OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Support for Marvell 88F5xx81 based routers

The content of this topic has been archived between 18 Jan 2014 and 6 May 2018. Unfortunately there are posts – most likely complete pages – missing.

@ginaug/Gino:
Not until there is an official stable release (or you build it yourself). The official releases include the LUCI web interface.
If you want to prepare yourself for OpenWrt, then first read this complete thread (takes time, but has lots of useful information) and check out the OpenWrt wiki.
Managing the configuration via "uci" without a web interface gives you all opportunities OpenWrt offers.
It will also make you feel more comfortable using OpenWrt, maybe even try out one of the betas I built (of course at your own risk).

Btw is it v2.0 or v2.1? What are the first 3 chars of its serial number?

(Last edited by maddes.b on 1 Sep 2009, 09:38)

Hello maddes.b

The serial starts with SNP and the label clearly indicates V.2
I've been following this thread for some time but as stated before, I'm not a wizzard when it comes to linux.
I have a number of these devices but I read so much about bricking and soldering serial cables and so on ...
So I'm a bit reluctant to beta testing smile
I will have some more patience.

Thank you for your reply.

Gino

Finally switched for X-Wrt and being happier than with luci smile
Is there an openvpn and samba management interfaces to x-wrt?

maddes.b: on your ftp there is a new, fresh build 17456 for our WRT350, should I upgrade from my version to this one? If do, short help would be appreciated as I can't find the one that was in this thread already (upgrading within openwrt).

maddes.b wrote:

The only person with remaining problems is andrewm1973

Was all my fault.

When I re-opened the unit to hook up UART I noticed that I had not plugged mini-pci in correctly

It now has wireless.

I have purchased two new units.  I will do the wole recording/logging of MTD stuff before I flash them so you know about the V2.1 AUS.

BTW all 3 of mine are
WRT350N-AU
V2.1
FW 2.00.17
SN SNQ10Hxxxxxx

Would you also like Hi-Res photos of a V2.1 to compare?  I am going to have the get the lid off one of the new ones to hook up UART for the logging.

Also probably have the lid off unit number one this weekend to desolder/resolder a memory upgrade.

On that note are either Heji or Kmper still around?  I am not scared at all of the soldering (I can do TSOP packages in my sleep).  I am a bit worried about patching uboot though.  With luck my MTDBlock4 will look identical to Kmpers one in this post.

Seems that all v2.1 devices have SNQ serials and that their hardware is compatible to v2.0.
Therefore v2.1 support seems to be already done.

@andrewm1973
Please do some photos. If you do not have any web space, then I can give you temporary access to my ftp space to upload the pics and the logs.
Good luck with your 128MB upgrade. Unfortuantely Kmper didn't state a size and checksum of his original u-boot image.

(Last edited by maddes.b on 1 Sep 2009, 18:46)

@domadm:
The new builds are just new builds. If everything is working on your router, then stay with it.
Otherwise check out the changes between your version (17399 I assume) and the new builds.
Upgrading within OpenWrt is described in #376. It will try to keep your configuration, but additional packages have to be re-installed.

If I remember correctly there is a OpenVPN plugin for X-Wrt, but it was client only. Just try it.
Do not know of any Samba plugin for OpenVPN.

(Last edited by maddes.b on 1 Sep 2009, 18:49)

Ahahaha just when I gave up on the WRT350N and got a Belkin N1 Vision (Keep It Simple, Stupid) ya put some web upgrade images up for complete n00bs like myself!!

I even figured out how to set a root password! The only experience with Linux I have is my TomTom lol!

Great work so far. It will be good to see WirelessN support. I could only get 54g with Luci. Bear in mind I'm a WRT virgin...

It really is good to see some progress. Keep up the great work!

Just to mention that I have successfully flashed my v2.1 unit (bought in France, s/n SNQ10Hxxxxxx, fw 2.00.19) with maddes webugrade image (version 17456).
Everything seem to work fine, including wlan !

For reference, here is my wlan configuration:

# uci show wireless
wireless.wlan0=wifi-device
wireless.wlan0.type=mac80211
wireless.wlan0.country=fr
wireless.wlan0.disabled=0
wireless.wlan0.hwmode=11bg
wireless.wlan0.channel=7
wireless.wlan0.txpower=20
wireless.@wifi-iface[0]=wifi-iface
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].device=wlan0
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].network=lan
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].mode=ap
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].ssid=MyOwnSsid
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].encryption=psk2
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].hidden=1
wireless.@wifi-iface[0].key=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you to all contributors that have made this possible!

