Factory Reset breaks mounting of DD-WRT root fs

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jules
jules's picture
Factory Reset breaks mounting of DD-WRT root fs

I started posting about my problem in this thread: http://www.myopenrouter.com/forum/thread/10423/Bricked-2-WGR614L-v8-routers.-What-is-going-on/?page=1

But now I'm not sure whether the person who started that thread had the same problem I did.

In a nutshell:

After I flashed my WGR614L with the DD-WRT-v11205-Mini-Build-CHK image, I reconfigured a few things, then decided I wanted to go back to the defaults and start over, so I ran the "reset to factory defaults" option from the DD-WRT web interface. The router became unresponsive -- the power light was solid green, the check light was solid yellow, and it wouldn't respond to pinging 192.168.1.1.

So, I installed a serial port as described in the articles here, and was able to see that it was stuck in a loop, rebooting over and over. 

(EDIT: I will post the full boot log ASAP, I most likely missed something important when I looked at it last)

VFS: Cannot open root device "mtdblock2" or 1f:02
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 1f:02
Rebooting in 5 seconds..Please stand by while rebooting the system...

I stopped it, and re-flashed using tftpd to load the Netgear firmware, and then it booted up just fine. I did another factory reset to clear the NVRAM, then used the Netgear web interface to flash it with the DD-WRT-v11205-Mini-Build-CHK image again. Then I did a factory reset by powering the router off, holding the reset button, powering it up, waiting ten seconds, and releasing the reset button. The serial console confirmed the reset was successful, then it tried to reboot, and went into the same reboot loop as above.

I have re-flashed it with the same dd-wrt image four or five times now. Hard resets work fine as long as the Netgear firmware is loaded. But when that dd-wrt image is loaded, a hard reset (either from the dd-wrt web interface, or using the reset button) will always make it fail to boot with the error above. I think there's a problem with the image, but haven't had time to look into it deeper.

As the old story goes -- Patient: "Doctor, it hurts when I do this..." Doctor: "Well, stop doing that!"

Now that I've installed a serial port, this isn't a big problem for me -- I can get dd-wrt installed, and as long as I don't need to do a hard reset, everything works fine, for now. But assuming this problem is not isolated to my router, if this is a problem with the dd-wrt image, it should be fixed. What can I do to help make this happen? I'm not a Linux newbie, but I have very little experience working with embedded systems.

 

marc_with_a_c
marc_with_a_c's picture
Mine is acting the same even

Mine is acting the same even though it happened after I had dd-wrt loaded and tried to upgrade using a .bin file through the dd-wrt upgrade screen. I'll have to get a serial console cable and see if mine is doing the same.

jules
jules's picture
marc_with_a_c said:

marc_with_a_c said:
Mine is acting the same even though it happened after I had dd-wrt loaded and tried to upgrade using a .bin file through the dd-wrt upgrade screen. I'll have to get a serial console cable and see if mine is doing the same.

I'd recommend getting this cable: 

http://microcontrollershop.com/product_info.php?products_id=2560

and this jack:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103451&y=10&x=14&...

I used a dremel to drill a hole in between the antenna and the WAN jack, and installed the audio jack there. It works great, and almost looks like it's supposed to be there. I took some pictures and submitted an article, hopefully they'll publish it here.

jules
jules's picture
OK -- here's what it looks

OK -- here's what it looks like when I boot dd-wrt BEFORE doing a hard reset:

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr  4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-1F-33-CF-37-4C, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CET 2008
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 2 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction...  unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear 
All bugs added by David S. Miller 
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
boardflags are 0x0750
nvram_commit(): end
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
br0: Bad file descriptor
br0: Bad file descriptor
eth1: Operation not supported
wl0.1: No such device
wl0.2: No such device
wl0.3: No such device
eth1: Invalid argument
eth1: Invalid argument
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
vlan1: Setting MAC address to  00 1f 33 cf 37 4d.

OK, now let's do the factory defaults reset:


root@DD-WRT:/sbin# exit
nvram_commit(): end
erase[65536]
Receiving restore command from web ...
Receiving restore command from web ...
http(s)d: nothing to do...
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done


CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr  4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Committing NVRAM...done


CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr  4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-1F-33-CF-37-4C, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CET 2008
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
 memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 2 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction...  unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
sflash not supported on this router
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear 
All bugs added by David S. Miller 
VFS: Cannot open root device "mtdblock2" or 1f:02
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 1f:02
 Rebooting in 5 seconds..Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done


CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr  4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-1F-33-CF-37-4C, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..............

