Note: This guide has been updated as of Aug 8, 2008 to reflect the new flashing procedures related to DD-WRT v24 SP1. If you have an error, please leave a comment. Thanks!
The following is a guide to flashing the Fonera Access Point, into a mini-router (albeit with only one ethernet jack) running the excellent, open-source DD-WRT firmware. This provides many useful features, such as turning the router into a wireless repeater, or even an ethernet to wireless bridge.
Preparation
Download the latest version of the following items (I recommend saving them all into a special folder on your desktop for convenience):
Putty
HTTP File Server (HFS)
Tftpd32 (Extract the Tftpd32 zip file to your special folder)
DD-WRT Fonera Firmware-> Atheros WiSoc-> Fonera
(Download linux.bin for v24-sp1, root.fs and vmlinux.bin.l7 for pre-RC7)
And the following files (Right-Click, Save as…) :
SSHEnable.htm
openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
out.hex
It’s important to download everything you need before you get started, because you will not have internet access throughout this tutorial. All of the programs listed are installer free, meaning that at the end of this tutorial, you just have to throw everything in the trash. No messy uninstalls, no shortcuts all over the place.
If you have already enabled SSH access on your router, please skip to Flashing the Firmware.
Connecting La Fonera
Plug the FON into the power, and into the LAN port on your computer.
In Windows, disable all other network connections besides the one connected to the FON. You’ll need to set the following settings in the LAN ports properties. Disable all firewalls, or at least make sure that port 22, 23, and 9000 are open.
IP: 169.254.255.2
Subnet: 255.255.0.0 (System will fill it in for you)
Default Gateway: 169.254.255.1
DNS: 169.254.255.1
Once all three leds are blinking (1-2 minutes), you should be able to open a browser, type 169.254.255.1 and see the Router Status. If not, wait a little while longer. If you are still not getting anything, re-check your settings.
The first time you log into the router, you will need to supply the following:
Username: root
Password: admin
If the firmware version is 0.7.1 r1 or lower, please skip to Enabling SSH.
If you have version 0.7.1 r2, you will fall in two categories:
1. Your router shipped with a previous firmware, and you let it update itself from FON’s servers. You will need to downgrade before continuing with this guide.
Downgrading
- After the FON has been on for a couple minutes, push the reset button on the bottom, and hold it in for several seconds (30-45 secs is fine). Wait for it to finish rebooting (1-2 minutes), then check again to see what firmware version you have.
- If it’s now at or below 0.7.1 r1, then you may move to the next step, Enabling SSH.
2. Your router shipped with 0.7.1r2 installed. You will need to do the Kolofonium Hack, then when you come back here, you will start at Enabling RedBoot.
- EDIT- This is found on the DD-WRT Wiki:
This works on the newest firmware:
1. Hold reset button for 30 seconds
2. Remove the power connector while still holding reset.
3. Replace power connector and continue holding reset button until “wifi” lights up and goes away again (a good 2-3 minutes of holding it).4. Let go and wait for “wifi” to come back (2-3 minutes).
- Supposedly, you will now be able to follow the rest of this guide without troubles. I will need to verify this, but for now, I am all out of routers. Feel free to give it a shot.
Enabling SSH
Now open the SSHEnable.htm (that you downloaded earlier), hit submit.
Enabling RedBoot
Now open HFS. The first time you open it, a prompt will ask you if you want to include HFS in your context menu. I chose “No”. Now, right click on the little house icon, and select “Add Files…”, and add openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma and out.hex.
Now, open Putty and SSH into 169.254.255.1, click “Open”:
If this is your first time SSH’ing into the router, you will be faced with the following dialog prompt. Despite how serious it sounds, never fear, just click “Yes.”
Login using:
Username: root
Password: admin
As you type in the password, nothing will appear to happen, but continue typing anyways, and then hit enter.
I’ll also share with you a huge time saver. In order to copy from this tutorial the commands and paste them into the SSH terminal, first highlight what you want to copy (make sure not to include any extra spaces), right click the highlighted text and hit copy. Then right click your SSH window. This will automatically insert whatever you highlighted into where the green cursor is located.
Once logged in, execute the following command:
mv /etc/init.d/dropbear /etc/init.d/S50dropbear
This enables SSH permanently so that if you need to reset the router, you won’t need to run SSHEnable.htm again. If you have done this step before, it will return an error, and you can just continue on with the guide.
