Official La Fonera Hacking Thread

[money1]

Since it seems that the original thread in the Freebies forum got locked, heres a thread for tech/hack-related questions
where maybe some of our more technically-inclined forum members can answer a few questions.

Some Guides:

Flashing La Fonera:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/La_Fonera_Flashing

Getting SSH on La Fonera:
http://blog.blase16.de/index.php?url=2006/11/28/Hacking-Fonera

Possible unbricking methods:
http://fon.freddy.eu.org/fonera/howto-factory-reset.txt

Serial Console Mod:
http://sodoityourself.com/accessing-serial-console-on-the-fon

[money1]

I managed to get ssh on the router and got to step 3 of the DDWRT guide. But after the router rebooted, the WLAN light stayed off, the router does not assign an IP and cannot access via SSH. Any solutions?

[Emancipated]

Right, for the lazy and non initiatied, can someone summarize what the hacked firmware enhances? I already have a good router and don't really need a repeater or anything of that sort.

BTW, I love the thin RJ45 they provided. It's damn sexy.

[money1]

Well from what I understand it is a version of DD-WRT and here are some the features:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F#Features

[donit]

BTW, I love the thin RJ45 they provided. It's damn sexy.

agree

[tmash]

On a side note, if anyone in the GVA wants a Fonera, you can have mine. Still in box unopened, I got impatient waiting for it and jumped on a smoking deal for a WRT54-GL.

[D-Sisive]

easy to flash, hard to keep the dd-wrt v24 settings intact

whenever you unplug the unit for a while, it seems to lose all settings, then becomes a b1tch to configure again because it has some bug that doesnt allow save settings to apply

i had it running as a client for the xbox and all was good, turn off xbox, turn off the fon router

later on turn both back on and the fon router needed to be reconfigured....

[macuser]

grrr. Mine hasn't come yet, and it's been a month....

[jusane]

So this doesnt work with a modem without any lan ethernet ports right?

I actually dont know if thats the correct terms to use lol.
My modem doesnt have any router capabilities (wired/wireless) with just one ethernet port to connect to the computer. So i wouldnt be able to use this right? or is there a way?

thanks

Jusane

[lowfat]

easy to flash? I have no idea what i am doing and i consider myself pretty tech savy.

[money1]

I managed to get ssh on the router and got to step 3 of the DDWRT guide. But after the router rebooted, the WLAN light stayed off, the router does not assign an IP and cannot access via SSH. Any solutions?

:arrowu:

[petercockroach]

Got mine working using my mac yesterday. Damn sweet. Now I just need to figure out what DD-WRT is all about :cheesygri

[Dave98]

So this doesnt work with a modem without any lan ethernet ports right?

I actually dont know if thats the correct terms to use lol.
My modem doesnt have any router capabilities (wired/wireless) with just one ethernet port to connect to the computer. So i wouldnt be able to use this right? or is there a way?

thanks

Jusane

you would use that ethernet port on the modem and connect it to the router instead of the computer. You then connect to the router with a wireless adapter

[Dave98]

:arrowu:

Sounds like you probably bricked it. You could check the dd-wrt forums to see if you can bring it back
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=11567&sid=c99d710de0b44d236951cd712f8ce29a

[Manik]

:arrowu:

Samething happened here

[Manik]

Well from what I understand it is a version of DD-WRT and here are some the features:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F#Features

tell me if u can unbrick it successfully. I screwed up one of mine and my friends both did the samethings urs did on step 3 and couldnt continue to step 4.

[Kasakato]

tell me if u can unbrick it successfully. I screwed up one of mine and my friends both did the samethings urs did on step 3 and couldnt continue to step 4.
Did you make sure that the last digit is an "L" (lower case) and now a 1?

[Manik]

Did you make sure that the last digit is an "L" (lower case) and now a 1?

what do u mean by that could u be more precise

[bunyan69]

add me to this growing list after attempting the hack got to step 3 and now it powers on but i get no WLAN light

[Manik]

add me to this growing list. Mine powers on but i get now WLAN light

did u try to hack yours? Does the Wlan light come on? Is it working?

