OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Fully featured OpenWrt build for the WNDR3700 (NO LONGER MAINTAINED)

The content of this topic has been archived between 13 Apr 2013 and 6 May 2018. Unfortunately there are posts – most likely complete pages – missing.

THIS BUILD IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED SEE HERE FOR MY LATEST BUILDS

I've spent some time rolling my own builds of trunk for a while and after a lot of requests decided to share the build since a lot of people are normal and don't necessarily know what a compiler is... The WNDR3700 is a great router and I think everybody deserves to have a taste of OpenWrt. For this build I aim to include everything that makes sense for this type of router, and also to have a working default configuration for all services.

I recommend using the TFTP method to flash (basically hold reset button while turning on until power flashes green then TFTP the factory image, look in wiki for detailed instructions). From stock just flash the factory image through web.

Feature list:

- Luci web interface
- Default SSID OpenWrt on both 2.4GHz/5GHz (password is changeme)
- WPS and WiFi on/off buttons enabled
- Reset button enabled (default settings)
- EXT2/3/4 file system support
- Block-mount (auto mount USB storage and extroot functionality)
- GPT disk support
- HD-idle (spins down USB disk after inactivity)
- Dynamic DNS
- SFTP/FTP/NFS/SMB/AFP network filesystems
- NFS/SMB/FTP/AFP shares /mnt/sda1 and maps everyone to root with R/W access (WARNING, ANYONE ON THE LOCAL NETWORK CAN READ/WRITE TO YOUR USB STORAGE)
- Avahi/Bonjour service discovery (nice if you have a Mac or Linux system)
- Time Machine support
- UPNP/NAT-PMP port forwarding
- MiniDLNA (latest CVS) for streaming media
- minissdpd allows for both miniupnpd and minidlna to run at the same tim
- PPTP VPN (issues IP's in same range as LAN), all you need is a user in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets like "user * password *"
- IPv6 supported (6in4, 6to4, aiccu, radvd)
- QoS (scripts and luci app)
- Jumbo frame passthrough support
- Useful tools (at daemon, ip, dtach)
- Config included (openwrt in /etc/openwrt-config.gz and kernel in /proc/config.gz)

Extra alternate build features:

- Removed MiniDLNA/PPTP
- L2TP/IPSec VPN (issues IP's in same range as LAN), all you need is a user in /etc/ppp/chap-secrets like "user * password *" and a PSK in /etc/racoon/psk.txt.
- NZBget (latest SVN) usenet downloader, postprocessing script included
- Transmission daemon torrent downloader
- vnStat traffic monitor
- tcpdump traffic inspector

If you have USB storage, format the first partition as ext2/3/4 and it will automatically be mounted when connected. To mount on boot edit /etc/config/fstab.

You can find the build here:

http://enduser.subsignal.org/~trondah/archive/

OpenWrt changelog:

https://dev.openwrt.org/log/trunk
https://dev.openwrt.org/log/packages
http://luci.subsignal.org/trac/log/luci/trunk

Useful links:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700
http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/start

(Last edited by arokh on 7 Jul 2014, 07:14)

does it break any parts of the router like poor wireless n or leds?

and is it compatible with my wndr3700? i heard there was a two models

(Last edited by extrafuzzyllama on 14 Dec 2010, 00:59)

Well, it's not supposed to... Running fine for me, should be the same for you.

This is for V1 not for V2 which hasn't hit the stores yet I believe.

what advatages are this fw over stock netgear?
sry am a noob to this i used to run tomato on my wrt54gl

I thought I wrote down most of them in the first post...

extrafuzzyllama wrote:

what advatages are this fw over stock netgear?
sry am a noob to this i used to run tomato on my wrt54gl

If you don't have any issues with your current Netgear firmware and don't need anything beyond basic functionality of your router there probably isn't much point in using third party firmwares.  I personally currently have issues with Netgear's official firmware for my WNDR37AV where only flashing to an old version which according to Netgear's website isn't for my router even though they're the same pieces of hardware.  OpenWRT has been a godsend... all my problems were solved with OpenWRT then I stumbled upon arokh's build over at DD-WRT (also does not work right with router).  Arokh, thank you SO much for posting these and I hope you continue to post all your builds.  I'm not Linux savvy by any means and I feel much safer using someone else's work than dabbling in compiling myself (I would have taught myself to make this router work).  I've still been having a few issues here and there and still trying to discover if they are firmware or hardware related.  Whichever build of yours I had been on locked or dropped wireless on me twice and once corrupted the firmware requiring a restore after saving/applying changes from within Luci.  I'm hoping it's just residual bugs from trunk but I definitely want to keep trying more releases.  Thanks so much again!

