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Topic: dead after flashing wr703n

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Hi,

I have a tp-link wr703n Router and flashed the openwrt Firmware. Thema flash process works without Problems. After restarting Thema Router there ins Nov access via telnet. When i ping Thema 192.168.1.1 there ins Nov response.
I tried The failsafe Mode and Set The IP an my Computer To 192.168.1.2, but no access via telnet.
After that i tried it with tftp gut also no access.

DOS anybody know a way to reanimate The Router?

Beste regards,
Thorsten

Hello,

I seem to be having the same issues as wurm_der_meister. I installed the firmware on my Wr703n router on sunday 12/09. I downloaded from the squashfs-factory.bin link on the TPLink wr703n page. I am not sure if it was a snapshot or not at that time the link now points to 12.09-beta.  Anyway, I followed the general instructions and flashed the router from the Chinese web interface. After that the router became totally unreachable.

1. The leds appear to blink as normal and the router gets a solid blue LED, so it looks like its booted. However its unreachable.

2. Tried ethernet telnet with static IP, tried dhcp telnet, tried ping, tried it as a client and an ap, looked for a wifi network.

3. Did a tcpdump and at no time does the router ever communicate anything, in failsafe or otherwise.

4. I put it into failsafe mode, and it blinks the led rapidly. However I am still unable to reach the router. Same as wurm_der_meister

5. Tried soldering a serial port and it still doesn't show anything. Occasionally I can get it to send some garbage characters but generally when it boots nothing shows up over the serial. I am pretty sure it was done correctly as I have done it successfully before.

6. On a whim I tried using a serial to usb converter on the usb port, but I think you need the kmod installed for that. It would be a nice way to recover a wr703n router without soldering if the serial converter kmods were in by default.

Has any one else tried this version with the wr703n? Is there something fatally wrong with it, or did something go wrong when I flashed it? I am dying to know whats going on with this router, I really want to see the dmesg output. I have bricked them before and usually they don't boot, and can't enter failsafe, but this one can do both, but is still unreachable. The serial port is the most frustrating because that is almost guaranteed to work. Its always possible I soldered it wrong, but my multimeter says the connections are good, and it looks good to me. Ideas?

(Last edited by nullBoundary on 13 Dec 2012, 05:05)

I have connected The serial Port to my Computer and flashed The original firm. Everything works fine again. I tried The openwrt again and The Ethernet Port doesn't work. I have read that there is a Hardware Version 1.7 which doesn't work with The  openwrt or there is a modified Version. Can anybody confirm that?

If fact i was about to ask your hw version.. Please post full serial bootlog!

Also, is it the case to put a big WARNING in wiki page???

Anyway if you have 1.7 that is not listed in wiki maybe you should have asked if someone already tested it!

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 13 Dec 2012, 22:08)

hi,
i just got 2 703n routers
flashed one with my own compiled squashfs openwrt, and the other with an older compiled version that worked before.
anyway, non of the routers are accessible now, i tried fail-safe, it blinks faster, but yet, no reply from 192.168.1.1

the router version is 1.6
Current software version: 3.14.4 Build 120925 Rel.33144n
Current hardware versions: WR703N v1 00000000

openwrt seems that it does not work on this router.
please check this version before flashing, if you are successful, please let me know what is the procedure !

thanks, i am stuck!!!

I don't know the real HW-Version. On the PCB is 1.1 printed. On the case there is 1.6 and in the inside there is a sticker with 1.7.
Here is the serial boot log

