Cheap Atheros board- will gargoyle work on it ?

[Baron3K]

Hello, yesterday I bought a really cheap ap router - cheap I mean like 20-25 $ with 4 port switch. Called Techniclan WAR-54 GATv2. It is based on Atheros 2317 processor. It has 4mb of flash and 16mb of ram also Redboot installed as for a bootloader.

Could someone tell me if loading a gargoyle is possible on that device cause original firmware sucks really bad.... Unit has an serial connetor from the board pcb.

Here is a console log. Maybe that could help a bit ?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+flash_hwr_init: before the register(0xB1300000)=0x3060014
flash_hwr_init: after the register(0xB1300000)=0x60014
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:aa01:f2:aa
IP: 192.168.1.115, Default server: 192.168.1.35

RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version UNKNOWN - built 13:27:38, Jun 18 2009

Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.

Board: ap61
RAM: 0x80000000-0x81000000, [0x800335a0-0x80fed000] available
FLASH: 0xbfc00000 - 0xbfff0000, 64 blocks of 0x00010000 bytes each.
== Executing boot script in 1.000 seconds - enter ^C to abort
^C
RedBoot> help
Move Atheros Board Data information
bdmove
Restore Atheros Board Data information
bdrestore
Display/switch console channel
channel [<channel number>]
Execute an image
exec [-b <argv addr>] [-c "kernel command line"] [-w <timeout>]
[<entry point>]
Manage FLASH images
fis {cmds}
Manage configuration kept in FLASH memory
fconfig [-i] [-l] [-n] [-f] [-d] | [-d] nickname [value]
Execute code at a location
go [-w <timeout>] [-c] [-n] [entry]
Help about help?
help [<topic>]
Set/change IP addresses
ip_address [-l <local_ip_address>[/<mask_len>]] [-h <server_address>]
Load a file
load [-r] [-v] [-h <host>] [-p <TCP port>][-m <varies>] [-c <channel_number>]
[-b <base_address>] <file_name>
Network connectivity test
ping [-v] [-n <count>] [-l <length>] [-t <timeout>] [-r <rate>]
[-i <IP_addr>] -h <IP_addr>
Reset the system
reset
Display RedBoot version information
version
RedBoot> fis list
Name FLASH addr Mem addr Length Entry point
RedBoot 0xBFC00000 0x80200000 0x00020000 0xBFC00000
vmlinux.bin.l7 0xBFC20000 0x80041000 0x000C0000 0x8020E040
FIS directory 0xBFFE0000 0xBFFE0000 0x0000F000 0x00000000
RedBoot config 0xBFFEF000 0xBFFEF000 0x00001000 0x00000000
RedBoot>

---------------------------------CPUINFO------------------------------------------------

# cat cpuinfo
system type : Atheros AR531X_COBRA
processor : 0
cpu model : unknown V6.4
BogoMIPS : 183.50
wait instruction : no
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 16
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : no
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

[DoesItMatter]

I believe it should work!

Those are almost exact specs to the DIR-300 rev A and the
Airlink AR-430W routers - both have 4MB Flash / 16MB Ram
and are based an the AR-2317 chip

Should also be able to overclock them to 200MHZ too if you want.

You can try and flash with Fon-Flash - load the Atheros 1.2.2

Can you tell what chips are on the switch part?

Since it's Redboot, you can always recover it.

First thing, go change the FCONFIG settings and make the timeout
like 5-10 seconds instead of 1 second, give you more time.

I would just Fon-Flash it and try it out myself

[Baron3K]

I'am a bit unsure. Reading some posts about dlink dir-300 (ap61 atheros boards), guys used to load some ap61.rom, ap61.ram files prior flashing. I'am unsure if I should do the same ? to that techniclan ?

Eric - maybe you could comment on that ?

[DoesItMatter]

Name FLASH addr Mem addr Length Entry point
RedBoot 0xBFC00000 0x80200000 0x00020000 0xBFC00000
vmlinux.bin.l7 0xBFC20000 0x80041000 0x000C0000 0x8020E040
FIS directory 0xBFFE0000 0xBFFE0000 0x0000F000 0x00000000
RedBoot config 0xBFFEF000 0xBFFEF000 0x00001000 0x00000000

-------------------------

Based on that from your post above, I would just try and flash it.

I wouldn't mess with the AP61 stuff.

The AP61 stuff was only because it wouldn't allow different
firmware to be flashed to the router.

If it lets you load new firmware, keep the existing redboot.

As long as you can get into redboot, you can do the

fis init -f

to wipe out the firmware and restart from scratch

--------------

You may want to find out it the manufacturer has a firmware
available for download first though, so that you can always
flash back to their firmware if there are any issues.

1 main thing about manufacturers, they like to keep things CHEAP.
That being the case, they have to be using either the design
based on the Airlink AR430W or the Dlink Dir-300 rev A board.

Now that we're in the wireless-N days... I can't see some
manufacturer developing a new wireless-G board to sell.

[Eric]

The biggest issue is what switch is being used in this router. There's no way to know whether there's a suitable driver in OpenWrt for the switch being used.

[ps2chiper]

well I have done alot of work with openwrt and redboot recently. I can just suggest you pm me and talk to me over skype and I will help you get this straightened out. after that we will post what we did on the forum.

[DoesItMatter]

Here are 2 images of a DIR-300 - Rev A to compare to when you
crack open that router.

I sent Eric a Airlink AR430W so he can see the inside of that device if you can post a pic of the inside of your router Baron.

From searching and also from OpenWRT wiki info, it looks like the
Airlink AR430W and DIR-300 rev A are nearly identical.

I think the only difference might be the switch controller.

[DoesItMatter]

http://www.easywifi.pl/p30,techniclan-w ... n-box.html

Closest I could find to internal shots.

Looks like the GAT V2 is a more compact than the V1, and comes with a 2dbi antenna compared to the 5dbi antenna with the V1 GAT.

Website above is in polish but meh - all the tech details are english!

------------------------------------------------------

EDIT! - OK - found out some new info...

There apparently is a newer Asus RT-G32 revision A router that
has Atheros 2317 chipset and 4MB flash, 16MB ram, so this
Technician router could be a clone of that as well.

Not sure if they are clones to the AR430W and DIR-300

The Asus RT-G32 revision A is Atheros based and is supported by
DD-WRT and currently has a firmware out for it as well.

[Baron3K]

Hmm, I PCB board looks very similar to DIR-300 rev A. But I think that switch chip is different. I will make some pictures tommorow and post them here.

[Baron3K]

Front Side

DSC00566.JPG (106.32 KiB) Viewed 12556 times

Bottom Side

DSC00565.JPG (98.08 KiB) Viewed 12562 times

Inside View

DSC00568.JPG (201.2 KiB) Viewed 12563 times

Here are the photos of mentioned device. Please keep in mind that this device is a second version of Techniclan WAR-54 GAT (v2).