Belkin N1 vision : sources and toolchain available

Post new topic   Reply to topic    DD-WRT Forum Index -> Atheros WiSOC based Hardware
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 18, 19, 20, 21  Next

Do we need DD-WRT on the Belkin N1 vision?
yes
94%
 94%  [ 217 ]
no
5%
 5%  [ 13 ]
Total Votes : 230

Author Message
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 13:01    Post subject: More news Reply with quote
I was able to obtain another V1000 device for cheap. This one also displays the same behavior in that you can only get output on the serial port. Did some research on this and found that the pin that should be for RX is tied to an output pin of a HC148. Not sure what belkin has done here, but it appears very clear they did not want anyone making a tie into their serial port to mod the bootloader.

I am sort of stuck now, because redboot is using a boot script to load their firmware. When you build the dd-wrt kernel and install, the bootloader just hangs. When you try to use their kernel, the kernel will load, but hangs at the point it mounts root and starts to load dd-wrt.

More to come...
Sponsor
skybub
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Sep 2009
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 17:57    Post subject: Re: More news Reply with quote
JoyElctrc wrote:
I was able to obtain another V1000 device for cheap. This one also displays the same behavior in that you can only get output on the serial port. Did some research on this and found that the pin that should be for RX is tied to an output pin of a HC148. Not sure what belkin has done here, but it appears very clear they did not want anyone making a tie into their serial port to mod the bootloader.

I am sort of stuck now, because redboot is using a boot script to load their firmware. When you build the dd-wrt kernel and install, the bootloader just hangs. When you try to use their kernel, the kernel will load, but hangs at the point it mounts root and starts to load dd-wrt.

More to come...


Very good job Joeylectric ! I'm sure you'll manage to do it !

A Belkin N1 Vision with DD-WRT would be a Killer router !
guggas
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 07 Sep 2011
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 14:50    Post subject: Re: Status Reply with quote
JoyElctrc wrote:
I have been able to get the V2000 image working and it is testing right now.

The V1000 device is another issue. The device I recieved from the ebay dude does not appear to have the RX pin working on the serial connection onboard. This makes porting a challenge, as I can only use the serial port for output.

I have also found that they are using some sort of Redboot boot script to execute their code. I suspect they have something special going on there that only allows their kernel to boot. The kernel provided with the GPL does not play well with DD-WRT at all, so I am working on taking an image of the entire RedBoot section of the flash to see if I can get/modify that boot script.

The frustrating thing about this is that if this is indeed the case, then the migration from the factory firmware to DD-WRT might require a boot rom modification, which, as I have found, can brick your device quick quickly if done incorrectly.

And, since I have no way to input into the bootloader, I face a challenge there. I have also found that with the belkin devices, the boot rom code doesn't get updated with an image upgrade. Even though the boot rom is required to build the image, the device boot rom is not replace when it is flashed. I would assume this is by design as to prevent the accidental complete brick of the device.

More to come...


I own one of the v2000 devices and I'de gladly volunteer for testing. Thanks for all your effort!!! And good luck with the rest of the work!
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 20:12    Post subject: Updates Reply with quote
Good news for all!

I was able to breakthrough and get this device to boot.

Problems,

1. The source than comes with the device uses madwifi. When you try to build dd-wrt with madwifi enabled, it looks for a madwifi.dev directory which doesn't exist in the source code. I cannot find in the repository history where this ever existed.

2. The local lan driver loads, but I cannot ping the device, which means I cannot ssh into it to see whats going on.

3. After re-reading this thread the serial port on the V1000 device must be locked from RX, this is confirmed by my trace to an A0 output pin as an output pin cannot provide input.

While this is excellent progress, until I can figure out the wireless driver issue (in which I think it configures a bridge group and then assigns 192.168.1.1 to it in the default configuration)

More to come, I hope... If anyone has any insight into the madwifi issue, it would help me out alot.
LOM
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 28 Dec 2008
Posts: 7647

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 2:31    Post subject: Re: Updates Reply with quote
JoyElctrc wrote:


2. The local lan driver loads, but I cannot ping the device, which means I cannot ssh into it to see whats going on.



If it is the V1 you are working on then it should have a Vitesse VSC7385 gigabit lan switch and don't think it is in the dd-wrt source code tree since the switch is not used in any other dd-wrt supported router afaik.

_________________
Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
Catweasel
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 05 Oct 2006
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 17:13    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hi JoyElctrc.

I too have v2000 and am interested in your progress/ability to install.

Could you please provide details so I might follow in your footsteps.

Thanks in advance.
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 13:38    Post subject: Re: Updates Reply with quote
LOM wrote:
JoyElctrc wrote:


2. The local lan driver loads, but I cannot ping the device, which means I cannot ssh into it to see whats going on.



If it is the V1 you are working on then it should have a Vitesse VSC7385 gigabit lan switch and don't think it is in the dd-wrt source code tree since the switch is not used in any other dd-wrt supported router afaik.


Interesting, I will check into this. The source you get from belkin configures the GE0 connection as a RGMii, but I guess that has nothing to do with the switch. The module in the open source is pre-compiled, so no source there to determine if any additional configuration is going on.

