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How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade information
By Andrew Pollack on 10/24/2005 at 11:10 AM EDTAfter some background, this post includes pictures and instructions for the de-bricking process.
| IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog entry was from 2005! While I'm glad people still find it useful and come across it in searches, keep in mind that most of the hardware discussed is out of date at this point and has been replaced with new versions. It's unlikely you'll still be buying this gear in the same revisions. Also, nobody is likely to answer a question you post, because it only gets read by occasional search-engine based users now. |
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Why upgrade the firmware at all?
Without doubt, the best wifi solutions going are built with the Linksys WRT-54g and its kin (those other models by Belkin, Motorola, and others who use the Broadcom chipsets). Why? Because Linksys published firmware source for them and several groups have extended it. There are a ton of good choices for firmware for these things. Some key reasons to upgrade are:
- Increase the transmission power to the maximum supported by the chipset (from 21mw up to 84mw or in some cases 251mw)
- Add custom software - these things give you a linux file system and cron tab
- Use the latest wifi security techniques
- Support WDS (repeater) mode
- Use advanced firewall, QoS, IPv6, and other features (including full IPTABLES in some cases)
Is my wifi router compatible with the upgrades?
Many routers use the Broadcom chipsets. Most people upgrade the Linksys WRT-54G and its kin, but some other units are also compatible. If you're new to this, start at the Linksys Info Wiki and go from there. Do not buy a version 5 Linksys router. You can still find v2, v3, and v4 routers sitting on shelves in Radio Shack and other retail stores that tend to carry electronics by not turn inventory on them too quickly. I picked up a v3 a few days ago and could have had a v2. You can tell the version from the serial numbers. If you have other vendor's products, here's a "Table of Compatibility" that will tell you if you can use the firmware upgrades. Here's a chart of known serial number prefixes to compare with the first four digits of your Linksys WRT-54g serial number:
| CDF0 = wrt54g v1.0 CDF1 = wrt54g v1.0 | CDF2 = wrt54g v1.1 CDF3 = wrt54g v1.1 | CDF5 = wrt54g v2.0 CDF7 = wrt54g v2.2 | CDF8 = wrt54g v3.0 CDF9 = wrt54g v3.1 | CDFA = wrt54g v4.0 CDFB = wrt54g v5.0 |
Which firmware upgrade should I pick?
There are several good ones out there. Start at the Linksys Info Wiki and you can get quite a list. Here's a link which compares feature sets on the three most common. My experience has been that the Sveasoft versions are great, though the author does walk a very fine line in that he charges a nominal fee for access to the latest and greatest. There is no small amount of controversy over this. The Sveasoft "Tallisman v1.1" release is their first to support the version 4 routers. Sveasoft is very feature full, but if you're just using one router and want to juice the power a bit and get some benefits without all the very high end configurations, I really like the HyperWRT builds, which also support v4 routers now. These are based on the idea of staying as close as possible to the latest manufacturer source code, so updates are more frequent and the firmware tends to spend less time in beta getting the bugs out. If you want to do WDS (repeaters and multiple access points) you'll need to search for instructions using this release because its not in the menu structure. It can be done, however. I tried the DD builds, which have a good reputation, but my v4 routers "bricked" when I tried to use it so I can't give you a real review of them.
So what is "Bricked" and how do I fix it?
Bricked is when your fancy piece of electronic kit becomes a worthless lump of plastic because the firmware has crashed and it won't boot. This usually happens only during an upgrade if you make the mistake if unplugging it or rebooting it halfway through -- or you download an incompatible firmware. Once you've upgraded and are running, I've never seen one brick.
There are a TON of unbricking instructions out there. They pretty much all end up boiling down to grounding out PIN 16 on the flash while powering up. I had to laugh when I started reading long discussions of where to get a ground to jumper. These brilliant people who figure so much stuff out don't seem to know anything about the hardware. The easiest place to get a good ground, is the external shielding connector on the antenna mounts. That's a very big chunk of metal that is ALWAYS grounded because that's its job.
