How I did to unbrick my TP-WR841nd_v8.2.
When I got it, i downloaded the latest firmware from tplink web site.
Flashed the new firmware into the router.
My taught was, there maybe is a new boot mtd part in tp-links
own new firmware. Because it's named with boot.
Afterward i just want to test to flash ddwrt or openwrt.
Now my big problem appears, the ddwrt didn't boot up.
It's not my cup of tea. *lol*
I have to buy some uart ttl usb adapter with some china copy
of ftdi chip. It's not easy to find the right one.
Tested first with wireshark to see if something happening on the Ethernet cable.
Yes... I did see some arp request from my router. Asking if someone has
ip 192.169.0.66 from mac address ba:be:fa:ce:08:41, yes babeface *lol*.
This mac address was first assign. Not my ordinary correct mac address.
I used my Linux Ubuntu desktop pc.
1. First to stop network manager, that are annoying with open / close the Ethernet connection.
sudo service network-manager stop
2. Edit the interfaces file.
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.66
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.86
3. Bring up the interface eth0 manually.
sudo ifup eth0
3. Added the funny mac address to be static.
sudo arp -s 192.168.0.86 ba:be:fa:ce:08:41
4. Installed dnsmasq just for the tftp server.
sudo apt-get install dnsmasq
5. Disabled the dnsmasq to startup when my ubuntu start.
sudo update-rc.d -f dnsmasq remove
6. Make my own lab directory, downloaded the tplink zip file into this directory.
Renamed the org firmware file to tp link's own recovery name.
You can see in the log of dnsmasq file name on screen what file name
the router searching for.
mkdir tplink && cd tplink
unzip -j TL-WR841ND_V8_140724.zip
mv wr841nv8_en_3_15_9_up_boot(140724).bin wr841nv8_tp_recovery.bin
7. Easy way just startup dnsmasq as program.
sudo dnsmasq --no-daemon --no-hosts --no-resolv --dhcp-range=192.168.0.86,192.168.0.86,12h --interface=eth0 --enable-tftp --tftp-root=$(pwd)
8. Turn the router on, and press the reset key directly afterwards.
Tried to hold the reset key in when turned the router on, but this didn't work.
9. Now i see the router get's it's firmware from the tftp server and boot's up normaly.
Yes my bricked router, isn't broken. It's unbroken.
I have seen some problems with some network cards that don't sync up quickly enough, when you turn the router on.
So if you have some old Ethernet hub och switch in between you get better and easier result.
Looking at the firmware file with binwalk i get this version of U-Boot.
U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jul 24 2014 - 17:19:59
(Last edited by patrikg on 5 Feb 2018, 10:20)