I have searched everywhere.  Most of the links in the "getting started" section lead to pages that tell me they are coming soon.  And all the other information is greek to me.  I have a DIR615, and so far I have managed to understand I need the correct firmware (What one?) for my router, and optional packages (What do they do?) But not even what this firmware is capable of doing (I imagine it depends on the packages?)  Can someone either point me to a "for dummies" guide where all the links work, or point me in the right direction?
As to what I want to do (Because I know that's coming)  I want to play around with settings to see what I can do about range (Yes, I have read the "Common mistakes" section but I like to play around, and I assume that is targeted towards people that want to extend the range significantly, I need like 10 feet, plus, I like to play around.)  In addition, I would like to see what this thing can really do (I imagine other "packages")  Oh yes, and did I mention, I like to play around?

Please use DIR-615 for the search engine shake.
Don't forget to state hardware revision number, A1, B1, C1, E1, mostly unsupported hardware.
Good luck.

AFAICT, OpenWRT isn't meant to be for dummy to play around. If you want to play around, you are advised to prepare yourself a serial-console and/or JTAG cable for your device and plenty of time to spare. The reason is simply to play around can be dangerous to easily brick your device and these two cables will come handy to rescue.

Well, I am not a "dummy" I just find those kind of articles helpful.  They have a way of explaining things that is easy to understand.  The problem I encounter most often is that people that make these articles assume the reader has specific knowledge.  So I often find myself reading an article, and coming across terms I do not understand.  This forces me to search for another article, where again there are terms I do not understand.  The articles are not designed for people that know little or nothing about the subject, and make it difficult for people that do know little or nothing to get the knowledge.  The getting started section seemed to be a nice place to start, but all the links are "coming soon."  The last time I did something similar to this, I just needed to jump in head first and hope for the best. (It was with a cable modem, and I had a spare.)   Unfortunately I do not have a spare DIR-615, and really do not want to go and buy a new one.
And as far as the cables, I have already made and used with success a parallel jtag cable.  From the bit of incite I have gotten from this site, I would imagine the serial cable is only required if the router contains a serial port.  It does not.
So, since I have the jtag, does someone care to try and point me in the right direction?  Oh yes, It is hardware rev C1.

Humans has better use than search engine. Don't you know?
Trendnet TEW-632BRP, TEW-652BRP, DLink DIR-615 C1, CC WLN2206 working!
If you don't find a guide, you are free to create that missing guide. Don't wait for others do it for you.

Shadow Wizard (love the name by the way), why not ask about the various terms and things you don't understand? That way, we could better help.

Requesting things like a "for dummies" article and how to increase your range by increasing your xmit power might get rude responses from the others.

I feel in the same boat as the OP, so I'll put some questions forward:
- what is the easiest way to install openWrt on a router, like linksys wrt54gl, or trendnet tew-652brp?
- are there images that one can just use to upgrade via the web interface or should some modifications be done to them?

I have a similar WRT54GL question.  I have 3 WRT54GLs and one WRT54G ver 1.1.  I flashed all to Kamikazee 8.09.2. I was surprised to find they were all identified as type MAC80211 - and no wireless driver was loaded.  Is Broadcom replaced by MAC80211 now?  I did find MAC80211 support was removed from 8.09.2, so I reflashed all with 8.09.1.  Same result - all type MAC80211, no driver loaded. Once more to the well, I flashed all with 8.09.  This time there is a MAC80211 driver, and the WRT54GLs come up on wireless.  Still no driver on the WRT54G.
I flashed the WRT54G with the Linux 4.3 version of 8.09.  This time it is identified as type "broadcom', with a broadcom driver. /sbin/wifi up reports no wl device, and wireless does not work.
two questions: What release should I use for the WRT54G ver 1.1, and why does installation choose type MAC80211 when all should be broadcom?

Thanks! Robert Mitchell

As stated countless times there is no wireless support on Kernel 2.6 (bcm47xx) for 8.09.1 and 8.09.2rc2.

Use the brcm-2.4 images if you want wireless on Broadcom devices.

Regards,
JoW

Thanks much - but that does not really answer either of my questions you quoted.  Is MAC80211 the general replacement for the broadcom driver going forward?  And will it work for the WRT54GL in Kamikazee 8.09 on the 4.7 kernal?  I already figured out 8.09.1 and 8.09.2RC2 were not for me.
And no 8.09 release seems to work for the WRT54G ver 1.1, including the 4.3 kernal.

Robert Mitchell

1) What do you mean with 4.7 and 4.3 kernel? There is only Linux 2.4.x and Linux 2.6.x
2) Yes, MAC80211 is the new Linux wireless stack which will replace all present drivers some day, however it is only available for Linux 2.6 and does not support Broadcom hardware very well yet - at least no feature parity is reached yet, stuff like multi-SSID or WDS support is missing
3) For Broadcom hardware like the WRT54GL the brcm-2.4 variant of OpenWrt (using the old Linux 2.4 kernel) is the only viable solution atm
4) Broadcom dropped support for very old wifi chips in its proprietary driver, affecting those included in the WRT54G v1.1
5) OpenWrt can do nothing about the dropped support since the proprietary Broadcom wireless driver is strictly closed source and it is impossible to change or fix it
6) In theory there is a Linux 2.6 based open source driver supporting those very old wifi chips. It is called b43legacy.
7) The b43legacy driver is not supported yet by OpenWrt in any official release since it lacks stability, is missing features and was not well tested by the developers.

Conclusion: You can use either an older OpenWrt release like 7.09 (which is not supported anymore) or alternative firmwares like Tomato or DD-Wrt to operate those old WRT54G devices since they still use an older version of the proprietary driver

Thank you again - this gives me a plan.  Even though the WRT54GLs are sort-of working with the 2.6 kernel and MAC80211 I will drop back (forward) to the 8.09.1 release with the Linux 2.4 kernel. I will keep watching the forum to see when MAC80211 is ready for them. The WRT54G I will try the 7.09 release.  I did have it working there.

Your efforts are appreciated!  Just a lot of these combinations are trial and error for us - keep trying variations until we find one that works.  I have to be pretty stuck to ask here for help.

Robert Mitchell

Some payback:

WRT54GL v1.1 is happy with Kamikaze 8.09.1/brcm-2.4/openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx  - wireless works, broadcom driver, and LuCI is sweet
WRT54G v1.1 is happy with Kamikaze 7.09/brcm-2.4/openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx - wireless works, broadcom driver - no LuCI, 7.09 not supported

jow's post was great getting me here - I have not seen his information elsewhere.

Robert Mitchell

OpenWrt is not for dummies...