[SOLVED] How do you upgrade Kamikaze?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I finally succeeded in converting a WRT54GL from another firmware. Now, I flash KAMIKAZE (7.09).

I now see that this version didn't possess LuCI, sysupgrade nor opkg.

So...how did you upgrade it?

2

A wrt54gl is to slow to run latest OPenWrt. You can try and flash to Chaos Calmer 15.05.1. Even 15.05.1 has bugs and should not be used on the internet. If using windows install winSCP. Upload the .bin file to /tmp Then use putty and do sysupgrade /tmp/file.bin If that will not work google about MTD. mtd write /tmp/file.bin linux
Or from the wiki.
cd /tmp/
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03.1/brcm47xx/openwrt-brcm47xx-squashfs.trx # The file must be the trx file.
mtd write /tmp/openwrt-brcm47xx-squashfs.trx linux && reboot

3

Get a new router. The wrt54gl is too old.

4

I don't need it to route. I need it to have a working OpenWrt. As you read, it was on another firmware. I finally got it to flash the stock, then version 15.

As you see from my posts, I recommend new routers all the time.

Now, I had version 15 on it and downgraded. I simply need to know how one upgrade Kamakasie. Simple.

I will try mtd, as I noted there is no sysupgrade.

WOW, you gave me 2 different instructions...omg...I used bin and have a brick. Dammit.

@tapper, now, do you know how to unbrick a WRT54GL?!?

5

I was able to successfully TFTP it to Attitude Adjustment!

@tapper, thanks for the MTD tip!

6

I also wanted to note...I still have a WRT54GS v3.0 and WRTSL54GS v1 in production (albeit, no web GUI). This is the WRT54GS:

BusyBox v1.30.0 () built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt SNAPSHOT, r9057-8c6f00e
 -----------------------------------------------------

I would agree these 2 models have more flash and memory, though. I tend to use lower-spec models to simply test configs for users on the forum, etc. The WRT54GL was laying around unused with non-standard firmware installed on it.

7

@lleachii - I was trying to figure out if this was a joke, especially given that you are quite active on the forum and always advise that people use recent(-ish) hardware that can run at least 17.01 or higher.

Glad to see you got it working, but now I'm really curious what version you'll settle on for this unit, and what you are doing with it??

1 Like
8

LOL, I thought for a moment "maybe they thought I was trolling them!"

:laughing:

Well, long history short, this series device was a common one in the "Tech Bubble" days. I accumulated 4 over the years and used a WRT54G daily until ~2015 when I got FTTH (their throughput limit was ~30 Mbps LAN-to-WAN). These were my DD-WRT days - I stopped using OpenWrt for years as a beginner, over confusion as to why it could not do what DD-WRT called "Wireless Client Bridge." I now know about the Broadcom warning. Two have 8MB flash and 32 MB of RAM, so they're still in regular use today. I just recently had to stop using the GUI with v18.

So this device...I never used the WRT54GL much, and actually it's quite new! I've only used it for a few High-speed Multimedia Radio displays, drills and presentations. The firmware used - it's OLSR wasn't compatible with that used in other Linux implementations. I could never obtain the code. Thanks to @tapper, I finally discovered I needed to use the TRX file to switch back....Leading me to today... I have no clue what version I'll settle on, as I've never had experience using this particular router (the GL) with OpenWrt.

What to do with it... At this time, I now plan to test if DD-WRT and OpenWrt's OLSR are compatible. This means in any case, for running OpenWrt, I'll likely need to compile a custom build without LuCI. They're also good for go-kits that need a switch, AP and/or hub (without Internet connection, of course). I have some specialized situations where they still have enough power (i.e. network a closed-system to a email server speaking AX.25 and transmitting on licensed packet radio frequencies). They'll likely spend their last days in that emergency go-kit, ready to set up an ad-hoc packet radio messaging center.

2 Likes
9

Sounds like you have some cool experiments to run on this device. At the very least, it'll be interesting to see how you can stretch such a low powered device further than the designers ever thought possible!

1 Like
10

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