OpenWRT on newer Linksys wireless routers (was Re: [wellylug] OT: 802.11b/g wireless access points or routers)

[Ewen McNeill]

In message <20050508220754.534823C451B9 at basilica.la.naos.co.nz>, Ewen McNeill wr
ites:
>[Someone wrote:]
>>Do the newer WRT54GS's run OpenWrt or uClinux yet anyone? 
>
>FWIW, this page:
>http://openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Linksys/WRT54GS
>
>implies that the Experimental release of OpenWRT now includes support
>for the WRT54GS v1.1 and presuambly the WRT54G v2.2 (which has similar
>hardware changes).

I've now tried this -- ie, flashing my WRT54GS v1.1 with the OpenWRT
experimental firmware from 2005/04/23.  The initial flashing, and the
first bootup went fine, but the jffs partition didn't seem to get set
up as I couldn't, eg, change the root password ("read only filesystem").

After I rebooted, the device was no longer accessible, despite indications
that it'd booted correctly from the LEDs.  Trying to fix it by booting
without the jffs partition (hold down reset button for 2 seconds after
the DMZ light comes on) didn't seem to help; I eventually gain access
to the device again by resetting the nvram (hold down reset button prior
to the DMZ light coming on).

After a reflashing, and much experimentation, I'd recommend:
- manually run "firstboot" after flashing it, and telnetting in, just
  to make sure it's been done (it's safe to do run it twice)

- double check you have all the "network setup" nvram variables 
  configured, as per here:

  http://openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Configuration

  otherwise at least one of your network interfaces won't get set up
  right; the ones inherited from the Linksys firmware don't seem to be
  right.

- disable the firewall policy prior to the first reboot (eg, rm
  S45firewall from the jffs partition); you can always put it back
  after you're sure it boots okay

It appears that the most likely interface to be properly setup is the
wan interface, so it's useful to be able to telnet/ssh into that when
getting past these setup hurdles.

I've yet to rebuild from source (which I'll need to do, as I need a 
few more busybox features for my firewall setup), or port over the
various extra packages I need, but it looks reasonably promising.  And I 
do have 5MB free in my jffs partition.  The luxury.  (More than the 
entire ROM space in my WRT54G.)

Ewen