Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2020 19:10 Post subject: Help with WDR3600
Hi,
I don't have the UART USB at the moment, here is my situation:
The router has its switch working but no WAN or Wireless. It seems to be "half bricked". I am able to upload the firmware to the router using tftp32 by using 192.168.0.66 at the PC and holding WPS/Reset at the Router and connecting AC.
TFTP32 reports that the file is uploaded successfuly, but nothing happens after that.
It seems like the router is ignoring the firmware after the upload. I saw in a OpenWRT forum that the uboot should be comparing the HWID and that I might have erased firmware partition and it should be FF FF FF FF in flash.
Have anyone seem this behavior for this TPLINK router? The gigabit Switch seems to be working as expected, but nothing I did caused a diferent situation.
Here I will say somethings I have already tried:
- Uploading diferent firmwares from DDWRT/OpenWRT/stock via TFTP32
- 30/30/30 reset
- Wireshark at the LAN and WAN ports
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14221 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2020 19:57 Post subject:
You don't 30/30/30 an Atheros. That is only for WRT54* series Broadcom routers and their clones, MIPSR1 antique devices. Did you not read the entire thread you hijacked before I split your post?
The filename and other things are very specific for recovery, there are also linked videos on how to recover without the serial adapter. If they are not working for you, then you have to invest in a serial adapter. I don't have one of these to test recovery without serial on. _________________ "Life is but a fleeting moment, a vapor that vanishes quickly; All is vanity"
Contribute To DD-WRT Pogo - A minimal level of ability is expected and needed... DD-WRT Releases 2023 (PolitePol)
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----------------------
Linux User #377467 counter.li.org / linuxcounter.net
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:00 Post subject: Please be patient.
Hi,
Sorry about you're dealing with.
Please let us know with the following questions:
1. Do you have the link of tutorial you're following?
2. What hardware version is your WDR3600? 1.1, ... 1.5, 1.6?
3. How long did you wait after getting TFTP success response? 60-70 seconds?
Because, after uploading, the router seems to be doing anything until it reboots and the uploaded firmware is applied.
4. What Stock version you're using for TFTP uploads?
Now, my little experience with TFTP tells us we have to try several times, because TFTP output is not accurate. Inadequate Stock firmwares most of the times soft brick routers, not "half" brick them.
And yes, you should be ordering a USB UART adapter.
I have already gave up and ordered a UART adapter. But unfortunatelly I will need to wait a couple of weeks so that it arrives (brazilian mailing system rocks).
Answering Msantos questions:
1- I was downgrading from ddwrt to stock to try another image. Unfortuantelly I don't have the link since it was done some months ago.
2- Mine says 1.5 version
3- I have waited several hours. Since my router has its switch still working, I am using it as a switch only.
4- I tried several firmware versions:
8,192,512 bytes (several versions from TPLINK and also factory-to-ddwrt 2014 images 25697)
8,126,464 bytes (the ones I was able to download already stripped)
I have also tried to edit the .bin to change the HWID for FF (08 bytes from 0x40-0x47).
None of those caused a simple reboot to the router after uploading complete. And yes, I have tried multiple times with each of these files.
I'm convinced I will need to wait until the adapter arrives, but if you have any suggestion that I might consider, please let me know.
Regardless what firmware you are running, I think you don't have to use any stripped version with TFTP, because 1.5 hardware has U-Boot Recovery and it deals with it seamlessly. Also, I hadn't have any luck using stripped versions with that technique (TFTP).
BUT, Stripped versions only with Serial debricking - UART-USB adapter. Do NOT even try using Stock firmware named "_BOOT(XXXXXX).bin".
The router seems to be alive (I cant believe, but the UART adapter arrived in 03 days)!
Unfortunatelly, i still couldn't recover the device.
Now it seems to be changed to the bricked status (leds bliking and reboot every second). Before the switch would be up as long as it was powered.
I'm still trying some images but for now I had just got the following:
## Booting image at 9f020000 ...
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... Too big uncompressed streamLZMA ERROR 1 - must RESET board to recover
Could you describe the procedure for this verification?
I have already checked with ifconfig but the wireless interfaces are not showing at console.
It is strange because before all this firmware issues both wireless interfaces were working good, so I though I could have messed something during the erase and write procedure.
I could check some topics with exactally the issue I am facing. before all this bricked stuff I used OpenWRT in this router. So it is possible i messed with caldata/art partition.
I could find a topic of a WDR3700 that has it caldata recovered from WinSCP. But unfortunatelly I could not find the boardconfig for my WDR3600.