For the following, after every line, hit enter and wait for it return to a prompt again:
cd /tmp
wget http://169.254.255.2/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
mtd -e vmlinux.bin.l7 write openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma vmlinux.bin.l7
reboot
Now a prompt should pop up saying “Server unexpectedly closed network connection”; Just hit “OK”.
The FON will now be restarting and will take 1-2 minutes (all three lights will be on). If you are impatient, you can do the following:
Unplug the FON from the power. Open up a command prompt in Windows (Start->Run->”cmd”), and type the following line:
ping 169.254.255.1 -t
Plug the FON back into the power. Whenever you start to see “Reply from 169.254.255.1…”, you can move on to the following step.
Right click on title bar of Putty and hit “Restart Session.” You will now need to login again.
Username: root
Password: admin
For the following, after every line, hit enter and wait for it return to a prompt again:
cd /tmp
wget http://169.254.255.2/out.hex
mtd -e "RedBoot config" write out.hex "RedBoot config"
reboot
Click “OK” on the unexpected connection close box.
Congratulations, you have now enabled RedBoot, which will allow us access to the bootloader. There we can flash the firmware to DD-WRT.
You can now exit the HFS program if you want.
Flashing the Firmware
Change the IP to 192.168.1.166, subnet 255.255.255.0.
You should not need to change the gateway or DNS servers, but you can if you want (i.e. if you are having an error). They will need to be changed back in the last step if you decide to change them here.
Now open Tftpd32:
Make sure that linux.bin (Note: root.fs and vmlinux.bin.l7 for pre-RC7) is in the same folder as the Tftpd32 program (or in the folder that is listed in “Current Directory” in Tftpd32).
Now, we can use Putty again for Telneting to the FON, or you can use whatever other program you have available. Right-click title bar of Putty, select “New Session.” Make sure to select the Telnet button in Putty, IP to 192.168.1.254, and then change the port to 9000. Its best to do it in that order, since Putty automatically changes the port number to 23 whenever you click the Telnet button.
If you are having trouble knowing when to start the Telnet connection, open up a command prompt in Windows (Start->Run->”cmd”), and type the following line:
ping 192.168.1.254 -t
Whenever you start to see “Reply from 192.168.1.254…”, then hit connect in the Telnet client.
Once you’re connected, enter the following commands. After each line, hit enter. The “fis” commands will take a long time (up to 10 minutes), but it will return to a “RedBoot>” prompt whenever it is ready to continue (refer to the second picture for how it will look). I got impatient and entered the next lines before the prompt appeared, and I ended up having to restart the whole process.
For the newer releases after RC7, there is a new flashing procedure, as follows:
ip_address -l 192.168.1.254/24 -h 192.168.1.166
fis initType “y”, and hit enter.
load -r -b 0x80041000 linux.bin
fis create linuxDo not reboot yet. Boot script needs to be modified.
RedBoot> fconfigand press ENTER
Run script at boot: truePress ENTER
Boot script:and press ENTER
.. fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
.. exec
Enter script, terminate with empty line
>> fis load -l linux
>> execand press ENTER
>>Press ENTER
Boot script timeout (1000ms resolution): 10and press ENTER
Use BOOTP for network configuration: falsePress ENTER
Gateway IP address:Press ENTER
Local IP address: 192.168.1.254and press ENTER
Local IP address mask: 255.255.255.0and press ENTER
Default server IP address:press ENTER
Console baud rate: 9600and press ENTER
GDB connection port: 9000and press ENTER
Force console for special debug messages: falsePress ENTER
Network debug at boot time: falsePress ENTER
Update RedBoot non-volatile configuration - continue (y/n)? yand press ENTER
... Erase from 0xa87e0000-0xa87f0000: .
... Program from 0x80ff0000-0x81000000 at 0xa87e0000: .
RedBoot>resetand press ENTERNow skip to here.
The following procedures are for RC6.2 and earlier:
ip_address -l 192.168.1.254/24 -h 192.168.1.166
fis init
Type “y”, and hit enter.
load -r -v -b 0x80041000 root.fs
Note: The line below is correct; “rootfs” is not a typo.
fis create -b 0x80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0x002C0000 -e 0x00000000 rootfs
load -r -v -b 0x80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7
fis create -r 0x80041000 -e 0x80041000 -l 0x000E0000 vmlinux.bin.l7
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0x00010000 -n nvram
reset
Post Flashing
Once it finishes rebooting, you can connect to it over a wireless card at IP 192.168.1.1, or if you want to manage it over the ethernet port, you will need to change your IP address again to
IP: 169.254.255.2
Subnet: 255.255.0.0 (System will fill it in for you)
Default Gateway: 169.254.255.1
DNS: 169.254.255.1
Now, you can connect to the DD-WRT web interface by opening a web browser and typing 192.168.1.1. If you want the router to give you an IP address automatically over ethernet, you will need to change the mode of the router. As of right now, they are still working out some of the bugs, but I have gotten the “Client Bridge” mode to work on 3/19/07 firmware, following these instructions.
