Possibly Bricked Gargoyle Pocket Router

[HatchlingByHeart]

Last week I ordered a Gargoyle Pocket Router from the shop. Just yesterday I had received it, set it up, and it worked beautifully.

I did notice however that the firmware was out of date. It came preloaded with Gargoyle 1.2.5, but the latest version available is 1.4.2.

I downloaded "gargoyle_1.4.2-atheros-combined.squashfs.img" to upgrade the pocket router to the latest version.

The router's interface reported the "Upgrade was successful", however afterward the router did not respond in any way. PCs can no longer connect to it via both the Ethernet port or the Wi-Fi.

I then tryed to flash it with FonFlash (in Windows 7) using the files "gargoyle_1.4.2-atheros-root.squashfs" and "gargoyle_1.4.2-atheros-vmlinux.lzma", but I repeatedly get "No packet" messages, even when in redboot. I've heard several reports that using Windows XP with FonFlash is more successful, but I've been unable to test this myself.

I just bought the router and have no idea what to do next, any help would be appreciated.

[pbix]

I have this router as well. The first thing to know is that somewhere between v1.2.5 and v1.4.2 a problem cropped up in that its not possible to use the Ethernet port as a WAN connection. This is actually fixed in the GIT so if you know how to build you can get a working version from there otherwise you will have to wait until the next release. Otherwise if you want to do this stick with v.1.2.5 for the time being.

However, I cannot see why you cannot connect to the router using the Ethernet port after a successful upgrade. That should work regardless. The Wifi is off by default so that will not work. One thing that comes to mind is that it takes some time for this router to upgrade and maybe the "upgrade successful" message was issued prematurely causing you to cycle power and trash the upgrade. Did you do that? How long did you wait?

I use the FonFlash utility often but under XP. The procedure here is to start FonFlash and then power up your router. Did you do that? I have not used Windows 7 but there have been no reports of problem I know of. I understand it has a "XP Compatibility mode". You might try that If your computer has WiFi make sure you turn that off so FonFlash is not confused about which port is should use.

Its hard to brick this router so take heart. Lets try the above and if that does not work I have some other things we can try.

[HatchlingByHeart]

Thanks for your reply pbix, but I was able to sort it out.

The firmware upgrade had indeed failed despite the web interface saying it was successful, rendering the device unable to boot the firmware.

I had a lot of trial and error using FonFlash, mostly because I did not realize you had to start the flashing process before powering on the router, not after.

All is well now, it works perfectly with firmware 1.4.2. Thanks a lot for your help and advice.