DaBigMac wrote:

My router has been bricked for 6 months, or more.. week by week I fought with it. Finally I've managed to get into the uboot console, after months of having no boot wait. (I solved that by using a non-usb serial cable)

Can you explain how you solved that in a bit more detail?

drizzt81 wrote:
DaBigMac wrote:

My router has been bricked for 6 months, or more.. week by week I fought with it. Finally I've managed to get into the uboot console, after months of having no boot wait. (I solved that by using a non-usb serial cable)

Can you explain how you solved that in a bit more detail?

from reading it - it sounds like his USB-UART converter would not work fast enough to catch the bootwait.  Changing to a real UART allowed him to get it back.

andrewm1973 wrote:
drizzt81 wrote:
DaBigMac wrote:

My router has been bricked for 6 months, or more.. week by week I fought with it. Finally I've managed to get into the uboot console, after months of having no boot wait. (I solved that by using a non-usb serial cable)

Can you explain how you solved that in a bit more detail?

from reading it - it sounds like his USB-UART converter would not work fast enough to catch the bootwait.  Changing to a real UART allowed him to get it back.

Is there a specific key that I would need to press in order to catch the boot wait, if I do not see it?

Here is my current terminal output

         __  __                      _ _
        |  \/  | __ _ _ ____   _____| | |
        | |\/| |/ _` | '__\ \ / / _ \ | |
        | |  | | (_| | |   \ V /  __/ | |
        |_|  |_|\__,_|_|    \_/ \___|_|_|
 _   _     ____              _
| | | |   | __ )  ___   ___ | |_
| | | |___|  _ \ / _ \ / _ \| __|
| |_| |___| |_) | (_) | (_) | |_
 \___/    |____/ \___/ \___/ \__|  ** LOADER **
 ** MARVELL BOARD: RD-88F5181L-VOIP-GE LE

U-Boot 1.1.1 (Dec 12 2006 - 16:12:22) Marvell version: 1.7.3

DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000   size  32MB
DRAM Total size  32MB
Flash: mvFlashInit base 0xff800000 devW 1 busW 1
Flash: flashStructGet manu 0xec id 0xe0
Flash: flashStructGet flash is supported.
FLASH: initFlashSecs TOP Sector Type
Flash: flashSecsInit main sector loop 0 - 127
[8192kB@ff800000] Flash:  8 MB
Addresses 20M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (20M - 16M): Done
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment


Soc: MV88F5181 Rev 9
CPU: ARM926 (Rev 0) running @ 500Mhz
SysClock = 166Mhz , TClock = 166Mhz


USB 0: host mode
PCI 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PCI 1: Conventional PCI, speed = 33000000
Net:   mvEgigaLoad: egiga0 load ok
egiga0 [PRIME]

***************DRIVER INFO*****************

DRIVER BUILD DATA: Jan  9 2007 at 18:25:44
DRIVER VERSION 1.06

*******************************************
dbSign is:65:52:63:4f:6d:4d
mac address in flash is:00:1a:70:9c:52:16
have eRcOmM
Firmware is damaged,enter download mode
mvEgigaLoad: egiga0 load ok
egiga0 [PRIME]

mvEgigaInit: egiga0 init - mvBoardPhyAddrGet()=0x0 , priv->port =0x0
ring full
mvEgigaInit: egiga0 complete ok
In download function
 mac address:00:1a:70:9c:52:16
Pin:33.34.35.38.30.31.31.30

I recovered from this using the SerialComm updater with a WinXP machine.
Step-by-step instructions:
1. Download and install the SerialComm utility
2. Download the full_image from this post
3. (optional)Connect serial console to router and boot up router
4. Connect a LAN cable directly between router and Laptop (no intermediate HW)
5. Start the SerialComm utility and point it to your wired LAN connection used in step 4
6. Point SerialComm to the full_image.bin you downloaded in step 2
7. Ignore the warning about "older version". If your router was running a new firmware before bricking, flashing the full_image from that posts will "downgrade" it to revision .17
8. Hit the "flash" button in SerialComm and get some coffee
9. AFTER a successfull flash, you may need to power cycle the router

Cheers and thanks for all the help!

