Hey guys!

Today my brandnew WRT160NL arrived and the first thing I did was changing the firmware to OpenWRT. It's been a while using this firmware, on my WRT54GS I used dd-wrt.

I want to use my new router as a simple repeater for a dlink router with WEP encryption for now until our new cable provider switches us on. For this I have to change the stock firmware to something else, so I came back to OpenWRT because it's the only 3rd party firmware available for it right now.

So I downloaded "openwrt-ar71xx-wrt160nl-squashfs.bin    28-Aug-2009 00:26" from here: http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/ar71xx/ and got at least the basic system up and running, but without a working webif and no wifi-support (no wlan0 interface showing up).

In the forums I read somehing about that I have to build my own firmware on a buildsystem, but I gues that's a bit too much for me. Can someone provide me a ready-to-go build of the newest trunk version with wifi and maybe a webif?

This woud be great, I appreciate your help in advance!

So long,
BlackWizard

I also had read the exploitation thread front to back numerous times trying to piece it together and this is also where I am stuck. No where in that thread do they direct to a howto or anything on build yourself.

I am fully willing and capable of getting this done in terms of complexity and willingness to work at it, but without having details on the process I am up in the air.

While it seems like there are some good and active members in this community it does not seem as welcoming as some others. Also by active I mean they get things done, but for themselves and rarely go about finishing documentation. Such as with the WRT160NL the information spread about and the incomplete docs can make an newcomer see easy opportunity, but then are stuck with the reality that they need to start new.

Anyways I am going to try and learn this whole system of building images and such and will update you if I get anything together.

I'm going to take a crack at this too. Here's the stuff I am using so far:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/inbox/wrt160nl

http://wiki.openwrt.org/inbox/howto.build.openwrt

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/build … g.packages

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/build … l.commands

fwiw, I'm doing this on a Fedora 11 x86_64 box.

I'm building now, so we'll hopefully have some results soon.

oh, the build I am trying is:

$ svn info
Path: .
URL: svn://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt/trunk
Repository Root: svn://svn.openwrt.org/openwrt
Repository UUID: 3c298f89-4303-0410-b956-a3cf2f4a3e73
Revision: 17590
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: agb
Last Changed Rev: 17589
Last Changed Date: 2009-09-15 03:19:32 -0700 (Tue, 15 Sep 2009)

Read existing thread again please.

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=20298

Both the wifi & Luci issues are discussed there.  If you do not have wifi it's because you didn't compile with WRT160NL profile.  At least once I had to clean my SVN tree out and start fresh.

(Last edited by vincentfox on 15 Sep 2009, 21:47)

If you can point me to ANY other piece of hardware with a more complete Wiki page than this please do:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/inbox/wrt160nl

If you want to contribute to the project with code or documentation have at it, there is nothing stopping you beyond your ability & free time to spend on a project that in a few years will be forgotten.  I've spent a great many hours collating information and posting it, and there have been a handful of other excellent posters as well.  Then there's been at least a half-dozen threads where plainly people didn't read the 10-ish pages of the original WRT160NL thread and post:

"Wifi no worky for me, please fix"
"I bricked it and don't want to spend $5 hacking on a serial console, how to fix?"

It's discouraging from our side if you see my point.   I need to go edit the Wiki page to state in big letters BLEEDING EDGE TRUNK FLASH AT PERIL OF YOUR LIFE & IMMORTAL SOUL.

(Last edited by vincentfox on 15 Sep 2009, 22:08)

I have formulated a bit on this issue, but I agree that the existing thread is the way to go for now due to the "bleeding" edge issue. No need to polute with multiple threads on parts covered in one, you just cause the main one to fall down and away from sight.

Haha, vincentfox I caught your reply and read it then refreshed and noticed a slight* change...

Mainly what I was stating is that I am very energetic with projects I involve myself with and with my background in support documentation I have a desire for details that are for the lowest denom. Where it came in wasn't exactly just this hardware, but the OpenWRT references such as "build" or "compile" an "image" with the "profile" to get it to work. Well little was said that you need a development environment using something like VMWare with an OS like Ubuntu that contains the parts (packages) to "make" an image.

I know how to do it now and am playing and will be making suggestions, but I just thought if the image building with the profile is a required step to get wifi then maybe some links to howto's could have been made.

I'm good now though and really my "some good and active members" line referred to you for this project mainly.

As a side note I found a foreign thread about the wrt160nl and wifi that I may make reference after I sort out some of the translation.

Sry fox if any offense was made...

Very detailed documentation for lowest denominator reader is appropriate for a finished project, which is not this one.  You are early, but there is no penalty for that beyond being informed that you are early.  If you want to make it more finished, jump in.

AFAIK nobody has donated a WRT160NL to the actual official developers and we are all off noodling at this on our own free time.  I could be wrong, my own involvement in this project goes in spurts, I go great guns for some days spend every free moment investigating some point that caught my attention, and then don't touch it or read forums for 2-3 weeks at a time.  There are several major missing bits from it being finished not least of which is working failsafe.

I got interested in the WRT160NL and started the thread HERE on OpenWRT after reading a forum-thread on DD-WRT which had good information but went on for many tens of pages and kept repeating itself or wandering off into speculation or half-right (bad) information.  Hence I amassed everything I could into a forum thread, then transferred knowledge into Wiki page with CORRECT information not wrong ideas like "you can use Cisco-router console cable in WAN port for serial console" just to list one recurring mistaken idea.  At least OpenWRT has people spending time fussing over doing a hardware page for the device which is CORRECT and has lots of details which I don't see in any other project.   Frankly a lot of the hardware Wiki pages I see out there in firmware-land are really awful.  I like that the nuWiki people here drafted a decent hardware template page and wish more people would follow it when they create an entry for new hardware.  I am not crazy about the state of nuWiki migration but what to do about that?

(Last edited by vincentfox on 15 Sep 2009, 22:52)

ran into the same issue as this guy, and used his fix (thanks!):

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=94366

This also looks pretty helpful:

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=16599