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Reimer
join:2006-08-14
Toronto, ON

Reimer to Davesnothere

Member

to Davesnothere

Re: Router ALT Firmware for QoS for VoIP

Shibbys Tomato mod does indeed have a build for the WRT54GL. It's also got the Toastman QoS additions incorporated as well so it's a good choice.

Go for the tomato-ND-1.28.5x-093-SD-VPN build

»tomato.groov.pl/download ··· -093-EN/

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

2 edits

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by Reimer:

Shibbys Tomato mod does indeed have a build for the WRT54GL....

 
Thanks.

So it looks like several folks think that Shibby is 'not too shabby'.

How did you know to suggest that particular file ? (Shibby's site is not clear about that)

And are you happy with how it works in YOUR WRT54GL router ?

Now, for the Caramilk secret - HOW do I get it IN there ?

Do I use my WRT54GL router's factory firmware upgrade page and point it to the downloaded image file, or use Shibby's TFTP app ?

Also, I notice that Shibby's matrix chart says that ver K26 supports my router - should I bother with that version ?
Davesnothere

4 edits

Davesnothere to Reimer

Premium Member

to Reimer
said by Reimer:

Shibby's Tomato mod does indeed have a build for the WRT54GL.

It's also got the Toastman QoS additions incorporated as well so it's a good choice.

Go for the tomato-ND-1.28.5x-093-SD-VPN build

»tomato.groov.pl/download ··· -093-EN/

 
OK, so after fiddling a bit with DD-WRT Mini & VoIP editions, I decided to go for the above-suggested Tomato build.

However when I browse the DD-WRT updater dialog to my downloaded file, it rejects it as invalid.

I tested and the MD5 is OK on the file.

I noticed that it has a .TRX extension, where the DD-WRT (and other Tomato builds I have downloaded in the past, but not used) were .BIN files, or included at least one of each of those 2 extensions of file, plus some docs, usually all inside of a .ZIP archive.

This leads to 3 Questions :

(1) WTF is a .TRX file ?

(2) Where do I get a .BIN of the same build as suggested above, so that DD-WRT's updater accepts the file ?

(3) Will a stable Tomato MLPPP build (say from 2 or 3 years ago) be a good choice instead (as I have archived several in .BIN format, some even named for my WRT54GL router), and will any of those have good enough QoS or VoIP managing pages ?

I have a feeling that Guspaz will know something for (3).

Thanks

FiReSTaRT
Premium Member
join:2010-02-26
Canada

FiReSTaRT

Premium Member

Why not install a stable Tomato build and then upgrade with the TRX file from the Tomato web interface? AFIK (someone should confirm this). I think I upgraded that way from TomatoUSB to a fresher Toastman build. Toastman's QoS setup is superior to vanilla Tomato and if shibby includes it, you're set.

»tomatousb.org/settings:upgrade
quote:
Upgrade Firmware

This option lets you upgrade or change your routers firmware. To upgrade your firmware, download the latest version of tomato for your specific device, or download another 3rd party firmware you would like to upgrade to. Then click Browse, and navigate to where you downloaded the firmware file (should be a .bin or .trx; if its .zip or .rar, extract the archive first) and select it.

Select "After flashing, erase all data in NVRAM memory" if you would like to reset all of your settings after flashing. This is recommended to prevent any configuration issues or conflicts, but it will erase all your settings and thus you will have to reconfigure the router from scratch. When upgrading between TomatoUSB versions, you can check the changelog because it always mentions to clear NVRAM when it is really required. If you are upgrading from different kernel versions (K24 to K26 or viceversa), the clear is required.

Then click upgrade, and do not touch the router! Let it upgrade and wait for it to complete.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

4 edits

Davesnothere

Premium Member

said by FiReSTaRT:

Why not install a stable Tomato build and then upgrade with the TRX file from the Tomato web interface? AFIK (someone should confirm this).

I think I upgraded that way from TomatoUSB to a fresher Toastman build.

Toastman's QoS setup is superior to vanilla Tomato and if shibby includes it, you're set....

 
Thanks.

So are you saying that Tomato supports GUI upgrades using files named as .TRX ?

It now looks like (from your post and other research I have done tonight) a .TRX file is just a .BIN file with a renamed extension, to make it proprietary to Tomato's GUI upgrade page.

So can't I just rename the .TRX to .BIN and proceed from where I am now (DD-WRT) rather than starting over ? - The Polarcloud site's Tomato FAQ suggests so.

(I do have the factory firmware files archived if I need to revert first.)

As I understand it, the reason that we keep getting told to go to 'DD-WRT Mini' as an intermediate step to a larger Tomato flavour seems to be that the Linksys WRT54 series factory firmware will not handle firmware images larger than 3MB, whereas DD-WRT WILL do so, and DD-WRT Mini itself is less than 3MB, so satisfies the factory firmware limit.

If there was/is a 'MINI' version of Tomato, could we use it instead of DD-WRT Mini as the intermediate step ?

As mentioned earlier, the Shibby build is too large for the factory GUI to load directly, but it looks like the 2010 'TomatoUSB ND stable standard build #54' (the flavour with the USB code stripped out to match WRT54 etc series routers) is a smaller image than the DD-WRT-Mini, so ought to fit.

So please, would somebody who has renamed a Tomato .TRX image file (such as the USB series) to .BIN and successfully flashed it thru the Linksys WRT54GL factory GUI be kind enough to post here and say so ?

FiReSTaRT
Premium Member
join:2010-02-26
Canada

FiReSTaRT

Premium Member

Yes, Tomato GUI will support web interface upgrades. I'm almost positive that the one flash I've done from DD-WRT involved just renaming the TRX to BIN, but can't guarantee it. In this thread »Re: How to install Tomato firmware after DD-WRT ? the poster says:
quote:
Inside, you'll find a file called code.trx. Rename this file to code.bin, so DD-WRT will recognize it as a firmware file. Don't worry, the router knows what to do with the code no matter what the extension is.
Can't guarantee it 100% but I'm almost positive he's correct. This tutorial also just instructs the user to rename »klseet.com/index.php?opt ··· temid=31 the trx to bin

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

2 edits

Davesnothere

Premium Member

Shibby is Now in the Router

said by FiReSTaRT:

Yes, Tomato GUI will support web interface upgrades. I'm almost positive....

 
OK, I read those links and a couple more other sites, and then took the chance of renaming the extension as we discussed.

And it worked !

I was also a bit concerned that one of your linked sites and also Polarcloud's FAQ said that I needed to issue a command from within DD-WRT (before upgrading to Tomato) in order to capture a different and cryptic hash based on my existing password, to later give to Tomato in order to log in for the 1st time.

When I gave the command, it did not give me back a hash code, but the worst case if I could not log back in would have been to need to push the reset button to get a default login, which I did not need to do, as Tomato came up by itself, was already online, allowed me to adjust a few things, and then I found where to clear the NVRAM, did so, and next configured again, plus further settings.

All I need to do now is to figure out how to get Shibby's build's QoS to do what I want, which is to give my VoIP full priority or enough reserved bandwidth, and all other apps less.

At this point, any hints about setting the QoS would be both welcome and appreciated.