Thx for compiling,

I will get my wndr3700 delivered tomorrow and your build is going to be on it.

I have a question though. What do i do with the upgrade bin file ?
And i presume i can load the config file when the openwrt firmware is flashed?

If someone can help me out how to get the needed packages for ubuntu 10.10(on ms virtual pc ) and SVN link i could build my own update files. This post is not up to date on that matter : https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=100843

(Last edited by doopie on 14 Dec 2010, 23:41)

doopie wrote:

If someone can help me out how to get the needed packages for ubuntu 10.10

I needed these on 10.04LTS, should be the same on 10.10 smile

sudo apt-get install asciidoc autoconf bin86 binutils bison build-essential bzip2 fastjar flex \
g++-multilib gawk gcc-multilib gettext git-core ia32-libs intltool libc6-dev-i386 \
libgtk2.0-dev libncurses5-dev libssl-dev patch sdcc subversion unzip zlib1g-dev

Jikes isn't in the debian/ubuntu repos, you have to download/compile/install by hand

Edit:
I'm using a 64-bit release
Some of the above packages might not be required

(Last edited by xcb567 on 14 Dec 2010, 23:59)

Thanks you for your great work.
I have Netgear WNDR3700 with stock 1.0.4.68 firmware. What is the procedure:
1. From stock flash the factory image through web - this firmware: openwrt-wndr3700-r24556-squashfs-factory.img
2. Then using the TFTP method flash with this firmware: openwrt-wndr3700-r24556-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin. Right ? It's need to be applied both firmware ?
The link to openwrt-wndr3700-r24556-squashfs.config not working. How apply this config files ?

Regards

(Last edited by Eugen1968 on 15 Dec 2010, 00:31)

This build seems to have some performance issues, I'm downgrading kernel and uClibc to trunk default. That way you can install binaries and kernel modules from the repo's without trouble also. New build coming up as soon as it finishes compiling smile

EDIT: All you need to flash from stock is the -factory.img file. The configuration file is available for anyone interested to see what's included or to make their own build. Fixed the broken link now.

(Last edited by arokh on 15 Dec 2010, 01:24)

does your build include any type of mac address filtering? or like guest wireless access?

My build is just OpenWrt with some sane defaults. The mac80211 driver does not support mac filtering as far as I know, nothing I could add in the build. What do you mean by guest wireless access? You can set up non bridged networks and custom firewalling, that should cover most scenarios.

like the stock netgear firmware allows for you to setup a guest wireless network so you wont have to give out your pass to friends when they come over

@xcb567:
I installed these for the 32bits ubuntu(10.10) version, the removed packages didn't exist:
sudo apt-get install asciidoc autoconf bin86 binutils bison build-essential bzip2 fastjar flex \
gawk gcc-multilib gettext git-core intltool  \
libgtk2.0-dev libncurses5-dev libssl-dev patch sdcc subversion unzip zlib1g-dev

Thanks for the help. I will try to build an image later this week when i have more time.

Thank you arokh! Your previous release was really slow while writing to usb storage. I will try this new one as soon I can.

Thank you very much for your work and I have to thank my italian friend coatto too: he talked to me about this firmware! wink


Have a nice day.

EDIT: Is automount and share of /mnt/sda1 disabled in the last release? I have an ext2 usb storage that I can't access via NFS now and it's not mounted (System -> Mount Points). Have I to manually mount and share it? Thanks!

(Last edited by mrgimo on 15 Dec 2010, 13:02)

@arokh,

Thanks for this version.
Only i have one question is in this version also a internet acces scheduler?
As an example i found MIA,

http://www.avidz.net/mia/

With MIA is it possible for each IP address identifies time scheduler for Internet access like from 08:00AM to 10:00PM.
It is a shame that Netgear corporation not this build in by default where other routers do have this possibility by default.

mrgimo wrote:

EDIT: Is automount and share of /mnt/sda1 disabled in the last release? I have an ext2 usb storage that I can't access via NFS now and it's not mounted (System -> Mount Points). Have I to manually mount and share it? Thanks!

It works here, maybe something in your overlay config. Look at your logs and /etc/exports file.