<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep 25 2012 - 09:04:47)<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>AP121 (ar9330) U-boot<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>DRAM:  32 MB<\r>
<\n>led turning on for 1s...<\r>
<\n>id read 0x100000ff<\r>
<\n>flash size 4194304, sector count = 64<\r>
<\n>Flash:  4 MB<\r>
<\n>Using default environment<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>In:    serial<\r>
<\n>Out:   serial<\r>
<\n>Err:   serial<\r>
<\n>Net:   ag7240_enet_initialize...<\r>
<\n>No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address<\r>
<\n>No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address<\r>
<\n>: cfg1 0x5 cfg2 0x7114<\r>
<\n>eth0: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad<\r>
<\n>ag7240_phy_setup <\r>
<\n>eth0 up<\r>
<\n>: cfg1 0xf cfg2 0x7214<\r>
<\n>eth1: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad<\r>
<\n>athrs26_reg_init_lan<\r>
<\n>ATHRS26: resetting s26<\r>
<\n>ATHRS26: s26 reset done<\r>
<\n>ag7240_phy_setup <\r>
<\n>eth1 up<\r>
<\n>eth0, eth1<\r>
<\n>Autobooting in 1 seconds<\r>
<\n>## Booting image at 9f020000 ...<\r>
<\n>   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>Starting kernel ...<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Linux version 3.3.8 (blogic@Debian-60-squeeze-64-minimal) (gcc version 4.6.3 20120201 (prerelease) (Linaro GCC 4.6-2012.02) ) #2 Mon Sep 3 17:51:18 UTC 2012<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] CPU revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] SoC: Atheros AR9330 rev 1<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:400.000MHz, DDR:400.000MHz, AHB:200.000MHz, Ref:25.000MHz<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000]  memory: 02000000 @ 00000000 (usable)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Zone PFN ranges:<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000]   Normal   0x00000000 -> 0x00002000<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Movable zone start PFN for each node<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Early memory PFN ranges<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000]     0: 0x00000000 -> 0x00002000<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 8128<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=TL-WR703N console=ttyATH0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 128 (order: -3, 512 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Memory: 29136k/32768k available (2198k kernel code, 3632k reserved, 412k data, 208k init, 0k highmem)<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] SLUB: Genslabs=9, HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:51<\r>
<\n>[    0.000000] Calibrating delay loop... 265.42 BogoMIPS (lpj=1327104)<\r>
<\n>[    0.080000] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301<\r>
<\n>[    0.080000] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512<\r>
<\n>[    0.090000] NET: Registered protocol family 16<\r>
<\n>[    0.090000] gpiochip_add: registered GPIOs 0 to 29 on device: ath79<\r>
<\n>[    0.100000] MIPS: machine is TP-LINK TL-WR703N v1<\r>
<\n>[    0.340000] bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0<\r>
<\n>[    0.350000] Switching to clocksource MIPS<\r>
<\n>[    0.350000] NET: Registered protocol family 2<\r>
<\n>[    0.360000] IP route cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.360000] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.360000] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.370000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)<\r>
<\n>[    0.380000] TCP reno registered<\r>
<\n>[    0.380000] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.390000] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.390000] NET: Registered protocol family 1<\r>
<\n>[    0.420000] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher<\r>
<\n>[    0.420000] JFFS2 version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.<\r>
<\n>[    0.430000] msgmni has been set to 56<\r>
<\n>[    0.430000] Block layer SCSI generic (bsg) driver version 0.4 loaded (major 254)<\r>
<\n>[    0.440000] io scheduler noop registered<\r>
<\n>[    0.440000] io scheduler deadline registered (default)<\r>
<\n>[    0.450000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 16 ports, IRQ sharing enabled<\r>
<\n>[    0.460000] ar933x-uart: ttyATH0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11) is a AR933X UART<\r>
<\n>[    0.470000] console [ttyATH0] enabled, bootconsole disabled<\r>
<\n>[    0.470000] console [ttyATH0] enabled, bootconsole disabled<\r>
<\n>[    0.480000] m25p80 spi0.0: found en25q32b, expected m25p80<\r>
<\n>[    0.480000] m25p80 spi0.0: en25q32b (4096 Kbytes)<\r>
<\n>[    0.490000] 5 tp-link partitions found on MTD device spi0.0<\r>
<\n>[    0.490000] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":<\r>
