[OpenWrt-Users] Help with WRT54gv1.1 VLAN/NVRAM stuffup

[Charles Briscoe-Smith]

Hi folks,

I have a bit of a problem.  What I did:

 - Flashed openwrt whiterussian onto a WRT54gv1.1

 - Played happily.

 - Decided I wanted *two* WAN ports, one doing DHCP and one doing PPPoE.
   The plan, once the VLAN stuff was done, was to do some policy routing,
   some IP/IP tunnels, and some OSPF to get a resilient combination of
   two uplinks (one cable, one DSL).

 - Merrily hacked boot scripts to accommodate the two WAN ports.

 - Tried to do things "the right way" (or so I thought), thus (I *think*
   - can't remember 100%) changed some NVRAM variables from "wan_*"
   to "wan1_*" and "wan2_*".  Changed VLAN variables in NVRAM too,
   to separate out LAN port 1 for use as second WAN interface.

 - Later installed some packages to try out and then removed them again.
   Accidentally removed (IIRC) ulibc instead of ulibc++, thus bricking
   router.  Thanks to busybox and an already-open shell, managed to
   cat files so I copied-and-pasted copies of everything under /etc,
   thus saving (some of?) my changes.  Don't think I managed to get a
   copy of the NVRAM, though, as (IIRC) the nvram utility wouldn't run
   due to not being part of busybox.

The problem I have now is not that I can't reflash the firmware (I can
do that with the TFTP-to-192.168.1.1-while-powering-on trick).

The problem is that none of the firmwares I've flashed the router
with work properly with the router in the state it is.  In the case of
the stock firmware, I can't access the web interface when I plug into
the LAN ports, but I can when I plug into the WAN port, oddly enough.
With openwrt, it appears to boot, but I can't find any ethernet port
via which I am able to access the web interface or telnet/ssh ports

My guess is that my changes to the NVRAM are causing the VLAN switch
to be set up in a way that doesn't mesh with the firmware's default
VLAN usage.  I've tried resetting the NVRAM with the "reset to factory
defaults" option in the stock firmware, and (when that didn't help)
with the reset button on the back of the router, but neither option
seems to get me anything usable.

I can reflash the router with no problem via TFTP while turning the
power on.  My guess is that the boot loader is setting up the VLAN switch
according to the NVRAM variables before loading the firmware, because
I've tried Kamikaze too (which, if I understand correctly, ignores the
NVRAM, right?) and that doesn't seem to give me anything useful either -
can't find a web, telnet or SSH port via any ethernet port.

It was a few weeks ago I got to this point, and am posting now because
I can't think of much else I can try on my own.  I might've forgotten
to mention some details; ask if more info would be helpful.

So, questions:

Is there a firmware knocking around which I could flash onto the router,
which will reset the NVRAM to sane defaults without any user intervention,
on first boot?  Or which will run normally, but ignore the VLAN switch
settings in NVRAM and reset the switch to a sane default configuration on
first boot, undoing any switch configuration the bootloader may have done?

Any other suggested way to get this machine back to defaults, preferably
without hacking the hardware (I'm not at all keen on soldering - messy
business).

If I need to throw this one away and get something new, any suggestions?
Available in the UK, cheap, several ethernet/switch ports (so I can have
2 WAN ports and at least 2-3 LAN switchports), enough grunt to run OSPF
(quagga or bird, though I have more experience with quagga), doesn't need
to route faster than about 4Mbps currently, although enough headroom to
handle 10Mbps would be good, and preferably easily resettable in case I
stuff up again (preinstalled serial console might be nice, therefore).
No need for USB, nor anything else but the basic network interfaces and
enough CPU/RAM to handle them.  Internal WLAN and ADSL not necessary
(though I will want to use them if they're there and they'll cut down
on the number of boxes sitting beside the cable modem).

Thanks for any help,

-- 
Charles Briscoe-Smith
http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesbriscoesmith