TL-WR703N / SECN1.1 RC3 fail :-(

[Tony Godshall]

I ran through the steps to flash this image[1] to a new TL-WR703n:

I did this right after successfully flashing an OpenWRT image to another one.

It failed. It won't even ping.[2]

Here are my notes of the install itsel[3]

Has anyone had success with this image?

Any pointers on how to recover from bricking?

Tony


[1]
http://villagetelco.org/download/firmware/secn/unstable/tp-703n/SECN-1.1/factory/openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin

[2]
# ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1c:23:2e:b1:88
inet addr:10.130.1.99 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21c:23ff:fe2e:b188/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:5495 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7400 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1029957 (1.0 MB) TX bytes:4551880 (4.5 MB)
Interrupt:17

# mii-tool eth0
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD flow-control, link ok

# ping 10.130.1.20
PING 10.130.1.20 (10.130.1.20) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 10.130.1.99 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 10.130.1.99 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 10.130.1.99 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
^C

[3]

set laptop to 192.168.1.100

point web browser to 192.168.1.1

mouse down to and click the Chinese heading that says DateTimeCfgRpm
in the status bar (15th from the top)

mouse down and click the Chinese heading that says SoftwareUpgradeRpm
(3rd one inside the 9 that pop open)

Click in text box, a file picker pops up. Navigate to [1]

Click button at bottom left

Question in Chinese- click OK

Progress bar slowly moves across, left to right, finishes, goes away

Second progress bar, this one with percentages, moves slowly across,
left to right, finishes, 100%, browser says connecting to 192.168.1.1,
hangs for quite a while

No lights blinking, nothing happening, so I pull and restore power

Light blinks briefly on start

now it does nothing

factory reset ping doesn't seem to do anything.



--
Best Regards.
This is unedited.

[T Gillett]

Hi Tony
Two things you might check:

A. The MD5 Sum for the firmware file. It should be as follows:
f821da6a1765115d6ad017cfc1e8c1f3 *openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin

B. See if the OpenWrt Recovery process works.
1. Reboot (Power Down and then Up) the router
2. When the blue LED starts flashing, (or about two seconds after power on) press and hold the RESET (inside the tiny hole next to the micro-usb connector)
3. Stop pressing the RESET when the blue LED starts flashing quickly

At this time the router is in failsafe mode.

4. Telnet to 192.168.1.1. It will take you to the root prompt.


Regards
Terry

[Giang]

Terry, can you point us to step #5?

Once we get to the root via telnet in step 4, what should we do next to unbrick in the failsafe mode?

The wr703n is connected to my laptop via ethernet cable. 

Thanks.

[T Gillett]

Hi Giang

Following is the procedure I have used. I think it assumes that the device has been previously successfully flashed with OpenWrt, so not sure wheher it is effective for an initial flash failure from the original firmware.  But if you have got to step 5, it sounds promising.

1. Reboot (Power Down and then UP) the router

2. When the blue LED starts flashing, (or about two seconds after power on) press and hold the RESET (inside the tiny hole next to the micro-usb connector)
3. Stop pressing the RESET when the blue LED starts flashing quickly

At this time the router is in failsafe mode.

4. Telnet to 192.168.1.1. It will take you to the root prompt.

5. Enter "firstboot" at the prompt to reset the router to default
6. Restart by power cycling (reboot command will not work)
7. The device will come up on the original IP 10.130.1.20 (or whatever it was configured for) and the Fallback address.

Also this thread may be of use. I have no experience with what is suggested here.
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=31729&p=3

Regards
Terry

[Wayne Abroue]

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Giang <gia...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Terry, can you point us to step #5?
> Once we get to the root via telnet in step 4, what should we do next to
> unbrick in the failsafe mode?

Scp the correct firmware to the device and issue the upgrade firmware cmd.

Wayne

>
> The wr703n is connected to my laptop via ethernet cable.
> Thanks.

