Linksys EA8500 U-Boot/Flashing Issue

Hello, I have a Linksys EA8500 I'm trying to load OpenWRT on. It is running 1.1.7.182977 and 1.1.8.185832 in memory (you can switch between images), and apparently these prohibit downgrading to a version that allows flashing OpenWRT from the web GUI.

I bought a few USB to TTL CH340 serial adapters and hooked one up properly from what I understand. 8-1-N-N at 115200... I'm unable to halt boot on "Hit any key to stop autoboot" as it goes from 3 to 1. I've tried putty and a few other programs.

This was a model 308.01827.205 so I didn't have to solder pins on it...so I don't think I could have damaged the serial interface.

Any ideas on what to try or how to get OpenWRT on it from this point?

U-Boot 2012.07 [Standard IPQ806X.LN,r40331] (Mar 16 2015 - 16:29:21)

CBT U-Boot ver: 1.0.9

smem ram ptable found: ver: 0 len: 5
DRAM:  491 MiB
NAND:  SF: Unsupported manufacturer 00
ipq_spi: SPI Flash not found (bus/cs/speed/mode) = (0/0/48000000/0)
128 MiB
MMC:
PCI0 Link Intialized
PCI1 Link Intialized
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
cdp: get part failed for 0:HLOS
Net:   MAC1 addr:0:3:7f:xxx
athrs17_reg_init: complete
athrs17_vlan_config ...done
S17c init  done
MAC2 addr:0:3:7f:xxx
eth0
Warning: eth0 MAC addresses don't match:
Address in SROM is         00:03:7f:xxx
Address in environment is  00:06:3b:xxx
, eth1

Updating boot_count ... done

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
MMC Device 0 not found
MMC Device 0 not found

Loading from nand0, offset 0xf80000
   Image Name:   Linux-3.4.103
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    1885352 Bytes = 1.8 MiB
   Load Address: 41508000
   Entry Point:  41508000
Automatic boot of image at addr 0x44000000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-3.4.103
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    1885352 Bytes = 1.8 MiB
   Load Address: 41508000
   Entry Point:  41508000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK
OK
mtdids not defined, no default present
info: "mtdparts" not set
Using machid 0x1260 from environment

Starting kernel ...

Sounds like other forum users have run into similar challenges.

Double check the solder connections are good (ie.does console session respond reliably once the device has fully booted?)

With my serial connection (running via VM) I found I had to do the following to get it to work reliably

  • power off device
  • detach the uart cable from vm
  • reattach it
  • start console program (I use screen)
  • power on the device

Only doing the above did I find I would see the entire boot sequence and in some cases able to interrupt the bootloader

I'll try to do what you're talking about. I know have two EA8500's so I can rule out any hardware issues. The solder connections were factory.

If anyone else runs into this... Used a different TTL device and it worked fine.

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