Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 19:08 Post subject: WRT54G 1.1 - pauses at boot w/ blinking power LED
Hello all,
I've been using dd-wrt fimrwares on a few different routers, and I haven't had any issues with them. However, I'm experiencing one problem, when I applied the dd-wrt firmware to my sister's WRT54G v1.1 router.
The issues is: the router pauses/stops/hangs during boot after a cold or power reset, unless the WAN cable is disconnected. When the WAN cable is plugged in at boot time, the power LED blinks, goes solid, blinks again, goes solid, etc. The internet LED is blinking constantly, and the LAN LEDs are solid for the 3 physical connections.
If I unplug the internet cable (cable modem to Shaw), then the power LED goes through 8 cycles of blinking/solid, and then stays solid. The WLAN light also goes on at this point. If I plug in the cable modem again, then everything operates properly.
The router is clearly not bricked, but unless the cable modem is disconnected from the router, it is non-functional.
I've gone through some different firmware versions, hoping that this behaviour would be better, but unfortunately, it is consistent across SP1 mini, SP1 standard, build 11296, and SP1 vint (currently on the router).
Further details:
-the 30/30/30 reset has been tried numerous times
-during hang, the router does not accept telnet or GUI connections, although it pings with an 80% packet loss.
-during hang, no IPs are served
-no changes had been made in the GUI - default settings across the board, except for a new user/password
I've browsed the forums and did quite some searching and experimentation, and I suspect that more people may have seen this issue, but perhaps not realized the impact of the internet cable.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Are there any GUI settings to disable or enable?
Best regards,
Shaun/Superflye
/edit
Also, here's the dmesg output, with some MACs set to XX:
Code:
CPU revision is: 00024000
Enabling BCM4710A0 cache workarounds.
Linux version 2.4.35 (eko@dd-wrt) (gcc version 3.4.4 (OpenWrt-2.0)) #1957 Tue May 20 06:44:58 CEST 2008
Determined physical RAM map:
memory: 01000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
On node 0 totalpages: 4096
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 0 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Kernel command line: root=/dev/mtdblock2 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200
CPU: BCM4710 rev 0 at 125 MHz
Using 62.400 MHz high precision timer.
!unable to setup serial console!
Calibrating delay loop... 82.94 BogoMIPS
Dentry cache hash table entries: 2048 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
Checking for 'wait' instruction... unavailable.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
PCI: Fixing up bus 0
PCI: Fixing up bridge
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 01:00.0 to 64
PCI: Fixing up bus 1
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
devfs: v1.12c (20020818) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
devfs: boot_options: 0x1
squashfs: version 3.0 (2006/03/15) Phillip Lougher
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
Software Watchdog Timer: 0.05, timer margin: 60 sec
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:02.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:08.0 to 64
Universal TUN/TAP device driver 1.5 (C)1999-2002 Maxim Krasnyansky
cfi_cmdset_0001: Erase suspend on write enabled
0: offset=0x0,size=0x2000,blocks=8
1: offset=0x10000,size=0x10000,blocks=63
Using word write method
Flash device: 0x400000 at 0x1fc00000
bootloader size: 262144
Physically mapped flash: Filesystem type: squashfs, size=0x2ef9b4
Creating 5 MTD partitions on "Physically mapped flash":
0x00000000-0x00040000 : "cfe"
0x00040000-0x003f0000 : "linux"
0x000c9800-0x003c0000 : "rootfs"
mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase block boundary -- force read-only
0x003f0000-0x00400000 : "nvram"
0x003c0000-0x003f0000 : "ddwrt"
Initializing Cryptographic API
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 512 buckets, 4Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 2048)
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (512 buckets, 4096 max) - 336 bytes per conntrack
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_random match loaded
netfilter PSD loaded - (c) astaro AG
ipt_osf: Startng OS fingerprint matching module.
ipt_IPV4OPTSSTRIP loaded
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 Ben Greear
All bugs added by David S. Miller
VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly.
Mounted devfs on /dev
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
diag boardtype: 0000041a
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 01:08.0 to 64
PCI: Enabling device 01:08.0 (0004 -> 0006)
eth2: Broadcom BCM4320 802.11 Wireless Controller 4.80.56.0
vlan0: add 01:00:5e:XX:XX:XX mcast address to master interface
vlan0: dev_set_promiscuity(master, 1)
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
device vlan0 entered promiscuous mode
HELP ME! qdisc_restart called, but no Qdisc!
HELP ME! qdisc_restart called, but no Qdisc!
device eth2 entered promiscuous mode
device vlan1 entered promiscuous mode
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 0c 41 XX XX XX.
vlan1: dev_set_promiscuity(master, 1)
vlan1: dev_set_allmulti(master, 1)
vlan1: dev_set_promiscuity(master, -1)
device vlan1 left promiscuous mode
vlan1: dev_set_allmulti(master, -1)
vlan1: add 01:00:5e:XX:XX:XX mcast address to master interface
vlan1: del 01:00:5e:XX:XX:XX mcast address from vlan interface
vlan1: del 01:00:5e:XX:XX:XX mcast address from master interface
vlan0: dev_set_promiscuity(master, -1)
device eth0 left promiscuous mode
device vlan0 left promiscuous mode
device eth2 left promiscuous mode
vlan0: dev_set_promiscuity(master, 1)
device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
device vlan0 entered promiscuous mode
device eth2 entered promiscuous mode
device vlan1 entered promiscuous mode
vlan1: Setting MAC address to 00 0c 41 XX XX X.
vlan1: dev_set_promiscuity(master, 1)
vlan1: dev_set_allmulti(master, 1)
vlan1: add 01:00:5e:XX:XX:XX mcast address to master interface
vlan1: dev_set_promiscuity(master, -1)
device vlan1 left promiscuous mode
vlan1: dev_set_allmulti(master, -1)
is the WAN mac address the same as it was before you flashed dd-wrt?
have you gotten online since you updated it?
e.g. has the modem given dd-wrt a wan IP?
if not, pull the power from the cable modem for 5 minutes (remove its battery if it has one also) _________________ 2x WRT54G v5, 2x WRT54G v2
1x WRT54G-TM
1x WRT54GL
1x WRT54G2 v1
2x BUFFALO WHR-G54S
2x BUFFALO WHR-G300N v2
1x BUFFLOW WHR-HP-G300N
1x La Fonera
FON Client Bridge tutorial
barryware, I changed the base IP of the router to 192.168.2.1, and it exhibits the same pause/hang behaviour. I've changed it back to 192.168.1.1 now. That 192.168.1.1 was also the IP when this router had the linksys firmware.
freonchill, the router is entirely functional, when it completes the boot with the cable modem disconnected from it. If it is not rebooted, the router works quite well. It's been in operation for several days.
I pulled out the power plug for several minutes. Same behaviour after plugging it back in. AlsoI don't know if there's been a MAC change, as I didn't keep track of the MAC before the update. I think that is very unlikely though.
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:02 Post subject: Core rev?
Hello NXIL,
The 'nvram get wl0_corerev' shows rev 5. It is a v1.1, as stated on the case itself. I put the VINT build in, hoping that it would not have that issue.
I've tried 4 different dd-wrt firmwares, mini to std to 11296 (EKO) to VINT. They all flashed quite ok with appropriate resets, and they all operated quite ok. Unfortunately, they all also fail to complete booting when the cable modem is connected to the router.
I agree that the browser cache doesn't seems very peripheral to this issue.
Joined: 29 Dec 2008 Posts: 649 Location: Southern California
Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:39 Post subject: Clear cache
Hi,
I would clear the cache anyway....
Did you do initial DD-WRT flash with mini_generic?
If you flash back to the linksys firmware, does it work, i.e. is there some hardware problem, as in router is old and busted? And, in that same vein, was router working OK until DD-WRT firmware flash?
30/30/30 before and after, and, after flashing, do you give the router a few minutes to process the flash before doing that second 30/30/30? I give it about 3-5 minutes.
NXIL: I used the 'dd-wrt.v24_mini_wrt54g.bin' file, which one assumes is not simply the generic file.
I haven't flashed back to a linksys firmware yet. The router was working well before this; I wanted to put in this firmware mostly for the speed improvements that I'd seen in wifi, when I installed dd-wrt in a wrt300. If/when I switch back to a linksys firmware and it runs, then it would stay in that state. I'd rather leave a completely functioning router here rather than something that works faster but needs manual attention occasionally. I'm just visiting, and stability is more important than performance. And yes, I have been resetting the router as outline in faq and forum.
barryware: I switched cables from router to modem - no change. I rotated the power plug on the modem - no change. I rotated the power plug on the modem - no change. I would really love to hear your theory on this one :)
I'm getting a "try flashing the firmware again (and hope it works this time)" feeling here. How many flashes should I stop at? I'm at number 4.
Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 19 Location: Denver, CO
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 15:25 Post subject: I'm getting the *exact* same behavior
I've got a Linksys WRT350N and am getting the exact same behavior you are describing.
When I boot/reboot my router with the cable modem plugged in, it cycles a few times, and then just sits with the power LED blinking steadily, and the WAN LED blinking with traffic as normal.
But, if I unplug the cable modem, it boots up just fine, and after its booted, I can plug the cable modem back in, and all is peachy.
For me, this behavior started after I moved. So I'm guessing that something on Comcast's network where I now live is different from where I used to live, but I havent a clue what.
Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 5266 Location: CENTRAL Midnowhere
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 16:15 Post subject: Re: I'm getting the *exact* same behavior
qubit wrote:
For me, this behavior started after I moved. So I'm guessing that something on Comcast's network where I now live is different from where I used to live, but I havent a clue what.