This post has evolved due to user demand and suggestions into some kind of Guide to Your Fonera, so it now resides on it’s own page: Fonera – Debricking and more! Feel free to comment below.
This post has evolved due to user demand and suggestions into some kind of Guide to Your Fonera, so it now resides on it’s own page: Fonera – Debricking and more! Feel free to comment below.
hey og style, it looks like the file you uploaded differs from mine! that might have 2 reasons: you used a different version of firmware than I did, or you unpacked it somehow differently and that resulted in different file size – that’s why it starts at the same block but ends at another. As you can see in your boot messages, the line “lzma_decode failed. res=1″ says what happens: your file can’t be decompressed, meaning it is broken :) btw, in my setup the image’s name is “rootfs”, so it seems to me you are trying to put some different firmware on the fonera… now i know what you’re doing wrong: you’re trying to spoil the system? :P
I tried it 2x with 7.1.1 and the last post I tried it with 7.2.2. As for decompressing I used “dd if=fonera_0.7.1.1.fon of=fonera.tar.gz bs=519 skip=1″.
og: anyway i wonder where i got the vmlinuz stuff… i just downloaded the latest from fon – it seems to be fonera_0.7.1.2.fon (where did u get 7.2.2?!) – cut off the 519 bytes and unpacked the tar.gz. in there i don’t see vmlinuz – i only see rootfs.squashfs amongst other stuff – maybe you’ll try that again? i emailed it to you… good luck.
.m.
Sorry about the fw typo it is 7.1.2 and 7.1.1
I have tried it will a different file and It still won’t fully boot. The 1st light wont light up. Here is my cmd line.
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]58, Aug 7 2006
Non-certified release, version v1.3.0 – built 16:57:58, Aug 7 2006,à2004 Red Hat,àInc.
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.0000,à[0x80040450-0x80fe1000]àavailable
Board: ap51
RAM: 0×80000000-0×81000000, [0x80040450-0x80fe1000] availables of 0×00010000 bytes each.
FLASH: 0xa8000000 – 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0×00010000 bytes each.seconds – enter ^C to abort
== Executing boot script in 1.000 seconds – enter ^C to abortsà- enter ^C toàabort
^C
RedBoot> ip_addr -h 192.168.0.100 -l 192.168.0.106/24conds – enter ^Executing boot scriptàin 1.00
IP: 192.168.0.106/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 0.0.0.0
0 seconds – enterà^Càtoàabo
Default server: 192.168.0.
== Executing boot script in 0.370 second
RedBoot> fis create rootfs
An image named ‘rootfs’ exists – continue (y/n)? yvmlinux.bin.l7
… Erase from 0xa8030000-0xa8730000: ……………………………………
… Program from 0x80ff0000-0×81000000 at 0xa87e0000: .
RedBoot> reset
+PHY ID is 0022:5521
Ethernet eth0: MAC address 00:18:84:26:03:68
IP: 0.0.0.0/255.255.255.255, Gateway: 0.0.0.0
Default server: 0.0.0.0
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version v1.3.0 – built 16:57:58, Aug 7 2006
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
Board: ap51
RAM: 0×80000000-0×81000000, [0x80040450-0x80fe1000] available
FLASH: 0xa8000000 – 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0×00010000 bytes each.
== Executing boot script in 1.000 seconds – enter ^C to abort
RedBoot> fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
stream version is not supported.
lzma_decode failed. res=1
RedBoot> exec
Now booting linux kernel:
Base address 0×80030000 Entry 0×80041000
Cmdline :
Thanks
I solved my problem with “iwconfig txpower”. My other fonera had an ivalid ntpserver entry at crontab. For some reason it did not work with this setting. Now it works!
@chris: thanx for the feedback, finally something positive in here :)
@og: unfortunately i already dumped my bootlog, so i can’t compare to mine… maybe someone else can do it… it seems to be sort of a memory error… the new firmware ends at a different block and therefore something else gets scambled – somehow the whole thing needs to be erased and completely restructured. i looked in my demsg where it creates all the new partitions… seems to me all that needs to be recreated, too? sorry, my fonera is running ever since, haven’t gotten much deeper into it, i guess i can’t help you with it :/
good luck, maybe someone else reading these comments can give you a hint. i’d appreciate some feedback in case u manage to solve the issue – i might put it in the instructions if it is a commonly reproduceable problem…
tnx,
martin
Thanks for all the help. On post #57 where it says “iwconfig txpower” Don’t have to be in a different command other than redboot?
