Installing OpenWRT on RB411 is a bit more complicated than a normal flash of the stock-routers. Your need a System, which you connect with your RB411 via LAN-cable. This system will be your command base and called “helper-System” further. This helper-system will fire up dnsmasq and tftp functions to interrupt the bootloader of your RB411 to load an image out of the TFTP running on the helper system. This first image is a small one. After booting this, you will download the kernel and the image-file from your helper system and install it on your RB411. You need a Serial Connection to interact with the bootloader. You can use this file for the correct minicom setup: rb411u_dnsmasq_serial_connection.zip

–removed because Backifre-Images work —

–removed because Backifre-Images work —

Make sure, that you have the following files on your helper system.

  openwrt-ar71xx-nand-vmlinux-initramfs.elf  <- Bootloader Image
  openwrt-ar71xx-rootfs.tar.gz    <- Large Image with all packages built in
  openwrt-ar71xx-vmlinux.elf   <- Kernel Image from the full-image build

rename openwrt-ar71xx-rootfs.tar.gz & openwrt-ar71xx-vmlinux.elf

 # mv openwrt-ar71xx-rootfs.tar.gz  openwrt-ar71xx-nand-rootfs.tar.gz 
 # mv openwrt-ar71xx-vmlinux.elf  openwrt-ar71xx-nand-vmlinux.elf 

Download the following files additional:

1. start_dnsmasq.sh
2. dnsmasq.conf

Set ip on eth0 to 192.168.0.1 run

 ./start_dnsmasq.sh
 

Now powerOn the RB411 , choose boot-order to boot from network. Boot from network. The boot is finished after you see this line:

1. preinit -

Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode

  eth0: link up (100Mbps/Full duplex)
  - regular preinit -
  - init -

    Please press Enter to activate this console. 

Launch a webserver on your helper-computer. You can use the python simple-server, but you have to stay at the directory, where your images are

   # python -m SimpleHTTPSever 80
   

Go to Serial console again. Setup IP and run the nandwriting command:

   # ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.2
   # wget2nand http://192.168.0.1:80

Reboot now