[geeks] WRT54G/OpenWRT help?

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
> OK.  background:  I have a WRT54G series 2, which I wanted to configure
> to operate just as a WAP.  The existing firmware doesn't allow this, so
> I tried installing OpenWRT.
> 
> The various CLI options for installing OpenWRT from Win2K didn't work.
> Before you ask, the reason I was trying to do a CLI/TFTP install from
> win2K is because my win2K box is the only one handy right now that has a
> second NIC I wasn't using.  My firewall, yama (an Ultra5) has three
> NICs, but one of those three, xl0, is already connected to the Westell
> DSL bridge.  The Westell wants to be 192.168.1.1, and cannot be
> configured otherwise.  The Linksys wants to be 192.168.1.1 at firmware
> boot, but CAN be configured otherwise ... once you get into it.  So, I
> couldn't use yama's extra interface to configure it -- even though it is
> scheduled to end up attached to that third interface.  Thus, the Win2K box.
> 
> So anyway, having failed byt CLI/TFTP routes, i went ahead and installed
> OpenWRT via the web firmware update interface.  Which worked, and the
> Linksys happily booted into OpenWRT, and I could get into the admin
> interface and everything.  Right up until the point where I tried to
> reconfigure it to reside at 10.24.33.2, its planned address on that
> other interface.  At which point it not only stopped responding at any
> known address whatsoever on any of its Ethernet ports, but stopped
> offering a DHCP address on any of them.  "Fuck," I thought, "it's
> bricked."  I tried talking to the #openWRTchannel on freenode.net, and,
> well ....  let's be diplomatic and just say that they weren't helpful.
> 
> Fuck, no, I'm not letting'em off easy:  they were too busy being snarky
> and condescending and showing off their |ber-l33tness to be helpful.

It takes all kinds, I guess.

> Pause story until tonight, when just out of suspicion, I try plugging
> one of the ports into the open interface on Yama, and another into the
> open interface in vorlon (the win2k box).  Bingo, vorlon's second
> interface gets a DHCP address assigned from yama.  The WRT54G's switch
> is working and routing.  It's not TOTALLY bricked; it's just sulking.
> Even if all I can do is get it into boot-wait mode and fire off another
> firmware upload to it via TFTP, that ought to get me off the ground to
> where I can configure it again.
> 
> Anyone - preferably with OpenWRT experience - got any suggestions for
> getting the thing talking again and/or finding out what it thinks its IP
> address is?  If I can pass traffic THROUGH it, there ought to be some
> way to get traffic TO it.

I don't have experience with OpenWRT, but I do have *lots and lots* of 
experience with Sveasoft Talisman.  I've found that a hard reset will 
cause it to start responding back at the default IP address.  Have you 
tried that?  Hold the reset button on the back for 15-30 seconds.

> Failing that, does anyone know how to get the cover of a WRT54G open to
> access the internal serial port that I'm given to understand is there?
> And has anyone ever built the buffered serial cable necessary to talk to
> it via that route (it's a 3.3v serial port)?

You just have to pop it off carefully.  You pull the top and bottom 
apart and slide it.  The plated-though holes for the serial connector 
are easy to spot.  The cable isn't that hard either.  You should be able 
to find information on its construction on the 'net.

Peace...  Sridhar