So, to unbrick the idea is simply to boot the unit in a state where it doesn't believe it has valid firmware, so it goes into a state open to accepting a replacement. You do that by grounding PIN 16 with the unit unplugged. Keep pin 16 grounded while you plug in the unit, and you'll see the power LED go into a flashing pattern. Once in that state, it will accept a firmware upload.
More detail:
1. Open the cover. There are no screws. I have found that the easiest way to open it without breaking is to first remove the antennas, then hold the unit upside down with the back of it facing you and the blue front piece facing away. While holding it by the gray/brown "body" press with both thumbs on the blue faceplate between the front feet. The whole blue part will come right off. Once that's done, you can pull the main board unit as a single piece out of the back body. You do not need to detach the main board from the bottom plastic.
2. Locate the flash chip. It says "Intel" on it and is rectangular with 25 thin leads extending from both short sides of the rectangle. See the picture below.
3. With the unit's LED's facing you, you're interested in the pins on the left side. They are marked off in fives by small white marks. You're interested in pin 16. See the picture below.
4. As shown in the pictures below, use a pointed probe to ground pin 16 while powering on the unit. My experience has been that you won't likely break things if you ground the wrong one, but its possible. Just don't mash all those traces together or you'll never get it to boot. Be gentle.
5. I've always seen it work pretty quickly. You start seeing the power LED flashing rhythmically. You may see all the other LED's light up and stay lit until you've let go the ground. That's ok. Let go the ground and it should keep flashing.
Now you're ready to re-flash the unit.
1. Power off the unit.
2. Boot a linux box on your network (or use a knoppix boot linux cd on your regular machine). If you don't have access to either of these, you are not a geek and should not be playing in this sandbox.
3. Plug a network cable from your linux box to the router (or plug the router onto your network). Use the LAN ports on the router, not the WAN port. Do not yet plug in the router.
4. When the router comes on, it will have the address 192.168.1.1. If you've left your private network on that same default subnet, you'd better plug the linux box directly into the router and not on your network.
5. Give your linux box a secondary address on the 192.168.1.0 subnet. You can do this without breaking your existing connections. You'll need root access. If you don't have root access, you're in way over your head. Go play with Windows. Use the command: "/sbin/ifconfig eth0:1 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0".
6. Make sure you have a valid firmware to upload. For this doc, we'll call it firmware.bin
7. Open a TFTP session to your routers address (the router is still off) and configure with these commands:
# tftp 192.168.1.1
> binary
> trace
> rexmt 1
> timeout 90
> put firmware.bin
8. You'll see the tftp session attempt to send packets. It will keep trying. Now plug in the router and it should (after a moment) start accepting packets.
9. You should see a bunch of packets sent and received with "ACK" messages. It won't take long. If you get errors, something went wrong. Here's some errors I've seen:
"Invalid password" --> You're not in tftp receive mode, you're getting a web prompt, or (maybe) the firmware isn't authorized for this unit (sveasoft)
"incorrect pattern" --> firmware isn't supported for this chipset or is damaged
no response at all --> you haven't unbricked the router first.
10. Once you've sent all the packets, the light will still flash. DON'T TOUCH IT. It may take several minutes to reformat the flash and get ready for a first boot. How long is too long? Hard to say. If an hour goes by, you'll probably want to try again. Usually a few minutes is enough. It will depend on the firmware used. When you've got regular, solid lights, its done.
My own thoughts on this are...By Jon Johnston on 10/27/2005 at 12:49 PM CDT
I need helpBy Forrest on 01/25/2010 at 02:14 PM EST
Hello, I need to do the same thing to my Linksys wrt100, I mean the hard reset,
could you tell me how ???
thx
could you tell me how ???
thx
re: I need helpBy chino on 01/01/2011 at 11:09 PM EST
For a hard reset on the router you would have to push the RESET button for 30
seconds then without releasing the button, unplug the electricity wire for yet
another 30 seconds, keep holding on to the reset and plug it back in for
another 30 seconds. Now you can release the reset button and the Hard reset in
now done.
seconds then without releasing the button, unplug the electricity wire for yet
another 30 seconds, keep holding on to the reset and plug it back in for
another 30 seconds. Now you can release the reset button and the Hard reset in
now done.
