Hello,

I have successfully built a serial port interface for my Asus Wl500gx using a MAX232 chip. Attaching a serial console, I do see the CFE and Kernel boot messages just fine. However, I am unable to interrupt the boot process by pressing "CTRL-C" during the boot process. Tried a lot of times, so I do not think timing is an issue. Has anybody here successfully used "CTRL-C" or some other trick to get to the CFE command line with the WL500gx from serial console?

I suspect that the nvram variable "rescueflag=disable" has something to do with it. See CFE output at
http://downloads.openwrt.org/docs/hardw … gd/cfe.txt  and
http://downloads.openwrt.org/docs/hardw … /nvram.txt .
Running strings on the CFE binary and grep for rescue and ctrl-c, I do see the following matches

rescueflag
Rescue Flag disable.
nvram set rescueflag=disable
Rescue Flag enable.
Null Rescue Flag.
Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (by Force)
Hello!! Enter Rescue Mode: (Check error)
Automatic startup canceled via Ctrl-C

Any ideas how dangerous it would be to set "rescueflag=enable" (yes, I know this will always be at my own risk)?

On the other hand, I might also have made an error while soldering the serial converter, and might be chasing ghosts... Thus, has anybody any experience with this?

You may ask why I want to do this: as the CFE seems to allow to boot a kernel via network via tftp, and the wl500gx has a USB connector for storage (think different root filesystems), it would be the ideal setup for playing around with an experimental firmware, and still being able to reboot back into the stable firmware. Apart from that, this knowledge might help people who bricked their device. And it would be possible to testdrive different firmwares (at least if one can use the same kernel for all of them).

Thanks for any ideas in advance,
TSCoreNinja

http://downloads.openwrt.org/docs/hardw … /nvram.txt

Ctrl+C should always work. Did you check that you can actually transmit something to the router over serial? Try logging in after the thing has booted...

Looks like the transmission from computer to serial is broken. BTW, I am still using Olegs firmware for this thing, and there is no getty app in busybox there, allowing a log in via serial console. However, cat'ing a file into the serial works one way, and not the other. I am somewhat at loss why this does not work, as the wiring seems to be correct from a quick check... Need to do some thorough testing.

(Last edited by tscoreninja on 15 Nov 2005, 09:22)

Hello,

i have an similar problem with no cfe prompt by holding down ctr+c.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic. … ht=#649010

did you have found a soluton or the reason?

greetz dan

(Last edited by incredibledan on 20 Nov 2011, 16:01)