nmrpflash - Netgear Unbrick Utility
====================================
-This program uses Netgear's [NMRP protocol]
-(http://www.chubb.wattle.id.au/PeterChubb/nmrp.html)
-to flash a new firmware image to a compatible device. This utility has been
-tested with a Netgear EX2700, but is likely to work on many others as well.
+`nmrpflash` uses Netgear's [NMRP protocol](http://www.chubb.wattle.id.au/PeterChubb/nmrp.html)
+to flash a new firmware image to a compatible device. It has been successfully used on a Netgear
+EX2700, EX6120, EX6150v2, DNG3700v2, R6220, R7000, D7000, WNR3500, R6400 and R6800, WNDR3800, but is likely to be compatible
+with many other Netgear devices.
-Prebuilt binaries for Linux, OS X and Windows are available
+Prebuilt binaries for Linux, ~OS X~ macOS and Windows are available
[here](https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash/releases)
-([WinPcap](https://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm) is required on Windows).
+([Npcap](https://nmap.org/npcap/) is required on Windows).
-````
+```
Usage: nmrpflash [OPTIONS...]
-Options (-a, -i and -f are mandatory):
+Options (-i, and -f or -c are mandatory):
-a <ipaddr> IP address to assign to target device
+ -A <ipaddr> IP address to assign to selected interface
+ -B Blind mode (don't wait for response packets)
+ -c <command> Command to run before (or instead of) TFTP upload
-f <firmware> Firmware file
+ -F <filename> Remote filename to use during TFTP upload
-i <interface> Network interface directly connected to device
-m <mac> MAC address of target device (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx)
-M <netmask> Subnet mask to assign to target device
- -t <timeout> Timeout (in milliseconds) for regular messages
- -T <timeout> Time to wait after successfull TFTP upload
+ -t <timeout> Timeout (in milliseconds) for NMRP packets
+ -T <timeout> Time (seconds) to wait after successfull TFTP upload
-p <port> Port to use for TFTP upload
- -U Test TFTP upload
+ -R <region> Set device region (NA, WW, GR, PR, RU, BZ, IN, KO, JP)
-v Be verbose
-V Print version and exit
-L List network interfaces
-h Show this screen
-````
+```
### Using nmrpflash
-Connect your Netgear router to your computer using a network cable.
-Assign a static IP address to the network adapter that's plugged into
-the Netgear router.
+Your Netgear router must be connected to your network using an
+Ethernet cable. The device running `nmrpflash` must be connected
+to the same network, using either Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
-For this example, we'll assume that your network interface is `eth0`.
-First, we have to assign a static IP address to our network interface.
-In this example, we'll use `192.168.1.2`. All available network interfaces
-can be listed using
+All available network interfaces can be listed using
-````
-$ nmrpflash -L
+```
+# nmrpflash -L
eth0 192.168.1.2 f2:11:a1:02:03:b1
-````
+```
-Now we can `nmrpflash`. The argument for the `-a` option needs
-to be a *free* IP address from the same subnet as the one used by your
-network interface. We'll use `192.168.1.254`. Firmware images can usually
-be downloaded directly from netgear. For details on how to do this, see
-[here](#obtaining-firmware-images). Power on your device immediately
-after starting `nmrpflash`.
+Once you've determined the interface to use, we can flash the image. Firmware
+images can usually be downloaded directly from Netgear. Power on your device
+immediately after starting `nmrpflash`.
-````
-$ nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.254 -f EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img
+```
+# nmrpflash -i eth0 -f EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img
Advertising NMRP server on eth0 ... /
Received configuration request from a4:2b:8c:00:00:01.
-Sending configuration: ip 192.168.1.254, mask 255.255.255.0.
-Uploading EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img ... OK
+Sending configuration: 10.164.183.252/24
+Received upload request: filename 'firmware'.
+Uploading EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img ...
+Upload successful.
Waiting for remote to respond.
Remote finished. Closing connection.
-````
+Reboot your device now.
+```
### Common issues
+
+In any case, run `nmrpflash` with `-vvv` before filing a bug report. Also,
+try connecting your Netgear router *directly* to the computer running
+`nmrpflash`.
+
+###### "Error while loading shared libraries: ..." (Linux)
+
+You must install your Linux distribution's `libpcap` and `libnl-3`
+packages (exact names will vary depending on your distribution).
+
+###### "The program can't start because wpcap.dll is missing" (Windows)
+
+Install [Npcap](https://nmap.org/npcap/). For `nmrpflash` versions prior
+to 0.9.14, install Npcap with "WinPcap Compatibility" enabled.
+
+Version 0.9.13 is the last version to support Windows XP.
+
###### "No suitable network interfaces found."
-If you're *not* on Windows, rerun `nmrpflash -L` using `sudo`. In any case,
-use `-vvvL` to see more detailed messages, and file a bug report if applicable.
+Make sure the network interface is up (wireless interfaces are not supported).
+On Windows, try restarting the WinPcap service (commands must be run as
+administrator):
+
+```
+C:\> net stop npf
+C:\> net start npf
+```
###### "No response after 60 seconds. Bailing out."
-The router did not respond. Try rebooting the device and run `nmrpflash` again.
-You could also try running `nmrpflash` with `-m` and specify your router's
-MAC address. It's also possible that your device does not support the NMRP protocol.
+The router did not respond. Always run `nmrpflash` in the following
+manner:
+
+* Turn off the router.
