Inside the NETGEAR R6300: JTAG Pinouts, USB-TTL Extension, Pics... Plus DD-WRT Kong Mod is Coming!

I recently received a brand new R6300 from the folks at MyOpenRouter. Since there hasn't been any guide on unbricking, I'm going to show you some pics from the inside of the R6300!

I'm not going to write a full review or unbricking guide here, as the unbricking process works exactly as described in the WNR3500L unbrick guide. The pinouts can be taken from my pic.

Note: When powering on, you have to be really quick to press CTRL+C in order to get to the CFE prompt -- the WNR3500L is a bit slower here.

As for technical information -- as other sites have already published a lot of info, I'm going to post only a few specs that I haven't found in other places.

  • This unit has 64K NVRAM space, which is pretty cool and allows users to store a fair amount of config values in flash.
  • It has two flash chips: one 2MB serial, and one 128MB NAND flash.
  • The 128MB allows users to store a whole lot of functionality in the future. I already have a set of features in mind that will be integrated into the firmware :)

 

     

    I have also added a little extension cable on the back in order to connect my USB-TTL adapter when the box is closed.

    I am excited to announce that my builds will soon support the R6300! Since this is a new model, I'm going to do lots of testing before I'll post any builds. Therefore, don't expect support for this unit within the next 4 weeks from the posting of this article, but it is coming soon.

    Kong

    Tags: 

    javamarket
    javamarket's picture
    Many of us are both thankful

    Many of us are both thankful and excited that you'll be taking the R6300 to a more user friendly place. Please keep us advised so we can field test your builds when appropriate.

    Good luck!

    Christopher Russell
    Christopher Russell's picture
    Any word on the Kong Mod for

    Any word on the Kong Mod for the r6300?? Very excited about that!

    Kong
    Kong's picture
    Christopher Russell said: Any

    Christopher Russell said: Any word on the Kong Mod for the r6300?? Very excited about that!

    Actually I was waiting on dd-wrt or thatagata to release their wireless driver for the kernel , but that did not happen yet.

    I'm kind of sick waiting, this is why I started to add some code yesterday in order to support the R6300.  I was able to boot my image today by leaving out the wireless driver. If I can fix the wireless driver issue it won't be long until I can publish a build.

    Christopher Russell
    Christopher Russell's picture
    Thanks Kong! I have the

    Thanks Kong! I have the WNDR4500, and the R6300. I love your builds but don't have a router to use with any of the Kong Mods. :-(

    Kronyx
    Kronyx's picture
    I hope it will work on the

    I hope it will work on the R6300 ! I have this router but have no options exept the original firmware ...

    Shinji
    Shinji's picture
    Are there any good directions

    Are there any good directions to opening this unit? I tried to open it and got 4 screws in before I hit a potential roadblock. Not sure if it is just snaps the rest of the way or not. Can you advise?

    Kong
    Kong's picture
     

     

    Shinji said: Are there any good directions to opening this unit? I tried to open it and got 4 screws in before I hit a potential roadblock. Not sure if it is just snaps the rest of the way or not. Can you advise?

     

    Yep, once you removed these screws, you have to push the sides of the front cover to the center there are hooks on the left and right side, bend the front cover like a "U".

     

    Anyways. Good news BS added my patches and I have flashed the latest dd-wrt trunk on the R6300.

     

    There are some minor issues like led operation and router model display ... But this should be resolved soon. Once this is sorted out there will be a testbuild for the public.

    Kronyx
    Kronyx's picture
    Will you tell us when the

    Will you tell us when the public testbuild will be availlable ?

    Thanks for your great work !!

    Kong
    Kong's picture
     

     

    Kronyx said: Will you tell us when the public testbuild will be availlable ? Thanks for your great work !!

     

    The R6300 is now my main router so I can do some more testing, I still find minor bugs here and there, but before we release this to the public we want to make sure it is absolutely safe.

    People that know how to debrick, can join the testbuild thread at:

    http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=172018

     

    Everyone else: just wait another week or two until we have more feedback.

    sphinxyy
    sphinxyy's picture
    thanks kong!

    thanks kong!

    Ashley
    Ashley's picture
    By any chance will we be able

    By any chance will we be able to run some sort of jFlow/sFlow or SNMP on this box? I'd love to see it for the sake of highly detailed stats.

    Kong
    Kong's picture
    Ashley said: By any chance

    Ashley said: By any chance will we be able to run some sort of jFlow/sFlow or SNMP on this box? I'd love to see it for the sake of highly detailed stats.

    Brainslayer is updating RFlow to work with the latest broadcom drivers, therefore RFlow will be available again, as well as zabbix monitoring client.

    Proteus
    Proteus's picture
    Can't break in with jtag

    Can't break in with jtag cable connected. I see the boot process clearly, keep banging away at Ctrl-c, but it never breaks in. Boots, checks CRC, try's to mount squashfs, fails, then reboots. The messages come though fine, so I assume my cable is correct. Only strange thing is I get gobbledygook symbols anytime I type anything (like Ctrl-c). Using putty with all recommended setting 115200,8n1, no flow

    whiterob
    whiterob's picture
    Like some others I am running

    Like some others I am running into this? Can't seem to find a clear answer though, is this a hardware malfunction?

    Thanks

    CFE for R6300 version: v1.0.2
    Build Date: Wed Apr 25 16:29:10 CST 2012
    Init Arena
    Init Devs.
    Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
    Found an ST compatible serial flash with 32 64KB blocks; total size 2MB
    Found a Samsung NAND flash with 2048B pages or 128KB blocks; total size 128
    et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.100.138
    CPU type 0x19749: 600MHz
    Tot mem: 131072 KBytes

    Device eth0: hwaddr 84-1B-5E-32-57-DF, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.25
    gateway not set, nameserver not set
    load default!
    Decompressing...done

    CFE for R6300 version: v1.0.2
    Build Date: Wed Apr 25 16:29:10 CST 2012
    Init Arena
    Init Devs.
    Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
    Found an ST compatible serial flash with 32 64KB blocks; total size 2MB
    Found a Samsung NAND flash with 2048B pages or 128KB blocks; total size 128
    et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.100.138
    CPU type 0x19749: 600MHz
    Tot mem: 131072 KBytes

    Committing NVRAM...done
    Waiting for reset button release...

    liaojack11
    liaojack11's picture
    Yes, your BCM4706 CPU is not

    Yes, your BCM4706 CPU is not function well, you need to replace a new CPU.

    hyw2458
    hyw2458's picture
    could give your cfe file my

    could give your cfe file my 6300 is bad
    TTL is no woke,I come from china
    you can send it by mail to me
    I will every thanks
    my mail number is [email protected]

    elcumbiasZAAZ
    elcumbiasZAAZ's picture
    hola tengo un netgear que le

    hola tengo un netgear que le actualise el firmware de netgear a DD-wrt y derepente se corto la wifi y ya no me deja entrar ala pagina de configuracion del router ni recetearlo se conecta ala pc y todo por los puertos Lan pero no hace nada si algien puduera ayudarme si sabve español claro

    elcumbiasZAAZ
    elcumbiasZAAZ's picture
    hello I have a netgear R6300

    hello I have a netgear R6300 you update the firmware of netgear to DD-wrt and suddenly the wifi is short and will not let me enter wing configuration page of the router or recetearlo connecting wing pc and all for the Lan port but does nothing if anyone could help me if Spanish course

    homeand89
    homeand89's picture
    So I tried updating my

    So I tried updating my R6300V2 to the dd firm ware, it worked. when i was changing the settings something went wrong. I got no flashing lights now and when I tried pushing a new firm ware it says the "No route to host" or "Host is down." Does this mean my router is dead premaritally, please help.

    homeand89
    homeand89's picture
    So I tried updating my

    So I tried updating my R6300V2 to the dd firm ware, it worked. when i was changing the settings something went wrong. I got no flashing lights now and when I tried pushing a new firm ware it says the "No route to host" or "Host is down." Does this mean my router is dead premaritally, please help.

    sdspieg
    sdspieg's picture
    I am also unable to break

    I am also unable to break into the boot cycle with Ctrl-C. Can anybody please help? I also see everything scrolling nicely on my screen, contrary to the user above I do NOT get any gobbledygook figures when I type Ctrl-C, but - like him - I never get to the prompt, no matter how quickly I try to press it (and I've tried at last 50 times...).

    Also, for our information: at which point do we know our attempt has failed (and we can try again)?
    CFE for R6300 version: v1.0.2
    Build Date: Wed Apr 25 16:29:10 CST 2012
    Init Arena
    Init Devs.
    Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
    Found an ST compatible serial flash with 32 64KB blocks; total size 2MB
    Found a Samsung NAND flash with 2048B pages or 128KB blocks; total size 128MB
    et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.100.138
    CPU type 0x19749: 600MHz
    Tot mem: 131072 KBytes

    Device eth0: hwaddr **-**-**-**-**-**, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
    gateway not set, nameserver not set
    Checking crc...

    When it starts checking crc (which takes quite a while) - do we already know it failed? Or does the prompt only come up after that check?

    Finally, are there any other reasons why this might not work? If we see the text scroll, does that mean our setup is definitely ok?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    sdspieg
    sdspieg's picture
    I'm still struggling with

    I'm still struggling with this. I have now figured out that it takes about 45' between the appearance of the 'checking crc' and the rest of the bootup sequence. AT some point it then shows: 'reboot in 3 seconds'. I then start pushing Ctrl-c as quickly as I can. I have tried this at least another 20 times, but have not been able to break in. Can somebody please tell me what I could still try? And whether I got the pinouits right (they do look like the ones on Kingkong's pic, but maybe I missed sthg)? Thanks!

    Pinouts