<\n>[    0.500000] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"<\r>
<\n>[    0.510000] 0x000000020000-0x000000108374 : "kernel"<\r>
<\n>[    0.510000] mtd: partition "kernel" must either start or end on erase block boundary or be smaller than an erase block -- forcing read-only<\r>
<\n>[    0.520000] 0x000000108374-0x0000003f0000 : "rootfs"<\r>
<\n>[    0.530000] mtd: partition "rootfs" must either start or end on erase block boundary or be smaller than an erase block -- forcing read-only<\r>
<\n>[    0.540000] mtd: partition "rootfs" set to be root filesystem<\r>
<\n>[    0.550000] mtd: partition "rootfs_data" created automatically, ofs=2D0000, len=120000 <\r>
<\n>[    0.550000] 0x0000002d0000-0x0000003f0000 : "rootfs_data"<\r>
<\n>[    0.560000] 0x0000003f0000-0x000000400000 : "art"<\r>
<\n>[    0.570000] 0x000000020000-0x0000003f0000 : "firmware"<\r>
<\n>[    0.590000] ag71xx_mdio: probed<\r>
<\n>[    0.600000] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4<\r>
<\n>[    1.150000] ag71xx ag71xx.0: eth0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.1:04 [uid=004dd041, driver=Generic PHY]<\r>
<\n>[    1.160000] TCP cubic registered<\r>
<\n>[    1.160000] NET: Registered protocol family 17<\r>
<\n>[    1.170000] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8<\r>
<\n>[    1.170000] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.<\r>
<\n>[    1.180000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 208k freed<\r>
<\n>- preinit -<\r>
<\n>Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode<\r>
<\n>- regular preinit -<\r>
<\n>[    6.350000] JFFS2 notice: (436) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 1 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 11 of xref (0 dead, 2 orphan) found.<\r>
<\n>switching to jffs2<\r>
<\n>- init -<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>Please press Enter to activate this console. [    8.210000] Compat-wireless backport release: compat-wireless-2012-07-13<\r>
<\n>[    8.220000] Backport based on wireless-testing.git master-2012-07-16<\r>
<\n>[    8.230000] compat.git: wireless-testing.git<\r>
<\n>[    8.400000] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain<\r>
<\n>[    8.400000] cfg80211: World regulatory domain updated:<\r>
<\n>[    8.410000] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)<\r>
<\n>[    8.410000] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    8.420000] cfg80211:   (2457000 KHz - 2482000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    8.430000] cfg80211:   (2474000 KHz - 2494000 KHz @ 20000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    8.440000] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    8.450000] cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    8.650000] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs<\r>
<\n>[    8.650000] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub<\r>
<\n>[    8.660000] usbcore: registered new device driver usb<\r>
<\n>[    9.150000] ieee80211 phy0: Atheros AR9330 Rev:1 mem=0xb8100000, irq=2<\r>
<\n>[    9.150000] cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US<\r>
<\n>[    9.160000] cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US<\r>
<\n>[    9.160000] cfg80211:   (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)<\r>
<\n>[    9.170000] cfg80211:   (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.180000] cfg80211:   (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.190000] cfg80211:   (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.190000] cfg80211:   (5490000 KHz - 5600000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.200000] cfg80211:   (5650000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.210000] cfg80211:   (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)<\r>
<\n>[    9.270000] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2<\r>
<\n>[    9.420000] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team<\r>
<\n>[    9.540000] NET: Registered protocol family 24<\r>
<\n>[    9.560000] ehci_hcd: USB 2.0 'Enhanced' Host Controller (EHCI) Driver<\r>
<\n>[    9.560000] ehci-platform ehci-platform: Generic Platform EHCI Controller<\r>
<\n>[    9.570000] ehci-platform ehci-platform: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1<\r>
<\n>[    9.610000] ehci-platform ehci-platform: irq 3, io mem 0x1b000000<\r>
<\n>[    9.630000] ehci-platform ehci-platform: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00<\r>
<\n>[    9.630000] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found<\r>
<\n>[    9.630000] hub 1-0:1.0: 1 port detected<\r>
<\n>[    9.660000] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (458 buckets, 1832 max)<\r>
<\n>[    9.890000] ohci_hcd: USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver<\r>
<\n>[   12.790000] device eth0 entered promiscuous mode<\r>
<\n>

