Nice! Hope to hear from it soon, really want to do something with my MR18

EDIT: Btw, If you need help with something, just let me know.

(Last edited by radriaanse on 14 Jul 2015, 21:43)

Sounds good. I setup #mr18 over on freenode as it's easier to chat over IRC.

(Last edited by riptide_wave on 15 Jul 2015, 20:58)

Hey all. I'm new here and a noob when it comes to Meraki and tftp. I've got a few questions:

1) Following the serial pin table, I don't see a pin labeled VCC on my adapter. I see 3.3, RST, 5V, TXC, RXC, GND. Which would be VCC?

2) How does one interrupt the boot sequence? How do I access the mr12 terminal? IE what software do I use to get to it.

That's all for now
Thanks all!

EDIT: Ok. Well I was able to get in via serial. Now, how do I interrupt the boot sequence? Oh, and what terminal software would you all recommend?

(Last edited by adamlgarrett89 on 22 Jul 2015, 01:48)

You can press the spacebar to interrupt the boot sequence, and I recommend PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgta … nload.html).

Hmm... ok. So when I boot the device and interrupt boot, I just see this:

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  1            0
ar7240>

Then I see nothing.
When I put in htis command as per the instructions:

tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr1*-initramfs-uImage.bin; bootm

It just sort of does nothing and the cursor returns to the beginning of the current line.

Here's the entire output:

U-Boot 1.1.4-g0c3911dd (Mar  3 2011 - 17:08:51)

PB93 (ar7241 - Virian) U-boot
DRAM:
sri
ar7240_ddr_initial_config(133): virian ddr1 init
#### TAP VALUE 1 = 0x2, 2 = 0x2 [0x24a50000: 0x801901e]
64 MB
Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 84000000
Reserving 272k for U-Boot at: 83fb8000
Reserving 192k for malloc() at: 83f88000
Reserving 44 Bytes for Board Info at: 83f87fd4
Reserving 36 Bytes for Global Data at: 83f87fb0
Reserving 128k for boot params() at: 83f67fb0
Stack Pointer at: 83f67f98
 Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 83fb8000
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 16MB, sector count = 256
Flash: 16 MB
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

  In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7240_enet_initialize...
Fetching MAC Address from 0x83fe7ea0
 Virian External MII mode MDC CFG Value ==> 6
: cfg1 0xf cfg2 0x7014
eth0 link down
 eth0: 00:03:7f:e0:00:2a
ATHRSF1_PHY: PHY unit 0x0, address 0x4, ID 0xd04e,
ATHRSF1_PHY: Port 0, Neg Success
ATHRSF1_PHY: unit 0 port 0 phy addr 4
eth0 up
eth0
RESET is un-pushed
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  1     0
ar7240>tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr1*-initramfs-uImage.bin; bootm

Any advice?

(Last edited by adamlgarrett89 on 23 Jul 2015, 00:13)

Ha! I made the same mistake at first... you must replace the * with a 2 or 6, depending if you are flashing a MR12 or MR16 -> eg.

tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-initramfs-uImage.bin; bootm

for a MR12.

You can use this guide -> http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/meraki/mr12 and these files -> https://github.com/riptidewave93/Openwr … 6-R1.3.zip

Remember you need a TFTP server setup on a computer at 192.168.1.101 to serve the files (eg. openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-initramfs-uImage.bin, openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-kernel.bin & openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-rootfs-squashfs.bin for a MR12), I recommend PumpKIN (http://kin.klever.net/pumpkin/).

Woooooooooooooow. I didn't see the * ... Thanks for pointing that out to me! I'm gonna give this another try and post back. Thanks!

I can't seem to get it to respond to any commands after I interrupt boot. Still don't get any feedback after tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-initramfs-uImage.bin; bootm. Am I supposed to?

Would someone be willing to write up a detailed, step by step on getting this thing up and running?

It should boot OpenWrt (into RAM) and you should be able to login to 192.168.1.1 in a browser to configure it.

Make sure the TFTP server computer with static IP of 192.168.1.101 and 255.255.255.0 subnet is connected directly to the Meraki in the Gb port (NOT the 100 Mb port) with a patch cable (no switch or router/gateway in the mix).

I had no problems using one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-CP2102-USB … 0685792376

and remember you should only have 3 wires connected GND to J4: GND, RXC to J3: TX and TXC to J2: RX (skip the 3.3 to J1: Vcc as the USB adapter and Meraki both supply their own power).

Are you seeing any requests for the openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-initramfs-uImage.bin file in your TFTP server interface (you may have to allow all/anonymous requests and make sure your firewall is not blocking it)?

