estqwerty’s wifi antennas

I have this clone of D-link DWL-2100AP.

It worked great for a 10 mounts - after that AP begin to continually rebooting. It is not possible to upload new firmware whit tftp.

Now whit OpenWrt on fonera there is more info how the staff works whit this atheros based APs. A lot of info is available on Italian and Russian sites.

What I make to re-flash my 108mb atheros ap. PCB is clone of DWL-2100AP rev.2.

You need RS-232 serial to ttl cable - I used GSM data cable for Siemens C25/35 - more info here :

http://www.forosdeelectronica.com

Some software : Putty , ftp server, tftp server and some other staff, but this is the main thing.

You need to connect 3 wires to AP - RX TX and GND, also to solder or connect two missing smd resistors.

Thats all - you are ready to to use some terminal program to connect to the AP - I used Putty. Use Serial 9600.
So here is my problem :
ar531x rev 0x00005850 firmware startup...
SDRAM TEST...PASSED
WAP-G02A Boot Procedure V1.0
---------------------------------------------------------
Start ..Boot.B12..Please check the ethernet cable on port 1
Atheros AR5001AP default version 3.0.0.43A
UU
0
auto-booting...
Attaching to TFFS... done.
Loading /fl/APIMG1...
Please wait, loading image ...
image check fail!!!
error loading file: status = 0x3d0001.
Error loading RUNTIME file: errno = 0xd0003.
Loading /fl/backup...
Please wait, loading image ...
image check fail!!!


PLEASE BEFORE YOU BEGIN READ ALL IN THE LINKS GIVEN BELLOW !!!

There is a lot of INFO that I MISS - CONSIDER this as QUICK directions to restore YOUR AP!!!

DO NOT BEGIN EXPERIMENTING ON ANYTHING THAT IS WORKING!!!

You’ll see terminal window - must hit ESC or key to abort the boot and to get in the boot menu of the AP.

[Boot]: ?
? - print this list
@ - boot (load and go)
p - print boot params
c - change boot params
e - print fatal exception
v - print version
B - change board data
S - show board data
n netif - print network interface device address
$dev(0,procnum)host:/file h=# e=# b=# g=# u=usr [pw=passwd] f=#
tn=targetname s=script o=other
boot device: tffs=drive,removable file name: /tffs0/vxWorks
Boot flags:
0×02 - load local system symbols
0×04 - don’t autoboot
0×08 - quick autoboot (no countdown)
0×20 - disable login security
0×40 - use bootp to get boot parameters
0×80 - use tftp to get boot image
0×100 - use proxy arp
available boot devices:Enhanced Network Devices
ae1 tffs


Next You’ll need to reconfigure boot parameters - and change them to boot not from flash, you will boot it from tftp server. This bootloader is file called “art”

this is default config :[Boot]: p
boot device : tffs:
unit number : 0
processor number : 0
file name : /fl/APIMG1
inet on ethernet (e) : 192.168.1.50:ffffff00
host inet (h) :
flags (f) : 0×00
other (o) : ae
reboot AP

To change to boot from tftp - use :

[Boot]: c
‘.’ = clear field; ‘-’ = go to previous field; ^D = quit
boot device : ae1 //to change to boot not from flash
processor number : 0
host name :
file name : /art //which file to look for
inet on ethernet (e) : 10.0.0.1:ffffff00 // IP address of the AP
inet on backplane (b):
host inet (h) : 10.0.0.2 // IP of the TFTP server
gateway inet (g) :
user (u) :
ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh):
flags (f) : 0×80 // use flag 0×80 to boot from TFTP
target name (tn) :
startup script (s) :
other (o) : ae
reboot again.

Next : can continue whit copying new firmware from FTP server to AP.

hostAdd "pc", "10.0.0.2"
netDevCreate "pc:", "pc", 1
cd "pc:"
iam "Anonymous", "Guest"
ll or ls command will list Your FTP folder.

Then I copied files arm and apimg1
copy "pc : /art1', "/f l/art"
copy "pc : /apimglU , "/f l/apimg1
Next change back to boot from flash

[Boot]: c
‘.’ = clear field; ‘-’ = go to previous field; ^D = quit
boot device : ae1 tffs:
processor number : 0
host name :
file name : art /fl/apimg1
inet on ethernet (e) : 10.0.0.1:ffffff00
inet on backplane (b):
host inet (h) : 10.0.0.2
gateway inet (g) :
user (u) :
ftp password (pw) (blank = use rsh):
flags (f) : 0×80 0×00
target name (tn) :
other (o) : ae

You must get :

Attaching to TFFS... done.
Loading /fl/apimg1...
Please wait, loading image ...
image check ok!!!
/fl/ - Volume is OK

I get some more errors because I used not original firmware and did not copied proper apconf but this can be easy done whit using “set factorydefault” command when you get in your NEW AP shell.

This is worked for me ! Now You can reflash whit any original firmware, or other , or give a try with openwrt.

PLEASE BEFORE YOU BEGIN READ ALL IN THE LINKS GIVEN BELLOW !!!
DO NOT BEGIN EXPERIMENTING ON ANYTHING THAT IS WORKING!!!

Links:

http://www.wireless-italia.com/

http://www2.nag.ru/forum/

http://smarts.zp.ua/

http://xoomer.alice.it

Tags: atheros, dlink, dwl2100, firmware, openwrt, reflash

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.