Also, you need to remember that any time you reset your router by hitting the button on the bottom (or in the firmware), you will need to manually set your IP again to the 169.254.255.2…etc. as above, in order to access it over the Ethernet port (well, until they change the firmware to where it defaults to putting the DHCP server on the ethernet port, if they ever do).
Also, watch the DD-WRT wiki for news about less buggy firmware releases, and make sure to upgrade using the fonera-firmware.bin files through the web gui. Its much easier!
If you are to this point, and your router is not responding, wait 5 minutes, and check your IP settings. If you are still not getting an response, I would recommend the following:
1. Unplug the power from the fon
2. Make sure you have all the other network connections disabled
3. Set the ip to the 192.168.1.166 with the same options as above.
4. Start the pinging (ping 192.168.1.254 -t)
5. Plug in the power to the router
6. In about 10-50 seconds, you should see a response. If you don’t, wait a little longer and double check your IP settings.
7. If you finally see a response, Start again “Flashing the Firmware,” but unplug the power from the router first, because there is a narrow gap of time that the Redboot option is open.
If this guide helped you out, maybe you would be interested in some of the wonderful links provided by the G-man up in the top right corner of my page, or by donating a small chunk of change through paypal 
Thanks to Coded Chaos for his wonderful guide as well!
Related links:
Copyright Uselesshacks.com 2008
Thanks for giving me credit ^_^d
Thanks for writing your tutorial. My main goal was to add screenshots, but I still have about 10 more to post. Dang Exams, taking up all my time!
Heh yea, it looks good with all the in depth images. I’m a fan of short sweet and to the point, so I tend to lack on images for inexperienced people.
I heard you were a great painter. I can’t wait to see what this router looks like when you’re finished with it!
Ok, completely went a different route with this guide, so CodedChaos, thanks for the inspiration, but I’ve removed your guide.
Even though you reworded everything, you should still give me credit for the fact that MY guide showed you how to do this in the first place…
No offense intended. I left your link up, and I thanked you in the comments. You got me started, but I’ve added a lot of info from my own, and others’ experiences. I wrote the majority of this guide today from memory, as I was flashing one, step-by-step. Nevertheless, I have added a line near the end that I hope shows my gratitude.
awesome, i finally did it. now can someone update the wiki as well?
Right after enabling the SSH on my fonera and when I’m inside the router I’m not able to wget from my http server. As it is working I tryed to ping my pc from router and it won’t ping… My pc pings the router… What could it be the reason? Thanks in advance
Do you have HFS open, and does it look like the screen shot posted?
Double check the address (should be http://169.254.255.2), and verify that your openwrt file and out.hex file are listed in HFS.
yes, HFS is open and with the files (I can open it in my browser); the ip is also correct. shouldn’t the router be able to ping 169.254.255.2? it can’t even ping it… I’ve tried also the other method that uses the wireless connection and it happens the same problem (no ping or off course, no wget). thanks for your help!
Well, the router address is actually 169.254.255.1, so it should ping at that address.
Its also important to disable all other network connections so that nothing else messes with the configuration.
Double check all your settings, and I will brainstorm for a while.
I ping the router (169.254.255.1); what I can’t ping is my pc (169.254.255.2) from the router! If I can’t ping my pc I’ll never achieve my http server (I also try ftp server), right? I have no firewalls and I have all the others network connections disable. weird, ah? could it be something with iptables? but…only in my router?! I haven’t found anyone else with this kind of problem…
Thanks for your guide it was a great help!
I have the 2007 - 0319 build of dd-wrt installed, how can i upgrade to 2007 - 0323?
From now on, all you have to do is download the fonera-firmware.bin from DD-WRT, go into the web GUI of your FON, go to the Administration tab, click on the firmware upgrade tab, and follow the directions.
hi again. can you explain in detail? why is it possible now and not before? I noticed that that file (fonera-firmware.bin) exists on older versions… thanks in advance
Zelv, did you ever get yours flashed yet? (the above only applies to flashed routers)
Before a certain date, the Web GUI flashing didn’t work, you had to do it the old fashioned way every time that you wanted to upgrade the firmware. Since some time in January, they’ve got it working, so after you get DD-WRT on there, you can use the web GUI to flash any updates.
