Linksys EA6400

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Hardware Specifications

EA6300 shown, models are identical.

CPU Broadcom BCM47081A0 800 MHz
Flash ROM Spansion S34ML01G100TF100 128 MB
RAM Hynix H5PS1G63JFR-S6C 128 MB
NVRAM 60KB
2.4 Ghz Radio Broadcom BCM43217 2x2 802.11b/g/n IEEE 802.11b (up to 11Mb/s)

g (up to 54Mb/s)/n (up to 300 Mb/s)

5 Ghz Radio Broadcom BCM4352 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n/ac

& two 5 GHz amplifiers

IEEE 802.11a(up to 54Mb/s)

n (up to 300 Mb/s)

Antenna Location Internal 3
Switch BCM47081A0 (Gigabit) 4x GbE + 1 WAN
USB 1x USB 3.0

Installation

Hardware is apparently identical to the Linksys EA6300v1

Useful links, downloads: Start here:

https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1009864 and here http://gravitynet.co.nf/index.php/ea6400/installation-guide and here http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/guide-flash-linksys-ea6300v1-ea6400-ea6500v2-ea6700-ea6900v1-0-1-1-with-tomato.73877/

On the 1st, the DD-WRT forum link, page down about halfway to user 'butterworth' 's post.

I have successfully flashed several different types of routers that required pin-reset (to put it in a mode to receive new firmware), tftp flashing (flashing right after booting the router), etc. The tricky part - if there is one, is getting the initial flash over to DD-WRT. As you can see from this thread, you previously used to be able to simply web-flash the EA6400 directly, that is: get a dd-wrt image and use the Linksys default firmware update function. Disregard that because all newer versions require TFTP flashing (and more, beyond 'just' the initial TFTP flash, as it includes modifying the CFE and flashing the DD-WRT to 2 different locations on the router).

TFTP is typically a way to get around these webflash firmware checks (introduced by Linksys in current versions of the router firmware, what you will likely have).

This router has two (2) storage locations for the firmware, as a kind of recovery in case one is corrupted. TFTP only writes in one location, so it is temporary.

Steps:

  • 1. Grab all the files from the above guides (while you are online), and Get the router ready
    • 1a. You can upgrade the router to the latest Linksys firmware. It shouldn't matter technically, although I did upgrade it before continuing.
    • 1b. Set your computer's LAN ethernet to 192.168.1.5, subnet of 255.255.255.0, no Gateway and no DNS (in Windows, just type in 192.168.1.5 for the IP and press OK. This is in the Network Properties of the Ethernet Adapter, modifying the TCPv4 settings. Don't fill out any other details).
    • 1c. Connect an ethernet cable directly from your laptop to one of 4x LAN ports on the EA6400 router.
    • 1d. With the router power on already (already booted up in the OEM Linksys firmware), make sure 'ping 192.168.1.1' returns 4x quick pings. If it doesn't, fix this basic problem first (wiring, other issue).
    • 1e. Finally, while running 'ping 192.168.1.1 -t', pull the power cable out of the router, wait a few seconds, power it back up, and observe the ping responses to get familiar with how it is supposed to look while the router starts up.
  • 2. Flash over the DD-WRT temporary image with TFTP.
    • 2a. Open the TFTP(2).exe Windows program.
    • 2b. Put in 192.168.1.1 as the server, and click the '...', and point it to the temporary DD-WRT .bin image. (Here I am using 'linksys_ea6400_ddwrt.bin' from the linksysinfo guide above (3rd link)). Don't specify a password, although one guide above says use 'admin' as the password, just leave it blank.
    • 2c. Power down the router. Get ready with your mouse on the Upload button.
    • 2d. Power up the router. On the fourth flash of the single green power LED on top, press TFTP 'Upload'.
    • 2e. You will see a bar graph fill as the TFTP application uploads the image to the router.
    • 2f. Wait a few minutes.
    • 2g. If the flash was successful, it may still boot into the Linksys OEM Firmware.
    • 2h. If the router boots into Linksys OEM firmware, it's using it's second internal firmware image, the location is stored at 'linux2'. Go to Troubleshooting in the Linksys webadmin, and there is an option to 'restore earlier firmware' (boot internally from the 'linux' image). Use that and it should now boot into DD-WRT (stored at 'linux').
  • 3. Backup your original Linksys OEM CFE and environmental variables.
    • 3a. Go to http://192.168.1.1 (the EA6400 is now running a temporary copy of DD-WRT). Set the default username and password to root/root. The final flash will ask you to set this again, so for now just use root & root as username and password. Do not power off the router at any point until this guide says to do-so!
    • 3b. Go to http://192.168.1.1/backup/cfe.bin to backup the original CFE,
      Just simply go to the link. Your browser will save or ask you where to save the CFE, onto your computer.
    • 3c. Go into the DD-WRT webadmin and enable SSHd in Services.
    • 3d. Use Putty (ssh client) to backup NVRAM variables. (Command is: nvram show >> nvram_dump.txt)
    • 3e. Use WinSCP to SCP into the router and copy the nvram_dump.txt to your local computer
  • 4. Using a modified CFE (see Koolshare CFE) use CFEEdit.exe to change the variables to reflect your router
    • 4a. Open up the Koolshare CFE with CFEEdit.exe
    • 4b. Change settings as detailed in Step 2 here: http://gravitynet.co.nf/index.php/ea6400/installation-guide
      (will put the entirety of the steps in the DD-WRT wiki)
    • 4c. Save it, and reopen the CFE, making sure the two values are set (on mine the WPS Password didn't stick, it was 000000's when I saved then reopened the modified Koolshare CFE)
    • 4d. Upload the modified CFE to the router, with WinSCP (copy it to /tmp/root)
    • 4e. Connect with Putty (or use your existing putty session), and write the CFE to the router's memory (Command is: mtd –f write /tmp/root/newcfe.bin /dev/mtd0)
  • 5. Upload and flash the current DD-WRT image.
    • 5a. Currently ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/2018/09-21-2018-r37012/linksys-ea6400/linksys-ea6400-webflash.bin
    • 5b. Using WinSCP, upload linksys-ea6400-webflash.bin to /tmp/root on the router.
    • 5c. Rename linksys-ea6400-webflash.bin to simply firmware.bin using either WinSCP or Putty.
    • 5d. Flash it to linux2 (TAKES ABOUT 5 MINUTES!!) with Putty (Command is: mtd -f write firmware.bin linux2)
    • 5e. And flash 'linux' (Also takes about 5 minutes) (Command is: mtd -f write firmware.bin linux)
    • 5f. Erase nvram (instant) (Command is: erase nvram)
    • 5g. Reboot the router.

You should now be in the latest version of DD-WRT.