Gargoyle Forum

How's it going everyone? I've got a strange issue, I SSH'd into the WDR4300 that was running v1.8.1 and ran the firstboot command and that basically messed everything up, next time I went into the web gui a whole bunch of things were showing up as undefined...

After a reboot not only is the web gui not working anymore, but I can't ping the router either, however it does still assign an IP address to my computer... So... Now I can't access Web GUI, SSH, or Telnet.

I tried the TFTP recovery method and everything seemed to go well...
In other words I set my computer IP address to 192.168.0.66 and placed a 1.9.1-factory.bin (as well as a 1.8.1-factory.bin on a different ocasion) in the server with the correct name (wdr4300v1_tp_recovery.bin) held down the reset button before turning on the router and the router pulled the file from TFTP server... Then it rebooted itself... I changed my network settings to obtain IP address automatically which it did, but still the same result, no web gui, no ssh, etc.

So I popped it open and flashed the firmware via serial, once again everything seemed to be spot on with the guide I followed on openwrt... loaded firmware onto memory, had the right size file loaded (7c0000), correct addresses, erased current firmware and then copied the new one... STILL same problem... I get an IP Address on my computer but other than that, cant ping, no gui or anything...

The Gargoyle console comes up fine when accessing via serial... What can I do guys? Or what am I doing wrong? Everything had always worked fine until I used the firstboot command through SSH. Is it safe to assume the thing is bricked? Like I said cant ping and no gui... but on the other hand I do get an IP Address and the gargoyle console works fine through serial...

I appreciate your time in reading this! Thanks in advance!

I've experienced similar once before.
A reflash fixed it.

Sounds like you've upset it a bit though. Have you tried from different machines also?


A serial flash should fix everything. It's the nuclear solution basically.
I'd maybe try and flash openwrt on it and see if that works for you, and then sysupgrade to gargoyle from there.

Hey Lantis, thanks for taking the time to respond, I appreciate it.
I messed around with the router again, this time trying my luck with open WRT, first tried flashing it using the TFTP recovery method which didn't work even though the router pulled the file from TFTP server automatically... (When booted up serial console it was still running gargoyle maybe this indicates something?) so then I went ahead and used the serial flashing method which unsurprisingly DID work... BUT i've got the same issue, the console is responsive via serial connection and thus I can verify the flashing was successful, and the routers DHCP server seems to work because my computer gets an IP address.... However it seems like zero communication goes on between the router and the computer other than that, no ping response, can't SSH or Telnet let alone web gui... The only thing the router responds to is a serial connection... I can't believe how much grief this has caused me as all I did was use the firstboot command through SSH on a working 1.8.1 and that was it, gui displayed undefined on a bunch of parameters and options and after a reboot now my current situation... Something must have messed up something other than the firmware or something, perhaps some part of the boot loader? What are my options? Is there a full image somewhere that I could just flashover? Thanks once again!

Can you find a stock firmware and try to flash that back on?

I'd also suggest asking your query on the openwrt forum. They are a lot better with this kind of thing.

Hey Lantis! Thanks for the ongoing help, I reflashed gargoyle over serial connection tested and then tried with openwrt, and even though both were flashed correctly, I could only access their consoles through serial, other than that the router was unresponsive to everything else (no web gui, ssh, ping, etc)

I tried flashing one of those pre-stripped tplink stock firmwares from friedzombie but I think it didn't work because it wasn't the correct size (openwrt, mentions that for serial flashing method it should be exactly 8126464 bytes)

So... Searching for "wdr4300 8126464" took me to a forum where someone pointed to a stock stripped firmware that ironically you could get directly from tplinks website itself. It was an older version, but good enough to get the router back up and running, which it did!

So I then proceeded to use tplinks own web gui to flash gargoyle once again, thinking that as long as I don't ever use the firstboot command again, that I should be fine... But low and behold, when I put gargoyle or openwrt back on, the same problem comes back, the router only responds to a serial connection and nothing else.

I guess the question is what could've gotten damaged by the firstboot command that's persisted through various firmware flashes yet the stock firmware isn't affected?

Are you still trying 1.8.1?
Give 1.9.0 a try.

I'm not sure what could be broken to be honest with you. A serial reflash should fix everything.

You could try asking over at the openwrt forums as well. They are generally better with the technical questions.

Hey Lantis! I figured it out! The problem is simply an issue in the squashfs-factory file for version 1.8.1 and 1.9, maybe 1.8 as well for the wdr4300!

I realized I had never used the 1.8 gargoyle squashfs-factory file before because I already had a previous version of gargoyle installed at the time... In other words I had originally gotten to 1.8 via the sysupgrade file and that had worked just fine.

As soon as I realized this I used the squash-factory file from an older version (1.6) instead on my recently stock wdr4300 and everything worked perfectly! Only then did I update to v1.8 using the sysupgrade like I had originally and low and behold everything is back up and running!!! Except this time, no more firstboot command for me! Thanks for your help!

P.s. In reality I probably used the 1.7 squashfs-factory file the very first time I went from stock but wanted to play it safe and try with 1.6 lol which I can say for a fact, did indeed work just fine. I guess have someone check out what's wrong with the squash-factory of the more recent versions of gargoyle for the wdr4300? Thanks again and happy new year!