[AlexV]

Successfully re-flashed 2 fon routers now (mine arrived this morning, and I just finished with a friend's). Although the guide is sometimes non trivial, it is doable.

Can someone describe the state of their routers after a failed step 3? Did you try the 30-second reset? Keep in mind it takes upwards of 10 minutes. Are you able to connect to fon's MyPlace network? Have you tried plugging in a network cable directly from your computer to the fon (you probably have to set a static IP on your computer)?

[D-Sisive]

i flashed 3 fons following

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/La_Fonera_Flashing

0.7.0 rev 2
0.7.1 rev 1
0.7.0 rev 4

for some reason at step 9, the fon with 0.7.1 rev 1 bricked after

fis create -b 0x80041000 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0x002C0000 -e 0x00000000 rootfs

i was using putty as telnet to run the command and putty closed itself

it didnt do that for rev2/rev4...upon reading up, seems that 7.1rev1 had some problems and easily bricked

when im not busy, i will either make a serial connector or buy the parts from the source

[AlexV]

I found the same problem happened (putty closed or timed out) if I tried to do anything with the router during "fis create" (even hitting the return key in to putty would cause that problem). I immediately tried re-connecting and got nothing (timed out). I decided to wait for 10 minutes just in case, and, sure enough, RedBoot greeted me again and I started the whole process over.

I find that it's much easier to copy+paste commands in to putty rather then typing them out (those typos can cost you).

[Kasakato]

what do u mean by that could u be more precise

cd /tmp
wget http://fonera.info/camicia/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma
mtd -e vmlinux.bin.l7 write openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma vmlinux.bin.l7
reboot

The character before the 7 is a lower case "L". I have seen other people mistake it for one, causing a problem.

[[H]ackerK]

This is cool! Got something to hack this weekend...

Should of order an extra one just in case.. or use it as a bridge...

It is a nice & small device... Not sure if I like the network cable tho, it should be twisted pairs.. But if it works, what the heck.

[squall458]

Does the Fon router always have the public access on for the wifi or can you turn that off?

[AlexV]

Anybody willing to write up a better tutorial? Perhaps a video?

[AlexV]

Does the Fon router always have the public access on for the wifi or can you turn that off?The modified firmware allows you to turn that off. The stock firmware always allows people to use your connection but it has limits you can set:

- You can throttle how much bandwidth they use
- You can charge them money for access

[money1]

anyone able to unbrick these?

[bunyan69]

There has to be an enterprising RFDer here somewhere who will provide us this service. For a small fee no doubt.

[money1]

id be willing to pay somewhere in between 15-20$ to get it unbricked

[jusane]

thanks a bunch man! haha didnt even think about that. duh
so with this configuration, i would be able to follow the tutorial and flash it righty?

you would use that ethernet port on the modem and connect it to the router instead of the computer. You then connect to the router with a wireless adapter

[DirtyLude]

What does it take to unbrick it? I can make up one of those serial console connectors if you want it. But I don't have one of these routers.

Just FYI on that serial console hack, the MAX232 could possibly work, but it is a 5v to 12v level shifter, not a 3.3v to 12v level shifter. You should use the proper hardware. An ST3232 would be a good alternative.

[jusane]

well i know what i stupidly did wrong.
in the third step, i didnt read the commands and instructions properly, cause i wasnt connected to the internet while doing this. i was supposed to create an HTTP/FTP server and locally wget the openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma file.

"wget http://fonera.info/camicia/openwrt-ar531x-2.4-vmlinux-CAMICIA.lzma"

soooooooo stupid.

[bunyan69]

For anyone who has successfully flashed these. What is the range and signal like ?

[bunyan69]

Hi DirtyLude

How what would the price be for one of those cables ?

Thanks

[HUH]

Is wifi required to do the flashing? cus right now my only wifi is the psp

[marc_t]

i wanna sell mine, anyone interested? haven't even plugged it...

