Bricked your Fonera? That is quite common if you don’t follow rules properly. But then having a RS232-to-TTL convertor is pretty handy as you can access RedBoot using it (provided RedBoot is not messed up)

After taking CS2106 – Operating Systems under Hugh Anderson. I have became very interested in embedded systems that runs on opensource. The La Fonera cant escape from its evil fate as well.

The La Fonera router has been hooked to my network for less than an hour and it had its firmware changed. I had 2 choice – OpenWRT Kamikaze or DD-WRT. The former has more IPKG support but there is no webif for it (currently) while the latter has got webif but broken IPKG. My choice? DD-WRT. Reason for it? With just 16mb onboard the device, I doubt I will be installing much packages on it. So for a start try DD-WRT. With DD-WRT, the amount of free ram hovers around 1MB. Pretty low as compared to my WRT54G and WRT54GS.

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type : Atheros AR5315

processor : 0
cpu model : MIPS 4KEc V6.4
BogoMIPS : 183.29
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 16
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : no
ASEs implemented :
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

# cat /proc/meminfo | grep ^Mem
Mem: 13950976 12906496 1044480 0 1597440 4861952
MemTotal: 13624 kB
MemFree: 1020 kB
MemShared: 0 kB

Interested to flash your La Fonera to DD-WRT or OpenWRT as well? Flashing it isn’t really a difficult task as there are guides floating around. But then, please ensure that you continue to share your WiFi by using Chillispot. You can actually configure it to authenticate using FON backend system.

Common misconception is that you would need a RS232-to-TTL convertor to flash your device. Well, you don’t. Having that will only make your flashing safer if anything goes wrong. For those who are comfortable tapping commands away in a black window, the flashing process is relatively easy (as long as you follow the steps).

Stuffs needed are:

* SSH access to the router (which you can open through html injection)
* Setting up a TFTP server to host the required files for flashing
* Connecting to the RedBoot of the device
* Flashing procedures

Since there are already so many guides floating around on the flashing. I won’t elaborate on that. But I would say that once you are comfortable with RedBoot, you are pretty safe. Unless you messed up the settings for RedBoot then you might need the RS232-to-TTL convertor to access RedBoot.

Have fun with your FON!

Seems like recent hit of the internet community is owning a La Fonera. But at the same time, some people have the misconception that sharing your La Fonera will cause your internet connection to be slow, and those people will do heavy Peer-to-Peer on free internet you are doing out of goodwill.

There are 2 sharing methods, namely Bill and Linus. Being a Bill, you charge other people for their usage. On the other hand, being a Linus will allow other FON users to connect for free. For more information regarding the difference between Bill and Linus, check out FON website.

If you have worries for the bandwidth usage problem I had mentioned earlier on, don’t worry. FON website actually allows you to configure how much bandwidth to share.

If you are thinking that the author of this entry is a miser (only sharing a pathetic 512Kb of bandwidth). Do take note that I only have a 1.5Mbps dsl line (as of now). I had always belief that sharing is a good thing, but certainly not at my expense.

Not sure how many and who is using your free WiFi?

FON actually keeps a history as well as an updated list of Fon users connected to your access point. Simply log in to FON website to check on your router status

Interested to know your FON usage?

Well, FON actually keeps track of your usage (on other FON member’s router as well). So make you you don’t do illegal stuffs. Hopefully the logs from FON can be used as evidence if some mischievous FON member misuse your free WiFi.

So how many FON routers can I deploy around my business area (I have got multiple business site)?

Well, as long as the spirit of sharing is there. You can add register router under your account and set them up.

Yes! It’s OpenWRT (kamikaze). Since it doesn’t come with webif (web interface) at the moment hence you will need to do all configuration through SSH. <caution>It is not for the faint hearted.</caution>

Preparation Steps
* You must be able to access SSH on your FON (code injection trick will work fine)
* You need a working TFTP server installed on your PC
* Putty
* Cross ethernet cable
* The required firmwares for OpenWRT (kamikaze) [firmware version] [changelog]
* http://ipkg.fonera.info/flasheo/openwrt-atheros-2.6-root.jffs2-64k
* http://ipkg.fonera.info/flasheo/openwrt-atheros-2.6-vmlinux.lzma

Step 0
Connect your FON router to the internet at the same time able to connect to the SSH of your FON. e.g. Placing the FON behind your current router. Or connecting through wireless.

Step 1
SSH into the FON router and execute the following commands

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

Wait for FON to boot.

Step 2
SSH into the FON router (again) and execute the following commands. The following commands configures your RedBoot for access via the ethernet port so that you can flash without a RS232-to-TTL convertor.

root@OpenWrt: ~# cd /tmp
root@OpenWrt: ~# wget http://fonera.info/camicia/out.hex
root@OpenWrt: ~# mtd -e “RedBoot config” write out.hex “RedBoot config”
root@OpenWrt: ~# reboot

Once the above procedures are completed, you can unplug the power cord of FON and connect your Fonera to your PC via a cross ethernet cable.

