Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 7:41 Post subject: std generic V2.4 final will brick your router !
I believe the std_generic release is too big a memory footprint to flash OK. The mini build works fine with my V2 Netgear router. Then I tried the generic_nokaid build (200K smaller) and it worked fine.
I suggest we use mini or nokaid builds (perhaps VOIP or VPN are slightly smaller too).
Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 239 Location: Wayne, PA
Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 12:54 Post subject: Re: std generic V2.4 final will brick your router !
sharning wrote:
I believe the std_generic release is too big a memory footprint to flash OK. The mini build works fine with my V2 Netgear router. Then I tried the generic_nokaid build (200K smaller) and it worked fine.
I suggest we use mini or nokaid builds (perhaps VOIP or VPN are slightly smaller too).
Regards,
Sharning
I use DD-WRT v24 RC-7 {04/11/08} vpn {SVN revision 9396M Eko} which is here:
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 0:48 Post subject: Finals V 2.4 build STD bricks - but 9396 and 9697 OK
Thanks, I agree with you after trying 9396 and 9697 builds standard and VPN. Perhaps the final STD build should be taken down as many have bricked and unable to manage TFTP recovery?
Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 239 Location: Wayne, PA
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 15:05 Post subject: Re: Finals V 2.4 build STD bricks - but 9396 and 9697 OK
sharning wrote:
Thanks, I agree with you after trying 9396 and 9697 builds standard and VPN. Perhaps the final STD build should be taken down as many have bricked and unable to manage TFTP recovery?
Sharning.
I agree with that suggestion, but am just a lowly poster here.
The operating philosophy among the DD-WRTers is that folks should spend a fair amount of time reading the FAQs and the phpBB2 forum and have a fairly high level of understanding of the relevant topics before they flash their routers.
Personally, I think that's not a realistic position to take.
One has to assume simply from observing historical human behavior that a significant percentage of people will flash first before the find the admonitions telling them NOT to flash until they have spent a fair amount of time educating themselves.
Even some of those who do read the admonitions will flash just to see what happens.
And lastly some people who spend up to several hours of time reading and educating themselves will still have problems a). because they end up flashing the wrong file; or b). because the "right" file doesn't work (as I discovered with the SPECIAL version which bricked an ASUS requiring ).
Those people brick (or semi-brick) their routers will complain loudly, which hurts the reputation of DD-WRT (even if unfairly) and they clog up the phpBB2 forums with lots of "Help Me" posts.
Maybe if you PM eko or Brain they will remove the v24 Final version from that subdirectory, but maybe not. It would be a big pain for them to have a different set of files in every subdirectory for every router type or brand.
Nice to see that a warning about v24 final bricking this router was added on the Supported devices. Still a small link to this thread might make a lot of users happy ;)
IMHO, I'm against making everything "foolproof" at expense from the guys which write DD-WRT. If you want DD-WRT is because you want more than what you get from Linksys (which might be OK for 90% of the people out there) and everywhere it's written that flashing your router might brick it, So I think it's acceptable to spend 1-2 hours reading some forum to find out what to do before you do it.
I'm running SVN revision 9396M Eko VPN without any "major" issue, but this doesn't mean that it's bug free. A problem that I've discovered some days ago :
I had the impression that my internet connection hung (my ISP disconnects me every 24 hours that I'm connected unless I pay 1.20 euros/month more for an "aways on" fee), so I decided to log on the web interface and click at the disconnect button on the "status->WLAN" page and followed by a click at the connect button.
After this .. the router wouldn't answer to its internal IP anymore (192.168.1.1), not even with the wired interface. A cold reboot would enable me to access it, but any attempt to connect over wifi (802.11g, WPA2 w/ RSA) didn't succeed and crashed it again (no connection from the wired net).
After about 10 resets to confirm the issue, I decided to reset to factory defaults, and reconfigured it (which now works fine, although I haven't played with the disconnect/connect button again ).
Despite the annoyance, I don't think a big deal out of this issue, but confirms (to me, at least) that DD-WRT isn't for the average johndoe user (no offences). It enables you to do much more with your router, but if you can't tell any difference from a WNR834B with Linksys or DD-WRT apart from the interface, belive me, you have no reason to change it (IMHO, strengthening the point that until it's 100% sure that you can de-brick your hw - which for this router no one found a way yet - don't make the process too user-friendly, just read the bloody forum ).
interesting I flashed my wnr834b v2 with v24 final no problems, I've got some custom scripts in the firmware but nothing that should change anything basic
Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 239 Location: Wayne, PA
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 3:07 Post subject:
brispet1 wrote:
interesting I flashed my wnr834b v2 with v24 final no problems, I've got some custom scripts in the firmware but nothing that should change anything basic
Yikes...that's scary ! Congrats. Is your wireless channel admin page showing the correct channel?
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:46 Post subject: Now very sad...
I guess I "bricked" my WNR834B V2 router as well (little too quick with flashing the latest version).
Interestingly TFTP appears to work - I get the file sent successfully / bytes transferred - but nothing happens on the reset all I get is a blinking power light.
I tried TFTPing a whole bunch of different firmwares including the official CHK but no go.
Sigh... does anyone know of any N router with decent range that actually works? I've used a Linksys WRT160N but the range isn't all that good.
Send crap/bad bin file to make router to start in rescue mode and send *.chk _________________ Netgear WNDR3300 Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (--/--/09) mini - build 115-- custom
Netgear WNR834B v2 Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp2 (--/--/09) mini - build 115-- custom
This is what I found "playing" with this board: it has another "nvram" partition on flash with board data, if this part is erased / overwritten with dd-wrt, or if you enable jffs, then board will not take tftp transfer anymore until you restore this partition with jtag.
So, be careful, never enable jffs.
(this partition also hold board serial number, mac address and board code)
This is what I found "playing" with this board: it has another "nvram" partition on flash with board data, if this part is erased / overwritten with dd-wrt, or if you enable jffs, then board will not take tftp transfer anymore until you restore this partition with jtag.
So, be careful, never enable jffs.
(this partition also hold board serial number, mac address and board code)
Progress! Yay! I may be able to finally resurrect my dead router :)
I also still have all of the stuff to recreate the chk files if necessary. I should make a webpage to submit the file to and have it add the header to it automagically ...
).