MikroTik Routerboard RB532(A)
These units still show up on ebay occasionally for $35-64. They normally run MikroTik's RouterOS but were also available with a Debian GNU/Linux image.
Supported Versions
| Version/Model | Launch Date | OpenWrt Version Supported | Model Specific Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 532 | Mar 2005? | 7.06 to 10.03.1 | |
| 532A | ~2007 | 7.06 to 10.03.1 | Faster processor and more RAM |
Hardware Highlights
| SoC | Ram | Flash | Network | USB | Serial | JTag |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDT 79RC32H435 | 32 or 64MiB | 128MiB | 3 x 10/100 | No | DE9 | ? |
Manufacturer's site: http://www.mikrotik.com/index.html
Users Guide: http://routerboard.com/pdf/rb500ugM.pdf
Installation
- → Latest release is broken - Last known working release is http://downloads.openwrt.org/backfire/10.03.1/rb532/
Flash Layout
| Routerboard 532 Flash Layout | ||
|---|---|---|
| Layer0 | Hynix HY27UF081G2M Nand Flash 128MiB | |
| Layer1 | mtd0 kernel | mtd1 rootfs |
| Size in MiB | 4MiB | 124MiB |
| Name | Routerboard NAND boot | rootfs |
| mountpoint | / |
|
| filesystem | YAFFS2 | YAFFS2 |
Installing image via CompactFlash Card
Get the openwrt-rb532-combined-jffs2-128k.bin file. Write this file to an 8MB or larger Compact Flash card using the following command (assumes your Compact Flash is accessible as /dev/sde):
dd if=openwrt-rb532-combined-jffs2-128k.bin of=/dev/sde
Insert the CF into the board. Connect to board via serial terminal of your choice with 38400 8N1. If you use screen the line is:
screen /dev/ttyS0 38400 81N
Apply power to the board. The default boot delay is short, so the first time using a board you will have to be fast to interrupt the boot process by pressing enter. This is what you see then:
RouterBOOT booter 2.9 RouterBoard 532 CPU frequency: 333 MHz Memory size: 32 MB Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup RouterBOOT-2.9 What do you want to configure? d - boot delay k - boot key s - serial console o - boot device u - cpu mode f - try cpu frequency c - keep cpu frequency r - reset configuration e - format nand g - upgrade firmware i - board info p - boot protocol t - do memory testing x - exit setup your choice:
At this point you may want to choose d - boot delay in order to increase the boot delay to ease using the serial console. Next select e - format nand and you should see the following:
Do you realy want to format your nand? that would result in losing all your data type "yes" to confirm:
Respond by typing the word yes The system should respond as follows:
formating nand... done! RouterBOOT-2.9 What do you want to configure? d - boot delay k - boot key s - serial console o - boot device u - cpu mode f - try cpu frequency c - keep cpu frequency r - reset configuration e - format nand g - upgrade firmware i - board info p - boot protocol t - do memory testing x - exit setup your choice:
At this point you should select o - boot device which results in the following:
Select boot device: e - boot over Ethernet n - boot from NAND, if fail then Ethernet c - boot from CompactFlash only 1 - boot Ethernet once, then NAND 2 - boot Ethernet once, then CompactFlash * o - boot from NAND only b - boot chosen device your choice:
You should select c - boot from CompactFlash only which result in the following:
RouterBOOT-2.9 What do you want to configure? d - boot delay k - boot key s - serial console o - boot device u - cpu mode f - try cpu frequency c - keep cpu frequency r - reset configuration e - format nand g - upgrade firmware i - board info p - boot protocol t - do memory testing x - exit setup your choice:
Select x -exit setup which will write the settings to flash and then reboot from the CompactFlash card. Once booting has completed you may continue with configuring OpenWrt.
Upgrading OpenWrt
If you have already installed OpenWrt and like to reflash for e.g. upgrading to a new OpenWrt version you can upgrade using the mtd command line tool. It is important that you put the firmware image into the ramdisk (/tmp) before you start flashing.
