Linux, BSD, Android, OpenWRT, Free & Open Source Software

Mar 1, 2015

Flashing Yacom Arcadyan ARV4518PW with OpenWRT 14.07 / 12.09

Arcadyan ARV4518PW Router also known as SMC-7908-ISP is one of the few routers with Lantiq SoC capable of connecting to the Internet with their integrated xDSL modem.

There are guides and HowTos explaining how to flash this router with OpenWRT. A UART USB-to-TTL cable is a must to flashing.

Here is a recap for all the steps.
1. backup your routers original firmware and wifi calibaration data.
2. flash the bootloader u-boot.
3. from u-boot, we will issue commands to download and install OpenWRT into the flash.

Details:

1. Backup your router's firmware & WiFi calibration data

You will need a Serial Communication software like Putty, CuteCom or Screen installed on Linux.

Then need to get BrnDumper from here. (Works reliably on a 32bits Linux)

Connect your UART cable.

Open Terminal and issue:

screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Power up your router

when text starts showing up on Terminal, hit spacebar 3 times

then hit ! and quit screen

now open another Terminal Tab/Window and run brndumper as follow:

sudo ./brndumper --port=/dev/ttyUSB0

and do a full dump and a Wifi calib data dump.
from $b0000000 to $b0400000 -> full dump
from $b03F0000 to $b0400000 -> wifi calib data dump

it's going to take approx 30mins.

2. flash the bootloader u-boot

when it finishes, power off the router. Start CuteCom or a Serial Comm software capable of sending files using XModem and change its Input Mode to "No Line End".

Power on the router. When the text starts showing up hit spacebar 3 times then hit respectively:

!
U
0
Y

Then send u-boot file via XModem

When it's done restart the router

3. Installing OpenWRT from u-boot

Install a TFTP Server. Download either of these OpenWRT images, rename it to ARV4518PW-squashfs.image and put it into tftp folder.

OpenWRT 12.09 for ARV4518 (valid for R01A and R01)
OpenWRT 14.07 for ARV4518 valid for hardware revision R01A
OpenWRT 14.07 for ARV4518 valid for hardware revision R01

Note: these images are custom compiled and patched to fix Wifi on 12.09 and let them fit well on the 4MB of flash while having extra drivers (USB2, Ext4, USB Storage) and still have enough free space to do other things.

Connect a network cable to the router, set a static ip like, i.e:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.144.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

the ip address 192.168.144.100 came from the output values of printenv which you can issue from CuteCom.

From CuteCom issue:

setenv kernel_addr 0xb0020000

saveenv

run update_openwrt

when it finish, issue:

reset

Enjoy.

Feb 28, 2015

Flashing Movistar Zyxel P870HNU-51B with OpenWRT 14.07

With enough coffee I managed to compile OpenWRT 14.07 for Zyxel P870HNU-51B distributed by Movistar.

It was the first time I ported a new router to OpenWRT. I learned a lot. Here are some references:

This router is the successor of ZyXEL P-870HW-51a and have almost the same hardware specs as ZyXEL P-870HN-5xb but with a 16MB of flash memory instead of 8MB. It's a VDSL-Only router.

Downloads:

Original Movistar Firmware (.bin file) or if needed, the original installable assistant (.exe) which includes that .bin file in its installation folder)
OpenWRT 14.07 (r42625) with LuCI, 3G Modems Support, RelayD, IPv6, NTFS-3G, vFat, Ext4, USB v2, USB 1.1 OHCI, usb-storage-extras, block-mout, fdisk, Kernel with FPU + Drivers for USB Wifi Cards (ath9k-htc, brcmfmac, carl9170, libertas-usb, zd1201, zd1211rw, p54-usb, rt2500-usb, rt2800-usb, rt73-usb, rtl8187, rtl8192ce/cu/de/se)
A lighter OpenWRT 14.07 (r42625) with LuCI, 3G Modems Support, RelayD, IPv6, NTFS-3G, vFat, Ext4, USB v2, USB 1.1 OHCI, usb-storage-extras, block-mout, fdisk, Kernel with FPU. [WITHOUT] the extra USB Wifi cards support
A patch for Barrier Breaker if you need to compile it yourself.
OEM Bootlog if needed
OEM extra info if needed
OpenWRT Bootlog if needed

Flashing either from:

Router's web interface: Maintenance > Tools > Firmware
CFE (powering up the router while pressing the reset button a few seconds then access CFE web interface http://192.168.1.1 your OS needs a static network config)
Serial UART (USB-to-TTL) from CFE Bootloader. issue ATUR. Then send the firmware via XModem
tftp from telnet. login with 1234/1234. then issue sh to get a busybox shell, then: tftp -g -t i -f zz112BKW0b11.bin 192.168.1.2 or tftp -g -t i -f openwrt-P870HNU-51b-squashfs-cfe.bin 192.168.1.2 (but you need to have a tftp server set up first)

The router is stable and running well. However:

This router's WIFI works only with b43 or with the proprietary driver, not with brcmsmac.
LEDs are working except for USB. I couldn't find its GPIO. Also, Lan LEDs become on only if the cables were already attached when the router was booting up.

Enjoy it.

Feb 18, 2015

Flashing DLink DSL-524T and DSL-G624T with OpenWRT 14.07

DLink DSL-524T was my first experience with a router that was able to connect to the Internet using OpenWRT. Its integrated DSL modem is fully support under OpenWRT. Later I bought DLink DSL-G624T which has the same hardware specs as DSL-524 but with an integrated wireless mini-pci card which is while supported offers no WPA/WPA2 encryption, only WEP which is insecure.

Both work great under OpenWRT 10.03.1 but not under 12.09 which feels slower. While 14.07 feels snappier, it consumes all the 4MB of flash memory.

Well, today I've got some time to build a lightweight OpenWRT 14.07 for both DSL-524T and DSL-G624T.

The installation steps are documented for both.

As reference, these are the steps I did for DLink G624T.

# under root or using sudo

echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_frto

# just a second or two after the router is powered up

ftp -n 192.168.1.199

user adam2

# adam2 as a password also

quote "SETENV mtd1,0x90010000,0x903f0000"

binary

hash

quote MEDIA FLSH

put "openwrt-ar7-generic-squashfs.bin" "openwrt-ar7-generic-squashfs.bin mtd1"

quote REBOOT

bye

Notes: While both DSL-524T and DSL-G624T ran OK under 14.07 you should go easy with LuCi as 16MB of ram is really the minimum requirement. After setting things up consider disabling LuCi for better performance. A /etc/init.d/luci disable would suffice.