I tried to flash the TP-Link TL-WDR4300 router with a custom OpenWRT image recently, and after doing so I was unable to connect to the device like I expected.
Here is how you can recover / un-brick the device.
Install tftpd
I’m using an Ubuntu machine. There are instructions for installing tftpd and xinetd, but these don’t seem to work with Ubuntu 14.04. If you’re using Windows, then I recommend this video.
I found instructions on a Spiceworks.com forum that worked for me.
Install tftpd-hpa and tftp client
sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa tftp
Edit the TFTPd Configuration File
Edit /etc/default/tftpd-hpa to use the following configuration
sudo vi /etc/default/tftpd-hpa
TFTP_USERNAME="tftp"
TFTP_DIRECTORY="/tftpboot"
TFTP_ADDRESS="0.0.0.0:69"
TFTP_OPTIONS="-s -c -l -vv"
The -vv will cause the TFTP server to log out to /var/log/syslog
Create the TFTP Directory
The server will serve files from the /tftpboot directory. You need to create
it and give it the proper permissions.
sudo mkdir /tftpboot
sudo chmod -R 777 /tftpboot
sudo chown -R nobody /tftpboot
Restart the service
sudo service tftpd-hpa restart
Test the TFTP Daemon
Create a file in the directory
echo "this is a test" > /tftpboot/test.txt
Download the file via tftp to your home directory. If it downloads fine, your tftp server is running.
$ cd ~
$ tftp localhost
tftp> get test.txt
Received 16 bytes in 0.1 seconds
tftp> quit
$ cat test.txt
this is a test
Download the Latest Firmware
Download the firmware from the tp-link official support page to the /tmp
directory and unzip the file.
cd /tmp
wget http://www.tp-link.us/res/down/soft/TL-WDR4300_V1_151104_US.zip
unzip TL-WDR4300_V1_151104_US.zip
Copy the binary image file to /tftpboot named as ``.
cp wdr4300v1_en_us_3_14_3_up_boot\(151104\).bin /tftpboot/wdr4300v1_tp_recovery.bin
Configure your Machine
Change your machines IP address to 192.168.0.66. The router will try to
connect to this address and download the image from it in a future step. This
requires a subnet setting of 255.255.255.0, with a gateway of 0.0.0.0.
Enable TFTP Recovery Mode
Taken from OpenWRT - TP-Link TL-WDR4300 - Flashing via TFTP:
Power up the TL-WDR4300 and as soon as the asterisk/star symbol to the right of the power/IO image starts to flash, hold down the WPS/Reset button that is on the back of the device for about 10 seconds. The asterisk symbol should begin to flash much faster than before. Let the device continue to fit and do this until it reboots.
Wait for the firmware transfer (about 20s), firmware flash (about 90s) and subsequent reboot (about 30s).
You can tail the syslog to see if the router is actually interfacing with the TFTPd server.
tail -F /var/log/syslog