Now, as far as yours is concerned (zelv), I forgot to tell you to make sure you disable all firewalls, and make sure there are no other active network connections.
I would still be interested in a screeshot, if possible.
sure, here it is: http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/460/fonsy4.jpg
Wow… I got it today and using this excellent tutorial made the hack/update very easy
well, I’ve tried in other pc, and guess what… it works! but it’s a very strange situation…
other thing, I noticed a small difference between your tutorial and other one:
load -r -v -b 0x80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7——— you don’t have this onefis create -r 0x80041000 -e 0x80041000 -l 0x000E0000 vmlinux.bin.l7
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0x00010000 -n nvram
resetcan you explain please? thanks
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0x00010000 -n nvramIt clears and rebuilds the nvram (settings, basically). Basically, you use that command to refresh your settings if something gets messed up. *I have put it back into my guide, because leaving it out my cause your to lose your settings on reboot*
That is odd about your troubles, but I’m glad you worked around it. I don’t see anything immediately wrong in your screenshot, so your guess is as good as mine!
ok, thanks for everything.
Hi great guide!!! But I have one problem, if I turn my router off or reboot it the settings get lost. I have tried to reflash it a couple of times but same result, as I’ve read in posts in a forum.
I am using the latest firmware the one described in this guide actually so am I missing something or not doing something right?
Thanks in advance.
It appears as if this is a common problem, but I have been unable to spot a pattern as of yet.
None of mine have the issue, but all three of my friend’s do. Over at the DD-WRT forums, there have been lots of people popping up with that issue.
I’ll update my page if I ever find any information.
Actually I think I found the solution, after reflashing the device 3 times with your guide I then rigt before I reset it, I typed the command that someone else was asking about:
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0x00010000 -n nvramand then I typed in reset and now it works just fine, settings are saved after a poweroff or anything.
And I think that whole issue has to do with me turning it off when it was writing the rootfs file into the flash because I didn’t read how long it was supposed to take and I turned it off after that I didn’t save the settings but I was able to flash it, then I typed in that command and everything worked.
Thanks again for this amazing guide!!!
Well, you may be absolutely correct. I originally had that in the guide, but somewhere along the way, it got lost.
I just assumed that it wasn’t needed, but I may have been wrong.
If you are having troubles losing your settings,
1. Log into RedBoot
3. Type
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0x00010000 -n nvram, Hit enter4. Type
reset, Hit enter.Let me know if it works now.
I’m getting ready to do this and need to know how to set this thing up as a wireless repeater when I’m done. I currently have a wireless network and I do not use DHCP (static all the way baby!!!) Links or some guidance would be appreciated.
I’d say check out the wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/LaFonera_Software
and the forum:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=28
Basically, the code for making a wireless repeater automatically set up is either buggy or not written, so you have set it up manually.
First(this is the tricky part), get it working in client mode or client bridge mode (client bridge mode is a little bit closer to what an actual repeater does, doesn’t really matter). Once that is done, add a virtual AP in the wireless tab, called it whatever you want, leave the default settings.
Now connect over your wireless card.
When I did this:
load -r -v -b 0×80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7
fis create -r 0×80041000 -e 0×80041000 -l 0×000E0000 vmlinux.bin.l7
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0×00010000 -n nvram
reset
It didn’t do anything, then, putty closed, and now i can’t connect to it, but it lights up really pretty still (the fon)…What can I do to connect back to it? because the device seems unresponsive at the moment.
One problem, the part that gives the fis command:
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 rootfs
should be
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 root.fs
(note the period).
EDIT BY ADMIN: Nope, the correct way is how it is written in the guide. If it worked for you, I guess that’s fine, but I can’t recommend it.
Glad to see you put the
fis create -f 0xA83D0000 -l 0×00010000 -n nvram
back into the instructions — yeah its required or a reboot will cost you all your settings.
Just wanted to say your instructions are very straight forward and easy to follow.. work perfectly.
Also for those interested, client bridge seems to work great using the 3/23 build.. I am currently posting this across a fon to fon bridge using wpa2
laptop — fon ~~~~ fon — wirednetwork — gateway — internet.
What a fuc****** tutorial… Amazing!! You’re the one!!!
The portuguese comunity of Aveiro salutes you!!
What a good work!! Well done…
@Gibson: Did you have a problem? Because I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s supposed to be. Works for me every time.
@Superaison: Near the end of the tutorial is some information that should help you. If not, let me know.
@Antonio: Thanks!