> On Thursday, June 28, 2012 1:46:45 PM UTC+2, tlg wrote:
>>
>> Hi Tony
>> Two things you might check:
>>
>> A. The MD5 Sum for the firmware file. It should be as follows:
>> f821da6a1765115d6ad017cfc1e8c1f3
>> *openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
>>
>> B. See if the OpenWrt Recovery process works.
>> 1. Reboot (Power Down and then Up) the router
>> 2. When the blue LED starts flashing, (or about two seconds after power
>> on) press and hold the RESET (inside the tiny hole next to the micro-usb
>> connector)
>> 3. Stop pressing the RESET when the blue LED starts flashing quickly
>>
>> At this time the router is in failsafe mode.
>>
>> 4. Telnet to 192.168.1.1. It will take you to the root prompt.
>>
>>
>> Regards
>> Terry
>

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[Tony Godshall]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 4:46 AM, T Gillett <tgil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Tony
> Two things you might check:
>
> A. The MD5 Sum for the firmware file. It should be as follows:
> f821da6a1765115d6ad017cfc1e8c1f3
> *openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
>

$ md5sum /home/tony/bin/TP-Link_WR703N/villagetelco.org/download/firmware/secn/unstable/tp-703n/SECN-1.1/factory/openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
f821da6a1765115d6ad017cfc1e8c1f3
/home/tony/bin/TP-Link_WR703N/villagetelco.org/download/firmware/secn/unstable/tp-703n/SECN-1.1/factory/openwrt-secn1_1-RC3-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
$

> B. See if the OpenWrt Recovery process works.
> 1. Reboot (Power Down and then Up) the router
> 2. When the blue LED starts flashing, (or about two seconds after power on)
> press and hold the RESET (inside the tiny hole next to the micro-usb
> connector)

it only blinks once (well, there's kind of a micro-blink before the
real blink (about one second long)

I it the reset right away but no change in behavior

> 3. Stop pressing the RESET when the blue LED starts flashing quickly

it never gets to that point. i'm typing onehanded becarse i'm still holding it

tcpdump shows no activity

> At this time the router is in failsafe mode.
>
> 4. Telnet to 192.168.1.1. It will take you to the root prompt.
>
>
> Regards
> Terry
>

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[T Gillett]

Hi Tony

Your test shows that the flash has failed part way through for some reason. The file is ok but the flash process has not completed.

I think you are in the situation where the only way to recover the unit is via the serial port.

There is a wiki page written by Keith that shows how to set up the serial port on the WR703N. This assumes you have access to micro soldering facilities to attach wiring on a permanent basis.

If not, you might consider using just a temporary arrangement of using two fine needles as probes to connect tempoarily to the In and Out pads on the PCB with no risk of damage to the unit.

This needs another person to hold the probes in place while you do the programming but is pretty simple to do.

Regards
Terry

[Tony Godshall]

> I think you are in the situation where the only way to recover the unit is

> via the serial port. ...

Hmmm.... I may not get to that right away...

> Your test shows that the flash has failed part way through for some reason.
> The file is ok but the flash process has not completed.

... but I have more units coming and your
explanation is plausible enough that I may risk the
VillageTelco image on one more. I have flashed
three with the OpenWRT without incident, BTW.

What's been worrying me was that this question ...

> > Has anyone had success with this image?

... was not answered directly. Perhaps others
are assuming the answer is obvious?

Tony

[T Gillett]

Hi Tony

I suggest that if you have a successful way to flash to OpenWrt then you should stick to that method, then just use sysupgrade to put on the firmware that you need.

That way you have an escape clause with the OpenWrt recovery mechanism.

The generic images are half the size of the VT images, so there is probably less overall risk in using them for the initial flash, which is the tricky one.

I have used a number of VT images to flash new TP devices, but I could not swear to having used that particular one.

We are reviewing our policy on providing factory images until we can get a repeatable process for testing them. This will involve being able to restore devices to factory state.

Regards
Terry