Will not boot
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Here is what killed it. http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/extroot
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I think in order to boot from USB we'll need to modify the uboot. For now you will need to restore the Omega. Did you order an ethernet expansion?
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@Boken-Lin No. I only have the mini dock, but will order whatever I need to get this done.
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You'll need the Expansion Dock and Ethernet Expansion.
They can be ordered from our online store.
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Hello,
Has the guide to working with the expansion dock to flash it been posted yet? If so, can it be linked here. Thank you
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@Daniel-Anner There's no way to flash a bricked Omega with just the expansion dock. You will also require the ethernet expansion.
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@Boken-Lin I already have the Ethernet expansion. I just need the guide to flashing the bricked omega
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@Daniel-Anner I don't have the guide written yet. We will make sure we do that next week.
For the time being, here is a short guide:
- Ensure that the Expansion dock is in the OFF position
- Plug ethernet expansion to the expansion dock
- Connect your computer to the Omega with the ethernet expansion via ethernet cable
- Connect the micro USB cable to the Expansion Dock
- Start serial terminal
- Switch the Expansion dock to ON position
- At this point you will see some text appear in your serial terminal IMMEDIATELY PRESS ANY KEY ON YOUR COMPUTER. This will interrupt the normal booting sequence and put you into the uboot.
- Type httpd to start the httpd service in uboot. A message should tell you that a server is hosted in 192.168.1.1.
- Open up the browser on your computer, and navigate to http://192.168.1.1, here you will see an interface that allows you to upload and re-flash the firmware.
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@Boken-Lin said:
@Daniel-Anner I don't have the guide written yet. We will make sure we do that next week.
For the time being, here is a short guide:
- Ensure that the Expansion dock is in the OFF position
- Plug ethernet expansion to the expansion dock
- Connect your computer to the Omega with the ethernet expansion via ethernet cable
- Connect the micro USB cable to the Expansion Dock
- Start serial terminal
- Switch the Expansion dock to ON position
- At this point you will see some text appear in your serial terminal IMMEDIATELY PRESS ANY KEY ON YOUR COMPUTER. This will interrupt the normal booting sequence and put you into the uboot.
- Type httpd to start the httpd service in uboot. A message should tell you that a server is hosted in 192.168.1.1.
- Open up the browser on your computer, and navigate to http://192.168.1.1, here you will see an interface that allows you to upload and re-flash the firmware.
There is not DHCP under boot loader, so before step 9 make sure you manually configure your computer with the same subnet as Omega. For example: 192.168.1.2, netmask 255.255.255.0
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Is there a way to do this rescue procedure with the mini dock. So long as uboot's core issue is that it fails and needs a reflash, is there any way to add a rescue method besides httpd?
Nominally, as it stands right now, there should be a way to boot from USB itself, right? Is there a flashable image we can put to usb drive, and boot from that instead of ROM image?
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@Theodore-Borromeo There is a tftpboot option, though it requires a different format than the BIN file we're given for firmware updates.
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@Andrew-Donnelly Do you know if there are any ways to convert a BIN file into a format that can be accepted by tftpboot?
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@Boken-Lin Not from this format, I'm going to dig into the new firmware file's structure and see if I can't find the updated version of U-Boot and extract it, I figure if I can get that to load over tftpboot, then I could possibly trigger the httpd from that and upgrade.
Update: I tried extracting the U-Boot from the working Omega and tftpbooting that on the bricked one, and no dice, "Bad Magic Number" same as the rest of my attempts.
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@Andrew-Donnelly What magic number is it referring to? Is that just some number that we've set up as a part of the build process to identify the firmware?
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@Andrew-Donnelly what is the format it requires? I'm pretty sure tftpboot can accept a bin, uImage or ELF executable. The biggest issue, I would think, is figuring out the hex offset that said images/binaries would need to be flashed at. . . @Boken-Lin can probably assist in that via contact with the manufacturers or a priori knowledge of the platform's memory layout
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@Theodore-Borromeo Our firmware flashes at 0X20000
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@Tom-Karickhoff This won't work as you're still booting from the same 0x9F020000 address (the internal image)
Could we see if: http://www.chtaube.eu/kb/openwrt/debrick_tp-link_router
contains a method that mini dock (or all non-ethernet expansion docks) can use? Serial communication should be possible with all docks, and so long as we have the boot sector and offset, we should be able to erase then load a new binary, correct?
This may work as a short term solution until usb support is baked into uboot. . .
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@Boken-Lin OK, so some quick googling shows an intrepid coder that is doing support for a firmware image based on Uboot 1.1.4 and AR9331 chipsets to imbue them with web failsafes (sound familiar).
His project is at: https://github.com/pepe2k/u-boot_mod
and he has modified sources provided from the release of tp-link and dlink routers:
http://www.tp-link.com/en/gpl-code.html <-- TP-Link's WR740N v4 download was tested
http://tsd.dlink.com.tw/downloads2008detail.asp <-- DLINK's DIR-505 (similar AR1311 chipset)Worse comes to worse, you should be able to glean the base configurations/settings necessary to build from source using the 1.1.4 tag w/o any special modifications, right?
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@Theodore-Borromeo said:
@Andrew-Donnelly what is the format it requires? I'm pretty sure tftpboot can accept a bin, uImage or ELF executable. The biggest issue, I would think, is figuring out the hex offset that said images/binaries would need to be flashed at. . . @Boken-Lin can probably assist in that via contact with the manufacturers or a priori knowledge of the platform's memory layout
I got that far, but when I flashed the U-Boot was still looking in the wrong location and throws bad magic number when I try to boot from that location. I want to quickly confirm with devs if the firmware image that I listed on this post is indeed cleared to be flashed to this hardware, and if so, just start writing it at 20000?
I work on the hardware and OS sides of the equipment, I don't normally do programming other than flashing systems from boot. We use a modified version of U-Boot at work too with some extra tools built in, the httpd server is a great public alternative to what we have baked into ours.
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@Andrew-Donnelly I can confirm that if you have a stable firmware compiled for the Omega, you can just write it at 0x20000. That's what's typically done by the httpd server within uboot anyways.
