR1043ND
PID hash table entries: 128 (order: -3, 512 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
Memory: 29340k/32768k available (2076k kernel code, 3428k reserved, 414k data, 152k init, 0k highmem)
SLUB: Genslabs=7, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
Hierarchical RCU implementation.
NR_IRQS:56
Calibrating delay loop... 266.24 BogoMIPS (lpj=1331200)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
NET: Registered protocol family 16
MIPS: machine is TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND
bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0
Switching to clocksource MIPS
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
TCP reno registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
Registering mini_fo version $Id$
JFFS2 version 2.2. (NAND) (SUMMARY)  \0xc2\0xa9 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
yaffs Feb 29 2012 18:14:00 Installing. 
msgmni has been set to 57
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler deadline registered (default)
Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11) is a 16550A
console [ttyS0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
console [ttyS0] enabled, bootconsole disabled
Atheros AR71xx SPI Controller driver version 0.2.4
m25p80 spi0.0: unrecognized JEDEC id 1c3017
Realtek RTL8366RB ethernet switch driver version 0.2.3
rtl8366rb rtl8366rb: using GPIO pins 18 (SDA) and 19 (SCK)
rtl8366rb rtl8366rb: RTL5937 ver. 3 chip found
rtl8366rb: probed
eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4
Atheros AR71xx hardware watchdog driver version 0.1.0
TCP westwood registered
NET: Registered protocol family 17
Bridge firewalling registered
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear <greearb@candelatech.com>
All bugs added by David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

Will attempt to flash a known working version of OpenWRT to this router using TFTP or Kermit soon and post the results here.

Don't know if this information is useful to the Gargoyle developers, but the flash chip in this router is a cFeon Q64-104HIP serial flash chip.

Dave

*Edit: changed the model number to the proper model number for this router.

[cryp7]

According to this page from OpenWRT http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr1043nd: "WARNING: v1.10 supports only Attitude Adjustment 12.09-rc1 or above. Backfire 10.03.1 causes a BRICK!!"

Looking through the changelogs for GR shows that only versions 1.5.7 and newer use Attitude Adjustment 12.09. So if you have a v1.10 TL-WR1043ND router, anything below 1.5.7 will probably brick it. According to other posts here, some have gotten it to work.

I just recently had a TL-WR1043ND brick on me when using 1.4.7, then read the changelog and noticed this.

[ddahl]

Good to know. I was not aware of which versions of OpenWRT different versions of Gargoyle are based on. I'll make sure to get the version of 1.5.7 or later of Gargoyle for this router. Thanks for the info.

[ddahl]

I've successfully flashed the file "gargoyle_1.5.10-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin" (as suggested by cryp7, thanks!) using a serial console to issue commands to U-Boot and an TFTP daemon (tftpd-hpa in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) to upload the Gargoyle firmware as outlined on the OpenWRT Wiki page TP-Link TL-WR1043ND: OEM installation using the TFTP and RS232 method.

Unbricking this router was actually easier than I had thought it would be since U-Boot was ok.

I plan on getting a second TL-WR1043ND in the near future and will attempt to wire up a low-cost SPI interface to the flash to see the feasablility of unbricking routers who have had their bootloader corrupted.

[KitKat]

Hi.

Do you think that I could flash directly via the console web interface the latest version 1.5.10 without brinkling my unit?

I got 1.10 version too? (my unit is currently using original firmware, not a 3rd party one)

Also, can I use Gargoyle firmware update page to change to another open firmware solution if I did not like Gargoyle?!

Thanks,

KitKat.

[ddahl]

Do you think that I could flash directly via the console web interface the latest version 1.5.10 without brinkling my unit?

cryp7 noted that it was likely the older version of OpenWRT/Gargoyle that bricked my router the first try, and I think I agree. I believe, but cannot guarantee, that version 1.5.10 will flash ok from the web interface of the factory default firmware.

If you'd be willing to wait a couple weeks for when I get my second TL-WR1043ND router, and assuming it is hardware version 1.10, I will flash Gargoyle 1.5.10 squishfs using the default firmware's web interface to test.

Dave

[KitKat]

Hi Dave.

I will try it tonight.
It's mainly for a test for a friend. He wants to put a quota on his bandwidth to limit his children.

If it does not work, he will have to wait that I unbrink the router!

Thanks for the advise.

[ddahl]

I will try it tonight.

Cool. I'd like to know the outcome when you're done.

Also, be aware that on the V1.10 hardware, once you flash the new firmware the WiFi will be turned off by default so make sure you do it via a wired connection. Also, it is likely your WAN, LAN, and Wireless MAC addresses will all be the same value. You can check this on the "Status" menu item in the Gargoyle admin web view. If they are the same, you'll want to change your WAN address to be one more than the LAN address. You can do this in "Connection" -> "Internet / WAN" -> "Use Custom MAC Address" and enter the new MAC address in the space provided, save changes, then reboot the router with "System" -> "Reboot".

Dave

[KitKat]

Hi Dave.

I made it works, but using the long way...

I tried to install 1.5.10 from the UI.
The UI did not accept the firmware...
So, I download and upgrade using the German firmware.
It went cool.

In the German firmware, I tried to upgrade using 1.5.10. It did not work...

I realized that the old firmware did not like the name... (read it somewhere...)

So, I strip the start of the name, so the filename start with "WRT..."

Magically, it install it!

So, probably, the first time, I should have strip the filename of the .10 firmware at the first place... It should have been worked...

I will let you try it on your next router!

Thanks for the info!