How to upgrade DDWRT mini v24

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Brad
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How to upgrade DDWRT mini v24

 

I downloaded DD-WRT v24 mini (c) 2008 from this site and installed on my WGR614v8 and have had serious problems with it. Now, I want to get rid of this load and go back to the Netgear factory load, but the upgrade gui will not accept a CHK file - it appears to be seeking a bin file.

 How do I get this thing fixed?

 I'm looking all over this site for a doc on how to TFTP to the router, but am coming up dry.

Brandon C
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This article may help youhttp
Brad
Brad's picture
Thanks for that - already

Thanks for that - already read it though.

I've run a packet sniffer while trying to TFTP, and I see the a read and a write messages going between the router and my pc, but there is never any handshake and the transfer never commences.

If anyone has a detailed document on how to tftp from a windows PC to this router, along with a recommended TFTP client, please share.

Thanks!

Brad
Brad's picture
BTW - The DDWRT version that

BTW - The DDWRT version that is now stuck on this router is V24 SVN revision 9281M - I downloaded it from this site. I thought there would be better documentation on how to upgrade this load once it is on my device, but I can't find anything - I would warn anyone considering loading their WGR614Lv8 with this DD-WRT load, DONT DO IT!

SouvikGhosh
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Brad,

Brad,

A new version of DD-WRT is already available in this site. Plse try this one. You can download this version from http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/10472/DD-WRT-v24-SP1-Build-for-WGR6.... This version is tested by many dd-wrt users. For installation you can refer to the article posted by Nachi - http://www.myopenrouter.com/article/10479/DD-WRT-V24-SP1-for-WGR614L-Rev...

Good Luck ...

Brad
Brad's picture
Thanks for that advice Souvik

Thanks for that advice Souvik.

My dilemma is that I upgraded from the factory firmware with the old version (9281?). Now I can't upgrade/downgrade/anything with this load on the router without finding a serial cable. In a failed attempt to do something with this thing, I tried loading one of the generic broadcom bin files from dd-wrt's website. This completely bricked me, so now I'm perfectly screwed.

Unless there's a way out of this bind (without having to buy the jtag cable), I'm returning this router and sticking with my trusty old WRT54G which I've bricked multiple times and brought back from the dead without any special hardware.

Any final suggestions before I give up on the Netgear opensource router experiment?

blackmacbook
blackmacbook's picture
Brad said:

Brad said:
Thanks for that advice Souvik.
My dilemma is that I upgraded from the factory firmware with the old version (9281?). Now I can't upgrade/downgrade/anything with this load on the router without finding a serial cable. In a failed attempt to do something with this thing, I tried loading one of the generic broadcom bin files from dd-wrt's website. This completely bricked me, so now I'm perfectly screwed.
Unless there's a way out of this bind (without having to buy the jtag cable), I'm returning this router and sticking with my trusty old WRT54G which I've bricked multiple times and brought back from the dead without any special hardware.
Any final suggestions before I give up on the Netgear opensource router experiment?

If your power light is flashing and you are able to ping the router, then you are not fully bricked.  "NON" of the DD-WRT firmware from DD-WRT will currently work with the WGR614v8.  If you can ping the router, you can tftp the current netgear wgr614v8 firmware.

 

I've done this many times already, experimenting with all the firmwares from DD-WRT site and from this site, which I may add are not fully functional yet.......   So I temporarly gave up on the WGR614v8/L for the mean time, as it appears that the DD-WRT is stale mate on fully supporting WGR614.   

 

It seems like dd-wrt was  more focused on  supporting the Netgear WNR834B v2 than supporting wgr614.  

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=21255&highlight=wnr834b

 

 

Brad
Brad's picture
power's lit, but no ability

power's lit, but no ability to ping.

The router is not giving out IP's even after a hard reset.

To make matters worse on me, buy.com advised me today they wouldn't take the little bugger back, so I'm stuck with this.

Any suggestions what I can do with it? Maybe I can start a top 10 list of what to do with your bricked wgr614l?

Can I return this direct to Netgear for a refurb?

blackmacbook
blackmacbook's picture
Brad said:

Brad said:
power's lit, but no ability to ping.
The router is not giving out IP's even after a hard reset.
To make matters worse on me, buy.com advised me today they wouldn't take the little bugger back, so I'm stuck with this.
Any suggestions what I can do with it? Maybe I can start a top 10 list of what to do with your bricked wgr614l?
Can I return this direct to Netgear for a refurb?

