[leperthebruce]

Ok so I successfully flashed using the approprieate initial flash
dd-wrt.v24-14853_NEWD-2_K2.6_std_usb_ftp-e3000.bin
Logged in, messed around a bit, it was working.


Read that it should be OK to upgrade from there t any e2k-e3k firmware available in the 2.4 branch. Updated via the web console to dd-wrt.v24-15508_NEWD-2_K2.6_big-e2k-e3k.bin

Ther I ran into problems. The power button blinks repeatedly and I appear to have bricked it. Any ideas if there's a diagnostics or recovery mode? I've got a JTAG cable on its way but if there's a way fix it without it, that'd be awesome.

Beyond that, if anyone can explain what I did wrong, that'd be even more awesome.

[leperthebruce]

So I've been sick and am very short on sleep. I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong, and it will probably be quite obvious to most. The firmware I actually used to initially flash (successfully) was linksys-to-ddwrt-firmware.bin as stated by the router compatibility DB.

I bought this WRT400N used locally - it had been advertised as an E3000 and in my eagerness, I prepared the instructions and firmware beforehand.
I figured out almost immediately that it was actually a WRT400N and I flashed with the right firmware, but then I went to the wrong upgrade instructions and flashed the wrong upgrade.

*facepalm*

I can't belive I did that, but there it is.

Still, that leaves me asking for recovery options. I suspect JTAG is still possible (though this will be my first JTAG experiment ever).

Please help.

[buddee]

First off, those are linksys E2000/E3000 broadcom builds, you have a wrt400n? thats an Atheros unit, so right off the bat you flashed the wrong firmware, you may try ping it, see if you get any response, if you do you could possibly try tftp, but its most likely stuck in a boot loop now, only way to debrick from here would be either serial connection or jtag, none of which i have any exp. on atheros units. i've only debricked broadcom units so far, just recently started using Atheros based units.

[leperthebruce]

I've confirmed it's bricked. No Ping response ever, no matter what.

Need direction on where to go for JTAG or Serial advice. The cables/headers are no problem. Consider them already taken care of. The actual "unbricking" operation ad software is currently beyond me.

[buddee]

Well to do it with a serial connection you would need a ca-42 cable, costs about $4-5 on ebay or amazon and the prolific driver and putty, reference this for more info..

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Serial_Recovery

you'll need to pay attention to the pinouts and find out what is what on your board, you may need a multimeter to safely check. though you may be better of just using a jtag cable on it, i believe that unit has both.

Also like i said, i dont have any experience on Atheros de-bricking, just broadcom for now.

[leperthebruce]

I have a JTAG cable on order. Problem is, I don't know what programs support the Atheros chipset. I'm getting some conflicting (and I'm sure, way out of date) stories. Not only that, I'm not sure how to use that program to recover it once I have it all set up: ie what commands to use.

[LOM]

[evrycard]

I am having the same problem and have been reading for a while for a solution but still clueless.. Can anyone out there point me to the right direction of the serial cable and how to hook it up to the board? Thxxx

[buddee]

[evrycard]

buddee...
I red it again and I am ordering the ca-42 cable.
Thx...

[evrycard]

Got the cable., stripped, soldered, etc...
OS: XP
Made all the connections, hooked up to the board, loaded the driver.
CA-42 on COM3
Hyper Terminal settings: COM3-115200-8-none-1-none
I see nothing but a blinking cursor.
Power on/off the router... Still nothing.
Switched the TX and RX connections... Still nothing.
Any suggestion guys???

[buddee]

While putty is open..Did you touch the Tx/Rx wires together and type anything, if the wiring is correct, it should echo back to you in putty what you typed.

[evrycard]

Plugged the C-42 cable in.
Putty running, CTRL+C. There is no cfe see pix.
I'm not sure if the erase nvram worked. The flash command did not for sure. Mean while my PC NIC is set to 192.168.1.5 and connected to the router ready to tftp the original firmware from linksys. What else should I be doing?

[LOM]

It seems that the normal tftp command doesn't work on this router, I recently helped another user here with his brick and he had no success with the standard tftp way.

What he had to do was:

1. Hex edit a dd-wrt firmware file for the 400 by removing the first 28 bytes so it started with 27 05 19 56.
Notepad is not a hex editor!!!
Rename the file to whatever you like, I use 1.bin as example here.

2. Set a static IP on your computer to 192.168.1.2

3. At the bootlooader prompt issue the command tftpboot 0x80010000 1.bin

4. Start tftp transfer of the file from your computer

5. If the file has transferred correctly then issue the 2 commands:

erase 0xbf040000 +0x600000 (this erases firmware partition in flash)

cp.b 0x80010000 0xbf040000 0x600000 (this writes the firmware from ram to flash)


reboot the router.

(If you use a stock firmware file, then there will be 60 bytes to cut off for it to start with the 27 05 19 56 pattern)

[evrycard]