WRT54G-TM: Did I "brick" it? (If so, how?)

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AnotherBrickintheWall
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Joined: 17 Jun 2019
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Wed Jun 19, 2019 22:56    Post subject: WRT54G-TM: Did I "brick" it? (If so, how?) Reply with quote
A few days ago I posted seeking advice on the best build to use on a "virgin" Linksys WRT54G-TM:

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=320185

I followed the device specific instructions for the WRT54G-TM, but ran into problems before even getting to use TFTP to upload DD-WRT:

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54G-TM

Here's what I did:

1 - Disabled Windows AV and Firewall.
2 - Plugged Windows 10 PC into LAN port on router.
3 - Did a hard reset (30-30-30) on the router.
4 - Manually set two addresses on my PC (192.168.02. and 192.168.1.2).
5 - Started a continuous ping (ping -t) of 192.168.1.1 (and another for 192.168.0.1).
6 - Logged into the WRT54G0TM's web interface and went to:
Administration > Firmware Upgrade.
7 - Uploaded "CFE_Updater-WRT54G-TM.bin"
8 - Hit the "Upgrade" button.
9 - Saw message saying that the upgrade was successful, but knew to wait "at least 5 minutes" for process to complete.
10 - Observed that the continuous pings had both stopped responding.
11 - Observed that the power light on the router was flashing.
12 - Waited and watched way longer than the recommended 5 minutes, but power light continued to flash. Router was not observed to have rebooted.
13 - Went away and did something else for about an hour. ("Watched pot never boils.")
14 - Returned after more than an hour to find that the power light was still flashing. Link light for port into which PC was plugged was on solid. Continuous pings were still failing.
15 - Reviewed "Recover from a bad flash" wiki as well as note #6 of "Peacock" announcement.
16 - Disconnected UTP cable and performed a hard reset (30-30-30). No change. Aforementioned continuous pings still failing.
17 - Set PC to DHCP to see if router might be trying to assign an address on a different subnet.
18 - "ipconfig" shows local net IP address of 169.254.1.64. Default Gateway address is blank.

When I apply power to the router the power light immediately begins flashing rapidly. All link lights are on solid for about 2 seconds then go out. When I plug the PC into one of the LAN ports or the WAN port the link light for that port initially flashes to show activity, then remains solid. Pings to 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.1 fail with message:

"PING: transmit failed. General failure."

So, did I brick it? And, if so, where did I go wrong?

Many thanks...
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jwh7
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 25 Oct 2013
Posts: 2670
Location: Indy

PostPosted: Thu Jun 20, 2019 13:16    Post subject: Re: WRT54G-TM: Did I "brick" it? (If so, how?) Reply with quote
AnotherBrickintheWall wrote:
When I apply power to the router the power light immediately begins flashing rapidly. All link lights are on solid for about 2 seconds then go out. When I plug the PC into one of the LAN ports or the WAN port the link light for that port initially flashes to show activity, then remains solid. Pings to 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.1.1 fail with message:
Try a normal TFTP flash; within ~1-2sec at powerup, where the router responds with TTL=100. And you should only need to the 192.168.1.1 address now. Smile

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/TFTP_flash

_________________
# NAT/SFE/CTF: limited speed w/ DD # Repeater issues # DD-WRT info: FAQ, Builds, Types, Modes, Changes, Demo #
OPNsense x64 5050e ITX|DD: DIR-810L, 2*EA6900@1GHz, R6300v1, RT-N66U@663, WNDR4000@533, E1500@353,
WRT54G{Lv1.1,Sv6}@250
|FreshTomato: F7D8302@532|OpenWRT: F9K1119v1, RT-ACRH13, R6220, WNDR3700v4
AnotherBrickintheWall
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Jun 2019
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:02    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi jwh7. Thanks again for your help, but I've got some questions for clarification before I do anything more. I don't want to do something stupid just because I've failed to adequately describe my situation, or because I didn't fully understand what you were recommending that I try.

jwh7 wrote:
Try a normal TFTP flash


What, exactly, do you mean when you say that I should try a "normal" TFTP flash? What is "normal?"

Just to be clear, I never got to the step where I would have used TFTP to load the DD-WRT firmware onto my router. Things started to go wrong before that, when I attempted to upload "CFE_Updater-WRT54G-TM.bin."

jwh7 wrote:
...within ~1-2sec at powerup, where the router responds with TTL=100


Just to be clear, when I plug power into the router at no point does the continous ping running on the PC connected to one of the router's LAN ports produce anything other than:

"PING: transmit failed. General failure."

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.
jwh7
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 25 Oct 2013
Posts: 2670
Location: Indy

PostPosted: Fri Jun 21, 2019 3:20    Post subject: Reply with quote
AnotherBrickintheWall wrote:
jwh7 wrote:
Try a normal TFTP flash
What, exactly, do you mean when you say that I should try a "normal" TFTP flash? What is "normal?"
It means the sequence described in the General section of the 'TFTP flash' wiki, where there is only a short window at powerup for CFE to look for TFTP. The -TM wiki indicates it will be stuck in tftp mode after the CFE file update, so if you're not seeing a ping response, that's probably a bad sign. If you set a static 192.168.0.x IP, do you see anything?
_________________
# NAT/SFE/CTF: limited speed w/ DD # Repeater issues # DD-WRT info: FAQ, Builds, Types, Modes, Changes, Demo #
OPNsense x64 5050e ITX|DD: DIR-810L, 2*EA6900@1GHz, R6300v1, RT-N66U@663, WNDR4000@533, E1500@353,
WRT54G{Lv1.1,Sv6}@250
|FreshTomato: F7D8302@532|OpenWRT: F9K1119v1, RT-ACRH13, R6220, WNDR3700v4
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