hi wurm_der_meister
could you please tell me how did you flash back original firmware, i am about to install serial usb!

thanks!
what an unlucky day!!!


wurm_der_meister wrote:

I don't know the real HW-Version. On the PCB is 1.1 printed. On the case there is 1.6 and in the inside there is a sticker with 1.7.
Here is the serial boot log

<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep 25 2012 - 09:04:47)<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>AP121 (ar9330) U-boot<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>DRAM:  32 MB<\r>
<\n>led turning on for 1s...<\r>
<\n>id read 0x100000ff<\r>
<\n>flash size 4194304, sector count = 64<\r>
<\n>Flash:  4 MB<\r>
<\n>Using default environment<\r>
<\n><\r>
<\n>In:    serial<\r>
<\n>Out:   serial<\r>
<\n>Err:   serial<\r>
<\n>

pretty new u-boot version!! with wr1043nd this happened and the workaround was to flash an older firmware (from newer tp-link firmware) that CONTAINS u-boot.. with older uboot no ethernet problem..

but this could be hard if there is not a "boot" firmware for wr703 in tp-link site!

maybe it's possible to dump it from an "old" wr703n and flash it?

anyway  to revert:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl- … inal.image

but tp-link.cn seems down from here sad

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 13 Dec 2012, 22:47)

Why cant we flash openwrt on this router?
from my understanding is, openwrt firmware include uboot, when its flashed it overwrite tplink uboot, and the board cpu is the same!  so why would tplink uboot version matters anyway?



nebbia88 wrote:

pretty new u-boot version!! with wr1043nd this happened and the workaround was to flash an older firmware (from newer tp-link firmware) that CONTAINS u-boot.. with older uboot no ethernet problem..

but this could be hard if there is not a "boot" firmware for wr703 in tp-link site!

maybe it's possible to dump it from an "old" wr703n and flash it?

anyway  to revert:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl- … inal.image

but tp-link.cn seems down from here sad

I think uboot isn't Part in The Firmware. After flashing Form The original To openwrt uboot was The Same. Maybe IT is Not included in this snapshot.

you mean to say uboot is stored in the CPU??


wurm_der_meister wrote:

I think uboot isn't Part in The Firmware. After flashing Form The original To openwrt uboot was The Same. Maybe IT is Not included in this snapshot.

No, i mean the Firmware is a snapshot of a range of the memory. And uboot is stored in a memory area which is Not included. When you restore The snapshot The uboot will Not be overwritten.

(Last edited by wurm_der_meister on 13 Dec 2012, 23:20)

wurm_der_meister wrote:

No, i mean the Firmware is a snapshot of a range of the memory. And uboot is stored in a memory area which is Not included. When you restore The snapshot The uboot will Not be overwritten.

exactily. Normally it is overwrited by CERTAIN tp-link images, bigger than the usual images... Flashing these boot images with the usual method caused LOTS of bricks..

Example

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 33#p182333

NOTE: do not flash that wr740n files to wr703n...

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 14 Dec 2012, 06:22)

why cant we also flash the uboot image? it's a standard AP121, nothing secret, am i right?

nebbia88 wrote:
wurm_der_meister wrote:

No, i mean the Firmware is a snapshot of a range of the memory. And uboot is stored in a memory area which is Not included. When you restore The snapshot The uboot will Not be overwritten.

exactily. Normally it is overwrited by CERTAIN tp-link images, bigger than the usual images... Flashing these boot images with the usual method caused LOTS of bricks..

Example

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 33#p182333

NOTE: do not flash that wr740n files to wr703n...

It is almost like a standard AP121 wink

But the OpenWrt images do not contain U-Boot, only kernel and rootfs (squashfs r/o + jffs2 r/w overlay in "*-squashfs-*" images, and pure jfsf2 r/w for "*-jffs2-*" images)..

The OpenWrt "openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-*-factory.bin" images are compatible with genuine TP-Link's TL-WR703N firmware images, but they only contain the kernel and rootfs and not U-Boot.

"openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-*-factory.bin" images are almost similar to the "openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-*-sysupgrade.bin" images, just padded  with 0xff and header changed accordingly.

The U-Boot and ART partitions are locked by MTD, so if you want to flash them, you have to unlock them first: this is to prevent disaster, as JTAG is not accessible on the PCB.

Squonk could be possible to flash uboot  taking dump from a working 703??

Isn't it possible to make some changes in the openwrt Firmware so that it works with the newer uboot Version. I thinkt this Problem will occour more often in the Future when tp-link changes more routers to new firmware with new uboot...

wurm_der_meister wrote:

Isn't it possible to make some changes in the openwrt Firmware so that it works with the newer uboot Version. I thinkt this Problem will occour more often in the Future when tp-link changes more routers to new firmware with new uboot...

Yes, sure, just tell us what to do smile

nebbia88 wrote:

Squonk could be possible to flash uboot  taking dump from a working 703??

