Recently, there have been no upgrades to the dd-wrt firmware I use on my routers. Found that the last dd-wrt firmware version 24461, did not permit upgrades to newer firmware due to a bug in it. It also did not allow downgrades to a lower version of dd-wrt via the Web GUI interface or any other firmware like openwrt or stock TP-Link router firmware. The bug is being fixed by BrainSlayer.
To overcome this problem, did the following steps to downgrade the router’s firmware from DD-WRT version 24461 to DD-WRT version 24160 (the immediate lower firmware version). Since I have a TP-Link router, I had to do the steps below to downgrade to enable me to move to another firmware while DD-WRT’s firmware version 24461 is fixed.
| 1 | Enable telnet on your router. You can use the Web GUI interface to do so. Also, make sure you are connected to the router by a network cable and wireless LAN on your computer is disabled. From here on, the risk of bricking your router is all yours. |
| 2 | Open a terminal window and telnet into the router: $ telnet 192.168.1.1 <enter>root@myrouter:/tmp# |
| 3 | Install the previous dd-wrt firmware version 24160 root@myrouter:/tmp# wget http://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/2014/05-27-2014-r24160/tplink_tl-wdr4300v1/tl-wdr4300-webflash.bin <enter>Wait patiently for the file to download. You will soon see message as below after it is done. |
| 4 | Flash the router with the downloaded firmware image Next, flash the router with the downloaded firmware image as follows: root@myrouter:/tmp# write tl-wdr4300-webflash.bin linux <enter>Wait patiently. Once done, exit with the following command: root@myrouter:/tmp# exit <enter> |
| 5 | Remove the power plug of the router and reconnect. Wait for it to restart. Now login to the router via Firefox or Internet Explorer at http://192.168.1.1 Visit Status -> Router and verify that the installed firmware version is 24160. |
Now you can install openwrt or do whatever you want with the router. This overcomes the issue with 24461 where, upgrade or downgrade was not possible via the web interface.
These steps also apply to any other version downgrade or upgrade, with the use of the dd-wrt command line interface via telnet or ssh.
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