RouterTech Firmware v2.95 Release (20110103)

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Kieran
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RouterTech Firmware v2.95 Release (20110103)

Post by Kieran » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:11 pm

This firmware release has been superceded by firmware v2.96. See here: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4183
RouterTech Firmware v2.95

Version: v2.95 (20110103)
Author: RouterTech Development Team (thechief)
Other contributor(s): mstombs
Testers: Various RT staff & forum members
Category: Router Firmware

Compatible Routers
A list of compatible routers is available in our knowledge base. Please check this before even contemplating an upgrade and remember you should always ask in our forum if unsure. Also see the section below on backing up and compatibility.

Disclaimer & Warning

1. Flashing custom firmwares onto a router is not for novices, as the process may well "brick" the router.

2. You must not flash this firmware onto your router unless you are very familiar with the PC-Tool (or similar) and are competent in using it to un-brick a router.

3. Please take this warning very seriously. If you are not adept at recovering bricked routers, and if you are not familiar with the PC-Tool, then do not install this firmware!

4. Do not even consider installing this firmware without first reading all the documentation supplied with the firmware. If you fail to observe this, then you are entirely on your own.

5. Do not even consider installing this firmware without first running the Router Upgrade Checker (RUC) and following whatever counsel it gives. If you fail to observe this, then you are entirely on your own.

6. Do not even consider installing this firmware unless you have first backed up your router's bootloader environment (i.e., /proc/ticfg/env) to your hard disk. If you fail to observe this, then you are entirely on your own.


Backing up & Compatibility
For ease we recommend you run the Router Upgrade Checker - this will backup your environment, LED config, current config, default config, generate a recovery script for the bootloader environment, and tell you if your router is suitable for this firmware.

Upgrading
Before upgrading you must backup your router config as detailed above and reset to factory defaults.

Please remember to run the Router Upgrade Check BEFORE you upgrade!

If you choose to upgrade via the router's web interface, then you MUST observe the following
  1. First reset the router to factory defaults before trying to install this firmware.
  2. When upgrading via the web interface, (particularly for the 1350A wireless firmware) you must wait for at least 7 minutes for the new firmware to establish itself. Do not do anything to the router for at least 7 minutes from the moment the upgrade process starts, and do not interrupt the upgrade process.
  3. Once your router has been upgraded and be seen to be working you must reset to factory defaults again
Note: Before installing this firmware, you must, among other things (see the docs in the zip file for those other things) back up a copy of your router's current "/etc /led.conf" file. We only have a few LED configuration files, and the chances are that we do not have one suitable for your own router. If you do not keep a copy of the original contents of that file, then we have no way of knowing how your LEDs should be configured, and the LEDs will always be wrong. This will not affect the router's normal operation - but you the LEDs will not be reporting the correct operations.

The Router Upgrade Checker as described in the backup and compatibility section above can backup your LED config - if you use the Router Upgrade Checker then you can double-check the output by looking in the check*.txt file for data after the "/etc /led.conf" line.

Comprehensive Documentation and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
While full documentation is included with every release of our firmware we have also made it available as a separate download below so you can take time to read it before even needing to download a firmware. The router upgrade and firmware FAQs are also hosted online HERE. We recommend you do this as it will give you a chance to properly familiarise yourself with the process and get every angle covered etc.

PC-Tool and repairing / unbricking
Please see this forum topic

Files
Assuming your router is compatible, you just need to download the release that matches your router - if you have wireless and the Adam2 bootloader then you would download "Standard Wireless (Adam2 bootloader)".

Changelog
1. The firmware will now automatically be reset to defaults after each firmware upgrade, and at any other time that it detects a version mismatch. This is to deal with cases of people not following the instructions to reset to defaults after upgrading their firmware. So, the days of restoring a saved config from an earlier firmware are over. Many problems arise from these mismatches, and this feature will reduce a lot of noise in the forum. This feature has been in the 1350A wireless firmware for a long time - so this is to make things consistent across all firmwares.

2. New experimental script: "swapfile.sh" - to create/load/unload a swap file via smbfs. This gives the router some virtual memory and gives the router more memory to play with. It requires a network shared directory that is always available to the router on which to create and mount the swap file (a NAS would do just fine - or a shared directory on a PC that is guaranteed to always be switched on). If you try to run with a swapfile on a directory that ceases to be available, the consequences cannot be predicted (at the very least, the router will most probably crash).

