Key Hack Facebook Version 3.16 Vietnam
Glynda
I finally got around as promised (#1 #2) to fixing the serial console for the TP-LINK Viettel version I had laying around.
I was delayed due to a 24V soldering iron tip burning out and a fake Nokia 3.3v serial cable DKU-5 that just didn't work, but now I'm up and running with serial console access.
I guess I'll have to wire up a serial cable, take some photo's and let you know I go, with a status update next week.
I find it really annoying that the factory upgrades don't work. It looks like the Telco may have asked TP-Link to do as much as possible to block openwrt enthusiasts, or the v9.2 is different hardware.....
I am now going to attempt to port openwrt to this. it shouldn't be too much work everything the is the same except for the flash chip. In order to make a Factory.bin openwrt upgrade format I need to get access to the tp-link firmware to see what signature it looks for before accepting an upgrade image.
This router is extremely common in Vietnam, and is being provided with all new Viettel internet connections in the last year. Due to the way Viettel "nettopia" configurations are set up, large groups of people could potentially run their own PPPOE lan parties.
But first of all I need to get the TP-Link firmware to find out what signature it checks for when doing a factory flash update. There are two ways apart from JTAG or soldering to get the rom that I'll be having a crack at. One crazy way of doing it is through the md (Memory Display) command in ye old das uboot. Other's have done it that way for the amazon kindle way back in 2007, but it's a bit time consuming and takes 1000s of serial commands and some perl or python scripting.
What I'll try instead first up is booting the thing via tftpboot, and having a lite openwrt installed in a kernel initrd instead of a flash filesystem. That will let me get the flash rom drivers tested and I can dump the flash over the network that way. I would have done this already but for a day long blackout back at home.
Now to split up the rom. Note that these image files may have some padding at the end. Tp-link has a fixed cmdline partition structure that will probably be ignored when openwrt runs on this toy.
The factory router image has a /web/oem/model.conf (binary) which may be useful to know how it works (using a decompiler) to port more tp-link models to openwrt. The firmware upgrade process is managed by the custom httpd binary on installed on the factory rom. The binary can be decompiled. The model.conf has no ASCII in it. The problem with this router is there is no downloadable upgrade firmware images that I've found so far.
Users can install factory.bin's via tp-link firmware, or use sysupgrade - both tested successfully. As you can see from the factory rom extracted via uboot, it really does have different HWID's used by tp-link to distinguish the OEM order for larger flash size. They add a 1 at the end of the HWID to denote that.
If a user bricks a tp-link 841nd v9 , the factory bootloader has a tftp recovery method as demonstrated. In any case -v9-vn firmware will not install on -v9 firwmare and visa versa. There isn't much need for pico''s patched u-boot I think, except for the frills of a web-browser to upgrade the flash and loosing your Ethernet mac address.
It's the board= /tmp/sysinfo/board_name that's used for all the kernel scripts to configure
switch etc on first boot, at least for the tl-wr841n-v9, not many
changes were required for this router.
I understand the openwrt images will not include luci by default. If you
want to enable luci by default for this one, then maybe a new buildroot
profile for the device needs to be created.
I can add that to the patch if you want, is
there any suggestions to use for a template?
I expect this isn't required, as people can just install via jffs, and compiling their own version is
preferred because you can set SQUASHFS block size to 1MB on this puppy with 1-2 cached squashfs blocks
in the kernel instead of 3 you can really squeeze a lot of stuff in.
I might distribute a version I compiled to the vietnamese users with an
alternative opkg location, or is that against the rules?
The mtdparts kernel command line may not be required but it doesn't hurt
tp-link partitions are used by default and the factory rom passed
something very similar to the factory kernel on this router if you see
the uboot printenv on the forum.
Wow if I log into my censored github account I can still see PR/29 but nobody else can so here it is seeing it's been hidden from the rest of the internet.
If you patch the source then you can install without attaching a serial cable like I had to.
If you nag openwrt to merge the "secret" pull request #29, then the distro roms will include a 841-v9-vn rom image.
The Vietnamese version is the SAME as the regular V9 except for more ram and a different hardware ID in the factory roms. Maybe the bootloader is patched too but I haven't investigated, hence the small number of changes to make this router work on openwrt. Approving the pull request was a no brainer - I don't know why they didn't do it in the 8 weeks they had until my account was censored.