LuCI Web Upgrade Process
- Browse to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/mini/system/upgrade/ LuCI Upgrade URL
- Upload image file for sysupgrade to LuCI
- Wait for reboot
Terminal Upgrade Process
- Login as root via SSH on 192.168.1.1
- Use the following commands to upgrade.
cd /tmp/ wget http://http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/XXX/xxx.abc sysupgrade /tmp/xxx.abc
- If sysupgrade does not support this router, use the following commands.
cd /tmp/ wget http://http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/trunk/XXX/xxx.abc mtd write /tmp/xxx.abc linux && reboot
Basic configuration
→ Basic configuration After flashing, proceed with this.
Set up your Internet connection, configure wireless, configure USB port, etc.
Specific Configuration
Interfaces
The default network configuration is:
| Interface Name | Description | Default configuration |
|---|---|---|
| br-lan | LAN & WiFi | 192.168.1.1/24 |
| vlan0 (eth0.0) | LAN ports (1 to 4) | None |
| vlan1 (eth0.1) | WAN port | DHCP |
| wl0 | WiFi | Disabled |
Hardware
Info
| Instruction set | MIPS |
|---|---|
| Vendor | |
| bootloader | RouterBoot |
| System-On-Chip | IDT 79RC32H435 |
| CPU @Frq | MIPS @266MHz |
| Flash size | 128 MiB |
| Flash Chip | Hynix HY27UF081G2M |
| RAM size | 32 MiB |
| RAM Chip | Hynix HY5DU561622ETP-J |
| Serial | Yes |
| JTAG | No |
Serial
→ port.serial general information about the serial port, serial port cable, etc.
How to connect to the Serial Port of this specific device:
Use a 9-pin null modem cable to connect to the DE9 connector between the WAN and LAN Ethernet ports. Configure as 38400 8N1.
Photos
Bootlogs
OEM bootlog
OpenWrt bootlog
[ 0.000000] Linux version 3.10.34 (bastian@bittorf-wireless.com) (gcc version 4.8.3 (Open Wrt/Linaro GCC 4.8-2014.01 r40352) ) #7 Thu Apr 10 05:21:44 EDT 2014 [ 0.000000] CPU revision is: 0001800a (MIPS 4Kc) [ 0.000000] Determined physical RAM map: [ 0.000000] memory: 47fe79fc @ b8018400 (usable) [ 0.000000] memory: 00349000 @ 00101000 (usable) [ 0.000000] memory: 00036000 @ 0044a000 (usable after init) [ 0.000000] User-defined physical RAM map: [ 0.000000] memory: 04000000 @ 00000000 (usable) [ 0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd [ 0.000000] Zone ranges: [ 0.000000] Normal [mem 0x00000000-0x03ffffff] [ 0.000000] Movable zone start for each node [ 0.000000] Early memory node ranges [ 0.000000] node 0: [mem 0x00000000-0x03ffffff] [ 0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 16384 [ 0.000000] free_area_init_node: node 0, pgdat 80430990, node_mem_map 810000 00 [ 0.000000] Normal zone: 128 pages used for memmap [ 0.000000] Normal zone: 0 pages reserved [ 0.000000] Normal zone: 16384 pages, LIFO batch:3 [ 0.000000] Primary instruction cache 8kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 16 bytes. [ 0.000000] Primary data cache 8kB, 4-way, VIPT, no aliases, linesize 16 bytes [ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: s0 r0 d32768 u32768 alloc=1*32768 [ 0.000000] pcpu-alloc: [0] 0 [ 0.000000] Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on. Total pages: 16256 [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 gpio=16381 mem=64M kmac=00:0C:42:0A:F4:B9 board=500r5 boot=0 block2mtd.block2mtd=/dev/sda2,131072 root=/dev/mtdblock0 rootfstype=jffs2 [ 0.000000] korina mac = 00:0C:42:0A:F4:B9 [ 0.000000] PID hash table entries: 256 (order: -2, 1024 bytes) [ 0.000000] Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes) [ 0.000000] Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) [ 0.000000] Memory: 60120k/65536k available (2690k kernel code, 5416k reserved, 669k data, 216k init, 0k highmem) [ 0.000000] NR_IRQS:256 [ 0.000000] Initializing IRQ's: 168 out of 256 [ 0.000000] calculating r4koff... 000c34f8(799992) [ 0.000000] CPU frequency 400.00 MHz [ 0.028000] Calibrating delay loop... 397.82 BogoMIPS (lpj=795648) [ 0.032000] pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301 [ 0.032000] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 [ 0.036000] NET: Registered protocol family 16 [ 0.048000] PCI: Initializing PCI [ 0.080000] bio: create slab <bio-0> at 0 [ 0.084000] SCSI subsystem initialized [ 0.084000] libata version 3.00 loaded. [ 0.088000] PCI host bridge to bus 0000:00 [ 0.088000] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [mem 0x50000000-0x5fffffff] [ 0.088000] pci_bus 0000:00: root bus resource [io 0x18800000-0x188fffff] [ 0.088000] pci_bus 0000:00: No busn resource found for root bus, will use [bus 00-ff] [ 0.116000] pci 0000:00:00.0: [111d:0000] type 00 class 0x000000 [ 0.116000] pci 0000:00:00.0: reg 10: [mem 0x00000000-0x07ffffff pref] [ 0.172000] pci 0000:00:02.0: [1106:3106] type 00 class 0x020000 [ 0.172000] pci 0000:00:02.0: reg 10: [io 0x0000-0x00ff] [ 0.172000] pci 0000:00:02.0: reg 14: [mem 0x00000000-0x000000ff] [ 0.172000] pci 0000:00:02.0: supports D1 D2 [ 0.172000] pci 0000:00:02.0: PME# supported from D1 D2 D3hot D3cold [ 0.200000] pci 0000:00:03.0: [1106:3106] type 00 class 0x020000 [ 0.200000] pci 0000:00:03.0: reg 10: [io 0x0000-0x00ff] [ 0.200000] pci 0000:00:03.0: reg 14: [mem 0x00000000-0x000000ff] [ 0.200000] pci 0000:00:03.0: supports D1 D2 [ 0.200000] pci 0000:00:03.0: PME# supported from D1 D2 D3hot D3cold [ 0.228000] pci 0000:00:04.0: [168c:001b] type 00 class 0x020000 [ 0.228000] pci 0000:00:04.0: reg 10: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff] [ 0.256000] pci 0000:00:05.0: [168c:001b] type 00 class 0x020000 [ 0.256000] pci 0000:00:05.0: reg 10: [mem 0x00000000-0x0000ffff] [ 0.704000] pci_bus 0000:00: busn_res: [bus 00-ff] end is updated to 00 [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:04.0: BAR 0: can't assign mem (size 0x10000) [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:05.0: BAR 0: can't assign mem (size 0x10000) [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:02.0: BAR 0: assigned [io 0x18800000-0x188000ff] [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:02.0: BAR 1: can't assign mem (size 0x100) [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:03.0: BAR 0: assigned [io 0x18800400-0x188004ff] [ 0.704000] pci 0000:00:03.0: BAR 1: can't assign mem (size 0x100) [ 0.704000] Switching to clocksource MIPS [ 0.712000] NET: Registered protocol family 2 [ 0.712000] TCP established hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.712000] TCP bind hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes) [ 0.712000] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 512 bind 512) [ 0.712000] TCP: reno registered [ 0.712000] UDP hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.712000] UDP-Lite hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) [ 0.712000] NET: Registered protocol family 1 [ 0.712000] PCI: CLS 16 bytes, default 16 [ 0.720000] squashfs: version 4.0 (2009/01/31) Phillip Lougher [ 0.720000] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc. [ 0.720000] yaffs: yaffs built Apr 8 2014 15:25:00 Installing. [ 0.720000] msgmni has been set to 117 [ 0.724000] io scheduler noop registered [ 0.724000] io scheduler deadline registered (default) [ 0.724000] Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 2 ports, IRQ sharing disabled [ 0.744000] serial8250: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x0 (irq = 104) is a 16550A [ 1.128000] console [ttyS0] enabled [ 1.152000] serial8250.