[Liath]

Please see post about 4 down -- I have replaced the Airgo card with Broadcom, so I think this first post is fairly irrelevant now.

I'm sorry if this has been hashed out already, but I'm unable to find any reliable search results. I've searched on Google and come up empty-handed, and the dd-wrt wiki page has GX listed in the title, but no actual GX information there, which is a let-down.

Okay, so here goes... I have a WRT54GX v1 (Linksys yada-yada, SRX Speed and Range eXpansion). Apparently from reading it has some form of "Airgo" wifi chipset.

From what I read a while back through a similar search ( https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=63526 ), I found that someone had done some work on getting the airgo chipset supported in openwrt, but the thread seemed old and abandoned shortly after it was started. I'm unsure if any more progress was made though.

So my question for everyone is this: Is there any decent firmware available for the GX that supports the chipset? I don't even really care about the SRX stuff, I just want G functionality, with DD-WRT's awesome capabilities. Right now I'd primarily use it as a wireless bridge (client mode), if possible.

Some info from searching around:
Version: 1.0
Broadcom BCM4704 @ 266 MHz
RAM: 16 MB
Flash: 4 MB
Serial Starts with: KBG5

[LOM]

Since you have the router, why do search the net for info about the wifi chip?
Why don't you open it and look what you have?

[zerofire]

The WRT54GX is currently listed as Not Supported under the DD-WRT router database.

[Liath]

The issue is that there are different posts saying that it works, others say it doesn't.

The wiki page says 'no official support', but I don't care if it is official, just if someone has put together something that works, which is where I'm getting confused due to differing forum posts.

Of course it doesn't help that the X at the end of the model people also use as (*) wildcard... goofs up search results about everywhere.

Also, I have a few wireless mini-PCI cards laying around, so if the AirGo chipset is just completely not doable, then I can apparently replace it. So then the issue is if the mainboard can be supported.

[Liath]

Update: The wireless card is completely replaceable, using a mini-pci slot. So, I can put just about any wireless card I wish into it.

I have a Broadcom BCM94318MPG I can try -- it is in the pci slot of the wrt54gx right now.

Next question is if it is safe to flash this board, and what I should flash it *with*, since it is no longer a real "wrt54gx" without the airgo card.

If at all possible, I'd like to not do anything that involves turning the router into a guinea pig. It works fine with the Airgo, but I can't get several features I'd like. So I'd like to try DD-WRT, but want to make sure that I can (somewhat) safely flash the unit without completely b0rking it. I don't have a JTAG so I can only use tftp.

I'm sure that if I can get this working though, that many other people with this model would love to know how they can get it working.

[Liath]

[Liath]

Anyone know if or how I should proceed? Will it require a custom build, or can it use a generic image?

I'm not sure how specific the builds are with super-trimmed linux images like this. So I'm not even sure how 'generic' the generic image would be.

[zerofire]

The Linksys firmware will probably just make the new card not work. All you lose is Wi-Fi as the rest of the unit is intact. If Linksys really did put in code to check the card and issue a problem then you can just insert the old card back and it will be just like it was. As for how "Generic" the generic builds are you will need to check if any routers support the chipset for your new card. If yes than it will be fine. If no then you need to ask the creators (Eko, Brainslayer) about it as they might be working on something or make a custom firmware compile.

[Liath]

I'm not exactly sure how to check if they support both the mainboard, and the wireless card.

If anyone could help me with this, like someone that makes these builds, I would be greatly appreciative!

[phuzi0n]

I don't see it mentioned anywhere, so did you verify that the switch chip is Broadcom based too? You ought to post some pictures of the board.

If it has a serial pad on the board then first thing you should do is get a copy of the boot log. Also check if it has jtag and back up the CFE if it does so that you can restore it if needed. If you don't do this then you're likely to brick it with no way to recover. You can buy serial and jtag cables really cheap ($15 total) and they'll come in handy in the future.

After you prepare for recovering, then try a mini generic build. The LED's probably won't work right until you test the GPIO's and get them added to the source code.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Broadcom_detection#We_finally_installed_DD-WRT_but_no_reset_button.2Fled_working

[Liath]

Well, have to work today, but when I get a chance, I'll pull the thing apart again, and take some pictures.

Don't have a JTAG cable at the moment, and if I get one it'd have to be one where I don't need to use solder, 'cause I absolutely suck at soldering :P

From what I understand the guts of the machine are identical to the Belkin F5D8230-4, and someone managed to get OpenWRT running on it, but had to replace the wifi card. https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=113937

This is actually what gave me the idea, but I could make literally no sense of that thread, and I'm not sure if anyone actually posted a full build.

[Liath]

Images:

[Liath]

Images (pt.2):

[Liath]

It seems there there is possibly jtag header already pinned on the board? also, I have no clue what the white jumper connector in the center of the board is for.

Ideas?

[Eko]

The best is to get serial console - the we will have it supported in minutes.
Or if you are from EU, send it to me for a week or two.