RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

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ZGod
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RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by ZGod » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:26 pm

I've got an AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 router which is based on the AR7 chipset.

I've been able to get an old version of OpenWRT to work on it, but I can't get newer versions to work. From the site I get the impression that the RouterTech is specialized for AR7 hardware.

I've tried running the RUC tool, but it appears to hang at 2%. netstat shows there is a telnet connection to the Fritzbox from ruc.exe and of course beforehand I tested that telnet access works fine. I'm using Windows XP to run the RUC tool.

The Fritzbox uses ADAM2 in combination with EVA as the bootloader. Is this used by any other hardware that RouterTech supports?

Is it likely that the Fritzbox 7170 could be supported by the RouterTech firmware?

Thanks in advance!
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by thechief » Wed Dec 30, 2015 5:14 pm

RouterTech only supprots Adam2 and PSPBoot. Any other bootloader will not work. The RUC not being able to run is usually a very strong clue that a device is not supported. If you can change the bootloader, then perhaps it might work. But this is not for the faint-hearted, and it is definitely NOT something that you should try unless you have working JTAG and backups of working bootloaders that can be flashed back via JTAG.
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by ZGod » Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:25 pm

Thanks for your response! I don't know if there's a big difference between just ADAM2 and ADAM2+EVA, but I guess this means it can't work.

It's strange the RUC can't work at all though. According to the log, through Telnet it gets a normal OpenWRT shell prompt. Then it just hangs. Maybe the RUC is based on a firmware which provides a more proprietary shell environment over Telnet?
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by thechief » Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:54 am

ZGod wrote:Maybe the RUC is based on a firmware which provides a more proprietary shell environment over Telnet?
Yes, much depends on responses from the embedded shell. On a supported system the RUC will get the responses that it expects. If it doesn't, that is a strong clue that there is a sufficiently different environment from what would normally be expected. Standard AR7 firmwares based on the TI reference platform will behave as expected. If the firmware is based on a different platform, then it is pretty much an unknown quantity, and it would therefore be impossible to vouch for the device being supported at all.

You can try the Firmware Tool, to see whether it will fare any better (see the Firmware FAQ).
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by ZGod » Mon Jan 04, 2016 10:34 pm

I tried the RouterTech Firmware Tool and it indeed gets further, but it as well hangs. At 88%.

With Wireshark I see that after it gets this from OpenWRT, not much else is happening (a few more messages and then there's just nothing anymore from neither the tool nor the router):

Code: Select all

cat: can't open '/etc/led.conf': No such file or directory
I would expect mostly readouts of things within /proc and maybe /dev to check the hardware details. I do see this initially with the Firmware Tool, but apparently it depends on some more specific commands as well.

The only firmwares I can use now are OpenWRT 8.09 and FritzOS, so I'm afraid I won't be able to find out much with the current tools then.
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by thechief » Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:58 pm

ZGod wrote:I would expect mostly readouts of things within /proc and maybe /dev to check the hardware details. I do see this initially with the Firmware Tool, but apparently it depends on some more specific commands as well.
Yes, it depends on the TI core logic (cm_logic) to obtain some crucial information (as does the RUC) without which compatibility cannot be verified.
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by ZGod » Tue Jan 05, 2016 11:00 pm

thechief wrote:Yes, it depends on the TI core logic (cm_logic) to obtain some crucial information (as does the RUC) without which compatibility cannot be verified.
Are there maybe any commands I could execute manually to get more information on this?
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Re: RouterTech firmware on AVM FRITZ!Box 7170 possible?

Post by thechief » Wed Jan 06, 2016 12:34 am

These are the commands that are sent. Then the responses from the router are parsed.

Code: Select all

cat /etc/versions
cat /proc/version
cat /proc/ticfg/env
cat /proc/modules
cat /proc/interrupts
cat /proc/cpuinfo
cat /proc/avalanche/avsar_ver
echo logic:status/nspver | cm_cli
echo logic:status/bootver | cm_cli
echo logic:status/has_marvell | cm_cli
[ -d /proc/wlan ] && echo "Yes" || echo "No"
[ -d /usr/sbin/wlan ] && echo "Yes" || echo "No"
cat /etc/led.conf
The "logic:status" commands are querying the core logic for certain information, to see whether the current firmware needs to be upgraded first before RouterTech can be installed from the web interfance, and whether there is a Marvell switch.
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