I need helpBy Forrest on 01/25/2010 at 02:14 PM EST
Hello, I need to do the same thing to my Linksys wrt100, I mean the hard reset,
could you tell me how ???
thx
could you tell me how ???
thx
I need helpBy Forrest on 01/25/2010 at 02:14 PM EST
Hello, I need to do the same thing to my Linksys wrt100, I mean the hard reset,
could you tell me how ???
thx
could you tell me how ???
thx
A few correctionsBy Ron Wessels on 01/24/2006 at 06:16 PM EST
Under "More detail:", you state "There are no screws". Actually, some hardware
versions do have screws in the two front feet. Simply remove the rubber
inserts from the feet to expose the screw.
Sacrilege, I know, but Windows also provides a tftp client that can upload
firmware.
Typo: the IP address should be 192.168.1.10 rather than 192.168.0.10.
versions do have screws in the two front feet. Simply remove the rubber
inserts from the feet to expose the screw.
Sacrilege, I know, but Windows also provides a tftp client that can upload
firmware.
Typo: the IP address should be 192.168.1.10 rather than 192.168.0.10.
Thanks, Ron. Appreciated.By Andrew Pollack on 01/24/2006 at 06:40 PM EST
pin assignmentBy Jason Ellison on 03/10/2006 at 06:29 AM EST
what is pin16 on the intel flash chip in the picture? what is the model of the
intel flash chip... and is there a datasheet for this chip.
intel flash chip... and is there a datasheet for this chip.
re: pin assignmentBy bryal on 06/05/2007 at 09:00 PM EDT
I tried shorting the pins and it never worked. The data sheet for the flash
chip can be found with a google search of "29064523.pdf" You will be able to
see what those pins do. They are just some of the address pins on the chip. I
think this keeps it from being able to boot into the bad firmware. Shorting the
pins might cause a nasty smell, smoke and so on.
I made some notes on how I dedricked a WRT54G V4 which has identical hardware
to the GL version. I found that you must erase the main kernel part of the
flash then the TFTP command will work. The LAN LED will rapidly flash for about
4 seconds while it's copying the file then the unit will reboot about 2minutes
later with the good firmware back in place. You must wait the full 2 minutes
before touching anything.
My notes are here
http://www.brayl.com/WRT54GL%20Debrick/index.htm
chip can be found with a google search of "29064523.pdf" You will be able to
see what those pins do. They are just some of the address pins on the chip. I
think this keeps it from being able to boot into the bad firmware. Shorting the
pins might cause a nasty smell, smoke and so on.
I made some notes on how I dedricked a WRT54G V4 which has identical hardware
to the GL version. I found that you must erase the main kernel part of the
flash then the TFTP command will work. The LAN LED will rapidly flash for about
4 seconds while it's copying the file then the unit will reboot about 2minutes
later with the good firmware back in place. You must wait the full 2 minutes
before touching anything.
My notes are here
http://www.brayl.com/WRT54GL%20Debrick/index.htm
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Bob Farmer on 05/20/2007 at 01:31 PM EDT
Thanks for the readable article. I !don't! want to F### around with this but I
live in Mexico where every guy with a 5th grade education is an expert on
something. So here we go. I appreciate 'YOU PEOPLE' that go to great lengths
to give dumb shits like myself the tools to get'erdone.
Keep up the good work. I'll let you know........
live in Mexico where every guy with a 5th grade education is an expert on
something. So here we go. I appreciate 'YOU PEOPLE' that go to great lengths
to give dumb shits like myself the tools to get'erdone.
Keep up the good work. I'll let you know........
