Flashed my WRT1200AC but... Questions...

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eskro32
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 10 Feb 2017
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 13:42    Post subject: Flashed my WRT1200AC but... Questions... Reply with quote
Hi guys and thanks for your time.

Like title says i Flashed my WRT1200AC from factory to dd-wrt and everything is working fine at the moment. No issues...

But, i did not reset to factory defaults before flashing. Nor did a hard reset.

I watched youtube vids and followed steps from there but its true, most vids were using a out of the box router never used before..

So, mine still works even tho it was used before... Will i run into issues because i did not factory reset or hard reset??

And second, if i ever Want to install an upgrade bin file, apparently i can boot the stock firmware on another partition its on and upgrade the bin from there
So i dont loose the stock linksys firmware. Is that correct?

And if so, any link to an easy tutorial or vid.?


Thanks guys!




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myersw
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 1608
Location: SE Michigan USA

PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 15:00    Post subject: Re: Flashed my WRT1200AC but... Questions... Reply with quote
eskro32 wrote:
Hi guys and thanks for your time.

Like title says i Flashed my WRT1200AC from factory to dd-wrt and everything is working fine at the moment. No issues...

But, i did not reset to factory defaults before flashing. Nor did a hard reset.

I watched youtube vids and followed steps from there but its true, most vids were using a out of the box router never used before..

So, mine still works even tho it was used before... Will i run into issues because i did not factory reset or hard reset??

And second, if i ever Want to install an upgrade bin file, apparently i can boot the stock firmware on another partition its on and upgrade the bin from there
So i dont loose the stock linksys firmware. Is that correct?

And if so, any link to an easy tutorial or vid.?


Thanks guys!




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No you do not need to do a reset before you do a install of DD-WRT. These routers are a little different with the 2 partitions.

If you want to keep the Linksys partition, which is what I do, then when you want to do a "upgrade" you would grab the factory to ddwrt file .img (Kong) or .bin (Brainslayer) not the upgrade file. Why? What are you doing, you are going from Linksys to DD-WRT each time if from the Linksys UI.

This link has the how to get back to Linksys from DD-WRT plus lots of other good info, if you have not seen it.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813

--bill

_________________
Unifi Security Gateway: Unifi Firmware
Netgear r7800: Voxel Firmware
Modem:Netgear CM500V voice and Data.
ISP:Comcast
tutorial for flashing "WRT" series:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813
DD-WRT Installation, Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=311117
Kong DD-WRT Config Tutorial:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-and-Configure-a-DD-WRT-Kong-Router/
I tried to be normal once. Worst 2 minutes ever.
eskro32
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 10 Feb 2017
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 16:38    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for the quick response!!

but since i used the factoty to ddwrt .img file from
the main ddwrt.com database...
file was an IMG v3.0 (beta) build: 28788 date: 2016-01-14

im reading there's kong builds and brainslayer builds also.
which are both different from the one on the main ddwrt.com website i guess?

now from this link here
ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/2017/02-07-2017-r31277/linksys-wrt1200ac/

the 2 files are

File: ddwrt-linksys-wrt1200ac-webflash.bin / 29828 KB / 2017-02-07 / 09:24:00

File: factory-to-ddwrt.bin / 29824 KB / 2017-02-07 / 09:24:00

so both are BiN files...
is that normal?

anyhow, i guess i didn't flash the latest or the best firmware possible?

what about Kongs builds and what about BS ones?

what should i do? which to use?

can i just install an update to the dd-wrt version i have currently
without having to start from zero again?
even tho its a version taken form the dd-wrt.com website?

i guess thats what the bin file named 'webflash.bin' is used for?

thanks for your valuable answers!
srekuets
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 14:40    Post subject: WRT1200ACv2 upgrade failing after successfull FactoryToDDWRT Reply with quote
I own a Linksys WRT1200AC_V2 router with stock Linksys firmware V2.0.5.177097 (latest available)
As I did not find many forum articles on WRT1200AC I post my question here.

I share DD-WRT Guru Bill's opinion to best preserve the Linksys OS in its partition and
install DDWRT in the other partition to have a fallback facility.

So far I tried the following:

Installed the factory-to-ddwrt.bin V3.0 [Beta] Build: 30796 (Brainslyer),
from Linksys partition, rebooted anf found operational DDWRT .
Switched back via setting ubootenv to boot from Linksys OS and then tried to upgrade the DDWRT
partition with ddwrt-linksys-wrt1200acv2-webflash.bin Build: 30796 (Brainslyer).
This update got hung and left the router with just a blinking on/off led.
After a long while I decided to cut the power, situation stays after reboot, blinking on/off led.

Managed to get booted again into the Linksys partition using the reset and boot to stock
procedure (switch three times off during boot) from user jsebean. (Thanks for that important tip!)

Then Installed the WRT1200AC_factory_to_dd-wrt.img Build V3.0r31100M (Kong),
(read DDWRT Gury Bill hints that Kong builds are more tested than Brainslyer)
from Linksys partition, rebooted and found operational DDWRT .
Switched back via setting ubootenv to boot from Linksys OS and then tried to upgrade the DDWRT
partition with ddwrt-linksys-wrt1200ac.bin Build V3.0r31100M (Kong).
This update got hung and left the router with just a blinking on/off led.
After a long while decided to cut the power, situation stays, blinking on/off led.

Managed to get booted again into the Linksys partition using the reset and boot to stock
procedure.

Since both upgrades of different Engineer builds fail, I start to think about the articles that mention
failing upgrades on
WRT1900AC_V1 routers that had too high firmware
versions, I read articles that had to downgrade Linksys OS from 1.1.10 to 1.1.8 before the upgrade wanted to work.


