Does T-Mobile/ASUS TM-AC1900 (RT-AC68U) Support Merlin?

[Engineer]

Engineer,

Sorry I don't know any telnet/ssh, so want to make sure before I do anything

1) On step 2, do i type in one command after another?

cat /dev/mtd0 > /tmp/sda/pen/original_cfe.bin
(change the path to your path information that you used above)

dd if=/dev/mtd0 of=/tmp/sda/pen/original_cfe.bin
(change the path to your path information that you used above)


2) Version 2.1.2.1 cfe is a rar file Am I suppose to unzip first before using it?

3) MTD-WRITE also in rar, do I unzip and extract some kind of exe to usb drive before using either ARM: mtd-write new_cfe.bin boot (v1)
OR mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot (v2) to write new cfe?

4) Step 8, before reboot, will telent show that cfe is complete or done? Am I doing a hard reboot by pressing on and off button on router after? Or must be done by some sort of command?

5) Did someone from SD use 1.0.2.0 (US) cfe (instead of 2.1.2.1 cfe) and make AC68U out of TM-1900?

Thank you so much.

1. From my understanding, either of the commands will work. I think they both do the same thing (I'm sure somebody will smack me if I'm wrong). Once you execute one of them, you should have the file cfe_original.bin on your flash drive attached to the router.

2. Yes. You can download 7-zip or Peazip (I'm sure there are others) to unzip the file.

3. Yes, you'll need to extract it. I'm not sure of the format (not exe I would guess). You'll need to place it on your router (either by downloading it directly or via USB stick).

4. Since I've not done this yet, I hate to just speculate. I would assume the MTD-Write would finish and then come back to the CFE prompt (Maybe someone else can chime in on this one). I would think once it's complete (you can give it time if you wish - 5 to 10 minutes won't hurt), simply unplug the router, wait a few moments and plug it back in.

5. Yes. Someone flashed the TMobile TM-AC1900 with the RT-AC68U CFE (latest) and now the router shows as a RT-AC68U. I'm 'assuming' since the firmware and CFE are now RT-AC68U, there is nothing else in the router, software wise, to identify it as a TM-AC1900.

Good luck!

 

[morbidj]

I can confirm step 5. worked for me I used 1.0.2.0 (US) CFE.
What is the recommended CFE, any pro's or con's to any of the others? I just picked it because it was the newest I suppose and not much information is given about the variants.

 

[izzyy]

I am trying copy TM-1900 cfe mac address over to ac68u 1.0.2.0.
But I am confuse and hope someone who did it to double confirm.

The original ac68u 1.0.2.0 cfe has the same 3 mac address.

However, on TM-1900, the first 2 mac is same but 3rd mac last one digits is different. Is this normal?

Do I copy exact or do I change so it will be same for all 3 mac?

 

[Engineer]

I am trying copy TM-1900 cfe mac address over to ac68u 1.0.2.0.
But I am confuse and hope someone who did it to double confirm.

The original ac68u 1.0.2.0 cfe has the same 3 mac address.

However, on TM-1900, the first 2 mac is same but 3rd mac last one digits is different. Is this normal?

Do I copy exact or do I change so it will be same for all 3 mac?

Copy exact. Save a backup copy of your original CFE in a safe place should anything happen.

 

[izzyy]

Copy exact. Save a backup copy of your original CFE in a safe place should anything happen.

ok, but is there anyway to save the old firmware,too? I have 1520

 

[Engineer]

ok, but is there anyway to save the old firmware,too? I have 1520

You know, that's a very good question. I have never read of anyone able to get a firmware out other than JTAG unit (not sure if you can get it out via Telnet console or not). Hmmmmm....

 

[izzyy]

You know, that's a very good question. I have never read of anyone able to get a firmware out other than JTAG unit (not sure if you can get it out via Telnet console or not). Hmmmmm....

It would be nice to have 1520 backup for someone in case.

Well, I doubt the TMO firmware does anything. In fact, I don't see any QOS setting which suppose to have it for wifi calling.

Since I have 2.1.2.1 and can flash anything now, do I flash whatever FW I want now or after cfe is updated?

