coldtobi's blog

• Main
• Archives
• Albums
• Links
• Admin

• Blog and Website [94]
• DSL RAM [2]
• Electronics and Atmel AVR [11]
• fanctrl [3]
• General [8]
• German [1]
• La Fonera [22]
• Lifetype [17]
• Linux / Debian [33]
• Monetizing A Blog [8]
• my 2 cents [15]
• Netzfunde [18]
• Nice Links [1]
• solarpowerlog [2]
• Thecus N2100 [16]
• Tips and Tricks [18]

• N2M: parallel build dpkg-buildpackage and pdebuild
• Windows CE: Assertion failed in wincore.cpp line 1034
• CakePHP: Baking a Application in Minutes
• Enabling InnoDB support in debian (MySQL)
• Flattr.
• Pollin Net-IO PHP Library
• Link to safe

• RSS 0.90
• RSS 1.0
• RSS 2.0
• Atom

• Privacy Policy
• Disclosure Policy

Reseting the La Fonera.

Sometimes its really handy to factory reset the La Fonera. It is for examining the firmware version installed or if it choked on some modifications, of simply too protect your data if you planning to give it away.

I'm sure you have also a good reason for reseting the La Fonea.

Here's my method. The difference to other solutions in the web is, that this one is the only one worked for me, and that several people told me, that this is the only reliable way-of-doing they know. Of course you do not have to open the case for opening it, which will helping in avoiding voiding warranties. )

WARNING: DO IT ON YOUR OWN RISK. IF THIS BRICKS YOUR ROUTER, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE.

If you are looking for German instructions, click here. (Deutsche Anleitung)

The Method: (The items in blue are not really needed for the success, they might just be helpful to check the result)

1. Turn off your Internet connection!
2. CHECK if your Internet if offline! A pitty, if La Fonera enters Internet through a "Internet share" (or as I would call it: IP-Forwarding)
3. Configure your Networkcard to the IP-address  169.254.255.2 Mask:255.255.0.0 (Linux: ifconfig eth0 169.254.255.2/24 up)
   
4. Connect the la fonera to your network. Just use the network cable that came with the la fonera.
5. Power it on. Wait till it is bootet. Then wait some minutes more. (Get yourself a beer, a coffee, etc.. Finish it.)
6. Press the reset button for 15-20 seconds (Pressing longer, e.g 1 minute, did NO reset my box. So use a clock or just count "21-22-23...35", then release the button)
7. Try ping 169.254.255.1. My box started to respond after about 150 seconds, so be patient. Pinging it will show you, when it is ready.
8. If not pinging, wait approx. 3-5 minutes to let it boot.
   
9. NOTE: DO NOT CONNECT IT TO THE INTERNET! IF YOU WANT TO OPEN YOUR BOX,  THIS WILL JEOPADIZE IT.
10. Point your browser to "http://169.254.255.1" . When the box is ready, it will show you its status page. For example, the exact version of the flashed OS. Note, that the private SSID will reset to the default. This is another hint to tell, if the reset was sucessful.
11. If desired, open your box to enable ssh. Do not forget to disble updates. 

To underline the need for "no-internet-connection:" The patch to 0.7.1 r2 is only 20 kByte big. So on broadband download time is less than 1/2 second (on "low-speed" 400kBit/s Broadband)

2007-02-04  Added note about Internet-Connection

Answering Comments:

Till I install the plugin to edit comments, here are some answers:

- Neu: German Instructions / Deutsche Anleitung

 - Can this revert "FLASHED" versions?  If the version is really flashed into the Fonera, (from factory, or e.g by the web interface, not though the automatic update system), this will not reset the firmware. The hotfixes by the automatic update system are stored in the Fonera in a seperate filesystem, which will be erased using the reset method. However if you search, you'll find images of the old firmware. (Write me a note, if your really are in need of this, and I'll write an article about "downgrading".)