(Last edited by drizzt81 on 7 Sep 2009, 10:16)

@drizzt81:
Glad to see you have a working serial access.

Your router is currently in "download mode", a special Sercomm recovery method.
I never needed to use that method, but there are some people that had (see #343 and #352).
If you succeed with "download mode", please add missing or additional information about it in your post. Thanks.

You can also use a "wrt350n.bin" file from a stock firmware release (see #378).
relghuar's full-image.bin from #188 is identical to the "wrt350n.bin" of the 2.00.17 stock firmware.

(Last edited by maddes.b on 3 Sep 2009, 18:11)

andrewm1973 wrote:
drizzt81 wrote:
DaBigMac wrote:

My router has been bricked for 6 months, or more.. week by week I fought with it. Finally I've managed to get into the uboot console, after months of having no boot wait. (I solved that by using a non-usb serial cable)

Can you explain how you solved that in a bit more detail?

from reading it - it sounds like his USB-UART converter would not work fast enough to catch the bootwait.  Changing to a real UART allowed him to get it back.

Andrew is exactly correct.. For what ever reason, before I flashed the firmware, my USB cable was fast enough, but then, with NO OTHER CHANGES, I was suddenly unable to catch it in time..

The switch to a proper DB9 serial port RS232 TTL cable solved all my problems. In case you are interested, in this thread, there has been some discussion on the modification of dinosaurable old Nokia serial cables to suit this purpose. Otherwise I can provide links to the (Chinese) website I bought mine from.. (yes, I live in China).

The specific key to interrupt uBoot is the 'Enter' key. Good luck! If you have no luck finding a cable locally, perhaps I can post you one internationally.. You've done some work towards the cause of getting this router functioning, so I don't mind donating.. Let me know via PM perhaps?

You can also find them on ebay and other electronics stores - search for MAX232 or "serial ttl".

(Last edited by Watha on 5 Sep 2009, 17:36)

Watha wrote:

You can also find them on ebay and other electronics stores - search for MAX232 or "serial ttl".

You MUST also make absolutely sure that the cable is designed for 3.3v devices. Bad things happen otherwise.. Thus perhaps a search for 'serial ttl 3.3v' would be a better bet, or 'rs232 ttl 3.3v'.

(Last edited by DaBigMac on 6 Sep 2009, 01:18)

Using a cellular cable serial to 3v3 TLL level converter discussion originates in the NSLU2 Wiki from there, near the half of the page, are all the links you need and brief description (how to) of 6 commercially available cellular cables that do the job (debrick a Netgear WNR854T in my case).
I got mine (Nokia CA-42 clon) for 5.20 USD at 2 blocks from home!

I need advise: I found a cheap 200mW a/b/g Senao NL-3054MP Plus MiniPCI, not sure if Atheros or Conexant/Intersil PrismGT chipset. Will it work anyway? Is there any newly/maintained chipset preference list?

The Marvell 88W8361P mini-PCI thats come with the router needs "Libertas" 88W83xx 'mrv8k' driver and binary firmware 'mrv8k-b.fw' developed for the OLPC and not maintained since year 2005. If I understood right, community blame Marvell's guys maintainers for not push patches upstream, others says that 'mrv8k-b.fw' taints kernel, but everybody agree "lets Marvell's guys work". Also found on ASUS WL530g trunk.
Is there any fork or could we [s]take[/s] have the broken driver in trunk to do something? Or there is nothing we can do?

Edit: Ongoing development found here and here so there is some hope.

config LIBERTAS_THINFIRM_USB
    ---help---
      A driver for Marvell Libertas 8388 USB devices using thinfirm.

config MWL8K
    tristate "Marvell 88W8xxx PCI/PCIe Wireless support"
    depends on MAC80211 && PCI && WLAN_80211 && EXPERIMENTAL
    ---help---
      This driver supports Marvell TOPDOG 802.11 wireless cards.

      To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module
      will be called mwl8k.  If unsure, say N.

(Last edited by Nilfred on 7 Sep 2009, 07:50)

Is it possible to get blinking leds with wrt350n v2?

LuHe wrote:

Is it possible to get blinking leds with wrt350n v2?

The lights for the ethernet ports blink for me, although not the wireless or USB leds.

