Slashdot Mirror
Hacking Samsung 4510-Based APs
zoobab writes "Some belgian linux hackers met this week-end to hack some wireless access points based on the samsung4510 chip. They have succeeded in compiling and booting a uClinux kernel on a Dlink 614ap+, which is equipped with the infamous acx100 wireless chipset. There's still some work to do, but if you want to help, open your 22mbps AP and try to built your own JTAG adaptator to get access to the flash..."
here
A 614+ is like $25 AR, the radio and antennas in it sucks but for the money it really can't be beat . . . This is quite cool.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Lack of Linux support from TI.
Not to mention, that seems like even the drivers for my XP machine, are crap. BSOD and other weird behaviour. Speed is good, when you can actually get it to work.
I'd love it if it was opened up, then maybe some real programmers could make it work better. As it stands now, I get rid of my 650+ and go back to reliable old Orinoco card.
In a related note, Linksys/Broadcom have released source code and the toolchain used in the wrt54g access point. They even have instructions on how to build your own firmware.
Everything you need to build your own firmware is available in version 1.42.2
Note that my wrt54g linux distribution won't work with version 1.42.2 unless your modify the firmware to re-enable the wrt54g "ping hack"
Some Belgian Linux programmers ("hackers" because they have worked out how to get hardware to do things other than what it was intended to) met this week-end to get Linux running on DLink 614ap+ wireless networking access points (the little receivers that act like hubs or swtiches for wireless networks). (DLink is the brand, and 614ap+ is the model.) These access points have CPUs in them to handle configuration tasks and whatnot. The CPU in these particular access points was the Samsung 4510 chip. They have compiled and run a specialized, stripped down version of Linux called "uClinux" (the uC is an abbreviation of "microcontroller"; the micro symbol looks like a "u") on the microcontroller in the access point.
The access points also contain a Texas Instruments ACX100 wireless chipset, which does the signal processing necessary for the 802.11b protocol that the device supports. The ACX100 also allows devices to communicate at 22mbps with other wireless network cards or access points that use the ACX100, using a proprietary method. This chipset has caused headaches for Linux users (PC Linux users) who own wireless networking cards that use this chipset, because Texas Instruments haven't released documentation on how the chipset works. This makes writing a device driver difficult, and so Linux users can't use wireless networking if they own a wireless network card based on these chipsets.
There's still some work to do. (I think they mean that they haven't worked out how to use the ACX100 from the microcontroller.) If you want to help, and you've got one of these access points (i.e. it says it supports 22mbps and 802.11b), open up your access point. Once it is open, build a JTAG adaptor (JTAG is a protocol that is used to communicate with embedded microcontrollers and programmable hardware). Get your JTAG adaptor to plug into your PC (probably via a serial or parallel port) and read or re-write the flash memory (i.e. the memory where the program code that runs on the microcontroller is stored). If you can read the memory, sending the memory contents to these people might help them understand how the ACX100 works in more detail. I doubt you'd want to re-write the memory unless you're testing code with them and you're willing to end up with a useless brick instead of a wireless access point. From their screenshots, they have written a bootloader that they write to the access point's flash memory. The bootloader downloads uCLinux from one of the computers plugged into it (i.e. normal wired ethernet), and runs it.