Linux Hackers Reclaim the WRT54G

An anonymous reader writes "The world's most ubiquitous wireless access point is free to run Linux again, thanks to a brilliant hack by db90h, aka Jeremy Collake. No soldering is required, as Collake's 'VxWorks Killer' nixes the WRT54G's VxWorks bootloader and installs a normal Broadcom one, allowing Linux to be installed easily. One distribution small enough for the series five WRT54G's 2MB of Flash and 8MB of RAM is the free DD-WRT project's "micro" edition. It lacks some of the fancier Linux router packages, such as nocat and IPv6, but does support PPPoE, and could be more stable than the VxWorks firmware, which seems to have generated mixed reviews." Update: 06/26 22:52 GMT by T : Note that the project's name is DD-WRT, not (as it was mistakenly rendered) WR-DDT. Check out the DD-WRT project's site.

Comments

Re:DD-WRT

[FireFury03]

If you think you can turn any WRT54g into a $400 router, you are dead wrong. Those things are unstable as hell, even with Linux on them.

Umm, my WRT54GL running WhiteRussian has only ever crashed when there was a brownout (which also took out my Sky decoder and stereo). I think your argument is bogus.

For one, they just aren't fast enough to satisfy even a couple of users who, say, use BitTorrent or play games or use VoIP.

This rather depends on what you're using it for. The CPU is easilly fast enough to bridge 802.11g traffic onto the switch (which is what it's intended for).

The VxWorks version is downright unusable.

So, umm, flash it with Linux?

buying the GL version is not much of an option for us poor shmucks who already own these pieces of shit with their shitty little OS.

Isn't that kind of your own fault for not researching what you were purchasing - you can't expect to be able to flash just any piece of hardware with an alternative firmware. Besides, stop moaning - if you really want to flash it then now you can.