I had put off for a year reflashing a tp-link router that doesn't even
take firmware upgrades from the tp-link website. I still have the box
for this one it is packaged as a TP-Link 841n v9, unless the UPC
barcodes and model numbers are different on the box.
Even thought he TP_Link HWID is different of this TP-Link router, hence standard
openwrt v9 and TP-Link factory images are not supported the hardware is
identical to all aspects of the v9 except for the flash, even the switch
quick or numbering the ports backwards. They added a 1 to show larger
flash size. This may pop up again with other ISP OEM versions with
larger flash. I might analyse / compare the squashfs out of curiorisity
to find out what the ISP is adding, or is it just a newer stock
firmwware version with
IPV6 support they added for their IPTV system they are rolling out.
Previously openwrt accounted for Chinese variants. I can't confirm if
this is a Chinese variant, as it's only popped up in Vietnam from my
research hence the name of the sysupgrade / factory bin files.
I understand the openwrt images will not include luci by default. If you
want to enable luci by default for this one, then maybe a new buildroot
profile for the device needs to be created.
I can add that to the patch if you want, is
there any suggestions to use for a template?
I expect this isn't required, as people can just install via jffs, and compiling their own version is
preferred because you can set SQUASHFS block size to 1MB on this puppy with 1-2 cached squashfs blocks
in the kernel instead of 3 you can really squeeze a lot of stuff in.
The mtdparts kernel command line may not be required but it doesn't hurt
tp-link partitions are used by default and the factory rom passed
something very similar to the factory kernel on this router if you see
the uboot printenv on the forum.
In a nutshell they say if gay marriage activists have sex with Russian infants it's homophobic to mention/critize it on chat even if gay marriage activists are trying to take your family home for homosexual vilification [of convicted infant rapists Mark Newton and Peter Truong]. It came up on the topic of political correctness. Now having sex with children is politically correct - or at least politically incorrect to oppose according to some (jow).
I only brought it up because users were asking for help - if you want binaries for the 841nd-v9-vn (8mb rom) email me at hojuruku at gmail dot com - if you want the source see above. With 8mb flash in these routers you've got more to play with. Also tell me what packages you want compiled in.
Openwrt 6 months on should do the small PR as they have now verified that other users want it in the openwrt distribution rom images. Or just stop being racist and blocking the Vietnamese variants by removing all the Chinese rom variants from the openwrt distro and wiki.
github.com/hojuruku - R.I.P. Lesson learn't Don't use github to critize pro-pedophilia lede-dev censorship of all my contributions. accel-ppp.org openwrt PR also deleted. OpenPHT (Plex server for MIPS) pull request also can't be submitted due to my github being censored. What do you expect from git hub? It's based in San Francisco.
At least mini-snmpd PR got comitted and is part of the openwrt tree now. You better go censor that contribution too, and redact that bloated procd init script for it too - that took 3 days to write due to a lack of documentation - apart from those kind folks on the prpl wiki
Due to my principals I can't kiss and make up with openwrt.org because doing so would be the same as saying paedophilia is ok, and I'm not going to do that. Lede-dev is the boylover.org fork of openwrt. (I speak of the German jow and his cats)_
P.S. Guys do me a favour. Leave the post #11 above as my last word on the matter, and all future posts will be tech only
(accel-ppp patches / howto / OpenPHT MIPS plex server HOWTO) will be added.
If not I'll use my own blog to bring some more attention to jow and maybe escalate the matter to the German child sex crimes squad, and give them the irc logs.
The last time I suspected someone of being as as big a paedophile as someone I saw on #lede-dev chat - it ended with a tip-off and him being arrested for child porn - as he admits in the video below. The second youtube link is him in the comments trolling me last year before his child porn arrest. I've seen this before and I know where it ends.
=yje940Ocick (at 23 mins he admits being arrested for child porn)
=u6L3jx4KbM0 (he trolls a grandmother being sued by a paedophile cult and only organization to use religious vilification thought crime laws in NSW - 9 months jail for criticizing the otoaustralia.org.au satanic cult started by Aleister Crowley - that's "religious teachings" mandate sex and sacrifice with "preferably young boys" - Book of the Law / Magick in Theorm and Practice by Alister Crowley "the wickedest man in the world" - watch the documentary from pro gay channel 4 UK).