Posted: Sat May 13, 2023 23:35 Post subject: Unable to Flash WNDR3700v5
I have a Netgear WNDR3700v5 that I can't flash dd-wrt to no matter what. When I use the OEM firmware upgrade option, it appears to complete (bars go from left to right), but when it reboots after 5 minutes or so, it loads the OEM firmware again. I have tried 10 different dd-wrt .img files from various years, always with the same OEM boot result.
I can't TFTP to it either. I believe the window is so short that the timing isn't right. I have tried 3 different TFT clients and attempted at least 50 times. Nothing is ever uploaded, router just boots as normal (checked all the dd-wrt tricks like CTCP is disabled, added switch into the mix, etc).
Then I stumbled on the awesome nmrp utility for Netgear routers and used it to flash openwrt because openwrt provides the necessary nmrp files. It worked great, but I would really like to get dd-wrt on it instead.
I have tried using putty to load a bin to the firmware partition while running openwrt, but no go.
nmrp always works though, whether it's back to stock firmware or a flash of openwrt. So my question: Does anyone know a way to convert dd-wrt firmware to nmrp format? So I can flash with the nmrp utility.
You don't need to convert anything. Just use nmrpflash to flash the factory-to-ddwrt.img to the router. This device has been supported since 45820, current release is 52509. You do not need to flash the wndr3700v5-webflash.bin file unless you upgrade (or downgrade) from within DD-WRT. You should've been able to flash the factory-to-ddwrt.img from stock Netgear firmware; you can't flash DD-WRT from OpenWRT.
You don't need to convert anything. Just use nmrpflash to flash the factory-to-ddwrt.img to the router. This device has been supported since 45820, current release is 52509. You do not need to flash the wndr3700v5-webflash.bin file unless you upgrade (or downgrade) from within DD-WRT. You should've been able to flash the factory-to-ddwrt.img from stock Netgear firmware; you can't flash DD-WRT from OpenWRT.
Thanks guys, I very much appreciate the input. I should have mentioned that I tried to flash factory-to-ddwrt.img files using nmrpflash. It'll send the files, but then errors out sending the configuration and enters a continuous loop.
I tried .img files from r45820 and then a few in between as well as the latest ones. The most recent ones give some other error about being too large. I'll try it again and get the exact loop messages. If force stop it (like after a half an hour), the router is bricked and I'll need to nmrpflash either OEM or openwrt files to boot it again.
I also believe the files are different for nmrpflash because on the openwrt page for my router they list a factory firmware .img file, an upgrade .bin file (just like dd-wrt) as well as nmrp versions. Files are different sizes but I haven't viewed them in a hex editor to see how similar they might be.
You may have to tinker with the parameters of the nmrpflash command line switches.
https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
Looks as if you are specifying IP of target and client. You shouldn't need to do that. _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
Looks as if you are specifying IP of target and client. You shouldn't need to do that.
I'm far from an expert, but I believe that one is the interface and the other is the address on that interface. Same command works well with factory and openwrt firmware, but I'll play around with it and see what I can figure out.
Just to be clear here... I can flash the dd-wrt .img file from the stock OEM firmware using the firmware upgrade option. It transfers without a single error, but once it completes and the router reboots it's right back to the stock OEM firmware!
Again, I'm not an expert but it's like after it sends the firmware to the router, it notices there's some incompatibility issue and dumps it. Clearly it's not erasing the OEM firmware or it would brick, but it's definitely sending it somewhere (bar graph goes from left to right and NIC interface LED blinks like crazy while it's transferring). OEM GUI then says the upgrade was "successful", but boots back to OEM firmware instead of dd-wrt which was just sent.
Ah, I was confused by your earlier post about the browsers, so you're saying the browser and version of the browser is important? I'm using Chrome, but also have Firefox (not sure of the version, I'll check).
The confusing thing is that I can nmrpflash an old stock/OEM firmware version (I have two, a very old one and the latest) then use Chrome to update to the latest and it works perfectly. If the browser was a problem wouldn't it be a problem for all GUI updates and not just dd-wrt?
This makes me think... I haven't tried using an OEM firmware and the GUI to upload/upgrade to openwrt to see if that works. I have only tried dd-wrt (as that is what I want to end up with when all is said and done). I'll give that a shot because if that works, then we can rule out browser problems for certain, no?
If I use Chrome to update the firmware from Factory(old) to Factory(new) or from Factory to openwrt it works perfectly. If attempt a firmware upgrade from Factory to dd-wrt (using a factory-to-ddwrt.img) it looks like it completes but when the router reboots it has stock factory firmware on it still. Meaning nothing actually happened.
If I follow your suggestion and use Pale Moon (my FF version was different and I didn't want to mess with it) from the URL you provided, there is a different result! Still no upgrade to dd-wrt, but it's definitely adding clues. Here were the results:
Just like with Chrome, if I do an UI update from Factory(old) to Factory(new) or from Factory to openwrt it works perfectly. HOWEVER, if I attempt to update from factory firmware (via the stock UI) to dd-wrt (using stock factoty-to-ddwrt.img file), I get an almost immediate error, it aborts and returns me to the UI.
I tried it with 5 different versions (r45820, r45849, r48646, r51679, and r52509). Every single one of them errors out and won't complete (using Pale Moom as the browser).
Does this not seem to indicate a problem with the factory-to-ddwrt.img files for the WNDR3700v5?
This is where lack of interest in updating the initial support request after support was added has brought us to this point. Serial u-boot access and output is going to most likely be required as this may have been a blind port with no test device in the developer's possession. If this is beyond your talents, then not much we can do. Have you tried flashing with your Windows 7 firewall disabled completely disconnected from the internet using any methods already tried? _________________ "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost
"I am one of the noticeable ones - notice me" - Dale Frances McKenzie Bozzio
This is where lack of interest in updating the initial support request after support was added has brought us to this point. Serial u-boot access and output is going to most likely be required as this may have been a blind port with no test device in the developer's possession. If this is beyond your talents, then not much we can do. Have you tried flashing with your Windows 7 firewall disabled completely disconnected from the internet using any methods already tried?
Yes, everything I have tried is on a standalone machine without an internet connection because there is no firewall (or any other protection).
Also, as a side note, I can now tftp to the router. I still can't catch it when it boots, but if I use the nmrpflash utility with the -c option, it will connect the the router for me then drop out prior to sending the firmware. I can then use a tftp utility to send the firmware (I have used three different ones, including the built in command prompt/line one) to send the dd-wrt .img file to the router. However, everything ends at that point as when the router is rebooted it loads whatever firmware was on it when nmrpflash was started (instead of the dd-wrt I sent via tftp).
As for serial u-boot, you have piqued my interest, but I don't have any idea what it is (which is probably an indication that it's beyond my talents). Does this have something to do with the bootloader on a mtd partition? Is it something I can do with my Windows machine?
Edit: Also, is there a log to find out who worked on support for the v5 routers. Might be worth asking more additional info (assuming it's possible).
So, this was likely a blind port or maybe used one of the similar models above as a reference then filled the blanks.
At this point without physical router access, need serial logs at boot and maybe find goldennuggets from OpenWrt.