weird things on my WRT54G-TM

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j1mw3b
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Joined: 29 Jun 2021
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 17:35    Post subject: weird things on my WRT54G-TM Reply with quote
In a previous thread, I mentioned doing stupid stuff with this WRT54G-TM; almost bricking it and finally getting it back.

So, more strange things.
I wanted to try OpenWrt with the router, and used the dd-wrt to install it. Worked! OpenWrt, however, is way too slow and even seemed unstable. Not difficult to configure as some have complained.
Decided to go to Tomato, so installed it using the OpenWrt gui. Now cannot login - getting a login prompt and no userid/passwd works. Listening on both Telnet (telnet prompt was "RT-<macaddress> and SSH, but unknown id's. Funny, wireless also activated with a dd-wrt SSID. Weird! Did a few resets and finally it came up with, amazingly, the Tomato prompt. And seems to be working normally.

Also have a Tomato WRT54GL I've been using so decided to compare NVRAM on both boxes. The GL has about 20 lines of "NC_xxxxx" lines in it.
One of them will be an access point only, to replace an old Cisco.

Oh, and I know this is a dd-wrt forum and I apologize for bringing up Tomato, but dd-wrt is also involved.

Should one totally clear the NVRAM before flashing?

Thanks
Jimmy
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kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 18:49    Post subject: Reply with quote
It is never recommended to flash from 3rd party firmware to 3rd party firmware. Always flash back to stock.
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j1mw3b
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 19:58    Post subject: Reply with quote
OK. In researching it, I discovered that, but was a bit concerned that the revert would also revert the replaced bootloader "CFE_Updater-WRT54G-TM.bin".
So, would you suggest redoing them or just do "nvram sets" to remove the dd-wrt entries? The WRT54GL with the dd-wrt "NC..." nvram entries is quite stable. The -TM model, hasn't been tested much yet.
kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2021 20:45    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't see any gotchas in the wiki, but there is a specific way to revert this device from DD-WRT:

https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/WRT54G-TM

I would pick a firmware and stick with it.

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kernel-panic69
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 19:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
I chose to clean this thread up and lock it for several reasons. What I did leave behind, will comment on below. The one thing I am trying to avoid here is unnecessary tangents and false information. A modified CFE doesn't necessarily have any bearing on this situation, as I have flashed one of these and a former VxWorks-powered model with FreshTomato. OpenWRT is not Broadcom-friendly to begin with, and you generally cannot flash anything but stock firmware from OpenWRT. Their wiki for the WRT54* series does not show any specific method to return to any other firmware, unfortunately, but you should be able to return to DD-WRT or FreshTomato via TFTP. In any case, you should be familiar with known recovery and de-bricking methods.

https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/wrt54g

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