The key difference I notice says:

sflash not supported on this router

When apparently it was supported before the factory reset...

jules
jules's picture
Update: I bought another

Update: I bought another WGR614L, and am able to reproduce the problem, but only after running the factory reset from the DD-WRT-v11205-Mini-Build-CHK firmware. The bootloader factory reset doesn't seem to trigger this -- once you execute the dd-wrt v11205 factory default reset, then it won't recognize the sflash. If you then re-flash with the Netgear firmware, and then flash the same dd-wrt image, then either the bootloader reset or the firmware reset will trigger the problem.

achilles
achilles's picture
I am not yet able to simulate

I am not yet able to simulate the problem with dd-wrt.v24-11205_WGR614v8-L_mini.chk but it seems only a matter of time ....
but from the log posted by jules I have noticed that the print

sflash not supported on this router

is in file sflash.c and it comes if there is some corruption in board related parameters like board type ,board revision or board number .....
So it seems to me that these sequence of events sometimes corrupt the portion of nvram where these parameters are stored and from then on we get this problem ....
I am going to debug this and will keep you people posted about my findings ...

achilles
achilles's picture
Below is the log that I get

Below is the log that I get if I do a factory default reset using reset button ...
WGR614v8 - 1.5 (Fri Jun 6 15:53:24 CST 2008)
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.130.30.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-22-3F-23-A9-7E, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
loaddefault!
Decompressing..........done

WGR614v8 - 1.5 (Fri Jun 6 15:53:24 CST 2008)
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.130.30.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-22-3F-23-A9-7E, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
loaddefault!
Decompressing..........done

WGR614v8 - 1.5 (Fri Jun 6 15:53:24 CST 2008)
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.130.30.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-22-3F-23-A9-7E, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loader:raw Filesys:tftp Dev:eth0 File:192.168.1.2:vmlinuz Options:(null)
Loading: Failed.
Could not load 192.168.1.2:vmlinuz: Timeout occured
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 2 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
boardflags are 0x0750
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
br0: Bad file descriptor
br0: Bad file descriptor
eth1: Operation not supported
wl0.1: No such device
wl0.2: No such device
wl0.3: No such device
eth1: Invalid argument
eth1: Invalid argument
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 22 3f 23 a9 7f.
sh: /tmp/.rc_startup: not found

DD-WRT v24 mini (c) 2008 NewMedia-NET GmbH
Release: 12/14/08 (SVN revision: 11205)

DD-WRT login: root
Password:

As evident mount goes through smoothly here and also if I do it from web interface ....

One difference I observed is that in my case CFE version is 1.5 whereas in your case it is 1.3 .... I dont think that bootloader has got anything to do with it but there may be some difference in our boards ...
These are my findings till now ... I will keep the community posted about my proceedings ....

jules
jules's picture
Cool! Thanks for your help!

Cool! Thanks for your help!
-Jules

jules
jules's picture
Hey Achilles,

Hey Achilles,
I don't know what bootloader you have on your router, but that version number is weird. Broadcom hasn't released any CFE version newer than 1.4.2:

http://www.broadcom.com/products/communications_processors_downloads.php

Mine says 1.3 but... I downloaded the docs for CFE 1.3 and I don't have the same commands available from the CFE prompt as the docs say I should have. I wanted to read the NVRAM and see what was different before and after the dd-wrt image's factory reset routine was run, but I can't do that from my version of CFE -- on boot it says 1.3 but if I run "printenv" at the CFE prompt, it says the CFE version is 1.0.37. That makes sense because the "help" command at the CFE prompt only lists about half the commands that the 1.3 docs say should be available.

jules
jules's picture
I think what's happened is

I think what's happened is that Netgear has released a slightly different version of the WGR614L that defaults to having a different boardrev or boardtype number, and the sflash.c is stricter than it should be in assuming sflash is not supported if the boardrev or whatever doesn't match exactly. Obviously it works fine with the version of WGR614L that you have, Achilles, but I wonder if we can get a comprehensive list of valid boardrev numbers from Netgear for the WGR614L so the developers can fix the image. Or... maybe since the image has to be customized for the WGR614L anyway, and we know all versions of the WGR614L DO support sflash, maybe we could just comment out the board_rev check in sflash.c?