[macuser]

OH NOES~!

I accidentally bricked mine when I accidentally killed the telnet session that was flashing DD-WRT to it.

[bunyan69]

another one bites the dust.

[jaigandhi5]

im scared to flash mine...

should i do it?

[bunyan69]

Maybe someone who has been successful can post their step by step instructions for us RFDers.

[Manik]

has any1 unbricked there fon yet?

[Manik]

add me on msn if u know how to unbrick a bricked fon. mohit.sab@hotmail.com

[jaigandhi5]

did some research and found this:
2) If your La Fonera comes with Firmware 7.1.2 on board you can NOT use this method because, so far, you cannot gain the access to SSH. Serial cable is necessary.

[AlexV]

Mine came with 7.1.2, but holding the reset button for 30 seconds made it 7.0.1 or 7.0.2

[JasJarBling]

easy to flash, hard to keep the dd-wrt v24 settings intact

whenever you unplug the unit for a while, it seems to lose all settings, then becomes a b1tch to configure again because it has some bug that doesnt allow save settings to apply

i had it running as a client for the xbox and all was good, turn off xbox, turn off the fon router

later on turn both back on and the fon router needed to be reconfigured....

For real, even 'rebooting' it using the web-interface would cause a reset to firmware-default. I have since made different profiles and backed them up using the built-in utility; but still a real pain though. Definitely not ready for prime time production network... But hey, it is a *BETA* firmware, so can't complain ;)

[money1]

anyone able to unbrick this?

[Manik]

need help unbricking mine also

[mparsons]

http://www.gettingpumped.com/users/digerati/dd-wrt-fonera/fonera.htm

semi helpful "video" that describes what to do to flash the fonera, for those who dont truly understand the wiki howto.

As for those bricking yours, I think only way to fix is use the serial cable.

[Manik]

i was saving my last fon for better guide used the video tutorial but it got bricked again and cannot access redboot via crossover cable and normal cable. and cant SSH back into it now:mad: . what am i doing wrong?

[mparsons]

i was saving my last fon for better guide used the video tutorial but it got bricked again and cannot access redboot via crossover cable and normal cable. and cant SSH back into it now:mad: . what am i doing wrong?

im not sure, but i believe after the last restart, the ethernet port is no longer in the 192 ip range. (i believe its setup for dhcp, so if you can set up your host computer to be a dhcpcd server, then maybe that will work?)

this is why Im waiting to do mine, I have no wireless NICs at the moment.

Do you have a wireless nic you can try to see if it can see the hacked fon? (thats what the video uses at the end)

[Manik]

i dont think you understand the problem, i have tested on 3 different fons all get screwed up when i do this part
"cd /tmp

wget http://192.168.10.199/out.hex

mtd -e "RedBoot config" write out.hex "RedBoot config"

reboot" after the reboot i cannot get into the so called redboot using putty's telnet. It goes to a black screen for 10 seconds and then the putty screen closes.

[mparsons]

i dont think you understand the problem, i have tested on 3 different fons all get screwed up when i do this part
"cd /tmp

wget http://192.168.10.199/out.hex

mtd -e "RedBoot config" write out.hex "RedBoot config"

reboot" after the reboot i cannot get into the so called redboot using putty's telnet. It goes to a black screen for 10 seconds and then the putty screen closes.

you try hitting control-C when it does connect? maybe that will get you the redboot prompt? or hitting enter after it connects?

maybe it is just bricked.. shrug

[AlexV]

Are you sure the router was able to download http://192.168.10.199/out.hex? Did you get the standard wget progress bar without any error messages? Why not just download the file directly from http://fonera.info/camicia/out.hex?

[Manik]

can someone who is good at this or has done it already please give me their email or add me to msn: manik.sabharwal@hotmail.com thanks

[mparsons]

I just did mine sucessfully without any wifi cards.

I followed the wiki step by step (although I did mine via my linux box).