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy adeon on 09/04/2009 at 10:52 PM EDT
LMAO!. thats quite true.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Francis Devereux on 10/13/2007 at 09:32 AM EDT
Thanks for this guide, I used it to unbrick my WRT54G 2.0. I had previously
tried shorting pins 15 and 16 but that didn't work.
tried shorting pins 15 and 16 but that didn't work.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy tom on 10/09/2011 at 04:04 PM EDT
i got a same router bricked, what you use to un brick?
tks
tks
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Dan on 10/27/2007 at 06:21 PM EDT
Ok, here's my experience with my WRT54G v1.1
- I bricked it by trying to change OpenWRT 0.9 to Kamikaze (Kamikaze, the name
says all :))))
- After looking at all the unbricking tutorials, I got to this one. Excelent
tutorial although it didn't work for me.
-What worked for me was a short between pins 15 and 16 and KEEP THE RESET
BUTTON pressed !!
-After this, I WAS able to load the Linksys bin file with their TFTP utility.
VERY IMPORTANT, KEEP IN THIS MIND AND AVOID SPENDING HOURS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT
WHY THE HELL YOU CANNOT ACCESS IT: LEAVE IT ALONE AFTER IT SAYS IT LOADED THE
BIN !!! LEAVE IT FOR AN HOUR ! GO HAVE A BEER, OR TAKE A SHOWER, OR WATCH A
MOVIE, ETC, JUST FORGET ABOUT IT FOR A LITTLE WHILE, EVEN AFTER THE POWER LIGHT
STOPPED FLASHING. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE.
-After this, I was able to login into the web utility at 192.168.1.1 with admin
as password, just as before loading OpenWRT.
Remember, not always works after the first attempt. Work with it !
Good luck !
- I bricked it by trying to change OpenWRT 0.9 to Kamikaze (Kamikaze, the name
says all :))))
- After looking at all the unbricking tutorials, I got to this one. Excelent
tutorial although it didn't work for me.
-What worked for me was a short between pins 15 and 16 and KEEP THE RESET
BUTTON pressed !!
-After this, I WAS able to load the Linksys bin file with their TFTP utility.
VERY IMPORTANT, KEEP IN THIS MIND AND AVOID SPENDING HOURS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT
WHY THE HELL YOU CANNOT ACCESS IT: LEAVE IT ALONE AFTER IT SAYS IT LOADED THE
BIN !!! LEAVE IT FOR AN HOUR ! GO HAVE A BEER, OR TAKE A SHOWER, OR WATCH A
MOVIE, ETC, JUST FORGET ABOUT IT FOR A LITTLE WHILE, EVEN AFTER THE POWER LIGHT
STOPPED FLASHING. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE.
-After this, I was able to login into the web utility at 192.168.1.1 with admin
as password, just as before loading OpenWRT.
Remember, not always works after the first attempt. Work with it !
Good luck !
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Nick Steinmetz on 02/18/2008 at 06:57 PM EST
The best guide I have found was the WRT54G Revival Guide located here:
http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47259
It is step by step and very easy to use! Plus, unlike this guy, its
noob-friendly!
http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47259
It is step by step and very easy to use! Plus, unlike this guy, its
noob-friendly!
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Non-techy with on 07/04/2011 at 10:38 AM EDT
Instruction at link were straight forward and did not require a LINUX box to
implement and most importantly worked like a charm.
implement and most importantly worked like a charm.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy IT_Junkie on 03/29/2014 at 02:54 AM EDT
Link is no longer valid :(
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G S V7 wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Paul on 03/23/2008 at 10:06 AM EDT
Help me un-brick WRT54GS V7 all Wlan and internet light come on solid. I can`t
ping through.
please help me !
ping through.
please help me !
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Simon on 03/30/2008 at 04:52 PM EDT
Thanks a lot. After a few tries, I managed to get my WRT54G v2 working again :)
Symptoms were: power LED flashing for about 10-20 secs when powered on, no
other lighs on at all, unless I plug in a cable. If I ping, no response, but I
do see traffic in the router (LED blinks). Fixed by shorting flash pin #16 to
ground (while pinging - saw responses :) ), then power down, and do the same
while running tftp to copy a new flash image across. Then it booted all nicely
and working :)
Thanks a lot for the help!
Symptoms were: power LED flashing for about 10-20 secs when powered on, no
other lighs on at all, unless I plug in a cable. If I ping, no response, but I
do see traffic in the router (LED blinks). Fixed by shorting flash pin #16 to
ground (while pinging - saw responses :) ), then power down, and do the same
while running tftp to copy a new flash image across. Then it booted all nicely
and working :)
Thanks a lot for the help!
