• ADSL modem is working with both Annex A & Annex B supported.
• WiFi is working out of the box with trunk. (ath9k)
• FXS works and can be used with owsip daemon or danube-voip.
• USB works (kmod-usb-dwc-otg or kmod-ltq-hcd-danube)

1. → obtain.firmware
2. → Install OpenWrt (generic explanation)

Please check out the article Flash Layout. It contains an example and a couple of explanations.

Note: some units are very sensible to overvoltage, so take care you are using the right PSU

CPU info:

system type: Danube rev 1.5
processor: 0
cpu model: MIPS 24KEc V4.1
BogoMIPS: 221.18
wait instruction: yes
microsecond timers: yes
tlb_entries: 16
extra interrupt vector: yes
hardware watchpoint: yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
ASEs implemented: mips16 dsp
shadow register sets: 1
kscratch registers: 0
core: 0
VCED exceptions: not available
VCEI exceptions: not available

PCB:

(More images @ Astoria)

Note: This will void your warranty!

To get to the board you need:

• unscrew 2 Phillips screws underneath the cover,
• pull the upper cover which is connected by click.

→ port.serial.

Board voltage is 3.3V so can use usb to serial adapters.
Pinout:

Bootstrap pin funcion table:

Value 1 = 3.3v is connected to that pin
Value 0 = Pin is connected to digital GND

boot_sel2, boot_sel0 pins location:

Note: boot_sel2 and boot_sel1 are by default on 0 and boot_sel0 is on 1.

To enable uart mode, short pins at boot_sel2 (see picture) and connect boot_sel0 to 3.3V(serial port vcc). Than you can send u-boot.asc(downlaod here) to serial port.
For example if your serial port is ttyUSB0 than do: "cat u-boot.asc > /dev/ttyUSB0" and wait until u-boot starts.

UART mode looks like this:

ROM VER: 1.0.3
CFG 04
Read EEPROMX
 X
UART

Please read the following links for ARV4518. They will give you another point of view of the process:

• @aiayua post "ARV4518 for Dummies" in https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=167584#p167584
• @aiayua post "Enable UART mode (Recover bricked/malfunction router)" https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=167513#p167513

And buy the usb to ttl conversor suggested by pippolippi or build one yourself:

• The cheapest option: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=172146#p172146
• Build it yourself: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=178898#p178898

Steps:

1. (about 2h) Backup your router twice and compare the results to ensure you have a correct backup. Use brntool from https://github.com/rvalles/brntool. Command: "./brntool.py –serial=/dev/ttyUSB0 –read=AR4518PW_whole2.dump –addr=0xB0000000 –verbose –size=0x800000"
2. download uboot for arv4518 (the one for 7518 has bug in its last versions, does not work for http/tftp and has no loady support) from http://www.cienti.com/arv4518pw/u-boot-flash-20120511.zip. (If you need to enable UART for recovery purposes, not now, the asc file is in http://www.cienti.com/arv4518pw/u-boot-asc-20120429.zip )
3. I use cutecom, a gui for serial console. First step is to tell it that the device is /dev/ttyUSB0 and set "No Line End"
   1. Speed: 115200 baud
   2. Data bits: 8
   3. Stop bits: 1
   4. Parity: None
   5. Flow control: None
4. Next step is very well explained in step 8 in https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=167584#p167584. Follow it step by step using file "u-boot-flash-20120511.zip" you downloaded before.
5. Step 9 in https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=167584#p167584 is not completely valid because tftp/http does not work, so you cannot use "run update_openwrt". The correct steps instead of that one are shown in https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=181952#p181952, but first you have to download an image. In http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta2/lantiq/danube/ there is no image for arv7518 today(31/10/2012) but there is one in http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta/lantiq/danube/, http://downloads.openwrt.org/attitude_adjustment/12.09-beta/lantiq/danube/openwrt-lantiq-danube-ARV7518PW-squashfs.image. Download it. Now do:
   1. request to upload via YModem: "ARV4518 ⇒ loady 0x80500000"
   2. choose in cutecom "YModem", press "Send file…" and choose the file you've download. It takes about 10 mins. The steps after uploading are:

ARV4518 => era ${kernel_addr} +${filesize}

............................................. done
Erased 45 sectors
ARV4518 => cp.b ${ram_addr} ${kernel_addr} ${filesize}
Copy to Flash... 9....8....7....6....5....4....3....2....1....done
ARV4518 => 

now reboot and let it load. You have a log of the full loading process in https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=181952#p181952. OpenWRT is installed. Time to configure it.