+* Run `nmrpflash`.
+* Turn on the router.
+
+If that still doesn't work, you can try "blind mode", which can be
+invoked using `-B`. Note that you also have to specify your router's
+mac address using `-m xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx`. Also beware that in this mode,
+careful timing between running `nmrpflash` and turning on the router may
+be required!
+
+It's also possible that your device does not support the NMRP protocol.
+
+###### "Timeout while waiting for ACK(0)/OACK."
+
+The device did not respond to `nmrpflash`'s TFTP upload request. By default,
+`nmrpflash` will assign `10.164.183.252` to the target device, while adding `10.164.183.253`
+to the network interface specified by the `-i` flag. You can use `-a` to change the IP
+address assigned to the target (e.g. if your network is `192.168.1.0/24`, specify a *free*
+IP address, such as `-a 192.168.1.252`), and `-A` to change the IP address used for the
+network interface.
+
+This error message could also indicate a bug in the TFTP code; try using an external tftp
+client (busybox in this example), by specifying the `-c` flag instead of the `-f` flag:
+
+`# nmrpflash -i eth0 -c 'busybox tftp -p -l EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img $IP'`
+
+The environment variable `IP` is set by `nmrpflash` (other environment variables
+are: `MAC`, `PORT`, `NETMASK`).
###### "Timeout while waiting for CLOSE_REQ."
-After a successful file upload, `nmrpflash` waits for up to 120 seconds for an
+After a successful file upload, `nmrpflash` waits for up to 5 minutes for an
answer from your device. You can increase this by specifying a longer timeout
using `-T` switch (argument is in seconds).
It's entirely possible that the image was flashed successfully, but the
-operation took longer than 120 seconds.
+operation took longer than 5 minutes.
###### "Address X/Y cannot be used on interface Z."
`nmrpflash` refuses to use an IP address / subnet mask combination that would
make the remote device unreachable from the device running `nmrpflash`. For
-example, if interface Z uses 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0, assigning
-192.168.2.100/255.255.255.0 makes no sense, because the TFTP upload will
+example, if the IP address of your computer is 192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0, assigning
+192.168.2.1/255.255.255.0 to the router makes no sense, because the TFTP upload will
fail.
###### "IP address of X has changed. Please assign a static IP to the interface."
An alternative would be to add `-c 'ifconfig <interface> <ip>'` to the command line,
for example:
-`nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.1 -f firmware.bin -c 'ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2'`
+`# nmrpflash -i eth0 -a 192.168.1.1 -f firmware.bin -c 'ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.2'`
+
+This will execute the command specified by `-c` prior to starting the TFTP upload (in
+this case setting the IP address to 192.168.1.2).
+
+###### "Received keep-alive request."
+
+This usually means that flashing is in progress. On some devices, you may get a few
+hundred keep-alive requests before it eventually finishes!
+
+###### "TFTP block rollover. Upload might fail!"
+
+By default, file transfers using TFTP are limited to `65535 * 512` bytes
+(almost 32 MiB). Uploading files exceeding this limit might fail, depending
+on the device.
-This will execute the command specified by `-c` prior to starting the TFTP upload.
+###### "Ignoring extra upload request."
+
+Extraneous upload requests are usually sent by the device if the image validation
+failed. Some possible causes are:
+
+* If you downloaded a firmware that's contained in an archive (a `.zip` for
+example), you must extract this file, and then use the contained firmware file
+as the argument to the `-f` parameter. Some examples for file extensions used
+for firmware: `.chk`, `.bin`, `.trx`, `.img`.
+
+* Some devices prevent you from downgrading the firmware. See if it works with
+the latest version available for your device. If you're already using the latest
+version, it might be possible to patch the version info of the firmware file. A
+future version of `nmrpflash` might incorporate an auto-patch feature for these
+cases.
+
+* Your device might expect a different image format for `nmrpflash` than when
+flashing via the web interface.
### Building and installing
###### Linux, Mac OS X, BSDs
-````
+```
$ make && sudo make install
-````
+```
###### Windows
The repository includes a
[DevCpp](http://sourceforge.net/projects/orwelldevcpp/)
project file (`nmrpflash.dev`). Download the latest
-[WinPcap Developer Pack](https://www.winpcap.org/devel.htm)
-and extract it into the root folder of the nmrpflash sources.
-
-### Obtaining firmware images
+[Npcap SDK](https://nmap.org/npcap/)
+and extract it into the root folder of the `nmrpflash` sources.
-Firmware images can be downloaded directly from Netgear's FTP servers.
-For the Netgear EX2700 for example, download
-ftp://updates1.netgear.com/ex2700/ww/fileinfo.txt. At the top there
-should be an entry like this:
-```
-[Major1]
-file=EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img
-...
-```
+### Donate
-The download link for the latest firmware image for this device is thus:
-ftp://updates1.netgear.com/ex2700/ww/EX2700-V1.0.1.8.img. Substitute
-`ex2700` for your device (`wndr4300`, `wndr3700`, `r6100`, etc.). If
-neccessary, substitute `ww` (world-wide) for a specific region.
+You can [buy me a coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jclehner) if you want, but please consider
+donating the money for charity instead - [Médecins Sans Frontiers](https://www.msf.org/donate) comes to mind,
+but any other organization, local or international, that you think deserves support will do. Thank you!
projects / oweals / nmrpflash.git / blobdiff