Unfortunately this is not a simple 3 step procedure and requires some understanding of several aspects of hardware, software and networking - but that is part of the fun, keep trying until you succeed!

(Last edited by wavracer on 24 Jul 2015, 03:03)

TFTP server is setup. it's set to bind to my NIC on 192.168.1.101 and 255.255.255.0. It is connected directly to it's gb port.

I actually got the same USB UART connector that you linked and have J2-J4 connected already and I'm able to connect via putty and interrupt boot. It takes me to a ar7240> prompt.

When running the command tftpboot for the initramfs-uImage, I do not see any requests on the tftp server. I figure this is where my issue may be. I did test the TFTP server via local tftp get request and it was successful, just not working over ethernet from MR12 --> NIC 192.168.1.101

I understand there's a bit of knowledge required and I'm comfortable with networking (I'm a Sys Admin), not so much hardware but I can follow directions. If I can just get this thing to speak with my NIC on 101 I feel like I'll be good to go, but it's not. After typing in the command for initramfs, it just sits there. Cursor returns to beginning of the current line (not even a new line) and the TFTP server (using PumpKIN) does not show requests. If it matters, when at the ar7240> prompt the power LED on the meraki is lit up solid amber.

Windows firewall is disabled to rule out any issues there.

(Last edited by adamlgarrett89 on 25 Jul 2015, 03:36)

Hmmm... It sounds like you have done everything correctly... can you see this AP in the Meraki Dashboard if you just plug it into a working DHCP enabled network and boot it normally (or see it get an IP on the DHCP server)?

Don't have it on any dashboard anymore as it was free for attending a webinar several years ago.. but it does get a DHCP lease from my router. Just to be sure it's not an isolated issue I hooked it up to my home server also running 8.1 pro and experience the same issue. TFTP GET requests work locally but the AP doesn't respond to commands.

Do you have PuTTY set to Serial with a Speed of 115200 (NOT 9600 like most switches) on the COM port (also set to 115200, 8, N, 1 in Device Manager)?

See: http://mikelev.in/wp-content/uploads/20 … serial.gif and http://www.jbprojects.net/articles/wrt5 … 115200.jpg.

You should see

Trying eth0

after

ar7240> tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr12-initramfs-uImage.bin; bootm

If not, I would guess that maybe you have a firewall blocking the TFTP server - see posts 70 and 71 here:

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php … 73&p=3.

You can also try a different one (like Tftpd32 from http://tftpd32.jounin.net/).

Is the TFTP server running on the same computer that you have connected to the MR12 via serial?

Otherwise I am out of ideas... maybe someone else will chime in?

Good luck!

(Last edited by wavracer on 26 Jul 2015, 15:41)

Are you using UART TTL Serial converter? What you get is probably caused by using normal RS-232 adapter.

Lazy person question....

Does anyone have a VM of the rig they used to configure this? It seems that it would save a lot of time / hassle.

If not, if I have to build from scratch, I will post up a link to mine....

hoping that someone already has!

Cheers

Ah, realised that I only need the rig to compile the binaries.

Can somone share them with me?

Hello,

I am trying to write the openwrt firmware to my meraki mr16. I used the wiki instruction and got the files from the github version 1.3. After installing this is my bootlog.

U-Boot 1.1.4-g5416eb09-dirty (Mar  3 2011 - 16:28:15)

AP96 (ar7100) U-boot 0.0.1 MERAKI
DRAM:  b8050000: 0xc0140180
64 MB
Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 84000000
Reserving 228k for U-Boot at: 83fc4000
Reserving 192k for malloc() at: 83f94000
Reserving 44 Bytes for Board Info at: 83f93fd4
Reserving 36 Bytes for Global Data at: 83f93fb0
Reserving 128k for boot params() at: 83f73fb0
Stack Pointer at: 83f73f98
Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 83fc4000
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 16MB, sector count = 256
Flash: 16 MB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7100_enet_initialize...
ATHRF1E: Port 0, Neg Success
ATHRF1E: unit 0 phy addr 0 ATHRF1E: reg0 1000
eth0: 00:03:7f:e0:00:62
eth0 up
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
ATHRF1E: Port 1, Negotiation timeout
ATHRF1E: unit 1 phy addr 1 ATHRF1E: reg0 ffff
eth1: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
RESET is un-pushed
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
part0: invalid magic, expected 0x8e73ed8a versus 0xffffffff
part1: invalid magic, expected 0x8e73ed8a versus 0xffffffff
!!!Could not find a valid partition!!!
and could not even copy anything - giving up
ar7100>

What could i possibly be doing wrong or have done wrong? Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Looks like the kernel may not have flashed properly to your device. Can you please try again using the OpenWRT Chaos Calmer RC3 images[1] and the MR16 install instructions found on the repo[2]?

[1]: https://downloads.openwrt.org/chaos_cal … x/generic/
[2]: https://github.com/riptidewave93/Openwrt-MR12-MR16

EDIT: Can you also please share your u-boot environment settings?

(Last edited by riptide_wave on 13 Aug 2015, 04:40)

Guys

I have a freebie MR12 that was given to me by Meraki three years ago and its license is about to expire. I chanced upon this site and am excited that I can extend its life.

The procedure doesn't seem too taxing, but I need to get into the AP first to connect the USB-UART.  How do I do that?  I see there's two T5 screws along the top and bottom. Is it a case of prizing the case off from there or are there more screws hiding?

Had a bash and sorted it. For anyone wondering, remove the two T5 screws along the short edge. Turn the AP over, silver side up. Use a flat-head screw driver along the long edge about 1/3rd way in from both corners to prize open. Easy \o/

Well I may have screwed the unit up. How? I dont know. Here is my bootlog. Any help would be great! Thanks.

-Boot 1.1.4-g5416eb09-dirty (Mar  3 2011 - 16:28:15)

AP96 (ar7100) U-boot 0.0.1 MERAKI
DRAM:  b8050000: 0xc0140180
64 MB
Top of RAM usable for U-Boot at: 84000000
Reserving 228k for U-Boot at: 83fc4000
Reserving 192k for malloc() at: 83f94000
Reserving 44 Bytes for Board Info at: 83f93fd4
Reserving 36 Bytes for Global Data at: 83f93fb0
Reserving 128k for boot params() at: 83f73fb0
Stack Pointer at: 83f73f98
Now running in RAM - U-Boot at: 83fc4000
id read 0x100000ff
flash size 16MB, sector count = 256
Flash: 16 MB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   ag7100_enet_initialize...
ATHRF1E: Port 0, Neg Success
ATHRF1E: unit 0 phy addr 0 ATHRF1E: reg0 1000
eth0: 00:03:7f:e0:00:62
eth0 up
No valid address in Flash. Using fixed address
ATHRF1E: Port 1, Negotiation timeout
ATHRF1E: unit 1 phy addr 1 ATHRF1E: reg0 ffff
eth1: 00:03:7f:09:0b:ad
eth1 up
eth0, eth1
RESET is un-pushed
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
## Booting image at bfda0000 ...
   Image Name:   MIPS OpenWrt Linux-3.18.11
   Created:      2015-05-09  15:26:59 UTC
   Image Type:   MIPS Linux Kernel Image (lzma compressed)
   Data Size:    1132955 Bytes =  1.1 MB
   Load Address: 80060000
   Entry Point:  80060000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
No initrd
## Transferring control to Linux (at address 80060000) ...
## Giving linux memsize in bytes, 67108864

Starting kernel ...