 

[Engineer]

It would be nice to have 1520 backup for someone in case.

Well, I doubt the TMO firmware does anything. In fact, I don't see any QOS setting which suppose to have it for wifi calling.

Since I have 2.1.2.1 and can flash anything now, do I flash whatever FW I want now or after cfe is updated?

The TMobile QOS settings are hard coded to give WiFi calling the best possible service, from what I understand. As for CFE vs firmware, I would do CFE first, NVRAM reset and then firmware followed by another NVRAM reset.

 

[izzyy]

The TMobile QOS settings are hard coded to give WiFi calling the best possible service, from what I understand. As for CFE vs firmware, I would do CFE first, NVRAM reset and then firmware followed by another NVRAM reset.

Hard coded meaning somewhere within TM-1900? If yes, they might still have control over our router even with new cfe and fw.

 

[izzyy]

I am able to backup cfe, edit and save to usb tmp/mnt/ADATA_UFD.

THEN step 7 and cd into my usb tmp/mnt/ADATA_UFD

Download mtd-write v2 and type in command
mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot

I don't see anything indicating updating or percentage counter. To be safe, I waited 15 min and reboot. Still have the same tmo cfe.

 

[Engineer]

Hard coded meaning somewhere within TM-1900? If yes, they might still have control over our router even with new cfe and fw.

Coded into the firmware. You change to an Asus firmware and all that stuff goes away (especially if you change to an Asus CFE).

 

[Engineer]

I am able to backup cfe, edit and save to usb tmp/mnt/ADATA_UFD.

THEN step 7 and cd into my usb tmp/mnt/ADATA_UFD

Download mtd-write v2 and type in command
mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot

I don't see anything indicating updating or percentage counter. To be safe, I waited 15 min and reboot. Still have the same tmo cfe.

Did you download the new CFE and place it onto your USB stick (i.e. new_cfe.bin) was on the USB stick?

Since I've not done this myself, I'll have to dig around to those that have to get an ideal of what to look for.

I asked the question from someone at SD and received this:

There's no counter or update, after running the command which takes less than 5 secs goes back to the prompt, then you must manually reboot the router.

 

[izzyy]

Did you download the new CFE and place it onto your USB stick (i.e. new_cfe.bin) was on the USB stick?

Since I've not done this myself, I'll have to dig around to those that have to get an ideal of what to look for.

Oh, I thought you did it on your router .

Anyway, I did exactly what you wrote in the post at SD. I had trouble with Step one but manage to finally get the right path to usb stick.

Then, backup original cfe to usb, then edit using HxD, Then save new_cfe.

not sure why, but at least my router is working, not brick yet... I really to like replace tmo cfe with asus cfe because I don't want them to do anything funny to the router.

I hope those who did it can give me some tips and reply here.

Thanks

 

[Engineer]

1. Backup your original CFE to your USB stick.
2. Unmount the USB stick and take to a PC to edit.
3. Download and install the Hex editor to edit the file.
4. Download and extract the CFE (either 2.1.2.1 TM version or other Asus version linked in the guide) to the USB stick (this will be the new_cfe.bin file).
5. Open the backup CFE file (now on your USB stick) with the hex editor software (installed in step 3) and search for the MAC addresses.
6. Open the new_cfe.bin file (now on your USB stick) with the hex editor software (installed in step 3).
7. Search for the MAC strings in the new_cfe.bin file. Copy and paste from the old CFE (step 5) into the new CFE (step 6) the MAC address values (should be 3 changes)
8. Save the new_cfe.bin file
9. Close both hex editor windows (backup CFE and new_cfe.bin).
10. Take USB stick back to router and using MTD-WRITE, flash the new_cfe.bin file (now edited with your original MAC addresses) to the router using the command.
11. Reboot when complete.
12. Check CFE version (should be new_cfe version now).

Good luck!

 

[LoloBond]

FYI I just got my router today and is loaded with the new firmware and every time I try to downgrade using the firmware restoration tool it fail at 83%... asking to check computer connectivity.

Any other methods to downgrade?

