Ask HN: Flash Open WRT to TP-Link WR703n v1.7

#1

Post by gillis » Mon, Jun 01, 2015, 12:59 AM UTC

I've recently received multiple TP-Link WR703n routers which I intended to flash Open WRT onto. However, in v1.7 of the stock firmware, a checksum validation is preformed and only allows TP-Link firmware to be flashed to the router.

I've seen 2 or 3 work-arounds based off of the "Parental Control" bug found by BugBlue but haven't had any luck when executing the instructions provided by these tutorials.

If anyone has any thoughts I would very much appreciate to hear them.

Re: Ask HN: Flash Open WRT to TP-Link WR703n v1.7

#2

Post by noonespecial » Mon, Jun 01, 2015, 2:06 AM UTC

Unfortunately, your best bet is to treat it as a bricked unit and go after it with the tiny little serial pads inside.

I made a little pogo-pin fitting for mine so I can just pop the covers off and stick the rig down into it and send new firmware over serial.

Re: Ask HN: Flash Open WRT to TP-Link WR703n v1.7

#3

Post by chatmasta » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 4:10 AM UTC

I faced a similar problem with a different model recently. This forum post [0] helped me. You can probably do something similar, or maybe even used the linked binary blob.

[0] https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=206667#p206667

Re: Ask HN: Flash Open WRT to TP-Link WR703n v1.7

#4

Post by chatmasta » Wed, Jun 03, 2015, 4:11 AM UTC

noonespecial wrote: post #2

Unfortunately, your best bet is to treat it as a bricked unit and go after it with the tiny little serial pads inside. I made a little pogo-pin fitting for mine so I can just pop the covers off and stick the rig down into it and send new firmware over serial.

The checksum happens when you upload the firmware to flash. OP did not brick router.