CFE bootloader update

[mromero]

Don't reboot router until you get your old CFE off the router.

The files are stored temporarily so if you have rebooted the router since upgrading the CFE the old CFE may be gone now.

Whoops!

Got me on that one although I've never ever saved old CFEs on any router. I shall remember for the future as for sure it is best practice in case the new CFE is faulty like what happened reading the earlier threads.

I've double checked I have the updated CFE with the commands to get into the new CFE itself with the correct VLANS, checked the logs to see the size of NRAM reported etc. and everything is fine.

Now the temptation starts to get Shibby Tomato into the router mainly because of its better QOS compared to the stock Asus and Merlin's builds.

I wish that Merlin would improve the QOS in his firmware...

 

[joegreat]

CFE update worked like a charme!

Preamble
This archive is for a CFE bootloader upgrade on Asus RT-N66U router from factory version 1.0.1.2 to version 1.0.1.3. The goal is to return CFE possibility to read variables from NVRAM which is lost while NVRAM been upgraded 64Кб in recent stock firmware releases.

Disclaimer
If you don't need restoration of the this possibility or you just don't know what it is, then better do not to touch the bootloader. Damaged CFE will bricks the router! You should represent consequences of the actions and you should understand what you are doing in the update process because only you take responsibility for update success. Or fail.

Hi,
The CFE Update worked like a charme!

Thank you for the great work and for sharing it with the community.

With kind regards
Joe

 

[Tommy2jz]

Do you guys know what the command is to copy the old CFE file to a USB thumb drive using PUTTY?

 

[joegreat]

Linux on the Asus RT-N66U Router

Do you guys know what the command is to copy the old CFE file to a USB thumb drive using PUTTY?

Hi Tommy,

Remember: Your router has some kind of Linux installed!
So you can use standard Linux commands (with some restrictions) to navigate and manipulate your router.

For copying files you can use the 'cp' command (without quotes).
A nice wirteup of the linux shell and the commands can be found here: http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_lts0050.php

With kind regards
Joe

 

[r.rebergen]

Tomorrow I will log in via WINSCP or FILEZILLA and root around and copy the old CFE to my NAS and on a couple of other computers.

How can I backup the current CFE?
I use Putty and would like to back it up to my Windows P (C drive).

 

[bird333]

How can I backup the current CFE?
I use Putty and would like to back it up to my Windows P (C drive).

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=49823&postcount=5

I think most people use WinSCP to get it from the router to the PC.

 

[RogerSC]

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=49823&postcount=5

I think most people use WinSCP to get it from the router to the PC.

If you have a Linux VM (or computer running Linux), you can also use scp. The router has the scp command, so you can transfer your copy of the 1.0.2 cfe from the router to a Linux VM that has sshd running.

 

[exeswiss]

Hi Guys! First, sry my english i hope you understand because i'm from Switzerland

I have buy a new RT-N66U. So, my question is: How to find out which CFE version i have. Somewhere i have read that i can see in the bootlog.

The old firmware (108), nvram starts at offset 0x01ff8000
The new 64k firmware, nvram starts at offset 0x01ff0000

Is that right?

So my bootlog tells me also i have the new 64k version?
Jan 25 01:00:07 kernel: 0x00000000-0x00040000 : "pmon"
Jan 25 01:00:07 kernel: 0x00040000-0x01fe0000 : "linux"
Jan 25 01:00:07 kernel: 0x00168c90-0x01680000 : "rootfs"
Jan 25 01:00:07 kernel: 0x01fe0000-0x02000000 : "nvram"
Jan 25 01:00:07 kernel: 0x01f40000-0x01fe0000 : "jffs2"

But there is a little difference with "f" and "e"
I hope i have de newer 64k ASUS Firmware because i don't dare to update de CFE by my self.

EDIT: In the merlin Firmware displays me: NVRAM usage - 36079 / 65536 bytes
EDOT2: Ohh lol sry. Maybe i should read fist... Tools -> System Information -> Bootloader (CFE) 1.0.1.2

 

[Wolle67]

Hi all,

before updating the CFE I want to verify, that all the steps run smooth.
So I tested if I could logon to the router with Filezilla (sftp).

