[mrmacmanus]

Hi,
I am posting this to help out others who are trying to install DD-WRT on Belkin F5D7230-4 v2000.

I am not trying to create a parallel "installation instructions wiki" here, but even after carefully going through the peacock thread, and the installation instructions, I managed to screw up the firmware on the router (rendering it inoperable). I realized that there are a few tricks you need to know to have a successful install.

The first sign of inoperable (but recoverable) router is a slowly flashing power LED with a (slightly) faster flashing WLAN LED. If your router is doing this, then your firmware upload has screwed up. Note that your CFE boot area (from where the router initially boots) should be fine for the most part (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Recover_from_a_Bad_Flash#Belkin_75D7230-4). You don't need special "recovery" instructions to fix the bad firmware on your router, just follow the instructions below:

Step 1. Install and setup TFTP on the host
- Read the wiki pages for installing TFTP on windows.

On Mac OS SL:
- In a terminal, type:
tftp 192.168.2.1
- You will get a tftp> prompt, type the following commands:

verbose
trace
rexmt 1
timeout 60
binary
(!!don't forget the binary mode!!)

On Linux:
same as Mac OS X

Step 2. Setup the network connection on the host
- Read wiki pages for this.
In short, set your host to do static IP, use 192.168.2.2 for the IP and 255.255.255.0 for the netmask. You may leave the default gateway blank

*Important*: For successful firmware upload, set the network card to 10Base-T, half-duplex.

On Mac OSX SL:
System Preferences -> Network -> [select Ethernet] -> Advanced
Select the Ethernet tab, and change "Configure: Automatically" to "Manual".
Set the "Speed" to 10baseT, and "Duplex" to half-duplex.

On Linux:
(login as root)
ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off
ethtool -s eth0 speed 10 duplex half

Step 3. Download the firmware
As noted on the wiki page (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation#Belkin_F5D7230-4_v2000_and_v2000de), this router needs a special "serial" firmware. Make sure you download the *_Bv2000_NEWD_* (I accidentally uploaded the regular micro firmware and broke the router at first!).

Step 4. Upload the firmware to the router
- Switch off the router
- Connect the host to one of the LAN ports on the router
- Type the following at the TFTP command prompt, but *DO NOT HIT ENTER* yet
put /path_to_firmware_file/dd-wrt.v24-12220_Bv2000_NEWD_*.bin

- Connect the power supply to the router, and watch for the LEDs. On my router, all LEDs flash once, and then couple of seconds later they flash again. After this the interface card on the host stabilizes. On Mac OS X, a green indicator shows up next to the Ethernet interface after the first time the LEDs flash. Don't be fooled by this, because almost immediately it goes away. When the router LEDs flash the next time, the green indicator comes back. At this point the interface has stabilized.

- Hit enter on the tftp prompt immediately after the connection stabilizes. You don't need to worry about microsecond timing, just watch the LEDs blink twice and hit enter. If the tftp prompt complains about host not reachable, just use the up arrow key to get the previous command (i.e, put dd...) and hit enter (the up arrow key trick works on Mac OS X SL, but it din't work on Linux for me. Just past the command on the prompt in Linux).

Step 5. Wait for the upload to finish
If everything goes well, you will notice some trace output from TFTP client. If the upload is going ok, you will see LED activity on the router LAN interface. The WLAN LED will be blinking slowly at this time.

Finally, when tftp finishes uploading, you will notice the WLAN LED flashing rapidly. This is when the firmware is installed onto the flash chip.

Whatever happens DO NOT DISCONNECT THE POWER FROM THE ROUTER at this time. Note that this process may take several minutes to complete. Wait until the power LED and WLAN LED are lit and stable (on my router, the power LED took a bit longer to stabilize after the WLAN LED has stabilized). In short, take a break and give the thing like 15 minutes to be on the safe side.

Reboot the router (The wiki suggests doing a hard reset, but I got away without it).

Change your host IP address back to DHCP and connect to 192.168.1.1 in a web browser.

If the power LED and WLAN LED are stable after the install like I said, your router will most likely work!