Found a post on the dd-wrt board I think might be related...
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32799&postdays=0&postorder=...

From Factory Reset state the boardnums are

boarnum=0x01
boardtype=0x48E
boardrev=0X10
reset_gpio=7
boardflags=0x750

Before Netgear firmware is loaded.
Once Netgear Firmware is loaded the
only the boardnum changes to 83258. sflash detection works with both conditions by changing the core to check (boardnum = 83258 || boardmum = 01).

Also if you could add these two changes - it will help people to use dd-wrt on non-USA versions of the router.

Quote:
B.
The other issues is flash layout - that is causing problem with the European version of the firmware.
The checksums of the images are written at Flash offset 0x0038FFF8 and is checked by the boot loader.

The Flash blocks
1. 0x00380000 to 0x00390000 should be reseverd for aving the checksums that is checked by the boot loader.
2. 0x003e0000 - 0x003f0000 should be reserved for board-data (mac addresses, HW id).
3. 0x003f0000 - 0x00400000 - is the usual nvram.

C.The other modification required are,
the loader should be lzma compressed and should start at address 0x80001400 (and not 0x80001000). A small patch in the head.S solves this prblem of loading in EU version of the router - but since it courrupts the checksum it fails to boot.

Nachi

jules
jules's picture
Here's the boot environment:

Here's the boot environment:

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr  4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0:  hwaddr 00-1F-33-CF-37-3E, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
        gateway not set, nameserver not set
CFE> ^C
CFE> ^C
CFE> printenv
Variable Name        Value
-------------------- --------------------------------------------------
BOOT_CONSOLE         uart0
CFE_VERSION          1.0.37
CFE_BOARDNAME        BCM947XX
CFE_MEMORYSIZE       16384
NET_DEVICE           eth0
NET_IPADDR           192.168.1.1
NET_NETMASK          255.255.255.0
NET_GATEWAY          0.0.0.0
NET_NAMESERVER       0.0.0.0
STARTUP              go;
*** command status = 0
CFE>

And here are the nvram settings when it's working:

root@DD-WRT:~# nvram show | egrep "boardnum|reset_gpio|boardtype|boardrev|boardflags"
boardrev=0x10
reset_gpio=7
boardtype=0x48E
boardflags2=0
boardflags=0x0750
size: 26650 bytes (6118 left)
boardnum=83258
root@DD-WRT:~#

This is after doing a factory reset from both the bootloader and the Netgear firmware, then installing the dd-wrt image. But I'm not sure how to tell what these values get set to after the dd-wrt "factory reset," I don't think there's any way to dump memory from CFE version 1.0.37...

achilles
achilles's picture
jules said:

jules said:
Hey Achilles,
I don't know what bootloader you have on your router, but that version number is weird. Broadcom hasn't released any CFE version newer than 1.4.2:
http://www.broadcom.com/products/communications_processors_downloads.php
Mine says 1.3 but... I downloaded the docs for CFE 1.3 and I don't have the same commands available from the CFE prompt as the docs say I should have. I wanted to read the NVRAM and see what was different before and after the dd-wrt image's factory reset routine was run, but I can't do that from my version of CFE -- on boot it says 1.3 but if I run "printenv" at the CFE prompt, it says the CFE version is 1.0.37. That makes sense because the "help" command at the CFE prompt only lists about half the commands that the 1.3 docs say should be available.

Hi jules,

I have read on this site itself that some Netgear routers use CFE 1.5 and people have discussed this :

http://www.myopenrouter.com/forum/thread/10709/CFE-1.5-Question/?highlig...

I think CFE 1.5 is used by EU version and CFE 1.3 is used by NA version ......