I just got my brothers router from him is there a way to dump the software in his and put it on mine?
no, but did u try this? http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/LaFonera_Software_Flashing#Reflashing_LaFonera_original_firmware
Thanks for the post tiagra. I just tried the link. When I follow all those steps and type exec at the end the router fully boots up. Then when I reboot it gives me error
== Executing boot script in 1.000 seconds – enter ^C to abort
RedBoot> fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
No image ‘vmlinux.bin.l7′ found
RedBoot> exec
Can’t execute Linux – invalid entry address
RedBoot>
Thanks
Thanks every one for the help. I have found the problem. I was typing vmlinux.bin.17 instead of vmlinux.bin.l7 On the l7 I was using 17. Now it work. Thanks again.
FYI for anyone who ran this command on there fon.
cd /tmp
wget http://fonera.info/camicia/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
mtd -e vmlinux.bin.l7 write openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma vmlinux.bin.l7
reboot
and now it won’t load up l7 not 17. it is a letter and number not two numbers
hey managed to follow your tut up to the point where i connect the fon via ethernet, where it goes crazy, just keeps spewing this lot out.
RedBoot> exec
Can’t execute Linux – invalid entry address
RedBoot> /home/lihong/Projects/MR3201A/src/Redboot/ecos/packages/devs/eth/mips/a
r531x/current/src/ae531xecos.c#632:ae531x_poll Bad receive. rxDesc=0x80037d50
cmdsts=0x004e830e
/home/lihong/Projects/MR3201A/src/Redboot/ecos/packages/devs/eth/mips/ar531x/cur
rent/src/ae531xecos.c#632:ae531x_poll Bad receive. rxDesc=0x80037d64 cmdsts=0x
00ee832a
Ethernet came out while i was executing this code
load -r -v -b 0×80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7
I think ive messed up beyond recovery
I have a problem with telnet. I followed this video tutorial: http://www.gettingpumped.com/users/d…era/fonera.htm. Everything happened according to the video, except the guy in the video got into redboot instantly. I got stuck at that part and I did everything up till that specific part properly. I am not able to telnet into the fon? Can someone guide me? perhaps add me on msn and give me some ideas. i would greatly appreciate it. I also have a bricked fon that i need assistance with. thanks in advance…
Hi
Anyone reckon I can load maybe the Siemens firmware into this device, it looks like a PFS file system ?
or maybe the Phillips firmware.
i had some errors on xmodem transfer, but as the xmodem protocoll uses crc, they were corrected by resending of packets.
anyhow, thank you a lot for this great howto.
besides, I have one remark for you: even if many companies claim so, and also FON does, the warranty is not voided if you open a device. Even not if there is any seal on the device claiming so. I just love the German law ;-)
hey, great that the howto helped you! looking at the latest comments a had the feeling that the world is made of bricked foneras and nothing will ever help again… thanx for your report, it will smooth my dreams :)
.m.
Hi tiagra
The reason i am asking if its possible to load other commercial FW onto this devices is plain curiosuty nothing else.
i have dd-wrt installed on my fon and its fine, but wanted to try some other commercial FW for this device.
but it seems it hasn’t ever been done.
you would need to find a comercial firmware that has been developed for exactly this piece have hardware. at least same CPU etc. then you’d probably have to build your own drivers for missing hardware, which – of course – should be possible in an open-source world. but in the end you’d have your own firmware and not some commercial. as easy as that: as long as no other company manufactures the exact same device with their own commercial firmware, you’ll never be able to do what you sugggested.
tiagra. it seems the fon is the same as
ACCTON MR3201A
FON FON2100A,B,C and F
Edge-Core WA3101
Philips SNR6500
SMC WEBT-G
Siemens Gigaset Wlan repeater 108
see http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Fon/Fonera
so i was looking tp ut either the simens or philips firmware on the device.. i just wasn’t sure as the philips seems to be using some other kind of firmware not based on linux.
Hi guys,
i had the same problem of veke (February 6th, 2007 at 5:14:42 pm)
i resolved the problem by injecting Ctrl+C code in the Fonera
i wrote a little article on my website see http://www.caouet.org/Fonera_Debriking
Hey guys, do I have to make a serial console?
