Hi guys, i really need some advice on what to do with my dead wrt54gl, so here goes.
I installed an SD card reader into my router then decided to follow this guide... http://www.hendlsofen.de/WRT54GL/eng/WRT54GL_SDMod.html ... to get it up and running. When i came to the page that shows how to automatically mount the SD card to / on boot and followed the instructions to the letter, upon reboot i had somehow managed to brick the router.
Now, i followed a tutorial telling me to short pins 16 and 17 to get it into failsafe mode, which i did and recovered it with the stock Linksys firmware, THEN (stupidly) decided to give the same tutorial a second chance, that maybe i had done something wrong? So at the same point in the guide, i rebooted and guess what? it bricked again! Wonderful i thought, so i proceeded with the same unbricking proceedure but this time instead of going into failsafe mode it would connect for a second then the network would become unavailable. I am using Ubuntu and had 2 terminals open. 1 for pinging to check when it was ready for tftp, and the 2nd for the tftp side.
Then after a little checking around i found this... http://wiki.openwrt.org/OpenWrtDocs/Ins … WrtViaTftp ... With specific focus on this command " atftp --trace --option "timeout 1" --option "mode octet" --put --local-file openwrt-wrt54g-squashfs.bin 192.168.1.1 " which i tried. Everything seemed to go smoothly, it connected and uploaded the file successfully, and after a long time of waiting, the router didn't seem to do anything. I eventually pulled the power cord out and rebooted it.
Now instead of getting the flashing power light and the DMZ light going on and off every few seconds and my port 1 light being on, now i have a flashing power light and all 4 ports and the internet light are lit up solid and the router won't respond to anything that i have tried. I manually set my lan card's ip address to 192.168.1.2 and tried to ping it, no luck. I tried shorting 16 and 17, no luck.

At this point guys, i am out of ideas. Can anybody please help me fix this router for once and for all.

Thanks

Predtech

I can't believe it. People still use this pin shorting crap do damage their routers...

well can you point me in the right direction if you know something better?

That sounds like your router is hosed.  If you look at the PCB do you see any obvious char marks?  You might be able to try JTAG, but honestly I am not optimistic.  It is better to use boot wait wherever possible, and tftp rather than pin shorting, or serial.