But I got:

Connection closed by server with exitcode 127

Next I tried WinSCP... and the I got

Die Verbindung wurde unerwartet geschlossen. Der Server sendete den Beendigungsstatus 127

which (translated from german to english) essentially means the same.


Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong here?
I'm on Win7 and the latest Merlin build (270.24) btw.

Greetings from Cologne

Wolle

 

[RMerlin]

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong here?
I'm on Win7 and the latest Merlin build (270.24) btw.

Greetings from Cologne

Wolle

You must enable SSH on the router for SCP to work.

SFTP won't work.

 

[Wolle67]

Hi Merlin,

SSH was already enabled in the Gui.


I tried filezilla, because it was mentioned by some users as a working alternative to WinSCP for example here:

http://charleswilkinson.co.uk/2012/12/22/dd-wrt-on-the-asus-rt-n66u-with-64k-cfe/


WinSCP works neither btw.


Greetings


edit: Just switched Mode in WinSCP from "sftp" to "SCP" ... and now it works.

Thanks for the hint... Merlin

 

[Bagman]

Just wanted to say thanks to ryzhov_al for this great CFE upgrade script. It was simple and fast, where just six months back I'd be risking bricking my router and messing about binary editing my original mac address back into the CFE. Instead it went as smooth as silk.

The only different thing I did was to make a directory in my attached USB disk and run the commands from there so that I would automatically have a backup of the original CFE.

Thanks once again ryzhov_al.

 

[katinatez]

Bought 2 RT-n66u, one with old bootloader

Hello, everyone as the title states I bought two RT-N66U one with 1.0.1.3 the other with 1.0.1.2 so I have to upgrade the CFE. Just read about 30 pages on forum, so as I understand just follow the commands in the first opening and the script cfe/update.sh handles everything as far as copying my unique MAC address?
Or do I have to do anything with hex editor to edit my MAC address?

 

[joegreat]

...so as I understand just follow the commands in the first opening and the script cfe/update.sh handles everything as far as copying my unique MAC address?
Or do I have to do anything with hex editor to edit my MAC address?

Hi,

Yep, that's exactly what the scripts does for you: Copying the MAC addresses to the new CFE and loading it. Futhermore it saves a backup of the original CFE.

With kind regards
Joe

 

[katinatez]

Thanks, I updated my second router to 1.0.1.3 and saved my cfe.old securely. Thank you again.

 

[Soul--Reaver]

I tried this today on the latest firmware Version:3.0.0.4.354.27 BETA1 from Merlin

Got this result

[4/5] Checking differences between NVRAM from old and new CFE's
./diff: can't resolve symbol '_stdlib_mb_cur_max' in lib './diff'.
If you see only two differences: one is for 'bl_version' variable change
and second is a new 'odmpid=ASUS' variable then all goes well!

After that i did a manual compare of the two text files and they were fine so executed the CFE update anyway.

Just wanted to let you know

 

[spimps]

I just purchased one of these, and updated to Merlin build to determine my CFE.

It shows that I'm using 1.0.1.0.

I wasn't sure if it would work, so I tried to update the CFE with the instructions on page 1, but it said in SSH that didn't have 1.0.1.2.

I presume I have a very early build? Is there a way to update from 1.0.1.0 to 1.0.1.3?


Edit - Also my hardware says it's version: B2.

Thanks.

 

[ryzhov_al]

Hi!

Edit - Also my hardware says it's version: B2.

Are you sure about revision? Till now, only one hardware revison is known — B1.

(Wouldn't count pre-produce samples with fan).

 

[bird333]

I just purchased one of these, and updated to Merlin build to determine my CFE.

It shows that I'm using 1.0.1.0.

I wasn't sure if it would work, so I tried to update the CFE with the instructions on page 1, but it said in SSH that didn't have 1.0.1.2.

I presume I have a very early build? Is there a way to update from 1.0.1.0 to 1.0.1.3?


Edit - Also my hardware says it's version: B2.

Thanks.

Look back through the thread. I believe someone had that firmware and just changed the script to work with it.

 

[acat69]

I'm also at 1.0.1.0

How do I go about changing the script to allow the upgrade to 1.0.1.3?

Thanks.