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x0 (irq = 104) is a 16550A [ 1.168000] scsi0 : pata-rb532-cf [ 1.172000] ata1: PATA max PIO4 irq 149 [ 1.348000] ata1.00: CFA: SanDisk SDCFB-64, Vdg 1.17, max PIO1 [ 1.352000] ata1.00: 125440 sectors, multi 0: LBA [ 1.364000] ata1.00: configured for PIO1 [ 1.368000] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SanDisk SDCFB-64 Vdg PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 1.380000] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 125440 512-byte logical blocks: (64.2 MB/61.2 MiB) [ 1.388000] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off [ 1.392000] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 [ 1.392000] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [ 1.412000] sda: sda1 sda2 [ 1.420000] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk [ 1.428000] Creating 1 MTD partitions on "/dev/sda2": [ 1.432000] 0x000000000000-0x000003020000 : "/dev/sda2" [ 1.440000] block2mtd: mtd0: [/dev/sda2] erase_size = 128KiB [131072] [ 1.448000] NAND device: Manufacturer ID: 0xad, Chip ID: 0xf1 (Hynix NAND 128MiB 3,3V 8-bit), 128MiB, page size: 2048, OOB size: 64 [ 1.460000] Scanning device for bad blocks [ 1.544000] Creating 2 MTD partitions on "gen_nand": [ 1.548000] 0x000000000000-0x000000400000 : "Routerboard NAND boot" [ 1.560000] 0x000000400000-0x000008000000 : "rootfs" [ 1.572000] eth0: korina-0.10 04Mar2008 [ 1.576000] via_rhine: v1.10-LK1.5.1 2010-10-09 Written by Donald Becker [ 1.584000] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:02.0 (0080 -> 0081) [ 1.588000] via-rhine 0000:00:02.0: Insufficient PCI resources, aborting [ 1.596000] via-rhine: probe of 0000:00:02.0 failed with error -5 [ 1.604000] PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:03.0 (0080 -> 0081) [ 1.608000] via-rhine 0000:00:03.0: Insufficient PCI resources, aborting [ 1.616000] via-rhine: probe of 0000:00:03.0 failed with error -5 [ 1.624000] rc32434_wdt: Stopped watchdog timer [ 1.628000] rc32434_wdt: Watchdog Timer version 1.0, timer margin: 20 sec [ 1.640000] TCP: cubic registered [ 1.640000] NET: Registered protocol family 17 [ 1.648000] Bridge firewalling registered [ 1.652000] 8021q: 802.1Q VLAN Support v1.8 [ 10.108000] jffs2: notice: (1) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 0 of xdatum (0 unchecked, 0 orphan) and 0 of xref (0 dead, 0 orphan) found. [ 10.124000] VFS: Mounted root (jffs2 filesystem) readonly on device 31:0. [ 10.132000] Freeing unused kernel memory: 216K (8044a000 - 80480000) [ 10.684000] rc32434_wdt: Started watchdog timer [ 10.692000] rc32434_wdt: timeout value must be between 0 and 21 [ 14.260000] rc32434_wdt: timeout value must be between 0 and 21 [ 15.628000] zram: Created 1 device(s) ... [ 16.772000] Adding 29692k swap on /dev/zram0. Priority:0 extents:1 across:29692k SS [ 33.520000] NET: Registered protocol family 10 [ 33.532000] tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6 [ 33.536000] tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com> [ 33.556000] nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (942 buckets, 3768 max) [ 33.572000] ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team [ 33.644000] ath_hal: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel. [ 33.652000] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint [ 33.668000] ath_hal: 2009-05-08 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, AR5416, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413, RF2133, RF2425, REGOPS_FUNC, XR) [ 33.748000] ath_pci: trunk [ 33.752000] wlan: trunk [ 33.756000] wlan: mac acl policy registered [ 33.760000] ath_rate_minstrel: Minstrel automatic rate control algorithm 1.2 (trunk) [ 33.768000] ath_rate_minstrel: look around rate set to 10% [ 33.776000] ath_rate_minstrel: EWMA rolloff level set to 75% [ 33.780000] ath_rate_minstrel: max segment size in the mrr set to 6000 us [ 33.788000] ath_pci: cannot reserve PCI memory region [ 33.796000] ath_pci: cannot reserve PCI memory region [ 33.820000] input: rb532 button as /devices/platform/rb532-button/input/input0 [ 33.856000] u32 classifier [ 33.856000] input device check on [ 33.860000] Actions configured [ 33.868000] Mirror/redirect action on [ 33.880000] Failed to load ipt action [ 33.940000] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team [ 34.132000] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000 [ 34.164000] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2 [ 34.176000] NET: Registered protocol family 24