[    0.000000] Linux version 3.18.11 (riptide_wave@BuildBox1) (gcc version 4.8.3 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.04 r45651) ) #1 Sat May 9 10:25:16 CDT 2015
[    0.000000] bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019374 (MIPS 24Kc)
[    0.000000] SoC: Atheros AR7161 rev 2
[    0.000000] Determined physical RAM map:
[    0.000000]  memory: 04000000 @ 00000000 (usable)
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x00000000-0x03ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x00000000-0x03ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x00000000-0x03ffffff]
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, VIPT, cache aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 16256
[    0.000000] Kernel command line:  board=MR16 console=ttyS0,115200 mtdparts=spi0.0:256k(u-boot)ro,256k(u-boot-env)ro,13440k(rootfs),2304k(kernel),128k(art)ro,15744k@0x80000(firmware) rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd
[    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes)
[    0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
[    0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
[    0.000000] Writing ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Readback ErrCtl register=00000000
[    0.000000] Memory: 60944K/65536K available (2470K kernel code, 124K rwdata, 528K rodata, 260K init, 188K bss, 4592K reserved)
[    0.000000] SLUB: HWalign=32, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
[    0.000000] NR_IRQS:51
[    0.000000] Clocks: CPU:680.000MHz, DDR:340.000MHz, AHB:170.000MHz, Ref:40.000MHz
[    0.000000] Calibrating delay loop... 452.19 BogoMIPS (lpj=2260992)
[    0.060000] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
[    0.060000] Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.070000] Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.070000] NET: Registered protocol family 16
[    0.080000] MIPS: machine is Meraki MR16
[    0.600000] registering PCI controller with io_map_base unset
[    0.610000] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00
[    0.610000] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x10000000-0x16ffffff]
[    0.620000] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io  0x0000]
[    0.620000] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff]
[    0.630000] pci 0000:00:11.0: fixup device configuration
[    0.630000] pci 0000:00:12.0: fixup device configuration
[    0.640000] pci 0000:00:11.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x10000000-0x1000ffff]
[    0.640000] pci 0000:00:12.0: BAR 0: assigned [mem 0x10010000-0x1001ffff]
[    0.650000] pci 0000:00:11.0: using irq 40 for pin 1
[    0.650000] pci 0000:00:12.0: using irq 41 for pin 1
[    0.660000] Switched to clocksource MIPS
[    0.660000] NET: Registered protocol family 2
[    0.670000] TCP established hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.670000] TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.680000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 1024 bind 1024)
[    0.680000] TCP: reno registered
[    0.690000] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.690000] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
[    0.700000] NET: Registered protocol family 1
[    0.710000] futex hash table entries: 256 (order: -1, 3072 bytes)
[    0.720000] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher
[    0.720000] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[    0.730000] msgmni has been set to 119
[    0.750000] io scheduler noop registered
[    0.750000] io scheduler deadline registered (default)
[    0.760000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 1 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
▒[    0.790000] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x18020000 (irq = 11, base_baud = 10625000) is a 16550A
[    0.800000] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.800000] console [ttyS0] enabled
[    0.800000] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.800000] bootconsole [early0] disabled
[    0.810000] m25p80 spi0.0: found mx25l12805d, expected m25p80
[    0.820000] m25p80 spi0.0: mx25l12805d (16384 Kbytes)
[    0.820000] 6 cmdlinepart partitions found on MTD device spi0.0
[    0.830000] Creating 6 MTD partitions on "spi0.0":
[    0.840000] 0x000000000000-0x000000040000 : "u-boot"
[    0.840000] 0x000000040000-0x000000080000 : "u-boot-env"
[    0.850000] 0x000000080000-0x000000da0000 : "rootfs"
[    0.850000] mtd: device 2 (rootfs) set to be root filesystem
[    0.860000] mtdsplit: no squashfs found in "rootfs"
[    0.860000] mtdsplit: no squashfs found in "spi0.0"
[    0.870000] 0x000000da0000-0x000000fe0000 : "kernel"
[    0.870000] 0x000000fe0000-0x000001000000 : "art"
[    0.880000] 0x000000080000-0x000000fe0000 : "firmware"
[    0.890000] libphy: ag71xx_mdio: probed
[    1.220000] ag71xx ag71xx.0: connected to PHY at ag71xx-mdio.0:00 [uid=004dd04e, driver=Generic PHY]
[    1.230000] eth0: Atheros AG71xx at 0xb9000000, irq 4, mode:RGMII
[    1.230000] TCP: cubic registered
[    1.240000] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    1.240000] bridge: automatic filtering via arp/ip/ip6tables has been deprecated. Update your scripts to load br_netfilter if you need this.
[    1.250000] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8
[    1.300000] jffs2: notice: (1) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found.
[    1.310000] VFS: Mounted root (jffs2 filesystem) readonly on device 31:2.
[    1.320000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 260K (8036f000 - 803b0000)
[    1.330000] Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance.
[    1.330000] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: No working init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel. See Linux Documentation/init.txt for guidance.

I don't think it's screwed, it may just be flashed wrong. From the output I noticed:

mtdsplit: no squashfs found in "rootfs"

So it looks like the rootfs will also need to be reflashed on this device as well. Once that is done, hopefully it boots right up!

Just to be sure. Are you talking about the 3rd step in the process? Because i thought i had run that.

So with the MR16, I have each chunk of "flashing" split up into lines.

tftpboot 0x80010000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr16-kernel.bin;erase 0xbfda0000 +0x240000;cp.b 0x80010000 0xbfda0000 0x240000
tftpboot 0x80010000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-mr16-rootfs-squashfs.bin;erase 0xbf080000 +0xD20000;cp.b 0x80010000 0xbf080000 0xD20000
setenv bootcmd bootm 0xbfda0000; saveenv; boot

The first line loads the kernel into ram, erases the SPI storage space, and then writes from memory to the storage chip.
The second does the same as the first line, except with the squashfs system image.
the last line is the part that changes the boot parameters for u-boot as the new kernel is at a new address compared to on the stock firmware.

So to fix the issue, you will want to try running the second line again to flash the squashfs system image that seems to be missing.

Big thanks to riptide! It all worked as said and the unit lives! Big thanks to all the writers of the software and those that spend their time figuring it out.