Linksys WRT610N

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Note: Support for the WRT610N is currently still a Work in Progress and has known issues (see below)

Current up-to-date information about DD-WRT support for the WRT610N is available in this forum thread: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=54216

Contents

Overview

The WRT610N is the current top-of-the-line consumer device from Linksys with the following features:

  • Dual-radio (two BCM4322) allows to operate 2.4 Ghz B/G/N and 5 Ghz A/N simultaneously
  • 4+1 port Gigabit switch (BCM53115)
  • v1 300 MHz / v2 533 MHz CPU (v1 BCM4705 / v2 BCM4718)
  • USB 2.0 host port
  • 64 MByte RAM, 8 MByte Flash

CFE Versions

The CFE is basically the BIOS of the WRT610N. It's responsible for initial hardware configuration and subsequently for booting the actual firmware. There are at least two variants of the WRT610N CFE. To find the CFE versions from within dd-wrt, use:

root@ap-ssn:~# nvram show|egrep 'bootnv|pmon'
bootnv_ver=6
pmon_ver=CFE 4.175.64.12

either via telnet or from the Web GUI via "Administration->Commands->Run Commands"

The versions are

  • bootnv_ver=6, pmon_ver=CFE 4.175.64.12 (subsequently called CFE .12)
  • bootnv_ver=7, pmon_ver=CFE 4.175.64.16 (subsequently called CFE .16)

Builds between 12387 and 12424 do not work on CFE .12 models. DD-WRT will start, but immediately reboot, requiring debricking. Your mileage may vary. See http://svn.dd-wrt.com:8000/dd-wrt/ticket/1149'

This is fixed in EKO build 12427, available here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/others/eko/V24_TNG/svn12424/dd-wrt.v24-12427_mega-wrt610n.bin

Installation

If you are installing DD-WRT for the first time on your WRT610N, you need to use a hardware-specific build. For v1 use: ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/02-23-10-r13972/broadcom/dd-wrt.v24_mega_wrt610n.bin

For v2 use: ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/02-23-10-r13972/broadcom_K26/dd-wrt.v24-13972_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_wrt610nv2.bin

After the initial flash, you can re-flash with the latest build. The latest K26 build that works for both the v1 and v2 WRT610n already running DD-WRT: ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/02-23-10-r13972/broadcom_K26/dd-wrt.v24-13972_NEWD-2_K2.6_big.bin

Keep checking ftp://dd-wrt.com/others/eko/ for updates to either the BrainSlayer or eko builds.

---

Support for the WRT610N is currently only available via SVN builds. You can download such builds either

(The differences between those builds are described here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45891 -- basically, BS' builds contain Asterisk, Eko's don't)

Look for the files labeled "WRT610N". Those builds have a special header and can be flashed directly using the stock Linksys firmware's "Update Firmware" option. A factory reset after the flash is recommended.

To revert to the original firmware, just download and flash the current Linksys firmware file using DD-WRT.

The WRT610N has two radio modules and thus two wireless devices with distinct configuration in DD-WRT:

  • wl0 is the 2.4 Ghz band radio (supporting 802.11b/g/n)
  • wl1 is the 5 Ghz band radio (supporting 802.11a/n)

Note that Draft-N can operate in both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands.

Recovery (Unbricking)

A simple way to recover a bricked device (confirmed to work with both CFE.12 and CFE.16) is:

  1. unplug all ethernet ports (Important!)
  2. unplug power
  3. plug power in
  4. wait 2-2.5 seconds
  5. press the reset button and keep it pressed for 5 seconds, then release it
  6. reconnect ethernet (DHCP shoud give IP address to computer)
  7. point your browser at 192.168.1.1. You should see a "Management Firmware update" screen where you can flash the original firmware or dd-wrt directly (even mega builds).