(note: Gibson = boaf on dd-wrt.com)
The next FON I get I’ll try being more patient and I’ll use rootfs instead of root.fs
Thanks for an amazing tutorial, by the way.
Thanks, feel free to spread it around!
Hey awesome tut i have it flashed with 0109. The problem is the connection is a bit unstable. Like i will be connected fine for 5 minutes but after the fon router stops working and i have to unplug it and plug it back in again to work. I tried upgrading to 0323 but after i wget one of the files (as it says in the wiki for instructions on updating) it freezes and telnet looses connection. Sometimes it even freezes after i just did cd /tmp before i wget the files to update! Any ideas? Thanx
Awesome tutorial, i have some post flashing questions…
my flash went perfectly, but i cant ssh to the router anymore :S
when i bring up eth0 with ifconfig dhclient can’t ive it an IP address.
I set the router up to give me an IP address via auto DHCP server.
and after a couple of minutes (after i bring up eth0 and the routers been running for about 10 minutes now) i get this wierd IP address assigned to me like
“169.254.135.39″ when i manually set the router to give me an IP in the range 192.168.1.100/150??
i have to manually set my default gw with
route add default gw 169.255.254.1
**and change my IP address to “169.254.255.2″
ifconfig eth0 169.254.255.2
just to open the dd-wrt interface in mozilla. but even then i cant ssh to the router at ALL. any ideas?? The install went without an error. and when i actually do get into the routers interface its nice, runs smooth.
i would like to use the router as a scanner. so i would like to set it up so i can just plug into eth0, get an IP automatically, ssh into the *nix firmware, and run airodump. - - is this possible?? hey thanks in advance - trev.
@Trev, did you switch the router into client, or client bridge mode? Otherwise, it will not assign an IP.
SSH is disabled by default, since anyone could brick your router by SSHing into it. To enable, just go under Administration->Services and Enable “SSHd.”
There’s been some talk about using these for wardriving. Right now, OpenWRT seems to be more interested in it than DD-WRT.
If you ever get it working, I’d be interested.
@Greg Kay, in order to upgrade to a newer firmware from old (january or earlier) firmware, follow the guide from “Flashing the Firmware” on, except use the new root.fs and vmlinux files. There shouldn’t be any wget commands.
Once you have the newer firmware, you should be able to use the Web GUI for flashing to future versions (use the fonera-firmware.bin files).
well, thanks for the fast response!! i *did* enable sshd (i didnt see it before heh thanks!) and i followed the wiki http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Mode_Wireless to enable client mode, but it’s a wireless tutorial, i just want to plug the fon into my laptop via ethernet and get an IP in the range 192.168.1.* then ssh and run airodump.
i set
Operating Mode: Gateway
Select number 1(Telco-bridge)
Destination (are these the clients??) 192.168.1.0
subnet mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway (this is the fon itself right?)192.168.1.1
interface LAN&WLAN
The fon’s default DD-WRT settings start out looking for an internet connection on the ethernet port, and puts the DHCP server on the wireless. By switching into client mode and having every thing else at default settings, it will put the DHCP server on the Ethernet port, and start scanning for whatever SSID you put on the wireless page.
As far as running airodump, good luck. That is beyond my experience. Like I said, you may want to look up OpenWrt, because I know some people have worked on it over there.
If you still need help with the client mode, the following is a guide specifically for the fonera:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/LaFonera_Software_Client-Mode
#omg, i was just so confused that it was assigning me an IP like #169.245.39.135 //er whatever it was! that baffled me lol.
great, i now got it to give me an address 192.168.1.146 *that’s* what i wanted
i just set the wireless settings like so:
(notice all other settings stayed the same)
Wireless Mode: Client
that’s it, now i got the IP i wanted i had NO idea that the wireless settings ported over to the ethernet cable i appolagize for miss understanding cool beans man
as far as the aircrack suite goes, I will post a howto if i get it working to keep you up to date. .. Airodump will work i know that much Atheros based cards can go a long way usually unless they are made by airport er whatever is in my macbook right now.
thanks for all the help and - will keep you posted
- trev
[QUOTE] you may want to look up OpenWrt [/QUOTE] since i already have ddwrt installed is there a way to upgade to Openwrt, i didnt see that you cannot write to the root fs! I thought you could.. :S thanks trev.
AWESOME TUT!! 00b3r 1337.
now i followed a combo of this tut and the one from i-hacked in order to get my fonera to accept the commands.