Run "swapfile.sh --help" to see the syntax. 2mb-flash non-wireless firmwares/routers will need to run the fetch_smb command (see below) to be able to use this feature. By default, the script will mount the location of the swap file on /swap/. When run for the first time, it will try to create a swap file if none is found. The process of creating a new swap file can take a VERY long time (several minutes). So be ready to go for a cup of tea!
NOTE: this feature is highly experimental, and it is not always stable in operation. Those who are not very brave should not use it.

3. The http server in all firmwares is now mini_httpd. The thttpd server has been retired (it did not work very well with the "http_addr" feature).

4. When "http_addr" is defined in the environment, the firmware will wait for the internal network to start before launching the http server. This will add about 30 seconds to the bootup process.

5. Busybox has been upgraded to version 1.18.1.

6. The adam2-defragenv.sh script is now obsolete and has been removed. To defragment the adam2 environment, just run "setenv DEFRAG DEFRAG" (or "defragenv")

7. Amendments to the OpenVPN scripts:
(a) The default protocol has been changed to udp. The default can be overridden with "--proto=tcp". If this is not done, then the client configuration files need to be amended to change the "proto" directive from "tcp-client" to "udp".
(b) The openvpnstart.sh script will attempt to verify successful execution of the openvpn binary, and will make another attempt at running it if the first attempt is unsuccessful.
(c) The default openvpnstart.sh script can be overridden by placing an alternative (with the same name) in the "bin_dir" directory. If you do this, it is your responsibility to ensure that your alternative works correctly.

8. New script: "connections.sh" - to provide diagnostic information about your internet connection. It should always be run from a telnet/ssh login session. Run this before reporting connectivity problems.

9. New scripts: waitforlan, and waitforwan - to wait for the LAN to start, or for a WAN connection, respectively (or timeout after waiting a while).

10. New script - 1350A-reset-eeproms.sh - to set the EEPROMs in the 1350A wireless configuration to generic values. Immediately afterwards, the router will reboot - and then you will need to run the Wireless Environment Builder so that it can fix the EEPROMs. This script should not be used except as a VERY LAST RESORT - after every other attempt to recover a trashed 1350A wireless firmware has failed to repair the wireless functionality.

11. New script - fetch_smb - for non-wireless firmwares with 2mb flash and 8mb RAM only; to fetch the smbfs driver and support binaries from the RouterTech repository, extract the files, load the driver, and optionally run a command (typically, to run swapfile.sh (above) to create/load a swap file). This is an experimental feature. Treat it as such.

12. The file "/var/upgrader" is now deleted on bootup. It is only required when upgrading the firmware via the web interface. It will be restored automatically in such cases.

13. Darkstat will now provide better information on the wireless firwmares. But things could still be a bit flaky - darkstat uses a lot of memory (it can use up to 6mb), and this could have implications for stable operation.

14. Buffer for kernel messages increased. The dmesg command should now provide more detailed information.

15. New environment variable: "save_bootlog" - if this is set to 1 (one) then the boot messages will be saved in /var/log/boot.log.

16. New script: "check_ddns.sh" - to check whether the dynamic DNS IP address of the supplied host is up-to-date. If not, it will reset the ppp connection (e.g., "check_ddns.sh myhome.noip.com" will check whether the IP address of "myhome.noip.com" is the same as the IP address of the current ppp connection). If no parameter is supplied, then the ddns host name will be fetched from the router's live configuration.

17. New command: "ipaddr" - to resolve the IP address of a host name.

18. New script: "wlan_setvalue.sh" - to change some wireless settings. This is useful for changing things that are not possible to change from the web interface (e.g., country, etc). Use with great care. If you mess up the wireless settings with this script, you will need to reset the router to defaults. If you are happy with the changes that you have made, run saveall.sh to save the changes.

19. Changes to reset-config.sh - with this script, there is no longer an option to stop the router rebooting after resetting the configuration to defaults.

20. Various bug fixes.

21. New scripts: "defragenv" and "fixenv" (they are the same) - a short-cut for defragmenting the environment.

22. The firmware will now automatically defragment the environment during a firmware upgrade via the web interface, and everytime something is changed in the "RT Configurations" menu.

Downloading
The links to our firmware require you to be registered and logged into the site to see and use them. This is to make sure we can provide you with support easily (in this forum) if you need it. When logged in they appear below this post.