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Sam Ho on 09/07/2008 at 02:58 PM EDT
Thanks! It works great!
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Anthony on 10/27/2008 at 11:32 PM EDT
Thanks. This worked for me, but I shorted pins 15 and 16 to unbrick. Initially,
I ran into a problem, but I found the reason was I plugged my computer into
port 4 instead of port 1. Once I figured that out, I had a functional router
after a minute or two.
I ran into a problem, but I found the reason was I plugged my computer into
port 4 instead of port 1. Once I figured that out, I had a functional router
after a minute or two.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy onejesse on 11/22/2008 at 08:44 PM EST
I found the easiest way to unbrick my router was to take a hair dryer, and
through it in the tub, wile i was bathing, because i did not read the
directions before flashing the firmware.
Ok that didn't happen, but what I did do, was buy a new router, take a hair
dryer and heat up the mac sticker, and void sticker, swap the two, and return
at the store as defective, I also went the extra length to take a tazer to the
board before, so the referb techs didn't see we were trying to flash. that
might cause more security measures in the future.
I'm sure this all works, and I think it's cool people post these how too's,
usually I'll try to fix things before returning, but this was too time
consuming. next time I'll read before i flash, not during.
through it in the tub, wile i was bathing, because i did not read the
directions before flashing the firmware.
Ok that didn't happen, but what I did do, was buy a new router, take a hair
dryer and heat up the mac sticker, and void sticker, swap the two, and return
at the store as defective, I also went the extra length to take a tazer to the
board before, so the referb techs didn't see we were trying to flash. that
might cause more security measures in the future.
I'm sure this all works, and I think it's cool people post these how too's,
usually I'll try to fix things before returning, but this was too time
consuming. next time I'll read before i flash, not during.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Todd Hamilton on 01/30/2009 at 03:13 PM EST
Will this work on a WRT54GX4?
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Estevam on 08/17/2009 at 11:47 AM EDT
Thanks very much, my friend. Now it's working fine again!
Regards
Estevam Arajo
Regards
Estevam Arajo
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Fred on 08/28/2009 at 08:08 AM EDT
Thank's !!! I have un-bricked my WRT54GS v4 with this method. I don't know how
the brick hapened but it was just after restarting it after a storm that I
noticed it was briked...
the brick hapened but it was just after restarting it after a storm that I
noticed it was briked...
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy johney on 09/30/2009 at 10:24 AM EDT
Yeah well i see somethings wrong with what you said there. Granted you are
right about the biggest ground however if you try and do that all that will
happen is your going to short out the chipset and risk frying the whole damn
thing my advice is to get a serial port cord and see those ten whole just above
your hand on the pc board well figure out what they do and write a little
program to tell the computer what to do and how to understand it and move on to
loading the firmware to where it should go. and for you jon Johnston i would
have to say it's because it's a little trouble but now adays if you want to
load a cfw to your roughter it's easy just use dd-wrt.com and use there mini
firmware and then after that load the one you really want. What linksys did is
they locked you out of the full memory available so that you can't load a cfw
but that is fine we just fixed that issue fast
right about the biggest ground however if you try and do that all that will
happen is your going to short out the chipset and risk frying the whole damn
thing my advice is to get a serial port cord and see those ten whole just above
your hand on the pc board well figure out what they do and write a little
program to tell the computer what to do and how to understand it and move on to
loading the firmware to where it should go. and for you jon Johnston i would
have to say it's because it's a little trouble but now adays if you want to
load a cfw to your roughter it's easy just use dd-wrt.com and use there mini
firmware and then after that load the one you really want. What linksys did is
they locked you out of the full memory available so that you can't load a cfw
but that is fine we just fixed that issue fast
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy John on 01/15/2010 at 02:34 AM EST
Ok I am totally stuck here and have been googling for a few days!
I'm kind of a noob, but have been trying to learn this stuff.
