I have a wrt54GS v3 router with the latest openwrt whiterussian snapshot installed. The problem is when I do a mtd erase nvram;reboot. The router goes into failsafe mode. Is there a problem with my router or is it the firmware.

Erasing nvram is BAD. I seen routers which do not recreate all needed NVRAM variables. Normally CFE/PMON, the bootloader, will recreate the default set of variables. But this is not right, on some models it does not recreate all needed vars. To recreate all default vars, I always flash the original firmware.

May be we will adress this in OpenWrt HEAD, when we abstract from nvram use.

How about building a collection of nvram from default firmwares for various models to flash to the nvram?

I realized this too, when I installed openwrt (rc3) and erased my nvram on a WRT54g-v1.0
The longer story is, that nothing bad happened, but I think I found a bug in the
kernel's 'diag.o' module:

On a wrt54g-v1.0 the boardrev and types after (and before the erase) are:

boardtype=bcm94710dev
boardnum=42

The kernel's diag-modules says: diag boardtype: 0000041a

Now the kernel-source says:

buf=nvram_get("boardrev");
    if (((board_type & 0xf00) == 0x400) && strcmp(buf,"0x10")) {
     ...whatever - let's call it case-#1
   } else {
     ...something else - let's call it case #2
   }

So when 'boardrev' isn't set - it choses case-#2.
Doesn't seem a good choice, as the 'diag' module NEVER finishes loading:

root@OpenWrt:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P 
nfs                    90168   0 (unused)
lockd                  64060   0 [nfs]
sunrpc                 81464   0 [nfs lockd]
wlcompat               14688   0 (unused)
wl                    423640   0 (unused)
et                     32064   0 (unused)
diag                    2560   1 (initializing)
root@OpenWrt:~#

And as a consequence my red DIAG-led never goes out.
It permanently stays on... - simply because there is no /proc/sys/diag :-(
and by that /etc/init.d/S99done can't reset the LED.

Setting manually boardrev to '0x10'  changes things a bit:

the module indeed finishes loading, and creates the proc-entry,
but /etc/init.d/S99done still won't reset the LED, because it seems
like the proc-driver doesn't work at all... hmmm

Anyways - I can live with this .... simply because I'm too lazy
to debug the gpio-stuff for now - but if somebody has a quick shot - let me know.

on all models (linksys, asus, ...) or just the wrt54g(s) ?

bacause i erased the nvram on my new asus 500g deluxe ....

(Last edited by trebiani on 10 Oct 2005, 11:29)