I also found in the kernel config that a R8169 was configured in the open source tree, but not in my tree. I will try setting this to "y" and seeing what happens.

I cannot find anywhere in the outpout of the factory image where it is saying what switch it is using, which creates a BFM type scenario.

I will also try looking around for that Vitesse code as well.
LOM
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 28 Dec 2008
Posts: 7647

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 16:36    Post subject: Re: Updates Reply with quote
JoyElctrc wrote:


Interesting, I will check into this. The source you get from belkin configures the GE0 connection as a RGMii, but I guess that has nothing to do with the switch.


That is the eth connection between the AR7141 and the switch but there should also be an interface for programming the switch, for accessing all its control and status registers which is done in the switch driver software.
But it could be that the switch is initialised by the boot loader and that the kernel doesn't have any switch driver.

_________________
Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 16:42    Post subject: Re: Updates Reply with quote
LOM wrote:
JoyElctrc wrote:


Interesting, I will check into this. The source you get from belkin configures the GE0 connection as a RGMii, but I guess that has nothing to do with the switch.


That is the eth connection between the AR7141 and the switch but there should also be an interface for programming the switch, for accessing all its control and status registers which is done in the switch driver software.
But it could be that the switch is initialised by the boot loader and that the kernel doesn't have any switch driver.


I think I understand. I did not have any luck finding any source code for that switch, I did find the source code for the control point of it (SPI Drivers). I did look through the bootloader code and it looks like it does get initialized here, and there is no reference to that or the SPI interface in the 2.6.15 kernel tree, or firmware to manage that switch. I wonder if they did not do that all in the bootloader.

I also found another location where they used the RT8169 to connect to the switch, so maybe thats the piece I am missing. I do not have the device with me here, but I will try it out when I get home later.

Thanks for your help!
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 18:44    Post subject: V2000 Image Reply with quote
For V2000 Image:

Please see:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=635869

BE AWARE:
This image will only work on V2000 devices!
LOM
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 28 Dec 2008
Posts: 7647

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:19    Post subject: Re: Updates Reply with quote
JoyElctrc wrote:
LOM wrote:
JoyElctrc wrote:


Interesting, I will check into this. The source you get from belkin configures the GE0 connection as a RGMii, but I guess that has nothing to do with the switch.


That is the eth connection between the AR7141 and the switch but there should also be an interface for programming the switch, for accessing all its control and status registers which is done in the switch driver software.
But it could be that the switch is initialised by the boot loader and that the kernel doesn't have any switch driver.


I think I understand. I did not have any luck finding any source code for that switch, I did find the source code for the control point of it (SPI Drivers). I did look through the bootloader code and it looks like it does get initialized here, and there is no reference to that or the SPI interface in the 2.6.15 kernel tree, or firmware to manage that switch. I wonder if they did not do that all in the bootloader.

I also found another location where they used the RT8169 to connect to the switch, so maybe thats the piece I am missing. I do not have the device with me here, but I will try it out when I get home later.

Thanks for your help!


I'm searching through my collection of GPL sources right now to see if I there is any 7385 drivers among it.
There is code for a basic init of the phy's in the 8232 redboot and the code is a simple init so that you have ethernet port access for tftp and such.

The 7385 has its own 8051 cpu with a variety of popular interfaces and the cpu has software for managed, unmanaged, and smart managed switch operation.
It is probably so that the cpu initializes the switch in some basic (unmanaged) mode and what is left to do is then to setup the phy's via RGMII as redboot does.
I still think you need a linux kernel driver in order to fully manage the switch.

_________________
Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 15:23    Post subject: Status Reply with quote
LOM,

Thanks for all your help/advice!

I attempted to use the factory kernel/toolchain to build dd-wrt, but the AG7100 prebuilt module in the factory rootfs segfaults.

Since I have no real console on this device, I have no real way to troubleshoot it. Thus, I am going to table this project for now as its taking more time than its value add.

If you really want to run dd-wrt on this type of device, you can get V2000 devices for as low as $25 on e-bay, and my dd-wrt build works on that device. I have been using it to pipe all my home internet traffic through for weeks now without issue.
lawleo
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 17 Sep 2011
Posts: 25

PostPosted: Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:03    Post subject: Reply with quote
I have v1000 device too, willing to do testing if needed.....

can't wait to see it work.... I hv been waiting this for years....
spatra
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 08 Mar 2010
Posts: 2

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 20:04    Post subject: Have you really abandoned v1000? Reply with quote
May I beg you to port dd-wrt on it too?
JoyElctrc
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 20:31    Post subject: V1000 Reply with quote
The only way I would entertain this would be to have the right switch drivers, which LOM has said is not available in the current source trees, and I cannot find anywhere out in the open.

Without a local console port, you have no way to interact with the device. If you have no ethernet connection or wireless connection same issue. Kinda in between a rock and a hard place.
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3 ... 18, 19, 20, 21  Next Display posts from previous:    Page 19 of 21
Post new topic   Reply to topic    DD-WRT Forum Index -> Atheros WiSOC based Hardware All times are GMT

Navigation

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum