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Topic: WRT54GX4 - MIMO SRX400 - 240Mbps AirGo - is it GPL - look what I found

The content of this topic has been archived on 10 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Update:  The GPL Source has now been posted, please get started!

(Last edited by RoundSparrow on 19 Feb 2006, 07:57)

Ok, I opened a support ticket with Cisco and 18 hours later I got back a useless response that says if it isn't on their download it isn't available.  Plus their support message has a footer say that you can not post their support response messages in public smile  Humm... so I will honor that and not post the exact message here.

Can some other people help out here?

I opened the following support ticket with them:

Linksys Router WRT54GX4 and GPL code release [Incident: 060108-013014] 



I think it would help if some other people opened their own support ticket with a reference to mine...  Do it for the team!  The WRT54G would never be what it is without people who took the time to get the source.

  Stephen

(Last edited by RoundSparrow on 9 Jan 2006, 21:17)

Response back today from Cisco was to give me GPL download link to the older WRT54GX - I wrote back to them explaining that these are two different models.  Hopefully this goes somewhere.

Obviously not much interest here.  If you haven't tried this router you should... they really do work 3x further than the original WRT54G ... even if you don't have newer cards on your clients.

For God Sake, CONTINUE!!!

ciao

Wallace

I am definatly interested in openwrt on one of these routers...

AirGo's probably not going to release any driver source code ...

nbd wrote:

AirGo's probably not going to release any driver source code ...

Am I wrong in sayng that Linksys MUST release source code IF using linux?
I mean: the system, drivers excluded, should be open!

Ok, there won't be any open driver, but there's always time to reverse engineer one... or not?

Regards

Wallace

They have to make available the sources for packages that are released under a license that requires the source to be available - read GPL. Reverse engineering the AirGo driver is possible, you just have to find someone who has the time and the knowledge to do it, and then find someone who can write the opensource driver based on the documentation created - read Chinese wall and Clean room design

Ok, but couldn't OpenWRT be used with a binary-only AirGo driver... and we at least be able to run the packages and other infrastrucutre that OpenWRT has to offer?

Ok, after 6 replies back and forth with Cisco support (their suport messages have a note saying you can't make them public directly, so I can't post them here)... I have gotten nowhere.

They basically inform me it isn't available for download.  So I've told them I will take this public to the trade journals (Slashdot, Register, Digg, etc) if they don't honor their obligation.

PLEASE - anyone who can - run strings on the firmware yourself and verify what I posted.  open a ticket with Cisco (they have a support ticket system on the LinkSys website).  Reference my [Incident: 060108-013014]  in your message to them that a formal request has been made on behalf of the user community...

One important point:  The Linksys WAG54GX2 is also an Airgo based unit isn't it?  And Linksys does has GPL download on their website... so clearly the fact it is built on Airgo isn't a factor?  Can someone confirm this observation?

One thing I have learned in dealing with companies in legal affairs is that you have to start by writing a registered letter... wink

maybe a case for the FSF or EFF...

The WAG54GX2 source doesn't look like AirGo stuff. It seems to be Broadcom only.
It does contain a lot of really blatant GPL violations, though (ADSL and Ethernet statically compiled into the kernel, yet source code nowhere to be found).

Hello,
  Since I now own this router, I'd like to see 3rd party firmware, as well. So I emailed them asking when we could expect the GPL code to be available for download. My response was like others here. They are definitely stonewalling. Here's the response I got(mine didn't have any line stating I could not make it public), talk about ambiguous...

Dear Valued Linksys Customer,


Thank you for contacting Linksys Customer Support.

We apologize for we cannot answer your question. We do not have the information about your concern. We have a specific department that takes care of it. Once it is available, it will be posted at our website.

If you have further questions, please send us an E-mail at support@linksys.com so that we may further assist you.


Sincerely,

I left off the product specialists info.

I don't know much about the GPL code but I did notice that NETGEAR does have GPL code on their website for their similar router, the WPNT834. Can anything be done with that(for 3rd party firmware for the NETGEAR, not the Linksys)? I'd switch to the Netgear equivolent is 3rd part firmware were available(I went Linksys because they have QOS in their firmware, while Netgear currently doesn't)

(Last edited by Chuck_IV on 25 Jan 2006, 17:51)

I recenly purchased a WRT54GX4 MIMO router. I thought it would useful to get a terminal into it (assuming it is running a Linux OS)
After cracking the case I noticed there's is port labeled JP1.

JP1 has 4 pins which I took a guess, this is a serial port. I have tried adding RS232 line drivers and several pinouts however no success.
Has anyone gone down this path?
Is this not a serial port? (suppose it could be JTAG, USB or may other things)
Is there a way to ssh into the router and get a shell prompt?

I also noticed the RTL8651B microcontroller which has two onboard UARTS (as well as a USB 1.1 host adapter)
My assumption the JP1 port is one of these ports.

Any help or experience would be appreciated. I would like to share any success with the group...

-Scott

It has been like 10 days since Cisco/Linksys responded... they now are just ignoring my replies to their ticket system.

Why didn't you look through the Linksys Contact-Us entries?

There is an email address for linksys open-source there.

Although I can't say I'm too nuts about all this. Most of these MIMO or whatever techno-babble marketing-driven recent rigs, just don't impress me at all.  Particularly the ones that scarf up more of the radio spectrum.

Chuck_IV wrote:

I left off the product specialists info.

I don't know much about the GPL code but I did notice that NETGEAR does have GPL code on their website for their similar router, the WPNT834. Can anything be done with that(for 3rd party firmware for the NETGEAR, not the Linksys)? I'd switch to the Netgear equivolent is 3rd part firmware were available(I went Linksys because they have QOS in their firmware, while Netgear currently doesn't)

You can find a wiki page on the WPNT834 here. The first thing would be to get into the bootloader - I was unable to get more info about it yet -, then could the merge to 2.6.x come, and so on.

By the way, if we're going into WPNT834, does anyone have an idea how can 'boot1' and 'boot2' overlap? (I was yet unable to extract it due to lack of time.)

Just dropped a line at gpl-violations.org about this topic.

stay tuned,
Sputnik

Sputnik, Round Sparrow:

Why do you not just email the Linksys Open Source guy?

The email address is on the Contact Us page.

I got a response to my own question within a day. Fellow named Chris Chapman.

(Last edited by vincentfox on 10 Feb 2006, 18:58)

To make it easier for everyone, I went to the 'contact us' page and grabbed the email address for the 'open source inquires' -> linksys-opensource@linksys.com

I just sent them an email.  I hope they decide to release the source, I would be willing to buy quite a few of these routers, but not until the source is released...

Just received this from linksys:

We should have the code posted on our site by the end of the week.
We are performing the internal review of the code now.

This would be great.  I wonder what kind of specs the WRT54GX4 has...

EDIT: typo

(Last edited by netprince on 15 Feb 2006, 16:56)

Great thanks for all those who helped out.

Ok, can someone review this source code and see what we need to do to port openwrt?  Even if we have to use a binary only wireless driver... it would be great to have the packages that OpenWRT has.

Any OpenWRT developers need an incentive?  I would be willing to purchase a router for someone if there is a commitment to put in the time to get it running OpenWRT.

Thank you.

The discussion might have continued from here.