Any progress on making the EA6350 keep DD-WRT?

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Brett Glass
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Joined: 16 Jul 2010
Posts: 118

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 1:44    Post subject: Any progress on making the EA6350 keep DD-WRT? Reply with quote
I installed DD-WRT on an EA6350 for a client. It ran for two months until a power glitch caused the router to reset; it reverted back into the stock firmware and has lost all of its settings.

I do not yet know (and I'm not sure I'll be able to find out) if DD-WRT has been completely wiped from the flash or if it's just inaccessible.

I see other reports of this behavior here in the forums. Has any progress been made on preventing this from happening?

ETA: I see that there are some instructions for flashing the EA8500 at

http://mrjcd.com/EA8500_DD-WRT/

which involve hooking up a TTL serial cable and flashing two partitions. But I don't know if this will work with the EA6350 or if the "Webflash" image for the EA6350 that's posted on the FTP server is in the right format to try flashing this way. Advice?
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Malachi
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Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 12:03    Post subject: Reply with quote
The ea6350 has two firmware partitions. If you flash it once from the linksys GUI, dd-wrt goes on the other partition, leaving linksys firmware on the other.
Once you have dd-wrt on it, flash it again with dd-wrt, that in theory should put dd-wrt on the other partition.
Better yet, buy a good router. Stay away from the ea series by linksys.
The easiest to flash are netgear, although just this past week a user commented that he purchased a new r7000 that could not be flashed.

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Brett Glass
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Joined: 16 Jul 2010
Posts: 118

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 12:53    Post subject: Reply with quote
Y'know, I wouldn't touch these "cloud" routers if I didn't have to. But I am an ISP, and new customers want me to set up their existing routers to save money rather than buying a new one from me. For security reasons, I don't want to leave them with the stock firmware, which is not only insecure by itself but made MORE insecure by exposure to security problems in the cloud. So, I try to install better firmware for them.

As for the "flash twice" technique mentioned above: It doesn't work. When you flash the second time, the router often reboots into the stock firmware!

After reading postings around the Web about this, I believe that this is because DD-WRT only knows how to flash the partition from which you most recently booted when you do an "upgrade," whereas the stock firmware always flashes the OTHER partition. So, the stock firmware can upgrade itself and keep the prior version in place for an emergency. However, DD-WRT in its current form can never completely take over the router. So, the router reverts to the stock firmware at the slightest sign of a malfunction - even an incomplete boot due to a power glitch! This is apparently a problem not only with this model but with several.

The best answer is for DD-WRT to know that this is a router with two partitions and either (a) flash into both or (b) give you a choice. I can't imagine that this would be hard to implement for someone who knew the code.
Malachi
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Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 13:17    Post subject: Reply with quote
Which firmware are you trying to flash the second time? Try the nummit initial build referenced in the ea6350 thread.
https://www.dd-wrt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=286183&sid=a6c47f0130218962460341ba26583b3e

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Brett Glass
DD-WRT User


Joined: 16 Jul 2010
Posts: 118

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 13:27    Post subject: Reply with quote
I am flashing the same firmware both times. I don't want the router to randomly boot into different versions!
Malachi
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Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 14:25    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think you need a smaller version for it to flash to the other partition, just like the first time you flashed it.
Then once you have dd-wrt on both, you can flash the same build twice.
Sometimes it happens that newer builds are too big and won’t flash at all.

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BR07H3R
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Joined: 24 Dec 2017
Posts: 135

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 14:37    Post subject: Reply with quote
Malachi wrote:
I think you need a smaller version for it to flash to the other partition, just like the first time you flashed it.
Then once you have dd-wrt on both, you can flash the same build twice.
Sometimes it happens that newer builds are too big and won’t flash at all.

This is the answer he is looking for.

Sometimes I wonder if I've seen you irl malchi. I too live in c-bus... Lol like it's a small town or something
watchsat
DD-WRT User


Joined: 31 Oct 2017
Posts: 55

PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2018 16:50    Post subject: Reply with quote
BR07H3R wrote:
Malachi wrote:
I think you need a smaller version for it to flash to the other partition, just like the first time you flashed it.
Then once you have dd-wrt on both, you can flash the same build twice.
Sometimes it happens that newer builds are too big and won’t flash at all.

This is the answer he is looking for.

Sometimes I wonder if I've seen you irl malchi. I too live in c-bus... Lol like it's a small town or something


I have EA6300/EA6400/EA6500V2 three different routers, for both EA6300/EA6400 models, you have to flash the special version "linksys-ea6400-numinit-super-hacky-smaller-version.bin" first, then continue with normal DD-WRT firmware after that applied successfully.

You can references this one for the details:

https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1009864#1009864
Brett Glass
DD-WRT User


Joined: 16 Jul 2010
Posts: 118

PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2018 0:49    Post subject: Reply with quote
Tried that. Still doesn't stick. There's still one partition that's not written with DD-WRT.
Malachi
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 7209
Location: Columbus, Ohio

PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2018 1:38    Post subject: Reply with quote
You tried this from the link I gave?

i got this to run with the latest kong firmware:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=286608

i suggest saving the devinfo strings by capturing the output from this command from your serial console:
devinfo show

this router has two firmware images. i flashed both images:

CFE> flash -noheader : nflash0.trx
CFE> flash -noheader : nflash0.trx2

from your computer:
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put dd-wrt.v24-K3_AC_ARM_STD-27950m.bin
.....wait for ok, then repeat for 2nd image
tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put dd-wrt.v24-K3_AC_ARM_STD-27950m.bin

rebooted, and dd-wrt came up.

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