Were you trying to flash firmware that was larger than 4mb???  For example the mega dd-wrt?  The generic mini dd-wrt, less than 4mb is the highest the wgr614 can be flash to or any router that has 4mb flash memory.  DD-WRT even states that.

 

Well, since you can not ping the router, then I'm afraid you will have to jtag it by using a serial cable.  How is your your soldering skills?  Netgear may exchange  your router, as they are promoting the wgr614L as an open source router to use with thrid party firmware, as evidence of this myopenrouter.com website.

 Why wouldn't Buy.com give you an exchange?  Did you tell them that you were flashing it with at thrid party firmware?  You should of just stated that it stopped working all of a sudden.

 

Good luck.

Brad
Brad's picture
blackmacbook said:

blackmacbook said:

Brad said: power's lit, but no ability to ping. The router is not giving out IP's even after a hard reset. To make matters worse on me, buy.com advised me today they wouldn't take the little bugger back, so I'm stuck with this. Any suggestions what I can do with it? Maybe I can start a top 10 list of what to do with your bricked wgr614l? Can I return this direct to Netgear for a refurb?

Were you trying to flash firmware that was larger than 4mb???  For example the mega dd-wrt?  The generic mini dd-wrt, less than 4mb is the highest the wgr614 can be flash to or any router that has 4mb flash memory.  DD-WRT even states that. Well, since you can not ping the router, then I'm afraid you will have to jtag it by using a serial cable.  How is your your soldering skills?  Netgear may exchange  your router, as they are promoting the wgr614L as an open source router to use with thrid party firmware, as evidence of this myopenrouter.com website.  Why wouldn't Buy.com give you an exchange?  Did you tell them that you were flashing it with at thrid party firmware?  You should of just stated that it stopped working all of a sudden. Good luck.

I flashed it with the mini generic f/w  - which brings up another point of "what the hell were they thinking" - why did Netgear produce an opensource router that has the minimal amount of memory in it, prohibiting users from experiencing the more feature rich open source loads available (i.e. the mega load)???????? Why couldn't they have sprung for the extra 1-2MB for this router????

 

Regarding my experience with buy.com, they have a 14 day return policy, and that's 14 days from when they ship the product. I live on the east coast and they shipped from CA. I ordered this thing on the 14th. It took 11 days for the product to show up at my house, leaving 3 days on the RMA clock. I travel during the week, so I didn't start playing with this until Friday. They denied my return based on their return policy & didn't give me the chance to tell them what was wrong with the router.

 

blackmacbook
blackmacbook's picture
You just reminded me why I no

You just reminded me why I no longer order from Buy.com :) Amazon.com or newegg.com is a better choice. Perhaps, Netgear should able to help you out since it is still under netgear warranty, and the fact the router is an open source router and was supposedly designed to support third party firmware. Give netgear a call, and keep us posted on your findings.

SouvikGhosh
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Brad,

Brad,
It seems that you flashed this router with a third party firmware and it has overwritten flash address from 0x3e0000 to 0x3effff. This is the address range where the boot loader data is stored. Probably this MAC address has been overwritten and as a result you can not ping the router. Your problem is really hard to debug since you do not have the serial cable. Can you please arrange that one - in that case we can help you recover your router.

Souvik

Brad
Brad's picture
Thank you for your help.

Thank you for your help.

Where can I buy a serial cable? I saw a link on another post, but that reseller didn't sell the cables any more...

SouvikGhosh
SouvikGhosh's picture
Please refer to the following

Please refer to the following link - here you will be able find some vendor/distributor name and address. http://ftdichip.com/Products/EvaluationKits/TTL-232R-3V3.htm
You can get serial cable from Mouser.com also.

Brad
Brad's picture
I just remembered that I have

I just remembered that I have an old laptop with a serial port on it.

I shouldn't need this $20 usb cable, right?

I'm going to search this site for a pinout diagram for building my own serial cable for the router, but if someone can post a tried & proven schematic, I would appreciate that...

Brad
Brad's picture
OK, so no results when

OK, so no results when searching the site for "serial cable" and "pinout" - any help?

Thanks!

SouvikGhosh
SouvikGhosh's picture
Brad,

Brad,

Please do not try this out. Probably you have an RS232 port in your Laptop and it operates at 12v while your 614L board serial operates at 3.3 volt. We recommend to use the TTL-232R-3V3 cable.