Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

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muziling
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by muziling » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:25 pm

thechief wrote:I have also now replaced the Adam2 bootloader of an old Dlink (v1) G604T with a psp bootloader. The whole process was smooth and incident-free. :)

Edit: the bootloader binary that I used is attached. WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN PERIL!. If it works, then it will automatically set fully functional PSPboot environment variables (including the mtd partitions), and you will only need to flash a pspboot firmware (with the pctool). So this one is a better option than the earlier bootloader binary posted above.
can build a bootloader which MAC_PORT set to zero
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by cybor » Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:30 pm

Hi !

I want just report my experience changing the bootloader on a G604T

I did it and all works fine now but I used a different procedure, maybe little easy if you have a serial adapter, but I'll not try to change the bootloader without it.

I follow the thechief's guide on the first post using the psbl_4M_16M_AMD_AR7WRD.bin till the point 7 without start up the PC-Tool, so I just rebooted the router.

The router boot the psp with a default env variables:

Code: Select all

psbl> printenv

BUILD_OPS       0x201
bootloaderVersion       1.4.0.8
ProductID       AR7WRD
HWRevision      Unknown
SerialNumber    none
IPA             192.168.1.1
BOOTCFG         m:f:"mtd1"
HWA_0           00:50:F1:12:27:06
mtd2            0x90000000,0x90010000
mtd3            0x90010000,0x90020000
mtd0            0x900a9000,0x90400000
mtd1            0x90020090,0x900a9000
mtd4            0x90020000,0x90400000
MAC_PORT        1
MEMSZ           0x01000000
FLASHSZ         0x00400000
MODETTY0        38400,n,8,1,hw
MODETTY1        38400,n,8,1,hw
CPUFREQ         150000000
MIPSFREQ        150000000
SYSFREQ         125000000
PROMPT          psbl>
at this point I run RouterTech Firmware Tool, v0.4 and I add the missing env reported by it, after this I add the last envs

SerialNumber DR2E14Axxxxx
HWRevision A1
ProductID Wireless ADSL2+ Router
HWA_0 00:0F:3D:Ax:xx:xx
HWA_1 00:0F:3D:Ax:xx:xx
HWA_3 00:0F:3D:Ax:xx:xx
mac_ap 00:0F:3D:Ax:xx:xx

Then by Router Repair Tool 1.0.7 using the wizard I uploaded the firmware and I rebooted and reset to factory default the router that self reboot after that it loaded the firmware for the first time and now I'm connected by it.

Last few things, I just uploaded the configuration from my other AR7WRD router (psbl) and it works great also the segfault that I had at the cold boot is resolved but the other router a Roper ROADSL2P-WG (Powered by a Paradigm PTI-845G) got a better line.

Thanks to thechief for this usefull guide and all the RT team.

Carlo.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:50 pm

muziling wrote:can build a bootloader which MAC_PORT set to zero
What is wrong with setting it manually? At worst, you can set it with the pctool.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:51 pm

cybor wrote:Hi !

I want just report my experience changing the bootloader on a G604T
Seems that you've been busy! Congratulations on getting your freedom from Adam2 :)
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by muziling » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:01 pm

thechief wrote:
muziling wrote:can build a bootloader which MAC_PORT set to zero
What is wrong with setting it manually? At worst, you can set it with the pctool.
if i flash to gt701, MAC_PORT need to set to zero by ttl, otherwise lan port can not be used.
After flashed , need to setenv mac address and mtd partition by ttl or ftp?
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:13 pm

I don't think that the pctool cares what the MAC_PORT is set to, since it is communicating directly with the bootloader.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by muziling » Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:27 am

adam2 ftp mode username and password is adam2/adam2,
and psp bootloader is ?
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Sat Apr 24, 2010 7:50 am

muziling wrote:and psp bootloader is ?
adam2/adam2
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by muziling » Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:19 pm

thechief wrote:I don't think that the pctool cares what the MAC_PORT is set to, since it is communicating directly with the bootloader.
I tried today,after replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader, windows network icon display disconnect status, can not use pctool, MAC_PORT set to zero by ttl, it works. my router is gt701-wg :D
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Sat Apr 24, 2010 12:35 pm

Congratulations. :)
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by mstombs » Sat Apr 24, 2010 1:17 pm

The AR7 chipset appears to have 2 Ethernet ports, and the setting of MAC_PORT determines which is used, different routers need different settings which must correctly describe which one is physically wired up. OpenWRT has recently tried to auto-select but this breaks support for my ADSL2MUE, they should be able to fix it by bringing both up as eth0 and eth1 and connecting both to the lan bridge - which will allow the user to manually disable the the unused interface later. I haven't tried recently but I think that the bootloader itself also uses this flag, but good to know it can be fixed using serial console without resorting to JTAG!
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:27 pm

It is difficult to auto-detect reliably from within the firmware - but it all seems to depend on the actual cpu in the router. Some psp bootloader versions will set MAC_PORT to 0 or 1 depending on whether they detect an Ohio chip (set MAC_PORT to zero). However, this only happens if MAC_PORT is not already set. The bootloader cpu detection code would seem to be more reliable than looking at the values of /proc/cpuinfo or /proc/avalanche/avsar_ver. But perhaps one cannot even rely on the bootloader auto-detection. A router with a Sangam chip should (according to the bootloader) have MAC_PORT set to 1. However, I have seen cases where there is a Sangam chip and MAC_PORT still seems set to zero (e.g., search for this on Google: "auto detection sangam chip" +mac_port), and there seem to be routers with an Ohio chip with MAC_PORT set to 1. It is a complete mess.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by mysticalos » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:32 am

All these proceedures are suggesting using windows based programs and such. I can boot windows on my mac but PC tool just hangs on vista and i don't really want to run out and buy xp for one tool. I try to avoid booting into vista even if i can help it. Are there any unix or os x based tools that can be used for this process? I know i can telnet and ftp the router from unix fine. I've also debricked from unix ftp many times. I'm just curious if maybe I can run the psbl_4M_16M_AMD_AR7WRD from prompt then just debrick it from new boot loaders ftp prompt and replace firmware this way? after tonight i've had my fill of adam2, which decided out of blue it was gonna brick itself just for updating settings.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by thechief » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:53 am

You can get the bootloader file to the router with wget (although WinSCP works perfectly fine with WINE under Linux). And you can flash the firmware with ftp. The pctool is just a fancy gui front-end to the bootloader ftp interface.
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Re: Replacing Adam2 booloader with PSP bootloader

Post by mysticalos » Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:18 am

and final question, which PSP firmware would i throw on 604T aftewards, i'm assuming routertech-ar7wrd-pspboot-firmware-4ports-20100408.zip

So i could not find a single telnet app worth a drats with a GUI for mac, i tried command line but for life of me could not figure out the unit upload command. "put" doesn't work. i tried any other one word actions i could think of, upload, send. dir and other common commands worked but what's the upload command for command line telnet?
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