I cycled through firmwares on my WRT54G v1.1 from DD-WRT to openwrt and finally
to Tomato firmware; that was where it broke.
It was dead, no web interface and irresponsive to pings.
The weird thing was if i plugged my eth cable into the "internet" port on the
router i could telnet into a shell with username: root and pass: admin
And it was a linux environment with a title at top "Tomato"
I was confused wether this was the firmware or what, cause i couldn't get into
the webinterface.
Anyway's the router was not working all and i was trying various things
(including 30-30-30 hardreset and after this i could no longer get into the
shell described above, couldn't even ping with eth cable plugged in there.).
Last i plugged the eth cable into LAN1 and tried tftp'ing the image in that
way. It worked. The image was accepted during restart and uploaded
successfully. BUT the router still doesn't work.
The power light is solid, after the initial restart i cannot ping the router.
The WLAN light and LAN1 light flash intermitently and all others are dead.
Since the image was accepted i have to assume the boot-wait flag in NVRAM was
set, and hence NVRAM is somewhat intact
That should mean the bootloader is intact as its the one doing all the setup
for the tftp server etc...
So the only thing left is corrupt firmware, but tftping seems to have no effect.
I"M AT WITS END PLS HELP!!!
I'm kind of a noob, but have been trying to learn this stuff.
I cycled through firmwares on my WRT54G v1.1 from DD-WRT to openwrt and finally
to Tomato firmware; that was where it broke.
It was dead, no web interface and irresponsive to pings.
The weird thing was if i plugged my eth cable into the "internet" port on the
router i could telnet into a shell with username: root and pass: admin
And it was a linux environment with a title at top "Tomato"
I was confused wether this was the firmware or what, cause i couldn't get into
the webinterface.
Anyway's the router was not working all and i was trying various things
(including 30-30-30 hardreset and after this i could no longer get into the
shell described above, couldn't even ping with eth cable plugged in there.).
Last i plugged the eth cable into LAN1 and tried tftp'ing the image in that
way. It worked. The image was accepted during restart and uploaded
successfully. BUT the router still doesn't work.
The power light is solid, after the initial restart i cannot ping the router.
The WLAN light and LAN1 light flash intermitently and all others are dead.
Since the image was accepted i have to assume the boot-wait flag in NVRAM was
set, and hence NVRAM is somewhat intact
That should mean the bootloader is intact as its the one doing all the setup
for the tftp server etc...
So the only thing left is corrupt firmware, but tftping seems to have no effect.
I"M AT WITS END PLS HELP!!!
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G Need unix ???By Bricker on 01/30/2010 at 11:50 AM EST
why do you say you have boot up in unix to unbrick? is it possible to just use
windows XP?
windows XP?
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G Need unix ???By h3xist on 05/31/2011 at 05:47 PM EDT
You could, but it is a lot faster to do this in a unix/linux box.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy worm on 03/28/2010 at 03:48 PM EDT
Thank you. The re-flashing instructions worked for me.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Claudio on 09/16/2010 at 07:50 PM EDT
My WRT54G, doesn't have Intel chip, but AMD (?) tried with 15-16 didn't work
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Gene Brandt on 09/29/2010 at 04:10 PM EDT
Thanks,
One I got the technique down my router was back on line.
One I got the technique down my router was back on line.
WRT54GS v1 Victory! By Joel on 10/04/2010 at 06:07 AM EDT
Read the article and saw that my power light was already flashing. Ran the
linux commands... BAM! worked.
BTW all the linux commands run on mac os x.
linux commands... BAM! worked.
