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Thread ID: 135408	2013-10-30 15:51:00	Router Asus WL-520GC modifications and flashing adventures	TropoScatter (17158)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1358290	2013-10-30 15:51:00	This is a small but easy to mess with Router, the GC is the little sister of the Asus 520GU . The 'GU has 4MB flash, the GC has 2MB flash . Like many other routers, they can be flashed with custom software . The big GU has a USB socket, but the GC can be hacked to have one too . It is not an operation for beginners at soldering . it's hard, or I'm getting old and blind, who knows . They can both have a serial port connected to them to watch the router software booting up . That was a very easy modification to make, and the startup looks like a typical linux startup, lines of text pouring out . About a page worth . The TTL to RS232 serial voltage level converter I got, or rather it was a TTL to usb interface for serial, also has 5v, so I use that to power the router and don't need the routers power supply connected . So I got as far as the hardware for USB and serial, and power over USB for the router . Because the router has 2MB of flash internally, but can read and run from a USB device, that is why I do the mods . The original Asus software needs to be rolled back to an early version so it can eventually be flashed to something not asus . To go back to an early version, you have to rename the old version with a newer-than-the-current-version version number . Then the old version can be used to flash not-asus software onto the router . There are not many options for that . Tomato won't fit, and only one or two tiny versions of dd-wrt might . Currently the router page which is at the very-popular-with-routers address . 168 . 1 . 1/ informs me that " DD-WRT v24-sp2 (12/17/08" target="_blank">192 . 168 . 1 . 1/ informs me that " DD-WRT v24-sp2 (12) micro-plus-ssh " has been installed . That is a bit different to the name given in the tutorials for what I am up to, but I don't know if that is significant . The version often referred to has plus-USB at the end, rather than plus-ssh . The many copied places for the original lightix tut all end up pointing to the only place I can find the two files required, and that is on a page which sumarises the operation very well . That page is here . 3iii . dk/linux/ddwrt-micro-usb . htm" target="_blank">www . 3iii . dk where two files can be downloaded . I even found another look-like a download site, which describes what you're about to download and so on, but at the last moment, redirects there . Now, there is one anomaly with the mega . tar . gz archive, and a strange air to the micro_plus_usb_asus520gc . bin file . The strange air is probably nothing really, there is the name on the routerpage which says ssh rather than the plus usb mentioned in the tutorials, and the 'it's probably somehow me' of not getting the 30/30/30 just right . Sometimes it will come back to the add a password for the router opening page before moving on, sometimes it just goes to the homepage, but in all cases, I can't enter settings, I've had no success there, but maybe that's me . It also won't flash from the DD-wrt web gui either, says the image is incorrect and won't even try . hmm . Well, I'll probably use tftp to get around that later on . The anomaly in mega is the real thing . . . . The archive contains a folder called rootfs and within that is what looks pretty much like a typical linux set of operating system directories . You should unpack the archive and copy the content of the directory rootfs to a ex2 USB device like a memory stick . Here is strange . the var . Usually this is a directory on linux, but when I unpack, it cannot be moved, renamed, copied or entered . The archive manager doesn't report an error for me . When it's looked at through the GUI, the icon has lots of little symbols, one overlaying the other at the bottom corner, and another on the top corner as well . As root, it can't be copied or manipulated, reporting things along the lines of symbolic links can't be whatever I want to do . All the places I have seen those files mentioned for the Usb mod point back to there, and I've downloaded it a good few times . It seems to be stored that way . Something I wonder about is how the filesystem of a router like these relates to the filesystem of a regular linux system . I read the ideas and docs for modding, but don't get a sense of quite what is going on . I get the feel that most of the wifi parts are enclosed in either a program, or the kernel, and there is a skeletal linux system around that . Ideally it would be lovely to be able to add some nicer images to the GUI interfaces, though it is somewhat unclear as to how they integrate with the radio program, if they are entirely within a single binary, or scattered about the filesystem and easily edited . I haven't seen any signs of the latter, or even how to disassemble things in a satisfying manner . The disassembly method I tired so far had one file input and only one file came out . Hmmm .	TropoScatter (17158)
1358291	2013-10-30 15:52:00	I should put a message here to sumarise the thread for posterity, just in case it goes far.	TropoScatter (17158)
1358292	2013-10-30 19:04:00	Sorry what was the question?	Chilling_Silence (9)
