How To Unbrick and Restore A Linksys WRT 1200 1900 and 3200 Using Serial and FTP

This tutorial should guide you through restoring your Linksys WRT router that no longer boots.

What you need:
(Firmware for the router, you can use any firmware you would like. Links to the stock Linksys firmware are below. Make sure you have the correct firmware for your router.)

This guide is to help anyone who has a router that is no longer functioning. I am not responsible for any damage that you may cause to you router.

[vbrtrmn]

Six years later, I used this to unbrick a WRT32X. Thanks!!

[thextremeking]

I usually don't like video instructions (can be done a lot quicker in plaint text imho), but you did save the day for me!!! Thanks for that :) A few remarks for anyone coming from the wrt32x: After connecting the serial TX of the modem and then powering the modem, it will not boot at all. After unplugging the tx it will start booting, and then enter bricked state unless you send the asci code: ctrl+c (alt 3) within 1 sec of booting (you can spam the "ctrl+c"). Then you can reconnect the tx and talk with the modem over serial and do the instructions of the video.

[SimonFoakes]

If recovering the WRT 1900AC V1, the firmware name command is - setenv firmware_name firmware_filename.img
Otherwise, great stuff, easiest tutorial I found. Thanks.

[martyb]

I just used this to unbrick my WRT3200acm due to upgrading with a bad openwrt load. This procedure worked perfectly. Thanks very much!

[scrubyvillegas]

Heros don't wear capes. This guy is one of them.

[JD]

Wow! I was going to throw this sucker away, my WRT1900AC v1 is now alive, thank you and Simon Foakes for the help

[marcm.]

many years later.... it was very helpful. I have done this in the past but it was so long ago that I forgot half of it. thanks for the video

[RRyan-ltjw]

Thanks for the tips. I called my area IT persons and businesses and all but one were scared to attempt this even after emailing them your video link instructions. None of them even had cables, so I offered to buy and give them a cable and still pay them. Everyone made excuses asking for money despite their zero promises for I amazon ordered cables from your links. Hopefully I will be up and running soon. Thanks again.

[gpurdue]

This was a great video that allowed me to restore my 3200ACM. I had issues running the "run update_both_images" but that was solved by running "env default -a" before running any of the commands. The firmware installed successfully, but gave me an error about nandboot and altnandboot not defined. This was resolved by running the following 3 commands separately in marvell "env default -a" "saveenv" "reset". Maybe had I ran the 3 commands first then I would not have needed to flash it.

[RonSRQ]

Excellent step by step tutorial, particularly for a non-techie like me. Only problem I had was that TTL ground cable was not making good contact with pin, so I wedged a toothpick, in or to provide consistent connectivity. Followed instructional video to a tee and unbrick was a success. Thanks for a great video.

[examen]

Thank you so much, after several years of flashing openwrt on router, i got my first one that needed serial + tftp, and while the folks over at the forum where helpfull, they did not include detailed steps, so your video combined with what i already had from the forums allowed me to have an asus ax4200 that now runs the latest openwrt.
Thank you, you made my day !

[Morrile]

Thank you very much for explaining this in detail. Whilst I have not physically bricked my router I want to restore Linksys factory firmware to both partitions as I have been playing with OpenWRT, that was working well until I screwed it up on one partition. The second partition was accessible yet runs like a donkey, so time to regress back to square one.

[justinnoor]

Thanks so much for this. I’m currently debricking a 3200. I’ll let you know how it goes!

[aeon]

I’m sincerely thankful, you saved my ass i just unbricked a wrt3200acm with this method,
one difference is with my router to get any console output, immediately after the power cycle i have to lift the rx pin and put it back in again, i get no power led and no boot otherwise, also i should mention that PuTTY does not allow terminal input unless you change the default flow control from XON/XOFF to None in the serial options.

[digitaladdiction]

Hello, Thank you for the tutorial. I recently purchased a WRT32X. The tutorial got me all the way through seeing readable text output on the console (Putty). But then I rebooted and now all I can see is "Garbage or Gibberish" characters. I was at it for hours. I checked everything and everything I could find Google searching. Man, these routers are a nightmare.

[edarcturus]

Thank you for making published procedures easy to understand

[morningreis]

This is the best guide for a serial flash that I have seen

[mikenyc]

2 notes that people might need if they have might have to be named "rango" and serial cable drivers might have to be searched for and installed...thx for the clear instructions

[blackmanbs]

Worked great on a WRT 1200AC, V2. Thanks. Make sure you push the "any button" when it pops up, don't wait for the load to finish. Also had to hold one of the ttl connecters since it was a little loose or the terminal would not recognize keyboard input. I used the latest version of the Linksys firmware (Ver. 2.0.6.191786
Latest Date: 12/10/2018) and just followed the instructions. I owe you a beer.

[double_tap_xx]

You are the freakin man! I was racking my head not being able to remove Openwrt, not that it’s bad it just doesn’t fully support this router just yet. So again thanks for this awesome tutorial. To all who try this please listen to his vid step by step and update your driver for your serial cable first.