Alternative Method 1:

  1. manually assign 192.168.1.10 to your computer
  2. unplug power
  3. plug power in
  4. wait 0.5-1.0 seconds
  5. press the reset button and keep it pressed for 1 second, then release it
  6. point your browser at 192.168.1.1.

Alternative Method 2:

  1. manually assign 192.168.1.10 to your computer
  2. unplug power
  3. plug power in
  4. wait for all lights blink
  5. press the reset button and keep it pressed for 1 second or 3/4 flashes of the power-light, then release it
  6. point your browser at 192.168.1.1.

The alternative methods are reported to work well on the wrt-610Nv1 CTGxxxx series (mostly works at the first attempt); these series are using CFE .16

The management mode can also be activated from the serial console using

nvram set safe_mode_upgrade=on
nvram commit
reboot

Known Issues

Random reboots/WLAN lockups

As of build 12427, the router will randomly reboot, sometimes after minutes, sometimes after hours. Using only the 2.4 Ghz radio seems to make the problem occur less often. Developers are aware of the problem and are working on it.

A possible workaround seems to be disabling the interference mitigation mode using

 wl -i eth0 interference 0
 wl -i eth1 interference 0

either from telnet or from Administration->Commands.

See here (signature) for real world uptimes of 3 different WRT610N devices, including their respective configurations.

Fixed Wireless MAC

Until build 12360, the 2.4 Ghz wireless radio MAC is always 00:90:4C:4E:00:2A. This causes weird client behavior if you have more than one WRT610N in one network. As a workaround, you can manually set the mac address using the shell commands

nvram set "pci/1/1/macaddr"=00:90:4C:D6:02:2a
nvram commit

This is fixed in 12427 for CFE.16 devices. For CFE.12 devices, the situation is now reversed: The 5 Ghz MAC always has 00:90:4C:4E:00:2A, and the 2.4 Ghz MAC is fine.

No VLAN support

There currently is no kernel driver for the broadcom switch in the device. This makes all of the VLAN settings dysfunctional. There is no workaround. Basic switch operation (i.e., similiar to the Linksys firmware) works fine, though. Note that due to the default configuration of the broadcom chip, the switch will strip all forwarded packets of their VLAN tags. The option "Assign WAN Port to Switch", which actually works at the kernel IP level by adding the Internet "vlan2" device to the main bridge, works.

5 Ghz requires "NA-Only"

Currently, the 5 Ghz radio (wl1) only works when the wireless mode is set to NA-Only

No TFTP recovery

(not really an issue anymore) Due to a problem in the CFE, it is not possible to recover a bricked device using the commonly recommended boot-wait TFTP process (i.e. by waiting for the device to react to pings to 192.168.1.1 and TFTP a firmware file to it). TFTP transfers to the device which are larger than 3.8MB (i.e., the stock firmware) will fail, other TFTP transfers will seemingly succeed, but the CFE will not flash them. See above for a much simpler way to unbrick using management mode. Debricking via serial port is also possible. Note that the serial port is externally accessible inside the "Internet" ethernet jack. Instructions for serial recovery are available here: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=209668#209668

Site/Wizviz survey for 5 Ghz

Neither Site Survey nor Wizviz Survey currently work for the 5 Ghz band.


Other notes

USB

USB support works, including Hubs, for all kind of devices, even when Linksys only advertises this as a "Storage Link". Note that there are known Linux USB issues with USB 2.0, Hubs and Full/Low speed devices, notably the often used FTDI serial converters. Use USB 1.1 only as a workaround.

5 Ghz channels

Not specific to the WRT610N, but with the 5 Ghz band, the channel limitations per regulatory domain are much broader than with 2.4 Ghz channels. Since dd-wrt doesn't limit the 5 Ghz channel selection, you run a much higher chance of setting the router to a channel which your client device (which does honor regulatory limits) doesn't support. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5.C2.A0Ghz_.28802.11a.2Fh.2Fj.2Fdraft-n.29 for a list of available 5 Ghz band channels.