Debrick a WRT54G for the second time


I week ago i debrick a WRT54G ([url]https://blog.billy.gr/archives/2005/02/12/debrick-a-wrt54g/[/url]) unfortunately it died again.

This time it wasn’t so easy. The main problem was that the CFE.BIN was corrupted = NO TFTP to put a new firmware.

The solution was to find a CFE.BIN and write it again on the WRT. After finally founding an image, i was able to put a new openwrt firmware. It took a lot of retries and erases of the nvram till the firmware boots. Which i cannot explain since it should create again the nvram filesystem on first reboot.

Don’t try a firmware over 3MB it will not work out. Believe me ๐Ÿ™‚

I don’t know what exactly is the problem with that device. Maybe a flash problem. Anyway now it works, let’s see for how long ๐Ÿ™‚


6 responses to “Debrick a WRT54G for the second time”

  1. I search cfe.bin for my wrt54g V2….

    If someon have it can he send me this file please !

    Thx for my router ….

    Best regards

  2. Just wait for few days to open my wrt and I will send you. Just send me an e-mail. I’m looking an cfe.bin for WRTv1.0…. Bests, Kriss

  3. Hi!I have a WRT54G v 1.0 and I have made a firmware and now it doesn’t work.I have read all the forums(believe me).The problem is that there is no blinking LED on my WRT,not anyone !Ihave written the kernel and the cfe.bin but still no sign.Please help me.Thx.

  4. Hello Andrew, try to do an erase:flash first.

    There is a case that your WRT54G is completly dead…., or there is a problem with your power supply

  5. Hi, what can I do for wrt54g v4 debrick? can I use this metod or have I change some? Where? I try use calbe jtag but I dont debrick my wrt54g v4 with bcm5352 flash, thanks for your help

  6. If you cannot put the firmware using tftp, then JTAG is the only method.

    First get a backup of your firmware using JTAG. Get the cfe.bin 2-3 times and compare the files. Make sure that it has the same hash.

    Keep it in a safe place ๐Ÿ™‚

    Do the same for the nvram.bin and the kernel.bin

    Try eraseing the nvram, reboot and see if it works.

    Most of the time if you haven’t corrupt the cfe, a nvram erase does the trick.