<alertbox> WARNING: This document may contain errors which may result in damage to your router. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. </alertbox> inlinetoc_2_4

The La Fonera is somewhat different than the other devices listed here. First, it uses an atheros wireless device, and second you must access the RedBoot bootloader to install OpenWrt/Gargoyle. It can be somewhat tricky to install Gargoyle on a factory default La Fonera, so be warned that it is not as straightforward as with the other routers.

The easiest way to install on a La Fonera is to use the FonFlash utility available in the download section to automatically upload the firmware on to the router. However, this may still require that the device be “unlocked”, so that you can access the RedBoot interface (see below).

Read the instructions below carefully before proceeding. For the purpose of these instructions it is assumed you are running linux (or another unix variant) on your local machine and that you have some knowledge of how to configure your network and network services.

Before you can access the RedBoot bootloader, you have to “unlock” the device. There are many methods for doing this, several of which are can be found on the sites below:

1. Hacking the La Fonera - PART II for Firmware 0.7.0-4
2. Hacking la Fonera - Part III for Firmware 0.7.1-r1
3. Kolofonium Hack for Firmware 0.7.1-2
4. French complete guide to install OpenWrt in FONERA 2.0

Before you telnet into RedBoot bootloader you may need to put the following lines in your telnet configuration file on your local machine (~/.telnetrc)

192.168.1.254 9000
        mode line

Next, configure your local machine to have a static ip in the 192.168.1.* subnet other than 192.168.1.254. For the purposes of these instructions I will assume you have configured your local machine to ip 192.168.1.3, though everything should work just as well if you replace 192.168.1.3 with another valid IP address.

The next step is to configure a webserver on your local machine. There are multiple web servers available – any will do. Place both the .lzma and the .squashfs atheros image files in the root directory of your web server so that they can be accessed at http://192.168.1.3/[filename].

Now you are ready to telnet into Redboot. Reboot the Router and wait a few seconds, until the light in the middle starts flashing. Then open a new terminal and telnet into RedBoot by running “telnet 192.168.1.254 9000”. Note: The newer Fonera 2.0 models (and posibly the Fon+, I'm not sure) start with ip 192.168.1.1 by default, instead of 192.168.1.254, so you may need to adjust this accordingly.

<shell> mockingbird@linuxbox:~$ telnet 192.168.1.254 9000 </shell>

Then, hit Ctrl-C to halt the boot process.

Once you are in, execute the commands listed below in the order listed below. Replace 192.168.1.3 on the first line with the ip of your local machine running the web server, if you configured it to have a different ip. Be aware that the “fis create” commands take a VERY long time (20-45 minutes) to run. This is normal. For some reason writing to the flash on a La Fonera is extrordinarily slow, and so installation takes what seems like forever.

The length of the rootfs (6F0000) is calculated:
(start of fis directory) - (kernel size in hex) - (end of RedBoot)
Check your flash partitions with “fis list”
For Gargoyle 1.4.7 the kernel is D0000, and I calculated:
A87E0000 - D0000 - A8030000 = 6E0000 (ymmv)
so the value below has to be corrected for 1.4.7, else expect an error when creating the kernel part later.

<shell> ip_address -l 192.168.1.254/24 -h 192.168.1.3 fis init load -r -v -b 0x80040450 /gargoyle_xxxxxxxx-root.squashfs -m HTTP fis create -b 0x80040450 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0x006F0000

1. e 0x00000000 rootfs

load -r -v -b %{FREEMEMLO} /gargoyle_xxxxxxxx-vmlinux.lzma -m HTTP fis create -r 0x80041000 -e 0x80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7 fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7 exec </shell>

The final “exec” command reboots the router. Gargoyle should now be installed and you should be able to ssh in to the router or log on via the web interface.