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DIR685 revival

samurai_ttl

Beginner

Posts: 16

1

Wednesday, November 18th 2015, 7:37pm

DIR685 revival

Hello,

In an attempt to update the kernel to 3.18.24, I bricked the router. It won't boot anymore. I do have access to boot loader and serial console but not sure what options do I've. I tried option Y with a compiled 3.18.24 zImage to upgrade the kernel. It did erased all of 32MB flash and programmed it successfully.


TFTP Server IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Image Path and name(e.g. /image_path/image_name): /zImage
TFTP Download /zImage from 192.168.0.2 ..............

Successful to download by TFTP! Size=1332304

Do not power-off this device while flash programming is proceeding!!
==> enter ^C to abort program flash 0x30040000 within 1 seconds ......

Erase flash (0x30040000): Size=32768000 .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OK!
Program flash (0x30040000): Size=1332304 ........... OK!
Successful to upgrade (0x30040000)!

Any idea about something can be done to revive the device? I did try to flash it with original firmware .bin and zImage but no avail. It just remains stuck at


==> 2
TFTP Server IP Address: 192.168.0.2
Image Path and name(e.g. /image_path/image_name): /zImage
TFTP Download /zImage from 192.168.0.2 ....

Successful to download by TFTP! Size=1268892

Do not power-off this device while flash programming is proceeding!!
==> enter ^C to abort program flash 0x30040000 within 1 seconds ......

=> Select:
Boot Menu
==============================================================================
0: Reboot 1: Start the Kernel Code
5: Enter Command Line Interface 6: Set IP Address
7: Set MAC Address 8: Show Configuration
X: Upgrade Boot Y: Upgrade Kernel
Z: Upgrade Firmware A: Upgrade Application
R: Upgrade RAM Disk

=> Select: 1

Load kernel from 0x30040000 to 0x1600000 size 32768000
v3 check

Boot Menu
==============================================================================
0: Reboot 1: Start the Kernel Code
5: Enter Command Line Interface 6: Set IP Address
7: Set MAC Address 8: Show Configuration
X: Upgrade Boot Y: Upgrade Kernel
Z: Upgrade Firmware A: Upgrade Application
R: Upgrade RAM Disk

=> Select: 5


sl-boot>h
Illegal Command!
Commands:
arp ........ Display ARP table
config ..... Display System Configuration
dm ......... Display (hex dump) a range of memory.
exit ....... Exit.
go ......... Execute code at a location
load ....... Load code
mem ........ Display memory information
ping ....... Ping host by IP address.
quit ....... Exit.
sm ......... Write data to specified location.
stat ....... Statistics.
tftp ....... Get remote file by TFTP.
timer ...... timer.
sl-boot>

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "samurai_ttl" (Nov 18th 2015, 8:07pm)

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

2

Monday, November 30th 2015, 11:55am

Don't know anything about this particular NAS box.

But in my NAS box I have to do both the Kernel and the RAMDISK.
AFAIK the RAMDISK binaries provides access to the user for setting up the NAS.

Don't choose FIRMWARE unless you have the binaries for the whole flash memory, else you will brick the NAS box (everything will be wiped including the bootloader).

Looks to me you only did half the job.

BUT I might be wrong with this hardware, so just take it as something to consider.

samurai_ttl

Beginner

Posts: 16

3

Thursday, December 10th 2015, 7:59am

Wish you had replied sooner lol. You were absolutely right about what you had to say. I could able to get the TFTP working again after the factory reset only to brick it completely using the Firmware option lol.

Oh well... learning continues..

Trying to figure out a way to get the whole flash binaries from another working board through JTAG ... :think:

Thanks

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "samurai_ttl" (Dec 10th 2015, 8:05am)

AQUAR

Trainee

Posts: 116

Location: Australia

4

Sunday, December 13th 2015, 8:08am

Oh well - as we say here " that's the way the cookie crumbles".

If you are using the FTD chip for connecting to the RS232 port, then you maybe able to use it for connecting to the JTAG bus.
The process written by HWGuru is what you need plus the binaries.

Never had the need to unbrick a NAS box via JTAG myself, but our forum admin is an expert at it.
A bit of a guess here, but you just need to have a copy of all the MTD "partitions" and load them in the right places via JTAG.
You can save them from a working NAS box with the appropriate Linux command (forgot them, not being a Linux user!).

Probably reading the entire flash via JTAG is the best way to go though.

Not sure what SOC your NAS box has but I don't think its a storlink based product (as per the NAS boxes in this forum).
You might get better answers on a site specific to this NAS box.

Could also think outside the box and see if there is an WRT port that suits your NAS box.
I run WRT on my NAS box and it has re-purposed it to a useful device (OEM firmware was total and unfinished bloat ware).

Good luck!

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