Which version of the router u r using ... NA or WW or EU .... 

achilles
achilles's picture
Hi jules ,

Hi jules ,
I have somehow managed to get a WGR614L with CFE 1.3 though printenv tells me that
bootloader version is 1.0.37 .
With this board I tried to simulate the pblm that u r facing .
I have taken the following steps :
At first I flashed my board with netgear firmware availble at :
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10175/WGR614L-Firmware-v1.1.2_1.0.23/

Then using its web interface I flashed the board with DD-WRT mini build no. 11205 .
After this my board rebooted properly and I got the following log :

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
boardflags are 0x0750
nvram_commit(): end
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
br0: Bad file descriptor
br0: Bad file descriptor
eth1: Operation not supported
wl0.1: No such device
wl0.2: No such device
wl0.3: No such device
eth1: Invalid argument
eth1: Invalid argument
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 1e 2a 07 ac 8b.
sh: /tmp/.rc_startup: not found

After this a hard reset by switching off the router , holding the reset button , switching the router on and releasing the reset button after 10 seconds ...
As a result of this I got the following boot log :

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Committing NVRAM...done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
No such device
nvram_commit(): end
boardflags are 0x0750
BCMDOG: WDT device closed unexpectedly. WDT will not stop!
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loader:raw Filesys:tftp Dev:eth0 File:192.168.1.2:vmlinuz Options:(null)
Loading: Failed.
Could not load 192.168.1.2:vmlinuz: Timeout occured
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
boardflags are 0x0750
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
br0: Bad file descriptor
br0: Bad file descriptor
eth1: Operation not supported
wl0.1: No such device
wl0.2: No such device
wl0.3: No such device
eth1: Invalid argument
eth1: Invalid argument
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 90 4c c0 00 02.
sh: /tmp/.rc_startup: not found

Now if we compare this with the bootlog b4 hard reset the difference that I observed is :

BCMDOG: WDT device closed unexpectedly. WDT will not stop!

and this causes the boot sequence to happen again but ultimately the board comes up and I m not stuck in a loop .... :(

As I was not able to simulate the problem I next tried with factory reset from GUI and got the following bootlog :

Receiving restore command from web ...
Receiving restore command from web ...
http(s)d: nothing to do...
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Committing NVRAM...done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
No such device
nvram_commit(): end
boardflags are 0x0750
BCMDOG: WDT device closed unexpectedly. WDT will not stop!
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loader:raw Filesys:tftp Dev:eth0 File:192.168.1.2:vmlinuz Options:(null)
Loading: Failed.
Could not load 192.168.1.2:vmlinuz: Timeout occured
Loading ..................................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 (bin@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #2832 Sun Dec 14 15:15:25 CE8
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch ([email protected])
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0xb8000300 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0xb8000400 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
pflash: found no supported devices
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x1e9164
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "sflash":
0x00000000-0x00020000 : "cfe"
0x00020000-0x003b0000 : "linux"
0x00103000-0x002f0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x002f0000-0x003a0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
etherip: Ethernet over IPv4 tunneling driver
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
boardflags are 0x0750
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
br0: Bad file descriptor
br0: Bad file descriptor
eth1: Operation not supported
wl0.1: No such device
wl0.2: No such device
wl0.3: No such device
eth1: Invalid argument
eth1: Invalid argument
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 1e 2a 07 ac 8b.
sh: /tmp/.rc_startup: not found

As seen the difference is same as the one that I got from hard reset ....

I don't know why I am not able to simulate the problem you are facing ... I have not yet given up and I m still trying ...
BTW if you think that I am missing something in my sequence of actions plz let me know ...

jules
jules's picture
How strange. I am very

How strange. I am very surprised you weren't able to reproduce the problem with that second board. I bought two of them, and the dd-wrt web console factory reset triggers the problem every time on both of them. I'm very disappointed, I was hoping that we could resolve this issue, but the only path forward that I can see is to attempt to upgrade the bootloader to something with the capability of examining the contents of flash, in order to see what that dd-wrt factory reset is doing. I think there's a pretty good possibility of bricking it though, and I can't afford to do that right now. :-(

achilles
achilles's picture
jules said:

jules said:
How strange. I am very surprised you weren't able to reproduce the problem with that second board. I bought two of them, and the dd-wrt web console factory reset triggers the problem every time on both of them. I'm very disappointed, I was hoping that we could resolve this issue, but the only path forward that I can see is to attempt to upgrade the bootloader to something with the capability of examining the contents of flash, in order to see what that dd-wrt factory reset is doing. I think there's a pretty good possibility of bricking it though, and I can't afford to do that right now. :-(

Ya jules you r right ... its very disappointing for me also to not being able to reproduce it and it took my one entire day....

I m again going to give it a try bcoz I have seen some posts here regarding this brick issue and it will be grt if we are able to resolve it .....

One suggestion I need from u is that plz review my steps and let me know if the sequence is correct . My steps are as follows :

1 . Netgear f/w is running on board.

