How do I upgrade openWRT on the router?

[eli2k]

I'm doing this on a Windows platform, through tftp commands. I connected a LAN cable to the router, but I can't ping it at 192.168.1.1. And I'm not sure what I need to change in the network settings to get it right again. Has anyone successfully upgraded their openWRT to a different version; can you please provide some steps?

Thanks,
- Eli

[Madox]

In Windows you probably have to manually configure your IP settings to be on the same subnet as the router. e.g. 192.168.1.50 with 255.255.255.0 netmask (or 255.255.0.0). The default IP and netmask of the router in the bootloader mode is 192.168.1.1 with 255.255.255.0, and DHCP isn't running...

[mightyohm]

Another subtle problem you can run into:

If your home wireless network uses the 192.168.24.1 subnet, your computer may not be able to talk to the router because it sits on the same IP address as your home wireless gateway (192.168.1.1). A quick workaround is to disable your computer's wireless interface when talking to the WL-520gU over the LAN port. A longer term solution is to move your home wireless network to another subnet, like 192.168.24.1.

[eli2k]

My home network is on the 10.0.x.x subnet, and I set my LAN port IP to be 192.168.1.100, something like that, but I still couldn't ping the router. Did I have to change some of the network or wireless files? If so, I probably didn't change it to the correct ones, because I forgot what the initial values were.

I got something to work, which is wget the firmware into /tmp/ and then run some command that I forgot to upgrade the firmware. I compiled it myself to add some stuff, but in the end I couldn't get it to work, it said the USB device was not recognized when I tried to run mpc and play an audio file. So I restored the old firmware from mightyohm's website, which did work. Must have done something wrong when compiling it, selected wrong options or something... I wanted to add the ability to mount network drives, to access the music files there.

[mightyohm]

I'm confused as to how you got tftp to work without being able to ping the router. If tftp works, then the network connection to the router is obviously working.

[eli2k]

I'm confused as to how you got tftp to work without being able to ping the router. If tftp works, then the network connection to the router is obviously working.

I had to access it through the serial port. I've only gotten the LCD working, haven't moved to adding tuning control yet, so I still had serial port access.

[mightyohm]

To be able to use the serial port you must have been able to flash my OpenWrt boot image to the router somehow, correct?

Is the problem that you are trying to flash your own custom compiled OpenWrt image and are losing network connectivity after installing it?

[eli2k]

To be able to use the serial port you must have been able to flash my OpenWrt boot image to the router somehow, correct?

Is the problem that you are trying to flash your own custom compiled OpenWrt image and are losing network connectivity after installing it?

Sorry, I should clarify. I originally was able to connect to the router to flash your compiled firmware to get it up running. Modified all the necessary files to get mpc/mpd working, and the LCD. I wanted to work on getting the potentiometer/tuner to work, but I don't have a cross-over cable, but this is another topic. Then I wanted to add the ability to mount Windows network drives, and in a previous post on this forum you recommended the poster to compile their own image to add whatever packages they need. So I compiled it successfully (sort of), but when I connect a normal ethernet cable, it doesn't work (worked the first time).