1358293	2013-10-30 19:45:00	Oh, I think I could talk the ears off a corn plant . I think out of the many answers I search for, would be, is there an alternate source of working software for the GC ? Especially to boot from USB . I search the dd-wrt forum most days for one thing or the other, I think they go the micki principle rather than the kiss principle (make it complex, kill it) . There is very little to nothing to suit the 2MB available . The leads that are out there for the USB mod all lead to apparently broken files, and the internet archive is no help for this either, though I think I actually downloaded a binary for a different one . I think it's unusual that you can download things from the internet archive at all . So I look for anyone who might have software to suit the GC, even if they haven't had one for about 5 years, there is always a chance I think . So that's why I sign up, ;) I read this board carefully and find it friendly . What led me here is your experience with the GC . I don't sign up to the dd-wrt forum because I don't feel comfortable with that idea at all . I sign up here to ask if you remember the gc, and might advise . I don't use pm because it's not polite . Still, I guess it is a gamble, maybe the gc booting from usb is still possible, maybe it's gone forever, maybe I'll find it by learning enough to re-write it, I don't know . But I know the leads that I can find after all the searching I've done lead to that page, and the broken files . I think I've exhausted almost every possibility, but tomorrow I guess I can wake up and decide to try searching the Russian language possibilities using google translate, and find some new places to search . Do you know of some software to run on the gc's you used to have ? anything for sure is good . best is something to boot, and then look at the usb port, and boot from there .	TropoScatter (17158)
1358294	2013-10-31 03:47:00	Is this Frank again?	Agent_24 (57)
1358295	2013-10-31 10:47:00	Is this Frank again? Wondered similar :-/	Chilling_Silence (9)
1358296	2013-10-31 12:03:00	Well, I take it that 'Frank' is a person ? That being the case I take it you fall into the category 'one person of reasonable intelligence disagreed with me on the internet, as there can't be anyone smarter than me, then all other people who disagree with me who appear to be somewhat smart must also be that particular person . Because of course, there can't be two people in the world who are smart and disagree with me . ' Thing is, we're not disagreeing, but who cares . Some nutter on IRC came up with a similar idea about me two weeks ago . I wonder if there is a name for said phenomenon as yet, Maybe I can come up for a name for it, something along the lines of how people of other races 'all look the same' to some people . Whatever . After reading most of the DD-wrt forums and seeing how hard it can be to find what you're looking for, if, like me, your trying to build a network or reasonable geographic size, I thought to make a website for just that . Then I can find curate the information properly so that corporate interest doesn't dump a haystack on top like on the dd-wrt forum . Make it easier like tomato . Even bloody simple questions like 'does anyone have working versions of the two files at . 3iii . dk/linux/ddwrt-micro-usb . htm'" target="_blank">www . 3iii . dk are far too difficult, even when outlining my efforts so far and asking in the most socially acceptable manner . One of the files is a broken archive, the other seems to install as a different version to what the label says . The question is still on the table . There are people everyday who want to make a long distance wifi network . Maybe the only way to get a simple answer to a simple question is to curate a website, because there seems too much politics in building a network for low cost .	TropoScatter (17158)
1358297	2013-10-31 12:22:00	Well, I went seaching for 'frank' and found a user called 'frank and earnest' who doesn't fit the bill, and then put " site:pressf1.pcworld.co.nz frank -earnest -Ernest " into google and see some kind of argument at the first page i open (http:). Some forum members having a disagreement, and unable to resolve or tolerate their differences. Well then, not much more to say. I guess you'll go on with this idea that I'm Frank, me not much caring and you thinking anything I do or do not say proves your theory and in the end there is no further discussion of the 520GC possible.	TropoScatter (17158)
1358298	2013-10-31 12:51:00	quoting chilling silence message from 2009: I still use DD-WRT on all my GC's . ( . pcworld . co . nz/showthread . php?98639-Asus-WL-520GC-Setup-as-AP&p=769552&viewfull=1#post769552" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz) and another from the same era: First file has everything, the gC and the gU stuff Includes firmwares & the app needed to put the gU into recovery mode ( . pcworld . co . nz/showthread . php?95472-Router-Query&p=734056#post734056" target="_blank">pressf1 . pcworld . co . nz) The documentation for flashing the gU isnt mine, but copied from a forum . Ive included screenshots and doco for how to do a Wireless Repeater-Bridge from once you've *got* DD-WRT flashed . Its more difficult on a gU, but still possible . Takes about 10 minutes instead of 2 . megaupload . com/?d=CJJGQEVB" target="_blank">www . megaupload . com Approx 25 . 4MB The second is approx 4 . 24MB and has ONLY the stuff needed for the WL-520gC Firmware files, documentation and screenshots From start to finish, you could do the whole thing in less than 5 minutes easy! . megaupload . com/?d=WJJJ8UPE" target="_blank">www . megaupload . com Approx 4 . 24MB Hope this helps, let me know if you get stuck Cheers Chill . ############### end of quotes ################## These are the posts which brought me here . The megaupload files don't exist anymore . AFAIK, megaupload was very publically closed a year or two ago . I have added an avatar, it shows the 520GC circuit board, at the point where the USB modification is made, it shows my horrible soldering of the two surface mount resistors which took so much effort, a 10 watt LED and 4 inch magnifying glass helped a lot with my poor eyesight . To show it is here in front of my webcam, rather than downloaded from the internet, I used a permanent marker to write F1 on the PCB in the lower right corner of the avatar . Maybe this is some huge conspiracy where the same intelligent person is re-incarnating ad-infinitum and returning again and again just to piss you off, and manufacturing fake images of the 520GC using amazing techniques, or just maybe I came here to find out about the 520GC I have in front of me, in search of firmware for it . Maybe occums razor has a place, or not . Whatever . Do you have the files or not ?	TropoScatter (17158)
1358299	2013-11-05 05:54:00	Chilling Silence, I'm wondering if you still have any of the 520GC software you'd be happy to share ? I'm sorry that we got off to a rocky start because I didn't know of the skeletons haunting you.	TropoScatter (17158)
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