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How to recover from a bad flash – Coova AP / OpenWRT

For coovaAP users or any firmware based on OpenWRT, if you happen to have trouble to gain access to your router or you forgot your password or even currupted the JFFS2 partition from a bad flash, you can recover your router using failsafe mode.

Step 1: Boot Router into Failsafe mode

- Unplug all the LAN cables from your router, also unplug the power cord.
- Connect the Router LAN port to your PC or Laptop
- Configure your PC with a static IP address 192.168.1.X (X being a number between 2 and 254)
- Plug the power on and wait for the DMZ LED to light up.
- When the DMZ LED turns on, immediately press any the Reset button.
- If successful the DMZ LED will quickly flash 3 times every second.

Step 2: Telnet to your Router and enter Recovery Commands

- Now you should be able to telnet to the router at 192.168.1.1
- Open Command Prompt (windows) or Terminal (mac/linux), and type: “telnet 192.168.1.1“
- To reset the password, enter: “firstboot“
- To clear nvram and reset to factory settings, enter: “mtd -r erase nvram“

Now you should be able to restart your router and connect with the default settings.

More resources to help you out: http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/generic.failsafe?s[]=telnet

image : http://neozeroproductions.wordpress.com

About the Author

Pandu Hartanto

Partner at Inovasia Kreatif

2 Comments " How to recover from a bad flash – Coova AP / OpenWRT "

Wayne

June 7, 2011

Pandu,

This isn’t always the case as you can corrupt things to a much worse level, so much so there is little response from the router.

If you cannot get anything from using the DMZ method then set your PC to the IP address as mentioned above and repeatedly ping the router using “ping -t -w 2 192.168.1.1″. Reboot the router and wait to see if there is a brief ping from the router. If so, it can be salvaged by forcing a new firmware into it. Not something I can explain here but just Google “WRT54GL router tools TFTP”. Always be aware though that you may be trying to ping the wrong address! Maybe the router was assigned a different IP somehow? Always scan around your network first before deciding you router is a brick!

If you manage to erase the kernel from your router or you do it intentionally, then the above is also what you need to do.

If there is still no response you may need to have the unit reflashed using the internal JTAG connection, a bit more involved and requires some soldering expertise!

Wayne
Reply

Pandu Hartanto

June 8, 2011

Hi Wayne, thanks for the comment! Very helpful for everyone.
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How to recover from a bad flash – Coova AP / OpenWRT

Step 1: Boot Router into Failsafe mode

Step 2: Telnet to your Router and enter Recovery Commands

About the Author

2 Comments " How to recover from a bad flash – Coova AP / OpenWRT "

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