Right now I can connect via ethernet crossover cable, when I telnet to fonera it gives me that “executing boot script enter ^C to abort”.
However, pressing ^C does nothing, it doesn’t bring me to redboot promt.
Here’s my console transcript:
Last login: Fri Apr 6 10:37:13 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
*******************:~ ethan$ telnet 192.168.1.254 9000
Trying 192.168.1.254…
telnet: connect to address 192.168.1.254: No route to host
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
*******************:~ ethan$ telnet 192.168.1.254 9000
Trying 192.168.1.254…
Connected to 192.168.1.254.
Escape character is ‘^]’.
== Executing boot script in 8.750 seconds – enter ^C to abort
^C
Connection closed by foreign host.
*******************:~ ethan$
Ethan, your telnet client doesn’t support CTRL+C, see comment above yours – it presents a possible solution to your problem.
No board config data found!
+PHY ID is 0022:5521
… waiting for BOOTP information
Ethernet eth0: MAC address b1:00:34:84:00:04
Can’t get BOOTP info for device!
RedBoot(tm) bootstrap and debug environment [ROMRAM]
Non-certified release, version v1.3.0 – built 16:57:58, Aug 7 2006
Copyright (C) 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
Board: ap51
RAM: 0×80000000-0×81000000, [0x80040450-0x80fe1000] available
FLASH: 0xa8000000 – 0xa87f0000, 128 blocks of 0×00010000 bytes each.
RedBoot>
What the heck happened? I have a serial connection using a DS275 chip. My other Fon runs fine, but this one decided to crap out on me.
hi, fo me it was load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} /rootfs.squashfs -m HTTP -h 192.168.178.34
i got alaway na error when i jus used rootfs.squashfs, the slash / in front of it was necessary for me
nico: yes, that depends on your webserver i guess… and where exactly you put it there :) anyway, nice that it worked out…
.m.
regarding the +5V: finding it in fonera is not a big deal … just use the one that comes directly from the power supply :) works perfect!
Hi, I have used a serial port data cable for the Siemens C55, and hooked it up to the Fonera. Everything seems to be working, the console gives output, except the output is made up of all weird characters like boxes, lines, weird letters and stuff. It’s almost as if it is using the wrong ASCII table.
I have tried different baud rates, different parity settings etc… but all i get is other weird characters…
Any ideas?
Hi Yako, that sounds very much like wrong baudrate to me… what kind of terminal program are you using? maybe even a font issue? :)) though i suppose ALL fonts support 7-bit ASCII… Sorry, I don’t know, can you compare the results with a proper serial adapter and the same software and/or the other way around? Thanx, Martin
Hi tiagra,
I have tried PuTTY and HyperTerminal on Windows, and they both give me the same. I also tried minicom on debian on a different PC, but that one doesn’t give me anything, just a blank screen.
I am using a MAX202 chip by the way, and I have quadriple checked that I have connected the Ground, TX and RX correctly to the Fonera.
I don’t have another serial adapter, so I haven’t tested it with other hardware. Any ideas?
Do I maybe need some modifications for the MAX202 chip?
Thanks and regards,
Hmm… do you have 100nF capacitors? Are they very close to the chip? Any sources of interference close to the chip? I honestly don’t have the faintest idea what else might be going wrong, if your circuit in general is set up properly…
Sorry,
Martin
Well I used a non-official Siemens C55 data cable. It has the MAX202 with capacitors embedded in the D-SUB connector. The wires attached to the PCB have been labeled, I connected those labeled GND, RX and TX to the Fonera.
By the way, I bricked the router using an “ipkg upgrade” mistake, which is of course stupid to do. But I think the thing is booting, as the Internet LED starts blinking after a while, and it stays on if I connect it to my laptop using an ethernet cable. But no telnet, ssh, http or anything.
So I hoped to save it using the serial console, but that might as well be broken… Though the bootloader should work as it tries to bring eth0 up. Is this true?
thanks,
Here’s a sample of the output it gives:
http://audiodragon.net/melon/uploads/fonera.txt
By the way, I also tested it with Gtkterm on a Kubuntu machine, same result
Well, it appeared I used a wrong cable. The MAX202 didn’t appear to work correctly in the end. So I ordered a DS232 (MAX232 equivalent) including capacitors and soldered my own cable. This worked, so my fonera is functional again! As original fonera with enabled shh, of course.
