Monday, February 20, 2017

TP Link Recovery Mode for WR1043ND

TP Link Recovery Mode for WR1043ND


Did I ever mentioned that my overclocked bootloader has TP-Links new built in tftp recovery mechanism?
Do know know if you ever flashed my overclocked bootloader successfully and later "brick" it by flashing new OpenWRT images wrongly there is a 100% chance of recovery?

Simply said I created the overclocked firmware mods by detecting the bit responsible for flipping up the PLL, modifying the bit and correcting the checksum so the new TP-Link uboot tftp recovery mechanism still works.

In fact I use it to test all the firmware I built ALL THE TIME because I am simply too lazy to open up the router and connect the serial pins.

So how do you do it?
  1. Turn off all firewall
  2. Get a tftp server software, in Windows I use tftpd32 in Linux I use dnsmasq
  3. Copy a factory firmware (without the uboot) into the tftp directory change the filename to wr1043nv1_tp_recovery.bin
  4. To activate the recovery mode hold the reset button immediately when it powers on before it boots into linux, you will flashing lights.
  5. This emergency mode listens for the IP Address 192.168.0.66 so you can set 192.168.0.66 static ip mode on your PC running the tftp software
  6. After that if the router detects the tftp server it will attempt to grab to grab the file wr1043nv1_tp_recovery.bin from the tftp server at 192.168.0.66
  7. Then it will begin flashing itself you just need to grab a cup of coffee while it reboots after flashing
In fact all new TP-Link firmware with bootloaders now come with recovery modes listening at different address. You can refer to this useful forum thread by a uboot expert pepe2k.

Available link for download