The Asus RT-N16 has early support in Barrier Breaker (trunk) only!

• Ticket 6580 tracks the effort to support this device.
• For compiling trunk ( r36574 works! ):

Target System (Broadcom BCM947xx/953xx)

Target Profile (Broadcom SoC, all Ethernet, BCM43xx WiFi (wl, proprietary))

wl0 enabled does not trigger WLAN LED, but wifi does work properly.

Outdated :

• Curent forum thread for the latest info
• George Kashperko's patches to get the N16 working on trunk

→flash.layout for a detailed explanations.

• ASUS has 4 partitions:
  • 0x 0000 0000-0x 0004 0000 : "boot"
  • 0x 0004 0000-0x 01fe 0000 : "linux"
  • 0x 001d ff88-0x 01fe 0000 : "rootfs"
  • 0x 01fe 0000-0x 0200 0000 : "nvram"

The page at wl500gp has detailed backup, flash, & recovery information which should largely apply to the RT-N16 as well.

Flash from a Windows PC using the Firmware Restoration utility. (Download or install the Firmware Restoration Utility to your PC.)

The Asus RT-N16 has a failover mode, like the DIR-600 Bx (X=1,2).

To launch the recovery mode disconnect power from the router first.

Hold the WPS button while replugged the power to the router to reset nvram, router will restart 2x. Hold the RESET button while replugged the power to the router to get into recovery mode : tftpd is listening. The power LED should start to blink (low frequency, ~1 time every 3 seconds). Retry if that won't work for you.

The router IP in the recovery mode is 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0.

Configure your PC (don't use 192.168.1.1)

Ping 192.168.1.1 should give a response.

Launch the Firmware Restoration utility, select the firmware and press the Upload button.

Ignore the warning, we wanna be on OpenWRT!

It may now take several minutes. Be patient and enyoy a cup of tea or coffee.

Reconfigure your PC back to DHCP

Connect to http://opwnwrt.lan and proceed with the basic configuration.

This may work with other tftp utilities, too.

The Asus RT-N16 has a failover mode, like the DIR-600 Bx (X=1,2).

Get a tftp client, Since Ubuntu is a popular choice snag it :

Now to modify the router … To launch the recovery mode disconnect power from the router first.

1. Hold the WPS button for 10 seconds while replugged the power to the router to reset nvram, router will restart 2x when you release. 2. Hold the RESET button while replugged the power to the router to get into recovery mode : tftpd is listening. The power LED should start to blink (low frequency, ~1 time every 3 seconds). Retry if that won't work for you.

The router IP in the recovery mode is 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0.

Configure your box to use an ip in the same range : 192.168.1.2 is usually good.

Ping the interface to be sure it's up :

Ctrl+C to break.

If you get ping responses then it's up and ready to flash.

Set it to binary mode transfer :

upload the firmware :

When it's complete the router will be writing the firmwar and may not automatically reboot. Wait up to 5 minutes, then power off the router and plug it back in.

Since this part is identical for all devices, see Basic configuration.

Switch ports 1-4 are for the LAN, and 0 is for the Internet (WAN) port. Note that the switch ports are the opposite of what is labeled on the device; thus switch port 1 is labeled LAN4, etc. Switch port 8 is the internal connection to the CPU. Not sure what happened to 5-7 but it's assumed they're just not wired out to anything.

If you forgot your password, broken one of the startup scripts, firewalled yourself or corrupted the JFFS2 partition, you can get back in by using OpenWrt's failsafe mode.

Since this is an Asus product you can also use the included failsafe mode. Press and hold the "Reset" button on the back of the device, then plug it in. When the 'PWR' light blinks slowly then it is listening in TFTP mode (~ once every 3 seconds). Default address is 192.168.1.1. If this is not pingable, do the nvram reset first.

NVRAM reset clear the nvram, hold the "WPS" button and plug in the router. When the 'PWR' light is blinking quickly, then when you let go of the WPS button the router will perform a reboot, wipe and reboot again.

• Unplug the router's power cord.
• Connect the router's LAN1 port directly to your PC.
• Configure your PC with a static IP address between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.254. E. g. 192.168.1.2 (gateway and DNS is not required).
• Plug the power on and wait for the DMZ LED to light up.
• While the DMZ LED is on immediately press any button (Reset and Secure Easy Setup will work) a few times .
• If done right the DMZ LED will quickly flash 3 times every second.
• You should be able to telnet to the router at 192.168.1.1 now (no username and password)

NOTE: The root file system in failsafe mode is the SquashFS partition mounted in readonly mode. To switch to the normal writable root file system run mount_root and make any changes. Run mount_root now.

1. Forgot/lost your password and you like to set a new one

passwd

1. Forgot the routers IP address

uci get network.lan.ipaddr

1. You accidentally run 'ipkg upgrade' or filled up the flash by installing to big packages (clean the JFFS2 partition and start over)

mtd -r erase rootfs_data If you are done with failsafe mode power cycle the router and boot in normal mode.

• Note the serial header on the board at at J2, you can see on the front of the board between the usb ports and the asus logo. It even came with pins and markings. Gnd, Vcc, Rx, Tx are clearly marked. They fit with a 4pin cd-rom audio or 4pin fan plug. I was able to get a serial terminal up using a CA-42 nokia usb-ttl serial adapter (found some ~$3.50 plus shipping on amazon), similar to the instructions on nslu2-linux.org. Using a usb-ttl serial adapter it is only necessary to have the Gnd, Tx, and Rx connected, not the Vcc.

Note: This will void your warranty!

How to connect to Serial Port :

You will need a TTL device to connect. These are available cheaply online from many different retailers. I picked up mine here :

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251082091781?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

a PL2303 USB To RS232 TTL Converter Adapter Module.

This exposes a serial device to OS via USB. Connection should be made to the header on the RT-N16 matching RX→TX and TX→RX. Connect GND to GND. Then open up a terminal application, like PuTTY, and connect with 15200 baud, with 8 bits of data, no parity (8N1). Connecting VCC doesn't hurt.

This is recognized in WinXP, Win 7 and Linux (Ubuntu 11.10 checked).

For connection in windows, use PuTTY. Find the COM port by using Device Manager to see where it has been assigned.

For connection in Linux : review serial pages for the connection.

• ASUS factory firmware and sources available from ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/wireless/RT-N16/
• RT-N16 DebWrt wiki page
• Tech Info Depot Wiki

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