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WNDR3800CH (V1.0.0.51CH) won't take other firmware as easy #224

Closed Veeshush closed 7 years ago

Veeshush commented 10 years ago

So I grabbed a refurbished WNDR3800 as mentioned on OpenWireless.org http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122523

Thing is, seems I received a WNDR3800CH, which ships with V1.0.0.51CH. The issue? See: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=49390

"Most likely it has a different firmware ID and to successfully flash another firmware to it, the other firmware should first be modfied to contain the required ID string. Then the OEM TFTPmode or upgrade will accept the new firmware as genuine/compatible."

I just wanted to let you guys know. Others who might grab the same refurbished link on Newegg might end up in the same boat as I am.

Rangak commented 10 years ago

there has been talk of it being easy to support WNDR3800CH on the CeroWRT lists. We will look into supporting it. Might be a couple of weeks or more.

sethherr commented 10 years ago

I'm also frustrated by this problem. I bought the router to put this on it, not knowing there was a version that didn't support it. There should be a warning somewhere.

edit: I see that one was added to the installation instructions page, recently.

I've gotten openwrt installed on the router: the most recent trunks have the patch included - https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=49390#p243077

I was hoping it would let me update firmware if I already had openwrt, but no dice. So still waiting for openwireless to patch.

Rangak commented 10 years ago

We will have to do a new release to support the CH model. Now that the patch for this support is in openwrt I will cut a release next week with this patch and some other fixes we have pending. I don't have a CH model handy to test it on, and will be relying on the fact that the patch made it upstream.

scroggi commented 10 years ago

@Rangak, I have a CH that I bricked trying to get it to work. I would be happy to donate it, if you want it as a test box.

Veeshush commented 10 years ago

colinscroggins

If you haven't gotten it unbricked yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8sVuCrPt4 (not the same model, but the method works)

Rangak commented 10 years ago

@colinscroggins Thanks for the offer. Actually what would be more useful is if you could keep it and test the build with the CH patch when it is ready. As @Veeshush says you should be able to get it unbricked so you can try the new build next week.

patrickod commented 10 years ago

I recently bought a WNDR3800 with the intention of running the OW firmware only to find when it arrived that it's the CH variant. It's currently running OpenWRT successfully but I'd love to test out whatever OW builds there are available that support it.

patrickod commented 10 years ago

I've attempted to get OpenWireless firmware running on the device by the following means.

Flashing the stock unit w/ the latest trunk ar71xx builds from OpenWrt project that includes the patch for the CH variant model.

Applying this 2 line patch to the cerowrt revision that the latest OpenWireless commit points to.

Building the OpenWireless images from this.

sysupgradeing the image on the router.

This leads to mixed results. The router boots and has basic functionality, as well as the OpenWireless network defaults, a 2.4ghz network called "Setup OpenWireless" and the like.

The router does not have a working web interface though. There exist init.d scripts for lighttpd and dropbear but the binaries themselves are not present on the device.

Am I missing something here in that I should not be using the sysupgrade images but rather using the tftp method with the factory.img builds?

Rangak commented 10 years ago

No what you tried is correct. The problem is that the build setup on our build server is different from what is on github. So I need to fix what is on github so you can correctly build the OW image. I noticed this problem and had it on my TODO but have been distracted the last couple of weeks. I hope to fix this soon and will send you a heads up.

patrickod commented 10 years ago

Ah ok. Didn’t realise that the build process differed. 

Is there any documentation out there as to what the build server is doing? Would be happy to help document it and get it on GH for others. On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 3:39 PM, Ranga Krishnan notifications@github.com wrote:

No what you tried is correct. The problem is that the build setup on our build server is different from what is on github. So I need to fix what is on github so you can correctly build the OW image. I noticed this problem and had it on my TODO but have been distracted the last couple of weeks. I hope to fix this soon and will send you a heads up.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/EFForg/OpenWireless/issues/224#issuecomment-55509205

Rangak commented 10 years ago

It was not supposed to differ. This is a bug. It is nothing complex. Just a few things I seem to have missed when I added to github (e.g. lighttpd and dropbear binaries not being included). I need to track it down and once I do it will be trivial to update. What would help is to test out that Makefile that was provided in one of the pending pull requests.

patrickod commented 10 years ago

@Rangak any update on reconciling the production build.sh and what is versioned?

Rangak commented 10 years ago

@patrickod Sorry for the delay. Some admin issues getting in the way. Hope to have an answer for you mid next week.

patrickod commented 10 years ago

No worries. Going to try poke at it myself this coming weekend. Keen to get it running on these devices

patrickod commented 9 years ago

@Rangak checking in on this. Any update on CH support?

Rangak commented 9 years ago

Haven't resolved the build issue yet, on which this depends. Worked on it last week but the obvious fixes did not give success. Need to dig deeper.

On Oct 8, 2014, at 11:11 PM, patrickod notifications@github.com wrote:

@Rangak checking in on this. Any update on CH support?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

trothr commented 9 years ago

Count me in on the interested parties list.

Rangak commented 9 years ago

This will be best resolved when the project is moved to OpenWRT barrier breaker or more likely directly OpenWRT chaos calmer. That will not happen within alpha release schedule. Moving to beta.

polsvoice commented 9 years ago

I just bought a WNDR3800CH, and I'm wondering what my options are. Is my best bet to just install OpenWRT on it?

Rangak commented 9 years ago

We are using close to stock openwrt now so the WNDR3800CH should be supported. You may need to enable it in the .config file in the openwrt submodule and build the image, though. We haven't released a built image for the CH. See the Readme for build instructions and look at the build script to figure out what to tweak. It takes a while to build but is quite simple to do.

stefek99 commented 8 years ago

AWRGH!

There was not a single WNDR3800 available in Europe so I paid double price for shipping from the US...

Now I'm learning that I have WNDR3800CH model and I've essentially wasted couple of hours and I'm reading this thread.

(not happy customer)

jsha commented 7 years ago

Hi @stefek99! Sorry you had such a frustrating (and expensive) experience! Can I ask where you found the information that led you to buy a router to run this firmware? This project is no longer officially supported, so I want to make sure that's communicated clearly in as many places as possible.

Mikaela commented 7 years ago

This project is no longer officially supported, so I want to make sure that's communicated clearly in as many places as possible.

That is not communicated on https://openwireless.org/ and https://github.com/EFForg/OpenWireless/issues/305 never got any project member or contributor to reply.

jsha commented 7 years ago

Thanks! I replied on #305. Can you tell me which page on openwireless.org led you to the firmware project? I'll make sure that page gets updated with details.

stefek99 commented 7 years ago

@jsha - I had WNDR3800 on my shopping list / personal notes. Normally I'd buy the router straightway but whenever situation is like $20 for the product and another $20 for shipping / handling / customs / taxes my enthusiasm evaporates (I know, it's a virus).

I didn't realize that such a promising project can go offline :)

It was only later when I couldn't find the source when I realized that due to 0.1% market share the project is no more.

No harm done, I hope I'll be able to install regular DD-WRT or OpenWRT, I'm just having some troubles because of CH variant...

jsha commented 7 years ago

Glad to hear it, and I appreciate your enthusiasm!