Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 19:29 Post subject: La Fonera 2100 crash issue
With recent versions of DD-WRT, the La Fonera 2100 becomes very fragile in memory usage and tends to OOM in processes, sometimes crashed the kernel itself and causes reboot. Sample process crash log:
And even the telnet+write flashing is not possible, downloading the firmware file into /tmp alone will cause the router to crash.
Code:
root@DD-WRT:~# free
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 13568 6900 1184 0 5484 0
-/+ buffers/cache: 6900 6668
Swap: 0 0 0
Trying to download the firmware file into /tmp:
Code:
root@DD-WRT:/tmp# wget http://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2020/09-18-2020-r44406/fonera/fonera-firmware.bin
Connecting to download1.dd-wrt.com (185.84.6.100:80)
saving to 'fonera-firmware.bin'
fonera-firmware.bin 70% |****************************************************************************************** | 3572k 0:00:38 ETA
Then the router crashed and reboot...
I guess the only proper way to flash update recent DD-WRT versions on La Fonera 2100 (and other low memory models?) will be TFTP. _________________ A RED HORNED vehicle that will run 3 times FASTER
Joined: 21 Jan 2017 Posts: 1783 Location: Illinois Moderator
Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 20:21 Post subject:
This device does not have sufficient resources (flash and/or RAM) to provide secure and reliable operation. You should consider upgrading to a newer device. You should have a huge market of very cheap/reliable routers to choose from in Taiwan... R7800, C7v5/A7v5, or EA8500.
These low flash/ram devices are not supported anymore. _________________ FORUM RULES
That's right, flashing without Linux running will reduce the burden of memory consumption.
arssant wrote:
Hi.
Fon 2XXX series always with TFTP or FonFlash application from Gargoyle.
I did not notice the Gargoyle FonFlash before, maybe I should try it to simplify the TFTP flashing procedures.
msoengineer wrote:
These low flash/ram devices are not supported anymore.
Well, I know it is 2020, and OpenWrt warned about the stability of 16MB ram devices very long ago. But since BS is still building firmware image for La Fonera, I guess it has not been officially dropped by DD-WRT? So I would like to try it and see what can I squeeze from these 2006 models. And I am very impressed that DD-WRT can run WPA3 successfully (though slowly) on such an obsolete device! _________________ A RED HORNED vehicle that will run 3 times FASTER
43443: Guess this is a transitional(?) build; came up with wlan0 device, ath0 does not receive packets hence Wifi not working
43471: First build after switching to ath5k. Supports WPA3. Wifi LED not working. Startup is fine however ksoftirqd may OOM under some load. httpd may OOM easily
43800: ksoftirqd may OOM much more easily, can be found in boot process
I guess most of the builds prior & up to 43420 may still work fine with this poor little device. For me, I would like to stick with 43471 and play WPA3 for a while, until the Wifi LED issue gets fixed... _________________ A RED HORNED vehicle that will run 3 times FASTER
43471: First build after switching to ath5k. Supports WPA3. Wifi LED not working. Startup is fine however ksoftirqd may OOM under some load. httpd may OOM easily
Thank you, added info on Recommended Firmware for Low Memory Device Thread.
From my notes the build r41418 has WPA3.
43443: Guess this is a transitional(?) build; came up with wlan0 device, ath0 does not receive packets hence Wifi not working
Hi
Fonera 2201, aka fonera+ here.
Due to to the nice work of BS, and KP69 assistance, since 43443 my 2201 is alive again. ( vlan issue with fon 2201 with previous releases).
Got two of them running ( wireless client mode, wan converted to a 2 lan port ) since the release date with no issue at all.
Code:
Router Name apcd
Router Model Fonera 2201
Firmware: DD-WRT v3.0-r43443 std (06/17/20)
Time: 21:43:14 up 3 days, 17:56, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.03
WAN IPv4: 192.168.8.85
Newer releases still work, but as they lack of memory and cpu, they become unstable, load average jump high after a few minutes to keep the fon working stable.
Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:57 Post subject: Status update 2021 July
Bumping my thread.
After months of (relative) stable operation, the FON2100 failed this week. The ethernet LED would still blink, but the router could not connect to outer WiFi and bring up LAN anymore. Power cycling did not help. After getting my PL2303 line I found the following outputs:
Code:
+PHY ID is 0022:5521
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:18:84:1a:fe:64
IP: 192.168.1.254/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 0.0.0.0
Default server: 0.0.0.0
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version v1.3.0 - built 16:57:58, Aug 7 2006
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
Board: ap51
RAM: 0x80000000-0x81000000, [0x80040450-0x80fe1000] available
FLASH: 0xa8000000 - 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0x00010000 bytes each.
== Executing boot script in 10.000 seconds - enter ^C to abort
RedBoot> fis load -l linux
No more outputs after the kernel+rootfs loading attempt.
Questions:
Does this mean the flash being corrupted? Or memory chip damaged?
Since the RedBoot seems working, I will try reflashing r43471 image using FonFlash. If it would still not boot after flashing attempt, may I conclude it as unrecoverable?
_________________ A RED HORNED vehicle that will run 3 times FASTER
Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 15:50 Post subject: Re: Status update 2021 July
Alica wrote:
Since the RedBoot seems working, I will try reflashing r43471 image using FonFlash. If it would still not boot after flashing attempt, may I conclude it as unrecoverable?
Flashing attempt using FonFlash has following outputs:
Code:
Peer MAC: 00:18:84:1a:fe:64
Peer IP : 192.168.1.254
Your MAC: 00:ba:be:ca:ff:ee
Your IP : 192.168.1.0
Setting IP address...
ip_addr -l 192.168.1.254/8 -h 192.168.1.0
Initializing partitions ...
fis init
No more outputs after the flash initialization command; seems like the flash chip failed. Thus the end of a generation. _________________ A RED HORNED vehicle that will run 3 times FASTER