E.G: instead of the IP 169.254.255.1 i had to use 192.168.10.1 to log into SSH, I also used there html file to;
add
# iptables -t nat -A prerouting_rule -i $WAN -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A input_rule -i $WAN -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
to firewall.user
using the vi command.
however there wget commend was for an invalid site, so I had to go searching and here I am found this Blog, and again I must SAY AWESOME!When i opened the fonera i knoticed that there is some other soldering points next to the Ethernet port, does anybody know what this can be used for, possibly another Ethernet or USB port???
finally may i use your tutorial ( with some alterations/addons ) on my site?
No web interface! I can telnet into the IP to get up OPENWRT there but there is no web GUI, at all - help!
Sorry guys, I’m back in school, so please direct all your questions to the DD-WRT forums: http://dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=28
Of course if you find any typos, I would be grateful if you would post that here!
Hi!
I Have tried to do your hack for the fonera router.
It worked fine the first step to load openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma in the router.
After rebooting router the router i try to restart “putty” but the program say “Network error:Connectioon refused”
I can ping the router, i can also log into the router.
Can anyone help me please, i don’t now what to do?
I might have a bit of a problem with the poor Fon. I went though and changed all of the ip’s, enabled ssh, and continued along with putty
“cd /tmp
wget http://169.254.255.2/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
mtd -e vmlinux.bin.l7 write openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma vmlinux.bin.l7
reboot”.
Putty then came up with an error and closed. I waited, thinking it was normal, tried reconnecting and nothing works now.
I tried the rest button, re’ssh’ing, pinging, nothing at all works. Is there anyway to totaly reset it or anything?
any and all input is appreciated!
Jon Gery
I have done the hack above and it has worked first time. Thanks.
One question though. When I go to http://192.168.1.1/ I need a login and pasword to change settings. Does anyone know what these are???
Same as before:
Username: root
Password: admin
Thanks!
I hesitate to add another question to the pile, but…
I successfully (I think) enabled RedBoot, but the WLAN light doesn’t seem to come on now (the other two do) and I can’t telnet to the address to flash the firmware. I haven’t bricked my fon have I?
The only thing I can do is repeat:
1. Unplug the power from the fon
2. Make sure you have all the other network connections disabled
3. Set the ip to the 192.168.1.166 with the same options as above.
4. Start the pinging (ping 192.168.1.254 -t)
5. Plug in the power to the router
6. In about 10-50 seconds, you should see a response. If you don’t, wait a little longer and double check your IP settings.
7. If you finally see a response, Start again “Flashing the Firmware,” but unplug the power from the router first, because there is a narrow gap of time that the Redboot option is open.
If that doesn’t work, try the dd-wrt forums: http://dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=28
I’m having some trouble connected to the router at IP 192.168.1.1
What should my Default Gateway and Preferred DNS Server be set to?
Mine shipped with 7.0.1 rc-2 and I cannot, for the life of me, get through the Kolofonium method. If someone could dumb it down for me I would highly appreciate it, my email is tge101@gmail.com. Thanks in advance.
got my fon router 2 weeks ago and it has been a nightmare. First off I couldn’t get it to transmit the FON_AP so could not register it so could not use it. After searching the internet and FON boards for hours managed to tinker about with it and get it transmitting this FON_AP signal.
All well and good, or so I thought. Now it kept disconnecting every 5 minutes and the MyPlace and FON_AP signal would disappear, which is very infuriating. Actually there was one day on which it did not disconnect but I can’t seem to replicate it Looked on FON boards and loads of people are having the same issue and FON seems uncapable of fixing it.
Since it was useless in the state I got it, I hacked it and have put dd-wrt 0323 and for a day it worked well - no dropouts. But now it has started to drop the signal again, although it is around every 15 minutes now between drop outs so better than before. Is anyone else having the same problems?
I have decreased the MTU to 1492 (from the Auto 1500 setting) and increased the signal from 16 to 18dB. But still dropping signal every 15 minutes. Can anyone help????
BTW : is this comment by Gibson correct …should it be root.fs
One problem, the part that gives the fis command:
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 rootfs
should be
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 root.fs
(note the period).
I followed the instructions on this page and upgraded two Fon routers without problem. I saw that thing about that it should be root.fs not rootfs but what is on this page works perfectly. I have since upgraded to 4/3 with the web gui without problem also.
I am using both of mine as wireless bridge. I followed the instructions on dd-wrt, and again no problem. I has been on for days and I never saw it drop out.
@Tom: sorry, I’ve never done it. Check out the dd-wrt forum, lots of info there.
@Vinnie: sweet!