BTW all the linux commands run on mac os x.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Robert on 04/04/2011 at 11:50 PM EDT
Pin 16 to ground worked for me quite nicely with a "brickified" WRT54G V3. In
fact, after powering up, I was able to simply use the Linksys TFTP program with
the "admin" password, and it suddenly took it and ran with it when it refused
to accept that password before. I did have to manually set my laptop Ethernet
port to 192.168.1.10, net mask 255.255.255.0 and gateway 192.168.1.1 first, as
in the persistent power flash condition there is no DHCP.
fact, after powering up, I was able to simply use the Linksys TFTP program with
the "admin" password, and it suddenly took it and ran with it when it refused
to accept that password before. I did have to manually set my laptop Ethernet
port to 192.168.1.10, net mask 255.255.255.0 and gateway 192.168.1.1 first, as
in the persistent power flash condition there is no DHCP.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Robert on 04/04/2011 at 11:55 PM EDT
I used Windows XP as it was most convenient. You have to know where your
ethernet port IP properties are, and standard TFTP can be used in a CMD window
as follows:
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put nameofflashfile.bin
or use the TFTP utility from Linksys which prompts for new flash file name and
password "admin".
ethernet port IP properties are, and standard TFTP can be used in a CMD window
as follows:
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put nameofflashfile.bin
or use the TFTP utility from Linksys which prompts for new flash file name and
password "admin".
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Rody on 06/10/2011 at 10:47 PM EDT
this was a great write up to find. I thought i had killed my old linksys router
but using your instructions I got it back up and running.
thanks
rody
but using your instructions I got it back up and running.
thanks
rody
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy JLG on 12/24/2011 at 06:04 PM EST
When I unbricked my WRT54GSv2, it wouldn't work if I powered off the router
after grounding pin 16. When pin 16 is grounded at power up, the DMZ light
begins flashing slowly. This indicates that the unit is ready to receive
firmware via tftp. Don't power off the unit at this point...just type in the
tftp commands. Works like a champ.
after grounding pin 16. When pin 16 is grounded at power up, the DMZ light
begins flashing slowly. This indicates that the unit is ready to receive
firmware via tftp. Don't power off the unit at this point...just type in the
tftp commands. Works like a champ.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy JLG on 12/24/2011 at 06:06 PM EST
Also...see http://dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GS_v2.0 for more
instructions and links to the correct dd-wrt files for the WRT54GSv2.
instructions and links to the correct dd-wrt files for the WRT54GSv2.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Nik on 06/08/2012 at 08:07 PM EDT
Hi,
Thanks, it worked for me. The hardest part was getting my linux box to see the
device. I was running slackware and had to boot up with a different router
connected so it would bring up ethernet, then switch the cable. The other
router was a belkin using 192.168.2.1. I don't know why, but this particular
box wants to use 'eth0' not 'eth1', so I I used:
ifconfig eth2:1 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
This is different from your instructions in that it used eth2, but also it uses
1 as the next to last field vice 0, after all the device is at 192.168.1.1 not
192.168.0.1 so I wonder if that is a typo in your instructions. Also, to open
it I didn't press between the front legs, I pushed against the front legs
themselves.
Also, if anybody else's eyes aren't so hot (like mine), I counted off to pin
16 before I started and marked it with a sharpie so I could find it when I was
reaching for the switch on the power strip to turn the thing on.
I'd also advise doing this with the original firmware from linksys that you can
download from their site. It's small and will go quickly. Then, when you've
got the thing working again, you can try to load something else if you want.
Thanks, it worked for me. The hardest part was getting my linux box to see the
device. I was running slackware and had to boot up with a different router
connected so it would bring up ethernet, then switch the cable. The other
router was a belkin using 192.168.2.1. I don't know why, but this particular
box wants to use 'eth0' not 'eth1', so I I used:
ifconfig eth2:1 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
This is different from your instructions in that it used eth2, but also it uses
1 as the next to last field vice 0, after all the device is at 192.168.1.1 not
192.168.0.1 so I wonder if that is a typo in your instructions. Also, to open
it I didn't press between the front legs, I pushed against the front legs
themselves.
Also, if anybody else's eyes aren't so hot (like mine), I counted off to pin
16 before I started and marked it with a sharpie so I could find it when I was
reaching for the switch on the power strip to turn the thing on.
I'd also advise doing this with the original firmware from linksys that you can
download from their site. It's small and will go quickly. Then, when you've
got the thing working again, you can try to load something else if you want.
re: How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationBy Nik on 06/08/2012 at 08:09 PM EDT
I meant my box wants to use 'eth2' not 'eth0' arrgh.
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