Thanks for the help though. :)
… nice, it seems to me that was my first guess :D good luck, original fonera with ssh enabled is the best anyway :)
.martin
Hello,
thanks for mantaining this useful site.
Concerning the TX Power tweak, I was wondering if it is possible to increase it ove 18 dbm instead of decreasing it. Do you think La Fonera could get up to 100mw?
Thanks
You’re welcome! Concerning TX-Power: Just try it! If i remember right, the tool won’t let you set values other than mentioned… i guess the Atheros chip itself would need to be flashed to a different firmware, if it is capable of delivering more power at all… Can’t help you with that, though, don’t know ANYthing about the chip’s specifics… :)
.martin
when happend this “update” from fon?
can you give me some date like nov06 or jan07
for example?
regards ulf
puh… i don’t remember. i think it was the update from rev1 to rev2 – look it up on the fon-website when it came out! :) not i have rev3 – which i accepted manually after checking the contents – and haven’t gotten anything else to far… for some months pretty quiet now :))
.martin
excuse me guy, i had changed my wiki url.
Now, the available url is : http://wiki.caouet.org/Fonera_Debriking
I also bricked my fon, by uploading HTTP errors, and trying to flash them instead of the actual vmlinux and root.fs files. I had done a right-click save-as with the HTTP links, which saved an error message, rather than the actual files. Not paying attention, I simply tossed them into my /tftpboot directory, and happily followed the instructions. I didn’t realize this until I got some sort of strange error, and investigated much further.
Some of the links in the instructions I followed at http://uselesshacks.com/?p=23 were out of date. I also substituted some of the initial unix bits to match my environment.
What I do is start up a ping to 192.168.1.254 in one window, and open another window, and start watching the timeouts. Then I power-up my fonera, and wait. When I see that the pings are being answered, I immediately start a telnet at port 9000, which gets me into redboot. Redboot asks me to hit Ctrl-C to abort the startup script, but when I do, the pings stop answering while the thing reboots.
I haven’t seen anything in this messageboard which states a solution. I am hoping that there is a method of hooking up a serial port, and feeding the flash and filesystem information over the serial port.
hmm… i wonder how you came here? the actual tutorial is ONLY about the serial port solution… see here: http://log.tigerbus.de/?page_id=98
ciao, martin
hi, i just bought a serial datacable for the siemens m 50 to connect to my la fonera.
in it there are cables in the following colors: organge white black green blue yellow.
i tried to conect it to my la fonera but it does not work. i used white for rx, organge for tx, black for gnd and red for vcc. how can i find out what the right combination is? thanks
hey, you can’t just go by the colors!! the colors are a pure coincidence, as i happened to have this kind of cable flying around! you should look at the pinpout of the M50 connector and check for RX, TX and GND lines! Look here: http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-P-W/siemens_c25_s25_pinout.shtml seems like you need 5,6 and 1. Good luck…
.martin
How do i debrick my fonera with this http://cgi.ebay.com/MAX232-RS232-Breadboard-Adapter-for-Basic-PIC-68HC-8051_W0QQitemZ260178351441QQihZ016QQcategoryZ4661QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem or and how do i connect the wires to it? Im soooo confused…
Hello :
I tried many times can’t “^C” to access Redboot. Do you know any reason ?
thanks !!
Hello!
I made my fonera successfully working with your instructions… Thank you at all!
I made a discrete interface (non IC, MAX, Dallas, etc.) found on DD-WRT.com, powered by the fonera 3,3V itself.
If you authorize me, I would gladly make a translation of your article in hungarian, and post on my logout.hu site [http://logout.hu/04ahgy]. Of course linking this original page.
I also make some addings, which I send you in english, if you require it. (And why don’t you do that? :D )
If your permission is granted, email me pls! Address: 04ahgy [at] gmail.com
Thank you, and everybody hav the same successes with FONERA, as me!
Bye-bye: HGyu
That picture could be better. Next time, photograph it more from above.
You also could mention pinnumbers somewhere:
1 VCC, 2 GND, 6 TXD, 8 RXD
Maybe you open your eyes next time – the pins are written ON the picture :P And yes… it could be better, but since the whole thing is just a by-product of my own investigations, nothing is perfect….
Maybe you open your eyes next time – the pins are written ON the picture :P And yes… it could be better, but since the whole thing is just a by-product of my own investigations, nothing is perfect. Thank you very nice article..