Configure your system to use an Internet Protocol (IP) address on the 192.168.1.0/24 network (but not 192.168.1.254 as your Fonera is configured to use this address for RedBoot). e.g. configure your system to use 192.168.1.100 and subnetmask 255.255.255.0. (for this guide I will use 192.168.1.100).

Test the connectivity by pinging 192.168.1.254, if everything is connected correctly, you would be able to get ping replies from the Fonera. Open up Putty and connect to 192.168.1.254, port 9000 using Telnet. If it goes well, you would see the “RedBoot>” prompt and you can proceed to the next step.

Make sure you have set up the TFTP server by now and the 2 files for flashing the firmware is located in the root folder of your TFTP server. It simply means that if you selected “C:\Downloads\” as the root folder for TFTP server, the 2 files you have downloaded earlier should be in “C:\Downloads\” as well. (C:\Downloads\openwrt-atheros-2.6-root.jffs2-64k and C:\Downloads\openwrt-atheros-2.6-vmlinux.lzma)

Step 3
After you see “RedBoot>”, the next step is to configure where it loads the firmware from. Issue the following command:

RedBoot> ip_address -l 192.168.1.254/24 -h 192.168.1.100

Now with all the configurations done, it is time to start flashing the router! Flashing will take 10 to 20 minutes so don’t be alarmed if it seems to be hanging.

Step 4
With your telnet connection you have established earlier on using Putty (connected to 192.168.1.254, port 9000), we will issue a few more commands to instruct the router to get the files from your TFTP server and start flashing. Do take note the 3rd command takes a very long time to complete and the leds on the router will stay on and hence gives the impression that the FON hung, but it isn’t. Take a break and go down to get some coffee, who knows it might be done when you are back.

RedBoot> fis init
RedBoot> load -r -v -b 0×80040450 openwrt-atheros-2.6-root.jffs2-64k
RedBoot> fis create -b 0×80040450 -f 0xA8030000 -l 0×00700000 -e 0×00000000 rootfs
RedBoot> load -r -b %{FREEMEMLO} openwrt-atheros-2.6-vmlinux.lzma
RedBoot> fis create -r 0×80041000 -e 0×80041000 vmlinux.bin.l7
RedBoot> fis load -l vmlinux.bin.l7
RedBoot> exec

Final step would be setting your system network to use DHCP instead of 192.168.1.100/24 earlier on. Wait for the FON to fully bootup and then connect your system to the FON through a cross cable. Check your IP configurations and FON should be using 192.168.1.1. So do a telnet to 192.168.1.1 and set the password for root account.

root@OpenWrt: ~# passwd root

So what’s next? SSH to your FON, logging in as root with the password you just set. Start doing the configurations you need by editing the files in “/etc/config”

Check out the trackbacks, a guide to add webif (web interface) to the OpenWRT has been written.

The standard package for La Fonera. The package arrived from US via VPost today. Due to administrative hiccups over at VPostUSA side, my package took awefully long to arrive. Nonetheless, still got the “wow” factor when it arrive. First thing I did? Snap pictures of my new toy. Well, I am not a router fanboy, but then certainly I am a embedded system fanatic.

The router came in a small box, just big enough for the fon router, flat ethernet cable, power brick. Best of all, it came with stickers. Anybody wish to give me theirs?

Some specifications of La Fonera:

Dimensions: 93.5 mm x 25.5 mm x 70 mm (without antenna)
CPU: Atheros AR2315 @ 180MHz
Memory:
Flash: 4Mb
SDRAM: 16Mb
Port: 1 ethernet port (10/100 Mbps)
Antenna Connector: RP-SMA connector (reverse SMA)
Antenna: Omni-Directional (2dBi)
Encryption: WEP 64bit/128 bit, WPA, WPA2, WPA mixed

If you aren’t sure of what does the specifications mean. Don’t worry. It just tell you that you are getting a decent router to share your excess bandwidth with people around you (FON users of cos).

Another embedded device for me to play. The FON firmware is based on OpenWRT. If you know what it is, good for you and it is time for you to check out OpenWRT (kamikaze) for Atheros device or even DD-WRT for Atheros device.

An article on La Fonera in Singapore. Guess they caught the thread on one of the local forum and decided to write on it. I am still waiting for my Fon device to arrive. VPostUSA is slow! Or is it my elder brother’s fault?

Update on 8th Feb 2007:
My bro call VPost up regarding the router. Guess what? There has been miscommunications at VPost side and the Fon router is still at USA! VPostUSA is problematic. *Sigh*