Upgrading a Linksys WRT54G
For a longtime now I’ve been running a custom firmware on my wireless access point at home (OpenWRT WhireRussian) but have finally given in and upgraded to Kamikaze 7.09. I ran into some problems along the way, which I thought I’d go through in the event others come across them.
The first important thing to note is that Kamikaze does not come with a web interface by default. Once you’re up and running you can install the unstable version by doing logging in via SSH and running the following:
ipkg install http://downloads.x-wrt.org/xwrt/kamikaze/7.09/brcm-2.4/webif_latest.ipk
That’s assuming you’re using a WRT54G, if not you’ll need to get the one for your architecture.
The other important thing to note is that your settings will be wiped and the device will return to using an IP of 192.168.1.1
The first thing you’ll need to do is telnet in and set a root password. Once that’s done, you can setup your device using the ‘uci’ command, like so:
root@OpenWrt:~# uci show network.lan network.lan=interface network.lan.type=bridge network.lan.ifname=eth0.0 network.lan.proto=static network.lan.ipaddr=192.168.1.3 network.lan.netmask=255.255.255.0
You can then change setting using ‘uci set network.lan.ipaddr=192.168.1.3’. Once you’re wired ethernet is setup you’ll probably want to move onto wireless:
root@OpenWrt:~# uci show wireless wireless.wl0=wifi-device wireless.wl0.type=broadcom wireless.wl0.channel=5 wireless.wl0.disabled=0 wireless.cfg2=wifi-iface wireless.cfg2.device=wl0 wireless.cfg2.network=lan wireless.cfg2.mode=ap wireless.cfg2.ssid=DavesLAN wireless.cfg2.encryption=psk wireless.cfg2.key=
Set your key and SSID as you did for the wired Ethernet, and then make sure you set ‘wireless.wl0.disabled=0’ or nothing will work.
Once all your settings are in place, run ‘uci commit’ and everything should be working again.
Dear Dave…Writing this from the Grand Canyon State, Arizona, USA. I’m currently working with old software that I find in second hand stores without the serial numbers or keys…I have quite a selection leaning towards my hobby of digital movies and photo’s. I have some Adobe programs I would like to recover the keys…can you help…thanks Jasamine
Hi Jasmine,
If you’re getting the discs from second hand stores and the like which don’t include a license key then there’s nothing I can do. The keys are almost never stored on the disks. I’d only be able to help if you’d already installed the software and wanted to recover your license key.
Dave