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[Blackeagle]

Yes.  The firmware is big endian but must be converted to little endian to be mounted.  What I did was to use binwalk to find the offset in the file for the jjfs2 filesystem, then used dd to copy from there.

Code: [Select]

dd bs=1 skip=131072 if=V100AAKL4b1.bin of=kitz1.bin
I then reversed the endian

Code: [Select]

jffs2dump --bigendian kitz1.bin --endianconvert=kitz1.jffs2

Then dd to /dev/mtdblock0, and finally mount that to a suitable point.


@les-70

I'm wondering if the blob is not starting correctly, possibly due in part to differences between the xdslcmd and xdslctl binaries.  Also the HG612 loads libxdslapi.so whereas the ZyXel loads libxdslctl.so. 

My thinking is that there is possibly some mapping issue between the xdsl*** binaries and the actual adsl_phy.bin driver.  There is no issue actually loading the driver, just starting it seems to be problematic !!

*** EDIT ***

Further investigation reveals that the VMG8324-B10A is based upon Broadcoms BCM63168 vs the HG612 BCM6368 chipset.

I should have noticed this earlier    I will happily stand corrected on this but I can't see that extracted BLOB working on a different chipset.  I believe the current latest BLOB in use on the Huawei was extracted from firmware for a Netgear DGND3700v1 which is 6368 based also.

[les-70]

I should have noticed this earlier   

    Oops  ...  your not alone 

   Given that I am very surprised the adsl_phy.bin swap did not cause an real failure.

[dmcdonnell]

I did wonder about the blob hunt.

There are a few modem/routers about with the BCM63168 SoC and you can find different boot logs posted. No sign of OpenWRT but it's early days.
There is early support in OpenWRT for the related BCM63138 SoC, which cant be bad news.
See http://pastebin.com/Ex23Mmz8

Thank you so much for the lessons in endianess and firmware extraction, Blackeagle. Greatly appreciated.

[Blackeagle]

Thank you so much for the lessons in endianess and firmware extraction, Blackeagle. Greatly appreciated.

Just passing on stuff I learnt on here from others.

[Bald_Eagle1]

Bit confused here. The les version is swapped into an HG612 hence trying to use xdslcmd.  Kitz probably does not have anything called xdslcmd in the zytel.   The fact that they are different may be why, on first try, I have not got it working in an HG612

Apologies for the confusion.
I hadn't picked up on the fact you were using a HG612 

[kitz]

Further investigation reveals that the VMG8324-B10A is based upon Broadcoms BCM63168 vs the HG612 BCM6368 chipset.

I did wonder especially as I'd quoted the chipset..  but since I know nothing when it comes to firmware and blobs so I just thought perhaps it was similar to how the same drivers can cover multiple hardware versions.

No it doesnt support xdslcmd, which is why I'd had to use  adsl --version to get the fw details .  Theres a list of the available commands here if it helps.

[dmcdonnell]

...

Code: [Select]

sudo modprobe mtdram total_size=32768 erase_size=256
sudo modprobe mtdblock
sudo modprobe mtdchar
sudo mknod /dev/mtdblock0 b 31 0   (not needed if /dev/mtdblock0 exists already)
sudo dd if=image.jffs2 of=/dev/mtdblock0


Strangely, "sudo modprobe mtdchar" produces "FATAL: Module mtdchar not found." on my linux mint box. I am using recently released kernel 3.14 generic. I do have mtd-utils installed.

[les-70]

 @kitz   Returning the topic of the thread I am looking forwards to hearing about your experiences in the long run.   I will be especially interested in the wireless performance a few walls and rooms away from the router and the wireless connection stability there.   My experience with internal antenna routers so far has not been good and has lead to them going into my bits cupboard!

    I notice HG630's with the same 63168 chipset and vectoring, only Huawei branded and fully unlocked on Taobao and also isp branded HG658's all at low prices - of order £40 inc pp if imported through an agent.  I have found importing works OK and am tempted to try one those (unlocked HG630 being safest) as (gigabit) does not worry me but with the zytel there is at least the prospect of later firmware updates.

[burakkucat]

Strangely, "sudo modprobe mtdchar" produces "FATAL: Module mtdchar not found." on my linux mint box. I am using recently released kernel 3.14 generic. I do have mtd-utils installed.

Briefly (as not wishing to prolong the hijack of this thread), the mtdchar module does not exist in recent 3.X Linux kernels.    For example --

Code: [Select]

[Duo2 ~]$ find /lib/modules -type f | grep -E 'mtdblock|mtdchar' | sort
/lib/modules/2.6.32-431.11.2.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-431.11.2.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock_ro.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.32-431.11.2.el6.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdchar.ko
/lib/modules/3.10.36-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock.ko
/lib/modules/3.10.36-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock_ro.ko
/lib/modules/3.14.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock.ko
/lib/modules/3.14.0-1.el6.elrepo.x86_64/kernel/drivers/mtd/mtdblock_ro.ko
[Duo2 ~]$


[Bald_Eagle1]

No it doesnt support xdslcmd, which is why I'd had to use  adsl --version to get the fw details .  Theres a list of the available commands here if it helps.

It's taken a while to amend the graphing code, ensuring compatibility for the HG612 remans, but I have attached the snapshot montage from your connection's data that you provided.

If you are happy to test things out, I'll have a dabble with amending my data harvesting code to use in conjunction with DSLStats for easy shorter term & longer term monitoring.

[les-70]

@kitz   Returning the topic of the thread I am looking forwards to hearing about your experiences in the long run.   I will be especially interested in the wireless performance a few walls and rooms away from the router and the wireless connection stability there.   My experience with internal antenna routers so far has not been good and has lead to them going into my bits cupboard!

  @kitz  Any chance of an update?

[kitz]

It's taken a while to amend the graphing code, ensuring compatibility for the HG612 remans, but I have attached the snapshot montage from your connection's data that you provided.

If you are happy to test things out, I'll have a dabble with amending my data harvesting code to use in conjunction with DSLStats for easy shorter term & longer term monitoring.

Yes please, that would be brilliant. 

[kitz]

  @kitz  Any chance of an update?

No sorry - havent had chance and Ive been running around like the proverbal **  for the past few days and not even found time to read much past page 15 on the 500 412 page manual.  The Zyxel still has its protective sleeve on the front and its not yet in its proper location.   

But I can say that it worked well in what can be a deadspot.  Ideally Id like to test it down the bottom of my garden as that will for me be a good indication, but Im not going out in the pouring rain to do it     Its current location is on the desk, upstairs front of house and I have no problem using it in the back of the house downstairs.

Ive not noticed any problems with it, its remained in sync since I put it on.  It recovered by itself after some ISP network problems.   Now that its set up... it just kinda works how it should and since the stats are slightly better than with the HG612 Im definitely not complaining.     

[les-70]

   I am very tempted and wondering over http://www.stuff-uk.net/p-1726433.aspx which curiously has the same stock level as broadband buyer.  The cheapest can prove troublesome in the end so I wonder it others have used stuff-uk ? - its not an appealing name.

[renluop]

   ..... stuff-uk ? - its not an appealing name.

Likely it's better than stuff-u!