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Author Topic: airlink ANAS350 recovery  (Read 1047 times)
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wpaynter
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« on: July 19, 2008, 05:07:28 AM »

I have an Airlink101 ANAS350 that seems to be similar to the forums topic hardware.

The first thing I did when I got it was gain access to the command prompt (method as mentioned here -->http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=16269)and dump the firmware to a file. ie. 'cat /dev/mtd0 > firmware.bin'
Then I upgraded to the latest firmware on the airlink101 support site. Then I gained access to the telnet again and dumped the new firmware to a file aswell.

Then I went looking for the GPL sources to the firmware.
Unfortunatly The only thing Airlink101 released is what looks to me to be the toolchain. link-->  http://www.airlink101.com/gpl/anas350/

Eventually I found some sources that were for a similar product. (I don't exactly remember, i think it was from here --> http://mgb111.pradnik.net/)
I followed the instructions to create a firmware and then flashed it via the web interface.
The web interface accepted it and flashed it to the device.
After that he device seemed to boot fine but I could not find it on the network.
To my embarrassment I did not enable the code that enables and sets up the network interfaces and the IP address. (at least I hope thats all it is)

Anyway the recovery loader shows up so I think I may have a chance to get it going again.
But the problem is I cannot get the tftp server to accept any firmwares. after entering the tftp command it finishes up within 10 seconds, Nowhere near the 55 seconds it mentions in the wiki.
So that problem makes me thing it may be a branding problem. I cannot figure out which brand would the device be now? would it be the brand set by the firmware I created? (MGB111) or the brand of the original firmware? Which I think may be ALK_RUS021. because when you run the program that airlink gives you it decompresses these files to your users temp folder;
ALK_RUS021toQueen.bin.tmp
ANAS350_400a7.EXE.tmp
boot_400a7v2.BIN.tmp
itrd_400a7v2.BIN.tmp
rnel_400a7v2.BIN.tmp
tftp_400a7v2.BIN.tmp
WDPMM2-2203.BIN.tmp


or would it be the brand of a machine that uses the queen header?(as that one file seems to convert the ALK_RUS021 to queen?)

Thanks for reading my post. After all that I have built a unbuffered jtag and soldered a pin header onto the board in preperation of what may need to be done.
the test done with the multimeter as described on the jtag page suggest that i do not have the pull up resister needed to enable jtag on my device. can anyone with this device shed any light on this topic?
« Last Edit: July 19, 2008, 05:13:08 AM by wpaynter » Logged
schufti
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« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2008, 23:09:35 PM »

Hi,

if you only uploaded an "upgrade.bin" you wouldn't have changed the branding.

The official upgrade from airlink101 is funny indeed, they seem to change the branding of their boxes from
ALK_RUS021/Queen2 to Queen/Queen (like the original from AMIT)

So try the following:
1) tftp the ALK_RUS021toQueen.bin in case you managed to break the branding (fast, <1s)
2) concatenate the boot_*, tftp_*,kernel_*, initrd_*, WDPMM2-* files to an ANAS350_400a7.bin
(copy /B *.bin ANAS350_400a7.bin)
3) tftp the ANAS350_400a7.bin (should now take ~ 50s)

schufti

P.S.: with some luck, the mini-pci connector is fitted in your device and you can find a RT2561 WLAN card on ebay. This could enable you to fully take advantage of the MGB111 firmware sources?
« Last Edit: July 19, 2008, 23:53:39 PM by schufti » Logged

I won't answer posts or PMs about repair/recovery after bad flash until proven that the wiki was read and followed!
find all my MGB100 files here, pass: mgb100
chimbo
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« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2008, 10:59:17 AM »

To enable jtag you need to pullup pin 6 of flash chip (or install not supplied R13).

chimbo
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wpaynter
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« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2008, 23:31:01 PM »

Thank you very much!
Your advice did the trick Schufti. My device boots up to the original (updated) firmware.
And that information is very much appreciated chimbo! I am sure I will be trying that out next time I run into trouble. Wink

PS, The mini-pci slot does not have the slot soldered on to it. Could I use the usb ports and a usb device?
« Last Edit: July 20, 2008, 23:38:24 PM by wpaynter » Logged
wpaynter
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« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2008, 02:11:06 AM »

I am trying to figure out what type of file that initrd from the image is.
The 'file' command in linux doesn't recognize it. it just calls it data.
Sometimes squashfs files are called that but my unsquashfs version doesn't recognize it. it just says "Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on rootfs"

Anyone have any idea how to access the root filesystem stored in the image?
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schufti
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« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2008, 10:54:45 AM »

Hi,

yes - no big deal - it's squashfs with lzma.

not easy to get that mounted on an other machine...

schufti
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I won't answer posts or PMs about repair/recovery after bad flash until proven that the wiki was read and followed!
find all my MGB100 files here, pass: mgb100
wpaynter
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« Reply #6 on: July 22, 2008, 07:34:43 AM »

Can you recommend a custom firmware that has source available that is compatible with this unit?
I cannot find many people mentioning this device specifically.
It would be nice to play with adding simple features.

Thanks for your tips Smiley

Edit: Since this post I have found this firmware to work well.
http://mgb111.pradnik.net/
I have not tried compiling my own since then. possibly in the future if I find time.Thanks again for the help. Smiley
« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 06:08:12 AM by wpaynter » Logged
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