 

[bjohanso]

Oh, I thought you did it on your router .

Anyway, I did exactly what you wrote in the post at SD. I had trouble with Step one but manage to finally get the right path to usb stick.

Then, backup original cfe to usb, then edit using HxD, Then save new_cfe.

not sure why, but at least my router is working, not brick yet... I really to like replace tmo cfe with asus cfe because I don't want them to do anything funny to the router.

I hope those who did it can give me some tips and reply here.

Thanks

I just did this and was also having problems getting my updated CFE to properly flash (I used the AC-68u 1.0.2.0 (US) version). I was following the directions in the link posted by Engineer.

In any case, I finally managed to get it to work. I'm not sure what steps are required, but here is what I did after which it was working:

- Flash with v1 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot'

- Flash with v1 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write new_cfe.bin boot'

- Flash with v2 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot'

- Pull the power on the router and wait 30 seconds

- Power the router back on

- Go to Administration and then the Save/Restore/Factory settings tab and choose to do a factory wipe.

- When the router came back up it was now listing itself as an RT-AC68u and the 'nvram get bl_version' command finally listed the new CFE version.

I'm not sure which of the above steps are required but I do know that if you try the factory wipe after writing the new CFE but before doing the cord pull it does NOT work. I suspect just doing one of the mtd-write commands would work instead of all three. Also, instead of the cord pull it might also work to choose "Reboot" from the web UI before the factory reset, but I haven't tried that.

 

[bjohanso]

IMPORTANT NOTE TO THOSE DOING A CUSTOM CFE:

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that the WPS PIN is hard wired into your CFE (i.e. can't be changed through the web interface). By default if you use the Asus 1.0.2.0 CFE, at least, the new PIN will be the default "12345670". This is pretty obvious for people to guess if you use WPS and will NOT match the WPS code printed on the back of your router.

To fix this, when you are in the new CFE editing the MAC addresses to be the same as your original CFE, look for the following:

secret_code=12345670

Change the number 12345670 to match the WPS PIN on the back of your router (or as found in your original CFE where you got the MAC addresses). You can also just change this to be any 8 numbers you want.

If you have already flashed your CFE and want to change this, you should be able to just edit the new_cfe.bin you originally flashed and then reflash it (I had to do a reboot and factory reset/NVRAM clear to get it to stick, though, so you may want to save your other settings first).

 

[bbb0777]

One of the things that hasn't been mentioned is that the WPS PIN is hard wired into your CFE (i.e. can't be changed through the web interface). By default if you use the Asus 1.0.2.0 CFE, at least, the new PIN will be the default "12345670".

Wow, good catch! Yes I see in the web interface now that mine is 12345670.

I keep WPS off anyway though, so I'm just going to leave it, especially since editing/flashing the CFE was quite scary to me the first time through...

 

[evrycard]

I just did this and was also having problems getting my updated CFE to properly flash (I used the AC-68u 1.0.2.0 (US) version). I was following the directions in the link posted by Engineer.

In any case, I finally managed to get it to work. I'm not sure what steps are required, but here is what I did after which it was working:

- Flash with v1 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot'

- Flash with v1 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write new_cfe.bin boot'

- Flash with v2 of the mtd-write tool using 'mtd-write -i new_cfe.bin -d boot'

- Pull the power on the router and wait 30 seconds

- Power the router back on

- Go to Administration and then the Save/Restore/Factory settings tab and choose to do a factory wipe.

- When the router came back up it was now listing itself as an RT-AC68u and the 'nvram get bl_version' command finally listed the new CFE version.

I'm not sure which of the above steps are required but I do know that if you try the factory wipe after writing the new CFE but before doing the cord pull it does NOT work. I suspect just doing one of the mtd-write commands would work instead of all three. Also, instead of the cord pull it might also work to choose "Reboot" from the web UI before the factory reset, but I haven't tried that.

bjohanso is right.

 

[john9527]

One more check you should do....make note of the new_cfe.bin file size before editing, and double check to make sure it's the same after editing. It can be easy to accidently insert a byte while editing, in which case you are in trouble.