Sourcecode
Now also available to download via the forum when logged in

BE SURE TO READ ALL THE DOCUMENTATION IN THE FIRMWARE DOWNLOADS BEFORE TRYING ANYTHING WITH THIS FIRMWARE. Otherwise, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.
Attachments
routertech_firmware_20110103_docs.zip
Comprehensive documentation. Be sure to read ALL of it before upgrading or asking for support.
(335.93 KiB) Downloaded 735 times
routertech_firmware_20110103_leds.zip
Batch files to select LED configuration files (old and obsolescent).
(35.96 KiB) Downloaded 369 times
routertech_firmware_20110103_mtd_logs.zip
RouterTech Firmware 2.95 MTD partition settings for each firmware image.
(8.41 KiB) Downloaded 375 times
routertech-ar7rd-adam2-1port-firmware-20110103.zip
1-Port non-wireless (Adam2 bootloader).
(9.74 MiB) Downloaded 497 times
routertech-ar7rd-adam2-4ports-firmware-20110103.zip
4-Port non-wireless (Adam2 bootloader).
(9.74 MiB) Downloaded 366 times
routertech-ar7rd-lite-1port-firmware-20110103.zip
Non-wireless "Lite" firmwares for 1-port routers (contains both Adam2 and Pspboot firmware images). Use this if you want a lean firmware for your 1-port non-wireless router.
(7.33 MiB) Downloaded 316 times
routertech-ar7rd-lite-4ports-firmware-20110103.zip
Non-wireless "Lite" firmwares for 4-port routers (contains both Adam2 and Pspboot firmware images). Use this if you want a lean firmware for your 4-port non-wireless router.
(7.33 MiB) Downloaded 201 times
routertech-ar7rd-pspboot-1port-firmware-20110103.zip
1-Port non-wireless (psp bootloader).
(9.74 MiB) Downloaded 515 times
routertech-ar7rd-pspboot-4ports-firmware-20110103.zip
4-Port non-wireless (psp bootloader).
(9.75 MiB) Downloaded 306 times
routertech-ar7wrd-adam2-firmware-1port-20110103.zip
Standard 1-port wireless (Adam2 bootloader). Suitable for the Actiontec GT701WG and other 1-port ADAM2-based AR7WRD routers using the TNETW1130 wireless chip (DO NOT USE WITH ROUTERS USING THE TNETW1350A WIRELESS CHIP).
(6.69 MiB) Downloaded 317 times
routertech-ar7wrd-adam2-firmware-4ports-20110103.zip
Standard 4-port wireless (Adam2 bootloader). Suitable for the original Solwise SAR600EW series, DLink G604T/G624T, and other 4-port ADAM2-based AR7WRD routers using the TNETW1130 wireless chip (DO NOT USE WITH ROUTERS USING THE TNETW1350A WIRELESS CHIP).
(6.7 MiB) Downloaded 1014 times
routertech-ar7wrd-pspboot-firmware-1port-20110103.zip
Standard 1-port wireless (pspboot bootloader). Suitable for 1-port pspboot-based AR7WRD routers using the TNETW1130 wireless chip (DO NOT USE WITH ROUTERS USING THE TNETW1350A WIRELESS CHIP).
(6.69 MiB) Downloaded 224 times
routertech-ar7wrd-pspboot-firmware-4ports-20110103.zip
Standard 4-port wireless (pspboot bootloader). Suitable for the original SWAMR 54108/54125/SWART2-54125/GWART2-54125 series, and other 4-port PSPBOOT-based AR7WRD routers using the TNETW1130 wifi chip (DO NOT USE WITH ROUTERS USING THE TNETW1350A chip).
(6.7 MiB) Downloaded 587 times
routertech-v2.95-GPL-firmware-sources.tar.bz2
Standard (wireless and non-wireless) sourcecode for v2.95.
(60.21 MiB) Downloaded 203 times
routertech-v2.95-GPL-ROHS-firmware-sources.tar.bz2
1350A wireless sourcecode for v2.95
(65.6 MiB) Downloaded 146 times
routertech-ar7wrd-1350A-pspboot-firmware-20110103.zip
Wireless (psp bootloader) with the TNETW1350A wifi chip. Suitable for the "R" series Solwise SAR 600EW, Solwise SAR605EW, PTI 8505G, newer SWART2-54125 series, and other compatibles. NOT suitable for the DLink 2640T.
(6.81 MiB) Downloaded 1093 times
Kieran
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