Linux Hacked Onto Fry's Cheap Wireless G Router 153
nerdyH points to this smile-inducing story at LinuxDevices which begins "An inexpensive house-brand 802.11b/g wireless router from Fry's (Outpost.com) has been adopted by a group of Linux hackers that aims to make Fry's 'AirLink' devices 'as capable as name-brand gadgets.' The AirLink101 AR315W is based on a Marvell board that can run Linux or eCos, and has a six-port 10/100 Ethernet switch built in. It's listed for $45 online, but is reportedly on sale for $20 in some Fry's stores."
So what is it running now? (Score:2, Interesting)
I was wondering what OS it currently runs. What if it already runs Linux?
Good for them! (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been working on something similar: last Christmas, I picked up 3 Network Everywhere NWR04B wireless routers [networkeverywhere.com] on sale -- $18 each! -- and have been trying ever since to duplicate [saintaardv...rpeted.com]this guy's success [linux-hacker.net] in getting uClinux [uclinux.org] (a version of Linux for CPUs with no MMU) running on the thing.
The guy who got it running originally hasn't responded to my emails, so it's a good thing he made his kernel tree available. Alsoplus, I think he used a JTAG adapter to load the image; since I wanted to make a firmware image that anyone could upload with the web interface, I had to reverse engineer the firmware checksum too. (Luckily it was a pretty simple checksum [saintaardv...rpeted.com], or else I don't think I would've been able to do it...I'm really learning all this as I go along.)
In July I finally managed to get a kernel panic [saintaardv...rpeted.com], am now trying to get BusyBox [busybox.org] working on the thing. I keep getting these errors:
which, from [uclinux.org] what [uclinux.org] I [uclinux.org] have [uclinux.org] been able to Google, may be because of differing opinions (libc/uClibc vs. the kernel vs. the chip) about whether or not this thing has an FPU. If anyone's got any suggestions, please leave a note -- I need all the help I can get.
It's been an incredible learning experience -- I know more now about how the kernel interacts with CPUs, the filesystems, compilers and the bootloader than I ever had. (Still got tons to learn, mind you.) I'm looking forward to the day I can get a Beowulf cluster of these things going. :-)
hacking the DI-524 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"AirLink" products (Score:5, Interesting)
I want an under-$40 linux device with VGA and USB (Score:3, Interesting)
Can you say ThinStation [thinstation.org]? I knew you could.
Difference in firmware versions (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Good for them! (Score:3, Interesting)
It's bigger, bulkier and draws more power.
Depending on the mobo, you may also have problems finding an ISA network card that still works, and you may run into problems getting two or more to work together (though I might be misremembering what it was like...it's been a while.)
The wireless card alone will cost you more than $20 (and that's Canuckistan pesos, keep in mind). Good luck trying to find one that's ISA, and good luck trying to find one that works with a non-PCI 2.0 (2.2?) mobo. (Someone leave a link and prove me wrong.)
But let's assume you have a wireless card already. Even an old Pentium, or (if you do have one around) whatever parts it's missing, could well end up costing more than $20. (Not much more than $20, I admit -- but still.)
You might not be up to the challenge of getting Linux to work on a random wiress router -- and hey, that's cool. But these people are. And that's cool: there's a ton of stuff to learn when you start getting your hands dirty like that. (Like I mentioned in my post, I'm very lucky that so much work has been done for me already -- otherwise I wouldn't have got nearly as far as I have. But it's still the hardest thing I've had to do with Linux, and I think it's taught me the most about how everything fits together.)
Re:jeez --- why NOT (Score:5, Interesting)
Or maybe the sneers come from the windows slashdotters. Could be wrong, but I'd think most linux users would see the value and appreciate the skills and experience that these hackers are building.
Fry's (Score:5, Interesting)
He went there to purchase a hard drive and was sold a brand new drive in original packaging with at a new price.
When he got it home, he installed it ready to format, and lo-and-behold it booted up into Windows!
After some mild snooping, he found Quickbooks files and other documents from the former owner. Being a good person, he found the guy's phone number (among other things) and learned that the guy bought the hard drive about three weeks prior and returned it because it had some bad sectors on it. They assured him that they would destroy it.
Re:"AirLink" products (Score:2, Interesting)
Firmware? (Score:2, Interesting)
LTSP extension possibilities? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why don't they let you in to the OS more often (Score:4, Interesting)
Regarding the fear of customer support issues, all they'd really need is a ROM of a stable release and a reset-switch that would re-load the flash from the fixed ROM.
I'd definately buy a wireless router that gives me more flexibility of routing & firewalling than the default GUIs offer.
Any reason why LinkSys (and airlink, and Tivo, etc) don't just openly publish their APIs and how to connect?
Re:"AirLink" products (Score:3, Interesting)
I did it once because I didn't fully plug my laptop all the way into a docking station and the link failed even though my laptop was 1 foot from the router. Luckily I was able to plug the laptop into the dock and redo the upgrade and it worked without bricking.
My problem is there are 5 other idiots in my (government) stairwell, all using wireless. No matter which channel I pick, one of them has to "explore" the wifi spectrum to see if they get better throughput and signal. (In fact, the neighbor on the other side of the wall from me is giving me a 62% signal from his unsecured network on the channel that had no interference 2 weeks ago - arg!) And every one of them is unsecured. Because of this, I have to use 2 wireless G routers with after market firmware and a 9db antenna (2 floors down) in order to get my network to talk to my freeBSD boxes downstairs. Without the antenna, I could get the system to work for about 3 minutes before it would fade out. Now, with the power output I've bumped the routers up to and the antenna, I'm technically violating a European law. Oddly enough, with the setup I've got, I should be able to provide connectivity to half the neighborhood I live in... It sucks, but when you're a programmer surrounded by wannabe geeks, you have to take extreme measures.
Moral of the story - no matter how smart you think you are, there is always someone dumb enough to ruin it for you.