2 . Flash the router with DD-WRT f/w using Netgear firmware's web interface.

3 . Do a hard reset  or factory default reset through GUI.

Plz let me know if these are the right steps in right sequence .... In the mean time I m trying to simulate this ... 

achilles
achilles's picture
Hi jules,

Hi jules,
I have one more information to share with u .....
if u sse the log posted by you for factory reset through GUI u will see that BCM5354 rev no. is 2 as shown below :

CPU: BCM5354 rev 2 at 240 MHz

while in my case it comes to be 1 .... so I think that I m still not able to get the board similar to urs though with this board our boot loaders are same .....
Could u plz tell me which version of WGR614L out of NA ,WW and EU is currently being used by u ...
Also one more thing .. If I do a firmware upgrade using Netgear's Web interface it shows me a warning that I am going to replace a NA version firmware with a WW one .... Are u getting this warning .....

jules
jules's picture
Mine's a WW. Yes, there was a

Mine's a WW. Yes, there was a warning when upgrading from the Netgear web interface, but I can't remember exactly what it said. I'll look into that and get back to you.

I did notice your CFE build date is different from mine. Also it looks like yours is listening on the tftp port for a couple seconds before booting, while mine just loads the installed firmware immediately.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong... I'm sure that what you did would have triggered the problem on my router. But I'll post the steps I'm taking again below just to be sure:

Here's what I'm doing to set it as close to "factory fresh" as possible:

1) Using the bootloader's tftpd, I install Netgear firmware from here:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10175/WGR614L-Firmware-v1.1.2_1.0.23/

2) Do a bootloader factory reset by disconnecting power, holding in the reset button, reconnecting power, then releasing the reset button for ten seconds

3) Do a firmware factory reset from the Netgear web interface

Then to reproduce the problem:
1) Using the Netgear web interface, install the dd-wrt firmware downloaded from here:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10752/DD-WRT-v11205-Mini-Build-CHK-...

2) run the Factory Defaults reset from the dd-wrt web interface

achilles
achilles's picture
jules said:

jules said:
Mine's a WW. Yes, there was a warning when upgrading from the Netgear web interface, but I can't remember exactly what it said. I'll look into that and get back to you.
I did notice your CFE build date is different from mine. Also it looks like yours is listening on the tftp port for a couple seconds before booting, while mine just loads the installed firmware immediately.
I don't think you're doing anything wrong... I'm sure that what you did would have triggered the problem on my router. But I'll post the steps I'm taking again below just to be sure:
Here's what I'm doing to set it as close to "factory fresh" as possible:
1) Using the bootloader's tftpd, I install Netgear firmware from here:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10175/WGR614L-Firmware-v1.1.2_1.0.23/
2) Do a bootloader factory reset by disconnecting power, holding in the reset button, reconnecting power, then releasing the reset button for ten seconds
3) Do a firmware factory reset from the Netgear web interface
Then to reproduce the problem:
1) Using the Netgear web interface, install the dd-wrt firmware downloaded from here:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10752/DD-WRT-v11205-Mini-Build-CHK-For-W...
2) run the Factory Defaults reset from the dd-wrt web interface

Thnx for the information jule .... I will strictly follow these steps ... my router is NA version .... I will inform u about my findings ....

achilles
achilles's picture
Hi jules ,

Hi jules ,
I tried the steps suggested by you in the same sequence as per your suggestion
but behavior is same as in my previous post .....
I m not facing the prblm which u are getting .... I dnt know but I think it is a pblm specific to WW version (which u have) and it can't be simulated in NA or EU versions .....
I have the DD-WRT code at my disposal and with it I m going to make my own DD-WRT firmware and see if with this f/w I am to able to simulate ur bug or not ....

achilles
achilles's picture
Now while trying to reproduce

Now while trying to reproduce this pblm I am getting stuck in a new pblm ....
With the chk image that I build I flashed my router using tftpd ... the board booted properly ....
Then I tried to do a hard reset by switching the router off , holding the reset button ,switching the router on and releasing the reset button after 10 seconds ..
After doing these steps I am getiing the following bootlog :

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Committing NVRAM...done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading .............................
Image chksum: 0xC3B554C5
Calc chksum: 0xCF055523
Loader:raw Filesys:raw Dev:flash0.os File: Options:(null)
Loading: . 0 bytes read
Failed.
Could not load flash0.os:: Error
CFE>

Now could anyone plz tell me why I am getting this whenever I try to do a hard reset .... If I flash my router with the same f/w again using tftpd things start working but whenever I do a hard reset the boot process fails ... :(

achilles
achilles's picture
OK after looking into the

OK after looking into the code of CFE I have found the source of the message :

Could not load flash0.os:: Error

And this is in the file "cfe/cfe/ui/ui_loadcmds.c" .... now I can not debug further using this clue bcoz I can't replace my existing bootloader ....
so using this info could any body tell me what is the reason behind this ....

jules
jules's picture
Looks like someone else might

Looks like someone else might have had the same problem here, eko posted the solution below:

http://www.myopenrouter.com/forum/thread/10570/WGR614-chksum-problem/

Thanks again for spending so much of your time on this.

achilles
achilles's picture
jules said:

jules said:
Looks like someone else might have had the same problem here, eko posted the solution below:
http://www.myopenrouter.com/forum/thread/10570/WGR614-chksum-problem/
Thanks again for spending so much of your time on this.

Hi Jules,

thnx  a ton for ur input..... With ur input I am able to build an image where hard reset is working fine .... Now I will try to reproduce ur prblm with this image ....

BTW I observed that after hard reset boot fails for the first time and then automatically it boots again and 2nd boot happens properly ... if u look at my boot log u will see it ...

 

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Committing NVRAM...done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loading ............................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #17 Fri Ja9
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x169289
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
No such device
nvram_commit(): end
insmod: switch-core.o: module not found
insmod: switch-robo.o: module not found
boardflags are 0x0750
insmod: wl.o: module not found
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Fri Apr 20 14:04:44 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1E-2A-07-AC-8A, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Loader:raw Filesys:tftp Dev:eth0 File:192.168.1.2:vmlinuz Options:(null)
Loading: Failed.
Could not load 192.168.1.2:vmlinuz: Timeout occured
Loading ............................
CPU revision is: 00029029
Linux version 2.4.36 ([email protected]) (gcc version 3.4.6 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #17 Fri Ja9
Setting the PFC to its default value
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM5354 rev 1 at 240 MHz
Using 120.000 MHz high precision timer.
Calibrating delay loop... 239.20 BogoMIPS
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: no core
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
sb_doattach: incoming bus is PCI but it's a lie, switching to SB devid:0x4318
bootloader size: 131072
sflash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x169289
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
starting Architecture code for broadcom
Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
insmod: switch-core.o: module not found
insmod: switch-robo.o: module not found
boardflags are 0x0750
insmod: wl.o: module not found
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth0/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth1/reset: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth0/vlan/0/ports: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth0/vlan/0/ports: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth0/vlan/1/ports: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/switch/eth0/vlan/1/ports: nonexistent directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_congestion_control: nonexistent directory
nvram_commit(): end
startservice: can't resolve symbol 'getBridgeMTU'
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
SIOCGIFFLAGS: No such device
rmmod: ipt_webstr: No such file or directory
rmmod: ipt_layer7: No such file or directory
rmmod: ipt_ipp2p: No such file or directory
sh: can't create /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/br0/loop: nonexistent directory
rmmod: ip_nat_pptp: No such file or directory
rmmod: ip_nat_proto_gre: No such file or directory
rmmod: ip_conntrack_pptp: No such file or directory
rmmod: ip_conntrack_proto_gre: No such file or directory
insmod: ip_conntrack_proto_gre.o: module not found
insmod: ip_nat_proto_gre.o: module not found
insmod: ip_conntrack_pptp.o: module not found
insmod: ip_nat_pptp.o: module not found
rmmod: ebt_dnat: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebt_snat: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebt_mark_m: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebt_mark: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebtable_filter: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebtable_nat: No such file or directory
rmmod: ebtables: No such file or directory
rmmod: imq: No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat '/tmp/mycron.d/*': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat '/jffs/mycron.d/*': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat '/mmc/mycron.d/*': No such file or directory
cron: No such file or directory
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 90 4c c0 00 02.
VLAN (vlan1): Setting underlying device (eth0) to promiscious mode.
sh: /tmp/.rc_startup: not found

DD-WRT v24 custom (c) 2008 NewMedia-NET GmbH
Release: 07/28/08 (SVN revision: 11291)

DD-WRT login:
DD-WRT v24 custom (c) 2008 NewMedia-NET GmbH
Release: 07/28/08 (SVN revision: 11291)

I don't know why this happens but the main thing is hard reset is now not causing any boot pblm .... I just put my observation here so that I could get some feedback from community regarding this ... :)

achilles
achilles's picture
Well jules, even with my code

Well jules, even with my code I am unable to reproduce ur prblm ..... seems this issue is specific to WW version .... I have to look for a WW version of WGR614L ...
This seems the only way to debug and solve this issue ..

Nachi
Nachi's picture
Jules, sorry to have missed

Jules, sorry to have missed your PM Last week. Looks like I had missed this thread completely.

From this long thread I haven't been able to understand if this issue been resolved or do you still need to reflash dd-wrt after hard-reset?
I will check this out today.

What I could understand that,
1. This problem seems to be specific to WW version of the boot loaders.
2. Most likely cause of failing to laod rootfs is kernel not detecting serial mtd.
3. Possibly some issues with the nvram settings.

If the issues haven't been resolved yet, could you take a dump of "nvram show" command at the CFE prompt after hard reset?

jules
jules's picture
Hi Nachi,

Hi Nachi,
Thanks for the reply!


You can do "nvram show" at the CFE prompt?!?!?!

I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if 'nvram' was one of the commands listed when I ran 'help' at the CFE prompt... but I'll try that as soon as I get home tonight. I pm'd back and forth with Pete about writing an article documenting the CFE interface for this router -- if this works I'll want more info... did Netgear add some features to Broadcom's release of CFE? If so, are these documented somewhere?

Thank you!
-Jules

Nachi
Nachi's picture
In WW version most of the

In WW version most of the nvram commands (except the *env* commands) are available on Netgear CFE versions. Yes Netgear did modify the CFE and did a few additions like. nvram show, nvram get and nvram set commands are there in both WW and NA versions of the CFE.

1. Added a LZMA decompressor/loader.
2. The checksum features.
3. The boardid partitions etc.
4. Some changes to the hard reset/factory default code.
5. tftpd commands.

But unfortunately, I don't really have any exact documentation on this - but I will try to check the CFE dumps and see if I can find more info.

jules
jules's picture
Hi Nachi,

Hi Nachi,
OK, here are the entire contents of nvram after doing the factory reset from the dd-wrt firmware:

CFE for WGR614v8 version: 1.3
Build Date: Wed Apr 4 11:00:42 CST 2007
et0: Broadcom BCM47xx 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Controller 4.138.1.0
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-1F-33-CF-37-3E, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
CFE> ^C
CFE> ^C
CFE> ^C
CFE> nvram show
opo=8
os_ram_addr=80001000
boardrev=0X10
il0macaddr=00:90:4C:C1:00:53
et0macaddr=00:1f:33:cf:37:3e
boot_wait=off
watchdog=3000
et0mdcport=0
reset_gpio=7
pmon_ver=CFE 4.139.1.0
vlan0ports=1 2 3 4 5*
os_flash_addr=bfc40000
sromrev=2
boardtype=0x48E
et1macaddr=00:1f:33:cf:37:3f
lan_netmask=255.255.255.0
wl0id=0x4318
ag0=2
xtalfreq=25000
wl0gpio0=11
wl0gpio1=11
wl0gpio2=11
wl0gpio3=11
boardflags2=0
wait_time=3
pa0itssit=62
pa0maxpwr=82
lan_ipaddr=192.168.1.1
vlan1hwname=et0
aa0=3
sdram_config=0x0032
vlan1ports=0 5u
scratch=a0180000
ccode=0
boardflags=0x0750
sdram_refresh=0x0
wandevs=et0
sdram_ncdl=0x20425
et0phyaddr=30
landevs=vlan0 wl0
pa0b0=0x164B
pa0b1=0xFA66
pa0b2=0xFE86
sdram_init=0x000A
vlan0hwname=et0
dl_ram_addr=a0001000
boardnum=0123
size: 769 bytes (31999 left)
*** command status = 0

The first thing I notice is the boardnum doesn't match what you and Eko discussed in the post I quoted earlier in this thread. You wrote:

From Factory Reset state the boardnums are

boarnum=0x01
boardtype=0x48E
boardrev=0X10
reset_gpio=7
boardflags=0x750

Before Netgear firmware is loaded.
Once Netgear Firmware is loaded the
only the boardnum changes to 83258. sflash detection works with both conditions by changing the core to check (boardnum = 83258 || boardmum = 01).