Leds on WNR854T OpenWrt Kamikaze bleeding edge, r17427:
The power led should change from orange to green at "press reset now to enter failsafe" prompt? It's always orange.
Wan led is always orange and doesn't blink on activity at 100Mbps link. Should blink to off on activity.
Wireless led is off. Fine because I don't have a compatible wlan card. Should be blue if radio is on, I never see it blinking on stock firmware.
Network is always green and blinks orange on activity at 100Mbps link. Should be orange and blink to off on activity BTW the green led should be turned off and is all fine.
Network at 1Gbps link should be green and blink to off on activity. Untested, will report actual result later.
Wan at 1Gbps link should be green and blink to off on activity. Untested, will report actual result later.

Drizzt81's list of stupid things not to do:

1. running opkg upgrade semi-bricked my router (serial access still worked), but no network interfaces were available
... to be continued

drizzt81 wrote:

Drizzt81's list of stupid things not to do:

1. running opkg upgrade semi-bricked my router (serial access still worked), but no network interfaces were available
... to be continued

What packages did it upgrade? The kernel modules from the main repository aren't compatible with maddes.b's kernels - I found that out when I installed kmod-ipv6 and it kernel panicked. That was fun to fix, particularly as Ctrl-C to enter failsafe mode didn't work (5516 perhaps?) and I had about 5 seconds at the shell before it panicked on boot.

Other questions - has anyone got two SSIDs working? I tried to configure it, but neither appeared - I guess uci doesn't completely work with mac80211 yet? Also, is it possible to reconfigure the switch? I don't personally need to, but it does appear to be missing.

Watha wrote:

What packages did it upgrade? The kernel modules from the main repository aren't compatible with maddes.b's kernels

base-files was part of it, iirc. So that makes a lot of sense.

Watha wrote:

Other questions - has anyone got two SSIDs working? I tried to configure it, but neither appeared - I guess uci doesn't completely work with mac80211 yet? Also, is it possible to reconfigure the switch? I don't personally need to, but it does appear to be missing.

as an openWRT noob, I am not even able to get a single WLAN working, below is my config. I was under the impression that this device had an Atheros chipset, yet LuCI defaults to 80211mac. I'd love to see how other people have gotten Wireless to work.

root@Wrt350n:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config 'wifi-device' 'wlan0'
        option 'type' 'mac80211'
        option 'disabled' '0'
        option 'channel' '9'

config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device' 'wlan0'
        option 'network' 'lan'
        option 'mode' 'ap'
        option 'encryption' 'none'
        option 'ssid' 'TestWlan'
config 'wifi-device' 'wlan0'
        option 'type' 'mac80211'
        option 'disabled' '0'
        option 'channel' '6'

config 'wifi-iface'
        option 'device' 'wlan0'
        option 'network' 'lan'
        option 'mode' 'ap'
        option 'ssid' 'Beamflash'
        option 'encryption' 'psk'
        option 'key' 'secret'

is what I have, and it also worked with no encryption. I did configure it using luci, not by editing the files directly, but I don't think that should make any difference.

Hi,

Serial No.: SNQ****
Hardware Version 2.1 (EU)

i used the webupgrade from Linksys Firmware (*.17) to  Kamikaze r17465 from maddes ftp.
Everything works fine. The attached 500 GB HDD works well with Samba3.
the client mode for wlan also works pretty well. (Everything configured with luci)

Now i want to setup an additional wlan to connect with my laptop. When i set it up like i did on my Linksys wrt54GL both modes (the client mode and the AP) wlan won't work.

Any hints?

(Last edited by Polly on 8 Sep 2009, 07:55)

maddes.b wrote:

Created sysupgrade support for WRT350Nv2.
So when OpenWrt is installed, then upgrading to a new snapshot, with keeping the uci config, is as simple as:

sysupgrade [-v] http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/orion/openwrt-wrt350nv2-squashfs.img

Even going back to the original firmware is easy:

sysupgrade -n [-v] /tmp/wrt350n.bin

You'll get an erase error as the flash image (0x00800000) is bigger than the "image" mtd partition (0x00760000), but this is no issue.

Tried using sysupgrade, results as follows

root@OpenWrt:/# sysupgrade [-v] http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ori
on/openwrt-wrt350nv2-squashfs.img
Firmware upgrade is not implemented for this platform.

Did I do something wrong? I used the firmware posted on your ftp site..