Before going to this extreme, we need to make sure that the problem is really bootloader-related. If you change the U-Boot and that it doesn't work anymore, then you have a nice-looking technological brick...

I have a TL-WR703N Ver:1.6 both on the case sticker and the internal label on the Ethernet Jack, and PCB 1.1 (I only know of PCB 1.0 and 1.1, anyway) that I purchased recently and flashed without problem using latest AA, but I can't tell you the U-Boot version, since I don't have a console on this one. I will try to find time this WE to solder a console and check.

In the meantime, here is the log of another older TL-WR703N Ver:1.3 with a console:

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Sep 26 2011 - 11:13:45)

AP121-2MB (ar9330) U-boot

DRAM:  32 MB
led turning on for 1s...
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 4194304, sector count = 64
Flash:  4 MB
Using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7240_enet_initialize...
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
: cfg1 0x5 cfg2 0x7114
eth0: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
ag7240_phy_setup
eth0 up
: cfg1 0xf cfg2 0x7214
eth1: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
athrs26_reg_init_lan
ATHRS26: resetting s26
ATHRS26: s26 reset done
ag7240_phy_setup
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
Autobooting in 1 seconds
## Booting image at 9f020000 ...
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK

Starting kernel ...

Same U-Boot version (1.1.4), 1 year younger. It seems that September 25-26th is a special date at TP-Link smile

Otherwise exact same log.

What I don't understand looking at wurm_der_meister's log, is that it looks like OpenWrt is running fine... You can see the failsafe check et al., so U-Boot actually starts the kernel correctly.

Maybe U-Boot touched something in the switch settings that is not properly initialized by the kernel?

@wurm_der_meister: can you try to login using the serial console (just "Enter" when it is not scrolling any more) and check the kernel log (type "dmesg") and the result of "ifconfig" and paste them here between between "quote" tags?

when the same problem appeared in wr1043nd, it was solved with some patch somewhere in openwrt code XD

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl- … gs.gotchas



anyway, timestamp of u-boot is related to the tp-link firmware date!

you can know it also without serial, just dump the mtd0 and open with some hexedit...

dd if=/dev/mtd0ro of=/tmp/mtd0
256+0 records in
256+0 records out

hexdump /tmp/mtd0 -s 0x3510 -n 40 -C
00003510  55 2d 42 6f 6f 74 20 31  2e 31 2e 34 20 28 46 65  |U-Boot 1.1.4 (Fe|
00003520  62 20 32 38 20 32 30 31  32 20 2d 20 31 31 3a 35  |b 28 2012 - 11:5|
00003530  38 3a 32 39 29 00 00 00                           |8:29)...|

or, from wiki:

grep -a U-Boot /dev/mtd0ro | cut -d'I' -f1
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Feb 28 2012 - 11:58:29)

wink

NOTE: i am absolutely not sure that the problem is similar or can be solved similarly...

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 14 Dec 2012, 15:32)

Thank you for helping!

According to the TL-WR1043ND Wiki, this has been fixed in trunk between revision r32942 and r32944.

From hat I can see there, it is addressing a leakage in the external RTL8366 switch chip.

In the TL-WR703N, the switch is integrated into the AR9331, so it can't be solved by the same patch sad

BTW, my TL-WR703N Ver:1.6 has exact same U-Boot data as yours, so it looks like we both have 1.6, and at least wurm_der_meister has a more recent one, probably 1.7.

But it doesn't tell us what the problem is sad

I dont think it's hw ver related..

EDIT: in the sense that newer hw ver came with new firmware preinstalled and new u-boot, but flashing the old one SHOULD work imho...

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 14 Dec 2012, 18:55)

ok, i am now trying to definitely kill my wr703n, but it's for a good reason.. i will flash the lastest official firmware, then flash openwrt custom image with wifi enabled, so i should not lose it (in the case ethernet will be down) and be able to reflash stock tp-link firmware, eventually with or without my current dumped u-boot instead of the one included in lastest tp-link firmware.

obviously i can have serial console but never soldered it XD

i can also have another 703 to reprogram flash with the "CS" trick mentioned here in case of disaster...

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 69#p179169

but i'm really hoping I will not need it...

anyone have suggestions??

EDIT: forget previous post, lastest firmware DOES NOT include newer u-boot sad

(Last edited by nebbia88 on 14 Dec 2012, 17:54)