For me it is still not clear why first the router needs to be installed with a factory_to_dd-wrt
image and then an extra DDWRT upgrade.
The factory_to_dd-wrt is mostly equal in size as the final
ddwrt-linksys-wrt1200ac upgrade image.

Then, If Linksys on a WRT1900AC_V1 needed to be downgraded to V1.1.8 beore propper DDWRT installation was possible.
What would be the minimum WRT1200AC_V2 version needed for a propper DDWRT installation?
And secondly where would I be able to find these older LinksysFirewares as linksys provides
downloadbility ONLY for the latest available WRT1200AC/WRT1900AC V1&V2 Firmware? Sad .
In attachment the possible firmwares for a WRT1200AC_v2 .

Any help on how to get a stable DDWRT final build in a second partion paralel to the Linksys partition
on my WRT1200AC_V2 is greatly appriciated.
Erik.
myersw
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 1608
Location: SE Michigan USA

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 0:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
After the factory to ddwrt is installed you are done. Brainslayer's webflash and Kong's .bin files are for upgrading from within the dd-wrt UI not through the Linksys UI. Once you have dd-wrt installed from within the Linksys UI you are done. When you want to update to a later firmware then you have a decision to make. Do I retain the Linksys UI, I do, or overwrite the Linksys partition. Whenever you do an install of firmware it is always loaded into the unused partition. That is why some folks, me included, always switch to the Linksys partition and install from there. This means you always have something to switch back to and can easily install other 3rd party firmware, such as Openwrt/LEDE or Gargoyle. These 2 I prefer currently over dd-wrt.

If you have not seen this thread already, it has lots of good info.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813
--bll

_________________
Unifi Security Gateway: Unifi Firmware
Netgear r7800: Voxel Firmware
Modem:Netgear CM500V voice and Data.
ISP:Comcast
tutorial for flashing "WRT" series:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813
DD-WRT Installation, Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=311117
Kong DD-WRT Config Tutorial:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-and-Configure-a-DD-WRT-Kong-Router/
I tried to be normal once. Worst 2 minutes ever.
srekuets
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 8:24    Post subject: Was able to unlock using classical 30-30-30 second Reset Reply with quote
@myersw
Thanks for clarification on FactoryToDDWRT and DDWRTupgrade possibilities!

I bumped into the following funny video on a guy that ended up te same as me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KpDa1ydPQ
As the router could have blocked on the unsuccesfull DDWRT installation, I tried his advice to do the 30-30-30seconds reset to the router with DDWRT misinstalled.

Guess what, the thing unlocked Very Happy and gave me default acces to the Linksys partition, oef .
Anyway I have a
USB to RS232 Serial TTL PL2303HX USB UART cable on order for the case I get into deeper waters.

Regards, Erik.
eskro32
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 10 Feb 2017
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 16:45    Post subject: Reply with quote
Glad its working!
myersw
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 1608
Location: SE Michigan USA

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 16:51    Post subject: Reply with quote
Glad you are good to go. By the way the 30/30/30 reset does not apply to newer routers. I suspect what happened is you were lucky and got this sequence that will cause the router to switch partitions. These are the steps to switch partitions.

Reset the router by holding the reset button in until the PWR light starts to flash {mine takes about 15 sec's}
Once the power light stops flashing, you can power off the router with the power switch.

Turn the power back on and the PWR light will light. As soon as any other light turns on, power off the router with the power switch.

Turn the power back on and the PWR light will light. As soon as any other light turns on, power off the router with the power switch.
Turn the power back on and the PWR light will light. As soon as any other light turns on, power off the router with the power switch.

Turn the power back on and the PWR light will light. This time just let the router power all the way up. It should now be on the alternate firmware.

Yes, you will power off three times.

This is good to know for the next time.
--bill

_________________
Unifi Security Gateway: Unifi Firmware
Netgear r7800: Voxel Firmware
Modem:Netgear CM500V voice and Data.
ISP:Comcast
tutorial for flashing "WRT" series:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=287813
DD-WRT Installation, Upgrade & Basic Setup–Cliff Notes:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=311117
Kong DD-WRT Config Tutorial:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Install-and-Configure-a-DD-WRT-Kong-Router/
I tried to be normal once. Worst 2 minutes ever.
srekuets
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 17:26    Post subject: Failig radio on 5GHz band and cannot overwrite DDWRT image Reply with quote
@myersw
Hi, this morning I went ahead for a
WRT1200AC_factory_to_dd-wrt.img Build 02-07-2017-r31277 . It installed fine and I only changed the SSID names of 2.5 and 5GHz band .
Upon inspection with InSSIDer I noticed there was no 5GHz band visible from the WRT1200AC (Linksys partion gives the 5GHz band). As I made a little mistake in assigning the SSID names, I decided to overinstall DDWRT same version in the DDWRT partition and found out this does not work (the changed SSID names stayed the same).

So I guess I better shoot for a lower version of DDRWT Kong build. Will downgrading work?
What is not clear to me either is for what purpose that Kong provides the ddwrt-ddwrt-to-factory-wrt1200ac.bin image.

Erik.
srekuets
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 24 Feb 2017
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 18:54    Post subject: Downgrading worked, but SSIDnames and Regulatory Domain stay Reply with quote
Hi, decided to do a downgrade from Kong Build
02-07-2017-r31277 to Build 10-06-2016-r30731
and that worked!

Funny though to see that my customised SSIDnetwork names and Regulatory Domain Belgian setting were somewhere memorized and kept active. Strange for me, so it is not only the .bin .img that are in the game here, these settings are memorized elsewhere between up/downgrades?

I am glad though that the Build 10-06-2016-r30731 gave me back the 5GHz band. Erik.
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