@James: Can’t say that I know your problem unless its heat related. Check out the dd-wrt forums for info.
Also, Gibson’s comment was unnecessary since it works exactly like the guide says (not that I’m dissing him, I’m just saying that how it’s written in the guide is correct).
I’m pretty much the biggest n00b at this and after randomly stumbling on this site , I decided to see if I could get this to work on the Fon router I just got today.
Everything was going well until I reached the “Enabling RedBoot” section. After entering
wget http://169.254.255.2/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
I got an error along the lines of 169.254.255.1 router could not be established (I’m going off pure memory here, although I know now I should have probably taken a screenshot)
Out of frustration I unplugged everything and reset the computer.
Now, when I open a browser to check the router status I get a timeout connection error and I can’t get past that. Any help is appreciated, in fact thanks if anyone even reads this
I should also note that in HFS under the log section, I get ” Check update: failed”
I moved to another computer and I still get the same error when trying to check the router status.
@poodey: that HFS error is normal. It is trying to check its website to see if there is a newer version available, but since there is no internet connection, it can’t find it.
As far as your other problem, have you tried starting from the beginning of the guide?
Yep, I started from the “Connecting La Fonera” section, disabled other network connections and firewalls, changed the IP and all that jazz.
I know I messed up somewhere before the “wget http://169.254.255.2/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma” part, but I can’t find out where since I’m unable to even check the router status. Arg!
Skip ahead to “Flashing the firmware” and see if you can get anything by the instructions there.
Alrighty. I started at Flashing the firmware and was fine up until I opened up Putty. After selecting Telnet, putting in the appropriate address and port and selecting ‘open’ the command prompt screen opened, only it was blank. It remained like this for about 20 seconds and then closed
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8808/puttydk3.jpg
I had Tftpd32 open, although you can’t see it in that picture.
I have a strange problem. Today I flashed my Fonera to DD-WRT fonera build 2007 - 0406. After flashing I tried to change the encryption from “no encryption” to WPA or WPA2, choosed Save Settings but my connection still remains unencrypted Sad
How can I fix this? Would this be a bug in the latest firmware release or are there more settings I have to change? I just want to use my Fonera as a normal router to wireless connect to my internet connection.
What other option can I try? Downgrading to an earlier version?
Any help would be welcome! Smile Many thanks!
Hello,
me back again
Today I tried to flash another Fonera (yes, I got 2 Foneras) but now with the 2007-0323 firmware. Again I have problems with encrypting my connection. WPE, WAP or WPA2 it just doesn’t want to work. What am I doing wrong?
Great work!
I’v got it up and running.
Thanx.
————————————–
FON Router: DD-WRT v24 Beta (03-23-07)
All is well until I reach fetching the root.fs file through TFTP.
I have done everything EXACTLY as shown here.
I did try to disable the firewall completely, but that doesn’t fix anything either.
I also tried setting the Default Gateway to 192.168.1.254 (as I think it should be, as the 169 address doesn’t work anymore), but that didn’t fix my problems, either.
It just keeps timing out. The program is located in the same spot the .fs files are at. Like I said- followed it exactly.
Any idea why the TFTP won’t work?
Thanks for the wonderful guide. Worked through it in 2 tries since one of my laptops just can’t get through the file transfers.
Thanks again to everyone involved in this guide.
hi,
just one question, btw: this tutorial works fine beside 2 typos:
1.) in “flashing the firmeware”, default gateway as well as prefered DNS server have to be set to: 192.168.1.254 instead of 169.254.255.1 as described in the tutorial
2.) within the same paragraph again, namely “flashing the firmeware” the following code:
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 rootfs has to replaced by
fis create -b 0×80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×002C0000 -e 0×00000000 root.fs (indlucing a dot in the filename!)
Nevertheless, very cool tutorial!!
But one questions remains for me! Purely, I forgot to register my router befor flashing it, no I cannot reache the wifi.fon.com page, as I should using the public network supplied by the original firmeware.
Is there any chance to do this confirmation / registration after flashing the router?
I ask because establishing the heartbeat afterwards, seems to be pretty easy (see http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/LaFonera_Software_Heartbeat), but I think its useless, if the registration isn’t performed before….
thx 4 your help
triple-asterisk
btw: whenever I try to reache wifi.fon.com the page cannot load, pining this url leads to not reaching 192.0.2.22… guess, I would need a hint of somebody who uses the original fon firmeware, with its original DNS server to give pass the right ip on to me…
After inserting the right ip in combination with the url in windows hosts file this could probably work again…
********************************************
could some fonero (using original firmeware) tell me the ip when pinging wifi.fon.com plz?
