Merlin randomly rebooted back to ddwrt

jbombs16 · #1 01-03-2013, 12:55 AM

I was running the cfe hacked ddwrt then switched to merlin about a month ago. Tonight my router n66u randomly rebooted and when accessing the router, it went to ddwrt. I can't seem to get back to merlin.

When attempting to flash back with the firmware restoration tool, it keeps failing saying it can't connect (check if light is blinking). I can't seem to get the router to boot into the safe mode. The light blinks for a while but not long enough to finish the restoration.

RMerlin · #2 01-03-2013, 02:47 PM

I can't see any way a firmware could out of the blue change to a different one. It's kinda like saying you booted your Windows 7 computer, and it suddenly booted again with your old WinXP. When you flash a firmware, it overwrites the existing firmware partition.

When using recovery mode, make sure to unplug everything (including the modem) but the one computer used for the recovery.

Start the firmware recovery process just before turning the router on (with reset button pressed, to enter recovery mode). That means click on the button to connect to your router - it will start counting down. That's how I do it, it ensures your router won't exit recovery mode before you are done flashing it.

jbombs16 · #3 01-03-2013, 05:34 PM

Thanks for the reply. I don't know what happened either.

To confirm your suggested procedure: I should start the firmware flash application, load the file to flash, click start, then power on router (with reset pressed)?

In my experience, When I run the utility, it uploads the file to the router (takes a few seconds), then it starts counting to 100%. Sometime after upload has completed (during the count up) the light stops blinking. Then the procedure eventually fails at 100%.

Also, if I can connect running ddwrt, can I just change your firmware extension to bin and flash through ddwrt?

My router must be messed up because if I boot to recovery and access my router through the browser, sometimes I get the cfe mini server and others I get ddwrt (even with light blinking)

Thanks again

RMerlin · #4 01-03-2013, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbombs16

Thanks for the reply. I don't know what happened either.

To confirm your suggested procedure: I should start the firmware flash application, load the file to flash, click start, then power on router (with reset pressed)?

In my experience, When I run the utility, it uploads the file to the router (takes a few seconds), then it starts counting to 100%. Sometime after upload has completed (during the count up) the light stops blinking. Then the procedure eventually fails at 100%.

Also, if I can connect running ddwrt, can I just change your firmware extension to bin and flash through ddwrt?

My router must be messed up because if I boot to recovery and access my router through the browser, sometimes I get the cfe mini server and others I get ddwrt (even with light blinking)

Thanks again

That's correct. Start the upload procedure before you actually put the router in recovery mode.

I have no idea if you can flash directly from DD-WRT. Probably safer to use recovery mode for that.

Make sure that your issues aren't partly caused just by your browser cache playing tricks on you. Try either clearing your browser cache, or using a different browser.

Pierino · #5 01-03-2013, 07:44 PM

I flashed from dd-wrt to Merlin's fw by changing the .trx to .bin and flashing from the GUI.

jbombs16 · #6 01-03-2013, 11:17 PM

Thanks for all your help. Well I am an idiot. So I had an old router running ddwrt as a switch on my network. Well, the switch router must have rebooted to default and had the same IP address as my N66u. That explains why i would sometimes access the N66U and was getting ddwrt others.

all is good.

Thanks again, and thanks Merlin for the great firmware.

octopus · #7 01-04-2013, 04:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbombs16

Thanks for all your help. Well I am an idiot. So I had an old router running ddwrt as a switch on my network. Well, the switch router must have rebooted to default and had the same IP address as my N66u. That explains why i would sometimes access the N66U and was getting ddwrt others.

all is good.

Thanks again, and thanks Merlin for the great firmware.

If you have two router in your setup then it's a good thing to use one at 192.168.2.1 and the other one at 192.168.2.2 then you don't have that problem when one of routers reboots, no ip-address collision.

nubyOz · #8 01-04-2013, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by octopus

If you have two router in your setup then it's a good thing to use one at 192.168.2.1 and the other one at 192.168.2.2 then you don't have that problem when one of routers reboots, no ip-address collision.

Also set them manually to different non overlapping Channels.

octopus · #9 01-04-2013, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nubyOz

Also set them manually to different non overlapping Channels.

Not channel, separate LAN-net.
If you have them in same subnet then you can communicate between them.

jbombs16 · #10 01-04-2013, 09:26 AM

I know. I was just using it as a switch. Had wireless turned off and had it set to a different ip. The problem arose when the switch router reset to default (192.168.1.1) which my main router was set at. The switch was at 192.168.1.5. Before it reset to default for some unknown reason.

I was planning on replacing it with a gigabit switch i bought but hadn't gotten around to doing it. I have since replaced the switch router with the switch and everything is good.