How to flash RT-N66U with Shibby's TomatoUSB firmware 3/25/14, 1:41 PM

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" joshenders / rt-n66u_tomatousb_flash.md

Last active a year ago

How to flash RT-N66U with Shibby's TomatoUSB firmware

" rt-n66u_tomatousb_flash.md Markdown

Original: http://www.shadowandy.net/2012/03/asus-rt-n66u-tomatousb-firmware-flashing-guide.htm
(http://www.shadowandy.net/2012/03/asus-rt-n66u-tomatousb-firmware-flashing-guide.htm)

Download Asus RT-N66U Flash utility

http://support.asus.com/ServiceHome.aspx?SLanguage=en (http://support.asus.com/ServiceHome.aspx?SLanguage=en)

Download Shibby RT-N66U firmware

http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-N/ (http://tomato.groov.pl/download/K26RT-N/)

!K26RT'N! is appropriate for the RT-N66U. Go ahead and pick the latest release by date. Inside that directory you want the to pick the
!Asus!RT'N66u!64k! . The !64k! in the name means that 64k of flash memory will be used as NVRAM. Inside that directory the !.trx! file
with !AIO! in the name has all possible features compiled in and enabled. If this is your first time installing, AIO is a good jumping off
point.

Preparing for firmware restoration to TomatoUSB

(Shibby)
The steps are simple, you will need to:

1. Connect the ASUS RT-N66U to your network

2. Start the firmware restoration process (using firmware restoration utility in the ASUS Utility package) so that it is searching for
router
3. Put the ASUS RT-N66U into firmware restoration mode and start the firmware restoration process

Before you proceed, pull out the power cable to your RT-N66U and have a pen ready to press the reset button (between the USB
ports and WAN port)

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How to flash RT-N66U with Shibby's TomatoUSB firmware 3/25/14, 1:41 PM

Flash the TomatoUSB firmware onto the RT-

N66U.
1. Launch the firmware restoration utility (this is one of the tools in the Utility you installed earlier)
2. In the firmware restoration utility, browse for the TomatoUSB firmware you have downloaded earlier
3. Start the firmware flashing and a prompt should appear stating that it is an incompatible firmware. Proceed to the next step.

Putting the RT-N66U into emergency firmware

restore mode
1. Press and hold on to the reset button
2. While holding down the reset button, plug in the power cable so that the RT-N66U turns on. Note: Keep holding the reset button
until the power led starts to flash (on and off). When power led starts flashing, release the reset button and proceed.
3. On the firmware restoration utility, agree to the prompt saying that it is a incompatible firmware. The utility should be scanning for
device. Proceed to the next step
4. Wait until the flashing is complete
5. The router will automatically power cycle when it is complete

Finally, clearing the NVRAM before you use

TomatoUSB
It is always a good practice to clear out the previous settings (in NVRAM) whenever you flash to different firmwares. This is true for PC
BIOSs as well. In this case, it is required to flush out the NVRAM from values that may have been previously stored by the stock
firmware that are no longer valid for TomatoUSB.

You can either flush the NVRAM either through key presses or through web admin.

Clearing NVRAM via key presses

1. Power off the RT-N66U
2. Press and hold down the WPS button
3. While holding the WPS button, plug in the power cable to turn RT-N66U on
4. Keep holding the WPS button for 30 seconds before releasing The router should reboot
5. Congratulations. The NVRAM has been cleared.

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Clearing NVRAM via web admin

The TomatoUSB administration web should be at http://192.168.1.1 (http://192.168.1.1). If it is not, do a ipconfig or ifconfig and
navigate to the gateway address with your web browser. If you are not able to get an IP address from DHCP, you might want to set
your computers IP address to !192.168.1.2/24! .

When prompted for a login, the default is:

User: root
Pass: admin

Once you are in, follow the next step to clear out the previous settings

1. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration

2. Under Restore Default Configuration, select Erase all data in NVRAM memory (thorough)
3. Click OK
4. Wait for the router to be ready

# nickelfault (/nickelfault) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-844882) 10 months ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-844882)

Awesome, I plan on picking up this router tomorrow. Thank you for the clear and concise instructions!

# graysky2 (/graysky2) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-857005) 9 months ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-857005)

Nice guide, thanks for taking the time to post it. Is there any tested alternative to using a Windows/only util like the Asus Firmware restoration you
show?

# stephech (/stephech) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-968492) 3 months ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-968492)

Any reason I shouldn't be able to go back to the original FW?

# larcher (/larcher) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-975966) 3 months ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-975966)

A couple hints that might save someone else some trouble, since this post is currently near the top when googling "rt-n66u shibby tomato":

the firmware restoration tool, for whatever reason, did not work in Windows 8 -- always got the "router is not in rescue mode" error (maybe a
firewall thing? but I did attempt to tweak the firewall settings .. ). But it worked fine on the first try from a Windows 7 box.
don't change your PC's IP address (from DHCP to static) while it's uploading the firmware because you didn't notice the upload was working this
time. But if you do, and the router gets stuck in a rescue mode/power cycle loop, try holding down the reset button while plugging it in (again) to
get it out of this loop.

I'd also be interested in a non-Windows method for flashing. One possibility (though I didn't try it myself): other guides mention using tftp to upload the
firmware image.

# sfarestam (/sfarestam) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-981498) 3 months ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-981498)

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How to flash RT-N66U with Shibby's TomatoUSB firmware 3/25/14, 1:41 PM

@larcher - As soon as the router enters recovery mode it offers a minimal recovery mode web ui which allows for uploading any firmware (tomato
shibby works fine). This means that the ASUS firmware recovery tool is not required. However, this website is only active for 10-15 seconds, so one
needs to be very fast in selecting the appropriate firmware file and press upload.

It should be easy to reverse engineer the recovery web ui and create a one line curl script that uploads the firmware. This in combination with a script
that checks when the emergency website becomes active could make the whole firmware upload process very smooth.

# bmtphoenix (/bmtphoenix) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-1181705) a month ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-1181705)

This guide worked for me, with the exception of having to wait nearly half an hour for the router to come back up. It would go through the update, then
sit there with no power light for at least 20-30 mins, then come up and was fine. So if the power light goes off, and the firmware recovery tool says
"System recovery in progress..." for a while, then says "Failed to connect to wireless router. Check if the router's power LED is blinking, which denotes
that the router is in rescue mode," don't fret. Just let it sit there with the power light off for about half an hour, and if yours is like mine was, it will come
up just fine. Once the power light is on, you're good to reset the NVRAM then set up. Also, mine did not throw the error saying that the firmware was
incompatible. Not sure why, but everything worked out fine.

# royhaddad (/royhaddad) commented (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-1185553) 19 days ago (/joshenders/3941269/#comment-1185553)

I had exactly the same experience as bmtphoenix just now, except that I kept trying to flash because I thought it hadn't worked, but really I just had to
wait long enough for it to come back on.

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