********************************************
thx in advance!!
triple-asterisk
Thanks for your interest, but those actually aren’t typos. That’s how its supposed to be (though it probably works both ways).
Did you have any troubles or did you just think those were typos?
Anyways, I have no idea about the heartbeat, because none of mine have ever been registered.
hm, no I had no trouble with the second point mentioned but with the first one for sure, as the pc and the access pointer belong to two different networks, no access can be established
nevertheless, I really have to wonder if it works with exactly that specification, but if it works, its ok for sure 
for the second point, I dont know why it works, but it seems pretty clear, that the these command using fis create are assembler like commands and therefore have to use the application’s name (which includes a dot)
about the heartbeat…
1.) if you dont have this heartbeat you dont go along with the fon guidlines if you emulate the beat everything seems ok for fon I think, therefore I’d like to register
2.) I’d like to invite friends to reach an accesspointer for free, but without registering my own accesspoint this wont work I think - or is there something to work around??
hth
triple-asterisk
btw: about the second command starting with fis create, yes I used my above mentioned methode including the dot, because I thought the other one must be a type. even If I didn’t encounter any prolems, I alredy tried to work around them in advance
I followed your instruction and now I’m stuck at loading the root.fs using telnet. It keeps timing out on TFTP.
I’m search everywhere and can’t solve the problem. Can someone please help? Thanks so much!
@YisSerL, that is exactly what happened to me on one of my laptops. I could figure it out and then I tried a different laptop and it went through the first time. Sorry this doesn’t really help you out, but maybe if you can try it with a different computer it may just work. Good luck.
@Cam,
I finally figure it out. I have flashed dd-wrt but now I run into a different problem.
The admin webpage for dd-wrt doesn’t show the wireless tab. Anyone experienced this problem??
Wicked tut. I’d been trying for ages to reflash one of these and never suceeded until I came across your tutorial. Many hours of frustration could have been avoided if I’d stumbled across this before.
I keep getting timed out when doing:
load -r -v -b 0×80041000 root.fs
Anyway around this?
for everybody with timeout problems:
I had the same trouble, thought that its a connection problem and therefore deactivated all firewalls, but this didn’t work as well.
The only way it worked was using another tftp server, namely: http://kin.klever.net/pumpkin/ it’s as easy or easier to use as the above stated and worked since the start.
hope that this solves your problems too.
with best regards
triple-asterisk
btw:
********************************************
could some fonero (using original firmeware) tell me the ip when pinging wifi.fon.com plz?
********************************************
why do my replies become removed …. grrrrrrrrrrrr =X
as I already wrote some hours before…
try this ftpd client http://kin.klever.net/pumpkin/ instead of the mentioned one above and be sure that all firewalls are down or opened!
my btw - msg also comes once again:
********************************************
could some fonero (using original firmeware) tell me the ip when pinging wifi.fon.com plz?
********************************************
whoever deleted my last reply, plz let me know why if this one becomes removed too!!!
hth
triple-asterisk
No one is deleting your posts, I see two.
Anyways, yes, I originally used pumpKIN, so I can recommend it as an alternative for those of you that are having problems with tftp32.
…really mysterious, but when I visited this page at 5:37 am (server time) my previous posting has for sure not been displayed…
nevertheless, I go along with admin and still hope this hint solves your problems regarding timeouts!
First off, Great tutioral man!! I’m kinda a noob at this but i found it great, i flashed my FON to 23/3 and it worked great….i thought!!
Hoping someone could help!!–> It’s like the fon just drops it’s I.P. address from the router. I’m still connected to the FON and I can still connect to the GUI but it is not giving me internet. I still get the light show saying the internet is connected but the Fon just wont broadcast it.
Updated to 16/4 firmware and same thing happens!
When i’m connected to the same router by LAN cable it works perfectly. but with the FON The “Dropout” occur after about 15mins, sometimes fixed by reseting the FON. and idea of solutions or questions about my settings post here or mail me mrcathaloshea@gmail.com
I’d love to get it fixed as i just got a wii!!!
you said i could post it on my site, and yet you then revoke my right to post it saying I said it was mine. if you had a issue with posting it on my site then you should have said somthing in the first place.
c0ldfyr3: I never said you could. You asked, and then assumed. Its not that you copied it. Its that you acted like you wrote it without so much as providing a link back to here.
I’m not looking to cause problems. You just try spending 6-7 hours writing something, then have someone steal it without giving proper credit.
In the future, please try to use a little etiquette.