Also if you could add these two changes - it will help people to use dd-wrt on non-USA versions of the router.

At this point since the router no longer recognizes its sflash and will not boot, I reinstalled the Netgear firmware and did a factory reset from both the bootloader and then the Netgear firmware's web page. Then I examined the nvram again. If you want the full output, let me know and I'll pm it to you -- it's long, about 10KB.
Factory default with Netgear firmware includes these items:

boardnum=0123
boardtype=0x48E
boardrev=0X10
reset_gpio=7
boardflags=0x0750

Then I flash with the dd-wrt image, and when I reboot and go back to the CFE prompt, if I run 'nvram show' it outputs about 15KB and then hangs. I have to reboot it before I can do anything else. The last few lines of the 15KB output look like this:
hs_urls=
ct_modules=
ntp_server=
wl0_reg_mode=off
wan_hwaddr=00:1F:33:CF:37:3F
eth0_netmask=0.0.0.0
NC_GatewayName=DD-WRT
vlan0_multicast=0
lan_ifnames=vlan0 eth1 eth2 eth3
wsc_prbrsp_ie=0x610x640x640x000x010x000x000x000x020x000x000x000x000x8a0x000x500xf20x040x100x4a0x000x010x100x100x440x000x010x010x100x410x000x010x000x100x3b0x000x010x030x100x470x000x100xa70x4b0x3e0x4c0x220x400x880xb60x3f0x2f0xf30xab0x810x670xa70x010x100x210x000x0d0x4e0x450x540x470x450x410x520x2c0x200x490x6e0x630x2e0x100x230x000x080x570x470x520x360x310x340x760x380x100x240x000x080x570x470x520x360x310x340x760x380x100x420x000x050x380x330x320x350x380x100x540x000x080x000x060x000x500xf20x040x000x010x100x110x000x160x570x470x520x360x310x340x760x380x200x280x570x690x720x650x6c0x650x730x730x200x410x500x290x100x080x000x020x000x840x300x78

In the 15K of output before it hangs, you never see "boardnum" or "boardflags" attributes. The following attributes are visible in the output, and their value has not changed:

boardtype=0x48E
boardrev=0X10
reset_gpio=7

At first I thought my nvram got corrupted as part of the dd-wrt flash process, but it just occurred to me that this might be a buffer overflow in the CFE implementation of the nvram accessor, so when I get home tonight I'll let it boot up to dd-wrt and see if I can access the full contents of nvram from there.

Nachi
Nachi's picture
You got it right. boardnum is

You got it right. boardnum is the problem. I haven't seen this boardnum before in any other routers - not sure if this is one off cases or there is a batch of router with this boardnum.

Just to make sure everything is alright, could you check the following
nvram set boardnum=0x01
at the CFE prompt before loading the dd-wrt image. This should allow dd-wrt to boot. Also we need to report this boardnum to Eko so that the detection code can be changed.
you can also do a "nvram get boardnum" from the serial port.

jules
jules's picture
That did it. I ran the

That did it. I ran the factory reset again, it couldn't find its sflash, I stopped its rebooting and at the CFE prompt ran "nvram set boardnum=0x01" and then its behavior matched what Achilles did earlier in the thread -- the first time it reboots as shown below, and from then on it boots up fine and works perfectly.

Booting device: Netgear WGR614v8/L/WW
No such device
nvram_commit(): end
insmod: switch-core.o: module not found
insmod: switch-robo.o: module not found
boardflags are 0x0750
insmod: wl.o: module not found
Restarting system.
Please stand by while rebooting the system...
Decompressing..........done

It's not a one-off. There are at least two WGR614L with boardnum=0123 because I own them. They do have almost consecutive MAC addresses so I'm sure they're from the same batch but I have no idea how many there are. But there have been a few people here on the forums that have said they've seen similar behavior.

I suppose there might be someone at Netgear with a list of all the different boardnum that have been manufactured?

Nachi
Nachi's picture
I suppose there might be

I suppose there might be someone at Netgear with a list of all the different boardnum that have been manufactured?

I will look into this.

Thanks.
Nachi

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