CFE bootloader update

[RogerSC]

VBox Guest Addon tools need to be installed after you have completed the OS install, otherwise the network, disk I/O, video and mouse pointer will be emulated rather than run native. This makes a huge difference in terms of performance. Under "Devices" there is a menu entry saying "Install Guest Addons" that will mount a virtual CD image under the Guest OS, where you will be able to install the guest tools to optimize your VM performance.

Interesting...next time I use VBox, I'll keep that in mind *smile*. Can't think of any strong reason for doing that at the moment, but you never know. There was a lot more than performance problems, though...you'd have to have seen it to believe it, I couldn't even start to describe what the KDE desktop did *smile*.

 

[Pierino]

Chances are that you need to say:

./cfe_update.sh ./cfe.original ./cfe.new

Since "." (current directory) is not usually in $PATH. You can add it to $PATH, but there are some security implications.

Tried that, still says no such file or directory

 

[RMerlin]

Tried that, still says no such file or directory

Make sure it's executable:

chmod a+rx ./cfe_update.sh

 

[Koenig]

Tried that, still says no such file or directory

If you give the command "ls -l" what does it say then?

 

[Pierino]

If you give the command "ls -l" what does it say then?

What? Lol, I'm so out if my element.

 

[Koenig]

What? Lol, I'm so out if my element.

Same place as you type this: "./cfe_update.sh cfe.original cfe.new"
Instead type this "ls -l" and paste the rusults here

 

[RMerlin]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I would advise against doing a CFE upgrade unless you are familiar with basic Linux commands. Just for your own safety, since a failed CFE upgrade will result in an unrecoverable brick.

 

[Koenig]

Don't take this the wrong way, but I would advise against doing a CFE upgrade unless you are familiar with basic Linux commands. Just for your own safety, since a failed CFE upgrade will result in an unrecoverable brick.

I would say the same.

+ for the time beeing there absolutely no benefits from updating the cfe.

 

[Pierino]

No offense taken RMerlin. I don't necessarily plan on flashing the new cfe. I just want to go through the process at least.
This is the way I have learned how to do things, trial and error. If I brick the router, I'll get another.
Going and buying an rt-n66r is not as satisfying as doing this.

Last night I learned how to install ubuntu, ndiswrapper, sudo etc, some other basic Linux stuff. Slowly I'll get it.
Thanks for your patience, all of you.

 

[Pierino]

Same place as you type this: "./cfe_update.sh cfe.original cfe.new"
Instead type this "ls -l" and paste the rusults here

joe@joe-MT3707:~$ ls -l
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 6 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 21:54 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 21:07 Downloads
-rw-r--r-- 1 joe joe 8445 Oct 17 13:02 examples.desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Videos

 

[Koenig]

joe@joe-MT3707:~$ ls -l
total 44
drwxr-xr-x 6 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 21:54 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 21:07 Downloads
-rw-r--r-- 1 joe joe 8445 Oct 17 13:02 examples.desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe 4096 Oct 17 13:11 Videos

You are not in the directory (folder) where you put your files, that is why you keep getting the "no such file or directory"

EDIT: You are in your home-directory, you need to navigate to the directory where you put your files and then execute the command.

 

[Pierino]

Thanks, got the new cfe, its about half the size of original, 133.4kb, ryzhov_al said it must be 132kb.

joe@joe-MT3707:~$ ./cfe_update.sh cfe.original cfe.new
[1/4] Dumping default NVRAM settings from your CFE...
nvram start 0x400
nvram end 0x13d8
nvram len 4036
nvram crc 0xf1
nvram ver 0x01
[2/4] Modifying NVRAM settings (silent step)...
[3/4] Creating new CFE...
4092+0 records in
4092+0 records out
4092 bytes (4.1 kB) copied, 0.0269361 s, 152 kB/s
[4/4] Checking differences between NVRAM from old and new CFE's
4c4
< bl_version=1.0.1.2
---
> bl_version=1.0.1.3
19a20
> odmpid=ASUS
If you see only two differences: one is for 'bl_version' and second is a new 'odmpid=ASUS' variable then all step are done! New CFE image 'cfe.new' is prepared for flash.

 

[Pierino]

I havent tried to flash the new.cfe yet, just going through the steps. I havent even copied the new.cfe to the router ( I assume I can do that the same way I got the original with winscp?)
When i enter the "mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon" command i get
joe@joe-MT3707:~$ mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon
mtd-write: command not found


I am sure I am driving you guys crazy but I love this kind of stuff.

 

[RMerlin]

mtd-write only exists on the router. It's a tool for writing to the flash memory. That's the actual dangerous bit of the whole operation.

 

[Pierino]

Thanks Merlin, so go to Tools--> run cmd?
do I enter that in the line and hit refresh?

 

[RogerSC]

I havent tried to flash the new.cfe yet, just going through the steps. I havent even copied the new.cfe to the router ( I assume I can do that the same way I got the original with winscp?)
When i enter the "mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon" command i get
joe@joe-MT3707:~$ mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon
mtd-write: command not found

I'm not sure if you're actually typing it as above, but the options above are not correct, they should be like "-i" not "- i", but that may be spelling correction going on?

 

[fritsp1989]

I'm not sure if you're actually typing it as above, but the options above are not correct, they should be like "-i" not "- i", but that may be spelling correction going on?

DO NOT USE TOOLS>CMD
DO NOT USE IT !


You will get no feedback just use a proper telnet tool or something like PUTTY.
But not tools>cmd, flashing your CFE is dangerous if you do not have experience i bricked a couple before i actually learned

EDIT*

mtd-write -i cfe.new -d pmon

This command should work but remember its your own responsibility

 

[Pierino]

I'm not sure if you're actually typing it as above, but the options above are not correct, they should be like "-i" not "- i", but that may be spelling correction going on?

I just copied and pasted from the OP.

3. Flashing new CFE.
Place cfe.new back to router and run:

$ mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon

That all.

 

[fritsp1989]

I just copied and pasted from the OP.

3. Flashing new CFE.
Place cfe.new back to router and run:

$ mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon

That all.

Well im happy that it worked out can you see your new boot-loader version now ?

 

[Pierino]

I haven't flahsed anything. I am still waiting to see if it's ok that my new.cfe size of 133.4kb is ok since the original poster sad it "must" be 132kb

Also i got the original cfe off of the router by using winscp, can I use winscp to copy the new one to the same place the original came from?
Then how do I run the mtd-write - i cfe.new - d pmon command?

Dont worry, if I brick it I"ll go get a new one.