Month: September 2014

libreCMC on TP-LINK TL-WR741ND

I was lucky that I already had TP-LINK TL-WR741ND ( version 1.8 ) previously installed with OpenWRT (libreCMC strips down OpenWRT to remove non-free software and binary blobs from the code) so that I could test out the libreCMC. At this stage the router seems to be (fully) functional with wired and wireless networking enabled. Here are the instructions how to install libreCMC on this router :

First check if your router version is compatible with libreCMC.

  • Versions supported : v1 – v2, v4.20 – 4.27
  • Version not supported : v2.1 – v3.1 + v4.0

If you still have default TP-LINK firmware, there are several methods to flash it into OpenWRT. I did use the “mtd write” procedure to get it from a functional OpenWRT to libreCMC, so I would recommend that you do that first in order to avoid mistakes. Default OpenWRT IP of the router will become 192.168.1.1 and you can telnet there without the password. Once you have a functional OpenWRT you can proceeed with “mtd flashing” over telnet.

Download the pre-built libreCMC ( version 1.2.1 ) firmware image to the wireless router

  • # cd /tmp/
  • # wget http://downloads.librecmc.org/snapshot/v1.2.1/ar71xx/librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr741nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin

Download and compare md5sum

  • # wget http://downloads.librecmc.org/snapshot/v1.2.1/ar71xx/md5sums
  • # grep “librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr741nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin” md5sums

If you did it right you should see the md5sum result which is 3933e76b3da872bcc0773965c9ad2e72

Check the md5sum of your image (should be identical)

  • # md5sum librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr741nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin

Rename the image to TP-LINK compatible file

  • # cd /tmp/
  • # mv librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr741nd-v1-squashfs-factory.bin tplink.bin

Go back into the root directory

  • # cd /

Now you are ready to proceed with flashing.

  • # mtd -r write /tmp/tplink.bin firmware

When this is done, your router should automatically reboot and default into 192.168.1.1 with telnet access. You can also access it through “Luci” (GUI) with your web server on http://192.168.1.1

Happy hacking ! 🙂

 

 

 

libreCMC

libreCMC is a FSF endorsed embedded GNU/Linux distribution replacement for your wireless router which does not contain non-free software or binary blobs. The project’s goal is to provide an embedded distro that respects user freedoms and allows users to control what their hardware does. Since libreCMC is 100% free software, it allows the user to use supported platforms as a way to host their own services, like email, chat or file sharing; learn about how the device works. libreCMC is designed for users who would like to run 100% free software on their embedded device (routers) or would like to have more control over what their embedded device does. Future uses will expand to servers and HPC applications in a few years.

Currently supported (wireless) devices are :

  • TP-LINK TL-MR3010 v1
  • TP-LINK TL-WR741ND
  • TP-LINK TL-WR841ND
  • NETGEAR WNDR3800
  • XBURST BEN NANONOTE