@Lusa

You can easily do that with cron/iptables. There might be something in the web interface also I haven't looked much at that.

(Last edited by arokh on 15 Dec 2010, 13:53)

Thank you arokh. The problem was with the ext2 filesystem. I formatted to ext3 so it works now.

My write speed via sftp grow up from 250kb/s to 800kb/s, but I'm looking around to reach better performances. Did you ever see that: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/7813 ?

If I try to mount the cifs share \\192.168.1.1\mnt\sda1 it asks me username and password, but the root account it's not ok. Any suggestion?

Thank you!

(Last edited by mrgimo on 15 Dec 2010, 15:35)

Arokh, thanks for your job.
Well, issue regarding usb performance isn't resolved in your last build.
I have the same bad performance of old build.
It's very strange.
If you can, try the "original" backfire rc4: it has very good usb performance with async option in fstab.
If anyone is trying this build, please report your usb speed.
C'mon, we must resolve the issue big_smile

See you wink

I am totally new with OpenWrt, but I will try this right away smile
According to previous posts here, I assume I am not going to need the 'sysupgrade' file? I will be coming from stock firmware.

EDIT:
I get an error saying I'm trying to install NA-firmware which can be different from the worldwide firmware. Do I have to continue installing?

Going to install it anyway. I'm impatient big_smile

(Last edited by japperrrr on 15 Dec 2010, 17:16)

japperrrr wrote:

I get an error saying I'm trying to install NA-firmware which can be different from the worldwide firmware. Do I have to continue installing?

Yes. That is a standard warning, and it is explicitly mentioned in the Wiki article: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700#installing

hnyman wrote:
japperrrr wrote:

I get an error saying I'm trying to install NA-firmware which can be different from the worldwide firmware. Do I have to continue installing?

Yes. That is a standard warning, and it is explicitly mentioned in the Wiki article: http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/netgear/wndr3700#installing

Thanks smile
I already searched for differences between the regions and the only significant difference I could find is that NA uses different frequencies. I installed it fine anyway. Just trying out some stuff at the moment, I have A LOT OF OPTIONS now tongue

Okee, another questions:
How can I use channels which are not legal in my country(Netherlands)? I have a HP notebook from the US which doesn't see 2.4GHz frequencies on channel 11 and higher, with a Sitecom dual-band wireless adapter, which doesn't see any 5GHz frequencies with a higher channel than 48. And how does HT mode work?

(Last edited by japperrrr on 15 Dec 2010, 18:15)

My device just crashed sad

I wanted to know how many wireless networks I could create on the 2.4GHz band, so I made Network, Network1, Network2 and Network3(not exactly sure how it went but it was something like this). When I created Network4 I lost connection with the router and couldn't connect anymore. I can still see Network, Network2 and Network3, but they all return an error message. I also tried to connect with a cable but that doesn't work either. It just shows 'Unidentified network'. How can I reset my router or fix it so that I can use it again?

Uhm, I'm just screwed now aren't I?

Fixed it already, I reset my device using recovery mode smile

(Last edited by japperrrr on 15 Dec 2010, 20:24)

@mrgimo

The CIFS share is \\192.168.1.1\sda1, enter a wrong username to get in. It maps bad usernames to guest (root). I'm easily getting faster SFTP speeds than that, got 1.8MB/s over wireless G when I tried just now.

@coatto7

I'm getting decent USB performance, how are you measuring? What kind of external storage do you got? The biggest difference from backfire is uClibc, I'll make a build with the same uClibc as backfire (0.9.30.1) and you can try that.

@japperrr

You are never screwed with the WNDR3700. Use the TFTP method in the wiki.

arokh wrote:

@mrgimo

The CIFS share is \\192.168.1.1\sda1, enter a wrong username to get in. It maps bad usernames to guest (root). I'm easily getting faster SFTP speeds than that, got 1.8MB/s over wireless G when I tried just now.

@coatto7

I'm getting decent USB performance, how are you measuring? What kind of external storage do you got? The biggest difference from backfire is uClibc, I'll make a build with the same uClibc as backfire (0.9.30.1) and you can try that.

@japperrr

You are never screwed with the WNDR3700. Use the TFTP method in the wiki.

I'm measuring the speed with MenuMeter for Mac.
The storage is a 2,5'' hdd 5400rpm with ext3 filesystem.
Ok, i'll wait for a new build with the same uClibc as backfire wink