Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 17:57 Post subject: ..again...
Permanently bricking these routers is not possible, and completely recoverable. Just use the ASUS recovery app to put on whatever image you want. It takes about 30 minutes. NO SPECIAL HYJINKS NEEDED. Set it and forget it.
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 13:59 Post subject: So is it time to simplify the wiki install section
If I'm reading all this correctly (and I by no means am) then the installation procedure #1 for any stock RT-N66U should simply be: "Flash the latest K3.X RT-N66U.trx firmware file." That should be it, unless an advanced user wants to use a different build for some reason.
Am I missing something? For example, is it ONLY that old specific EXPERIMENTAL K3.X that can be safely used, and THEN you can upgrade to a new one? Or did something change?
Or am I right and I should just go edit the wiki install section to make things easier for us newbies?
So really anyone got a "GOOD" way to flash DD-WRT? I managed to brick mine even though i followed this guide http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N66U in every detail. I flashed the latest "dd-wrt.v24-21676_NEWD-2_K3.x_mega_RT-N66U.trx" build after i selected factory reset in the Asus webgui. Flashed fine, waited 10 minutes and somehow it got bricked. It's BS!
The WIKI of that page is a total mess and other people in this thread even says one must set a static ip-adress which it's not saying anything about on that page.
Installing DD-WRT is too damn complicated! Everyone has their own way of installing. Where's the official DD-WRT one?
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 0:26 Post subject: Brand new RT-N66U
Hi All,
Great fan of DD-WRT on my old N16, until it bit the dust for no reason while I was away on vacation in Hawaii.
Bought a replacement N66U, but even with the lastest build of r23838, the WAN port doesn't seem to work...
Both Static IP and DHCP don't seem to work and I'm not able to communicate over the port.
So I telnet'd into the device and can only assume that eth0 is the WAN port. Manually assigning a static IP of 192.168.0.100 and a default gw on eth0 had no effect, and I am not able to communicate if I am 192.168.0.1...
Saw something weird that in the traffic stats the WAN is vlan2, but ifconfig doesn't show it. eth0 and the MAC address listed on the bottom label matched, hence the assumption.
** Edit: More information: The WAN MAC appears blank on the System Information screen.
** SOLUTION: erase nvram didn't work. Enable telnet and telnet into the router and issue: mtd -r erase nvram
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 17:01 Post subject: Re: Brand new RT-N66U
expresspotato wrote:
Hi All,
Bought a replacement N66U, but even with the lastest build of r23838, the WAN port doesn't seem to work...
[...]
** SOLUTION: erase nvram didn't work. Enable telnet and telnet into the router and issue: mtd -r erase nvram
i'm on 21676 and my WAN port doesn't work either. or at least, i'm not getting an IP from ISP. i guess i could plug its uplink into existing router and see what happens...
is your solution here for WAN port or just for showing WAN MAC address in status? my MAC address is blank in status also.
edit:
** SOLUTION: not sure what i did. several cycles of erasing nvram as above, and hand-editing settings in different orders and my WAN is working. i'm still on 21676. going to run with this for a while, see if QOS works.
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:10 Post subject: Re: ..again...
The Ukrainian wrote:
Permanently bricking these routers is not possible, and completely recoverable. Just use the ASUS recovery app to put on whatever image you want. It takes about 30 minutes. NO SPECIAL HYJINKS NEEDED. Set it and forget it.
I tried to upgrade from the Merlin build to DDWRT. While my router isn't fully bricked, it won't boot DDWRT. I can hold reset and power on the ASUS RT-N66U and navigate to 192.168.1.1 and I see the AsusTek CFE miniWeb Server.
I tried to recover by uploading an Asus Firmware file and the upload is successful (reporting number of bytes uploaded), but after it reboots the router, it still doesn't allow me to access the WebGUI.
Prior to attempting to upgrade to DDWRT, I verified that I have 1.0.1.4 CFE. Any suggestions on how to resolve this problem?
Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 3:29 Post subject: Re: ..again...
mikegordon wrote:
I tried to upgrade from the Merlin build to DDWRT. While my router isn't fully bricked, it won't boot DDWRT.
UPDATE: I resolved the problems and was able to flash the K3.X 21676 build successfully. I learned that the ASUS Rescue utility won't look for a 2nd Ethernet adapter. Since I had two, I needed to disable the one not connect to the RT-N66U.
I unfortunately am stuck with a semi-bricked router.
If I load the Firmware Restoration utility from ASUS, it can't seem to find the router. If I try to browse to 192.168.1.1 (or the IP of the router when in recovery mode), I don't navigate to the normal ASUS CFE Firmware page.
I was on build 23204 (or the build that was released before December 25, 2013 (according to when the firmware did boot).
I have had some problems with this router before in terms of flashing.
I do have a THUMPA board, but I have no way to attach it to the board or my laptop at the current time to do anything via a serial connection.
This is (probably the reason) why I can't boot into recovery mode on the router. Unfortunately, while I know I have my THUMPA board, I can't seem to find it currently (saw it two days ago and haven't seen it since).
If anyone would be willing to lend me theirs, that would be much appreciated.