Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 13:11 Post subject: Linksys EA-6400 CFE questions
After looking around trying to solve the missing settings after reboot on this router I found out about the 32K bug. I read that replacing the CFE would solve this bug (what does CFE stands for anyway, looked around found nothing).
I think they are talking about XVortex CFE being a fork of Merlin not it being unsafe, right?
XVortex used Merlin's AsusWRT fork on non-Asus routers, which included non-open Asus features, which they didn't like. I used it on my EA6900 (incl his CFE) until support was dropped, and I switched to FreshTomato.
But I digress...your settings issue sounds like one I remember from a bad version of XVortex f/w last ~winter messing up the CFE. Were you running XVortex? _________________ #NAT/SFE/CTF: limited speed w/ DD#Repeater issues#DD-WRT info: FAQ, Builds, Types, Modes, Changes, Demo#
OPNsense x64 5050e ITX|DD: DIR-810L, 2*EA6900@1GHz, R6300v1, RT-N66U@663, WNDR4000@533, E1500@353,
WRT54G{Lv1.1,Sv6}@250|FreshTomato: F7D8302@532|OpenWRT: F9K1119v1, RT-ACRH13, R6220, WNDR3700v4
XVortex used Merlin's AsusWRT fork on non-Asus routers, which included non-open Asus features, which they didn't like. I used it on my EA6900 (incl his CFE) until support was dropped, and I switched to FreshTomato.
Ok, I was worried it had security issues (being russian and chinese)
jwh7 wrote:
But I digress...your settings issue sounds like one I remember from a bad version of XVortex f/w last ~winter messing up the CFE. Were you running XVortex?
Nope, I bought the router (new) and installed ddwrt. When the nvram goes over 32k the config gets lost. So a new CFE is required for this bug to go away. At least that's what I got from this post:
Quote:
How to flash Linksys EA6300v1, EA6400, EA6500v2, EA6700, EA6900v1.0/1.1 with Tomato.
The EA6300v1 uses the same firmware as EA6400 since the routers are exactly the same.
WARNING:
If anything goes wrong this can brick your router and I will not be held responsible if that happens. You're doing this at your own risk.
For these router a different CFE needs to be flashed otherwise only 32k of NVRAM can be used and that is not enough but for the most basic setup.
Now that I know is not a security issue, what is the difference between both CFE?
Fast, cool, and stable. Cool for a 6400 anyway...I did a half assed thermal mod and realized I had no thermal compound so it's currently got a mix of dielectric and lithium grease. This was a year ago or more, mind you.
Joined: 18 Mar 2014 Posts: 12917 Location: Netherlands
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 6:43 Post subject:
I have an EA 6900 which runs Xvortex's CFE and is running fine using ddwrt builds from Kong.
In my signature is the EA6900 guide, have a look to get some idea about replacing the CFE.
For the EA6900 there are 2 minor drawbacks, you loose the USB3 port and you can not upgrade via the GUI, I do not kow if this also applies to the EA6400.
Note the EA6400 is different from the EA6900 so it needs a different CFE.
Joined: 01 Jan 2019 Posts: 11 Location: Portland, OR
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 6:56 Post subject:
egc wrote:
For the EA6900 there are 2 minor drawbacks, you loose the USB3 port and you can not upgrade via the GUI, I do not kow if this also applies to the EA6400.
I've never been able to get the 6400 GUI to flash. No luck with MTD either in fact, I always use the CFE boot recovery webpage or TFTP.
• Eth0 gets the router’s MAC, wl0 gets MAC + 2, wl1 gets MAC + 4 (note that these are in HEX; see this link here: http://www.edsim51.com/8051Notes/hex.html).
• See the conversion table here between what the DD-WRT status page shows, the CFE parameter, and the specific MAC for that parameter:
dd-wrt GUI => CFEEdit.exe => MAC
LAN MAC => hw_mac_addr, et0macaddr, lan_hw_addr => Device MAC (on router's base)
WAN MAC => (automatically set) => Device MAC + 1 (Hex)
Wireless MAC => 0:macaddr and wl0_hwaddr => Device MAC + 2 (Hex)
Wireless MAC => 1:macaddr and wl1_hwaddr => Device MAC + 4 (Hex)
The thing is in the DDWRT GUI I get the following:
LAN MAC: C0:XX:XX:XX:XX:5C
WAN MAC: C0:XX:XX:XX:XX:5B
WL0 MAC: C0:XX:XX:XX:XX:5C
WL1 MAC: C0:XX:XX:XX:XX:5E
Which seems wrong, LAN MAC and WL0 have the same MAC. So I logged in ddwrt and used ifconfig.