The WAN ip gets its ip from dhcp (so set up your linux server to broadcast dhcp). then the dd-wrt website listens on port 8080 for the WAN part.

So you dont need a wifi card, it can be done 100% with just a normal nic.

[Manik]

I just did mine sucessfully without any wifi cards.

I followed the wiki step by step (although I did mine via my linux box).

The WAN ip gets its ip from dhcp (so set up your linux server to broadcast dhcp). then the dd-wrt website listens on port 8080 for the WAN part.

So you dont need a wifi card, it can be done 100% with just a normal nic.

you did it with linux operating system?

[Manik]

I have a problem with telnet. I followed this video tutorial: http://www.gettingpumped.com/users/digerati/dd-wrt-fonera/fonera.htm. Everything happened according to the video, except the guy in the video got into redboot instantly. I got stuck at that part and I did everything up till that specific part properly. I am not able to telnet into the fon? Can someone guide me? perhaps add me on msn and give me some ideas. i would greatly appreciate it. I also have a bricked fon that i need assistance with. thanks in advance…

[AK1]

I have a problem with telnet. I followed this video tutorial: http://www.gettingpumped.com/users/digerati/dd-wrt-fonera/fonera.htm. Everything happened according to the video, except the guy in the video got into redboot instantly. I got stuck at that part and I did everything up till that specific part properly. I am not able to telnet into the fon? Can someone guide me? perhaps add me on msn and give me some ideas. i would greatly appreciate it. I also have a bricked fon that i need assistance with. thanks in advance…

Don't telnet in right away when you power on the router, try to telnet when the "internet" light starts blinking, and keep retrying while the light is blinking.

As for the bricked router, you can build a serial connector, it doesn't cost a lot of money to make.

[Talon88]

:cheesygri

[Eddystone]

Can anyone confirm those steps by that site ?

[AlexV]

I followed the steps in this wiki and had no problems: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/La_Fonera_Flashing

All the information about flashing fon to ddwrt is in scattered in that wiki.

Manik, maybe your firewall is not allowing telnet connections? I doubt you're going to find anyone to do any serious troubleshooting for you free of charge.

[wing0]

what is the original firmware level on ur fon router? I was just wondering cuz while I was reading the guides, it seems like u have to have 7.1.1 to do it.

[Dave98]

You no longer need to have that specific firmware version to do it now. The link above shows alternate methods of doing it now for other firmware versions

[Matrx]

A nicer looking guide:

http://dltv.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/lafonera.pdf

Haven't tried it yet...

[cdsoundtr]

For real, even 'rebooting' it using the web-interface would cause a reset to firmware-default. I have since made different profiles and backed them up using the built-in utility; but still a real pain though. Definitely not ready for prime time production network... But hey, it is a *BETA* firmware, so can't complain ;)

Thanks, I thought I only had the problem with lossing my settings. I updated to 3/31 yesterday and still had the problem, hopefully they'll fix it in the next release. The current firmware isn't stable 3/31, sometimes i can't access the web interface and no ping replies, so I had to upload the firmware again.

[Manik]

Fonera offically hacked and flashed with dd-wrt. hooked up as client bridge mode.

[M-e-X-x]

bump

for those that still have problems, i used this guide:

http://uselesshacks.com/?p=23

and unbricking guides on wiki worked for me...

[Desolatax]

Hmmm... I got a new Fon router from Fon (my other one randomly died, non hacked) and my new Fon is 7.1.3... Tried Kolofonium, but no luck (Changed the DNS then hooked it up to my router). Tried the other hack (with the 2 html files) to no avail. Tried hard resetting it, no luck there either :(

Anyone have any ideas (other than serial, that is my last option)?

[ehsu]

bump

for those that still have problems, i used this guide:

http://uselesshacks.com/?p=23

and unbricking guides on wiki worked for me...

Excellent guide. I flashed mine with this guide as well. No problem and works perfectly.

[demanche]

Has anyone tried setting up a fon router to be their primary wan router instead of just a wireless AP?