Hi,

I, with a very experienced hardware-oriented partner,  have turned a Motorola
WR850Gv3 into a brick.  We closely followed the instructions at

http://openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Installi … 305b71bdd1

After uploading openwrt-motorola-jffs2-8MB.trx using the original firmware's admin page,
the browser said upload complete and we power-cycled it.  The Power LED came up red and
the unit was unresponsive.

We then tried to "debrick" following the instructions in

http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=2048.

Note the flash memory chip in this unit is NOT "Intel", but "MX", but we followed the
same instructions.  After many connection timeouts with tftp we managed, with a
pushpin, to get a "Transfer successful" and waited 60s.  We powered it off and on,
and again got a red Power LED.  It responded to ping but not telnet.  It reports its
MAC address.  At this point the unit is always in tftp receive mode (no needle
necessary) and we can upload easily, but always get the same results (red LED,
no telnet), even with Motorola firmware.

Is it ruined?

Thanks,
Glenn

By way of follow-up to my own post.   Suspecting that trying to short then
pins on the flash chip may have damaged them, I looked at them with
a magnifying glass and tried to scratch out any debris between them
with a needle.   They look OK in that they don't touch each other and
are unbroken.   My thinking was that after transferring the firmware that
it could not be loaded into flash because of shorted pins.  However,
this had no effect on the problem:  I still get a red Power LED and no
telnet.

While I only have one data point, it seem that attempting to load
OpenWRT WhiteRussianRC2 on a Motorola WR850G is a risky thing---
fair warning.

Cheers,
Glenn

Hi there!
I think you should read my post here : http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=664&p=2 .
I assume it should answer your questions and help you.
Also , red power LED is ok , that how it behaves with that firmware.
Good Luck,
Fox Mulder.

If you are trying to flash RC2 again after an unsuccessful flash, OpenWRT doesn't reformat the jffs2 partitions, so there may be some unusable sections of code on the flash.  You will have to reflash with the orginal Motorola firmware MINUS the bytes before the "HDR0" in the file (use a Hex edit to remove these and save the file).   This is important!  The router will sit in a TFTP loop if you don't remove these bytes.

Using the Motorola firmware "reformats" the flash from an unseccessful OpenWRT flash.  If you are still unsuccessful after doing this, the next step would be to wire up a JTAG connector and erase the flash NVRAM and KERNEL sections before flashing with the Motorola or OpenWRT firmware.

kbj

Hey,

You guys are great.  I downloaded a hex editor (khexedit), which showed the
HRD0 on the first line (values 48 44 52 30, eight hex pairs from the beginning).
I put the cursor at the beginning, hit Delete eight times, and saved it under a
new name.

I then did the tftp, binary mode, to 192.168.10.1, and put the modified file in.
It blinked a lot while uploading, as usual, for about 9 seconds, after which I
got the "Sent 3076096 bytes in 9.2 seconds" message.  I waited patiently,
and about forty seconds later it seemed to reboot itself, and I saw a green
Power LED for the first time in a while.  I power-cycled it 30 seconds later.
Note it did not respond to pings or browser until I held the reset button down
for 7 seconds, but at that point it responded to pings and I could browse to
the admin pages.

Thank you very much!

Now, my plan was to use this router as an access point with OpenWrt, (if
access point is the right word---I want it to receive wireless signals and
be able to plug into its ethernet ports to get wired internet access).

I'm a little leery now.  Is there something missing from the instructions at

http://openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Installi … 305b71bdd1

after all, I followed the carefully, with a competent partner.  The only thing I
can think of is that while following those instructions, we power-cycled the
router when the web page said the installation was complete, which was
not as long as 45 seconds, as I recall, more like ten or twenty. 

Could that have been the problem?

Do I need to use an edited OpenWRT firmware file to do this right?

Was openwrt-motorola-jffs2-8MB.trx (renamed from .bin) the right file to use?

When we flashed originally, the router's WAN address was a
local fixed address with netmask 255.255.192.0---could that
have messed things up?  After restoring the firmware I was
surprised that it still remembered that WAN address on the
Internet/Basic admin page.

Cheers,
Glenn

Hi there again.
File you've used should be ok, but I actually used the squashfs version. Now, if you upload the file using
original "Firmware Update" option in motorola's web interface , you  should use the file you've downloaded from
openwrt and not the edited one.Edited version is for TFTP or the second method I've described before.
Also , that is normal that your router "recalled" some parameters.There is such thing as NVRAM that stores some variables, and that is why , after going back to original firmware few things were "restored" from NVRAM.
Anyway , before flashing your router again, you should use the advice and define it as 192.168.1.1 / 255.255.255.0 . Now , I don't know if you already got it, but that firmware doesn't have web interface, so you really should think twice before switching to openwrt. It was actually hard for me to start working with it, due to lack of
knowledge in Linux and so on...But the choice is yours.
Good Luck,
Fox Mulder.

Hi Fox,

Thanks for the reply.  I'm pretty confident that OpenWrt has the features
I'd like, and I'm comfortable with a command line interface.  My only
problem is that I'm having trouble getting it installed.  I'm not at all
clear as to why my first attempt failed.  Is there some reason I may
have better luck with the squashfs? 

Cheers,
Glenn

Well , for me it is pretty simple : I had no problems with squashfs on my Motorola while you had problems with jffs2. So IMO squashfs should work fine for you also.That is what I am thinking of.BTW , I passed to openwrt exactly as described in the link you posted above, using motorola's "Firmware Update" web interface.Later, when I had to go back to motorola's firmware I found out that changes have to be done to files in order to do that, but you already have both versions you might need.Also , some motorola owners run the general brcm-openwrt version on their router, but the reason they took it , as I know, was the fact that it was only version that worked through TFTP without editing it. I explained that in my post , if you recall. Well , if you have more questions that I can answer on , I'll be happy to help.
Best regards,
Fox Mulder.

Hi,

I am happy to report success with installing the squashfs on  my Motorola WR850Gv3.   I followed the directions as before, but this firmware worked.   I believe that the instructions at 

http://openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Installi … 305b71bdd1

are incorrect in suggesting that the jffs2 version will work.  Next I'll be looking at the client-mode how-to.

Thanks,
Glenn