AdvancedTomato on the Linksys EA6700
Installing the AdvancedTomato firmware onto the Cisco Linksys EA6700
Cisco Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750 HD Video Pro
More info on this router.
Scroll down, if you’re just after the instructions, and skip the background info.
Disclaimer: When doing things on the firmware level there is always a possibility that something might go wrong and your router becomes bricked.
So I got this new router a few days ago, never installed the Tomato firmware before, always been a DD-WRT guy, but figured since this router had support of both I’d try it (that and DD-WRTs interface is getting a bit dated), spent an hour or so learning about Tomato, figured out the original build has long since died, but there are several forks (like clones) being actively developed these days.
Tomato by Shibby seemed to be the main one with the most active support for a range of routers, but for a beginner in the Tomato world it was all a little too confusing, so kept on my search and stumbled upon the amazing AdvancedTomato, these guys have a great website and even more importantly a beautiful UI in front of Tomato!
It’s obvious the guy behind it knows his graphics/UX (User Experience), and how important it is, so often in the world of Linux, firmwares, low level technical stuff you find terrible UX /UI (User Interface), which makes it hard for non-technical users, or people learning how these things work.
A big thank you to Jaka Prasnikar (the guy behind AdvancedTomato [I think]), Jonathan Zarate (the guy behind the original Tomato firmware) and everyone else involved.
Also a big thank you to qinyq, as if it wasn’t for his commit comments I would probably still be stuck.
https://bitbucket.org/pl_shibby/tomato-arm/commits/1714e39d2b8f8654697375bdf1f579623cc033ac
30/30/30 reset
According to jago75, the 30/30/30 reset has no affect on ARM based routers (which the EA6700 is)
that’s an arm router so 30/30/30 means nothing.. it just doesn’t work at all.. have a look at depswa’s post. let us know if it will eat ddwrt -)
Why the double firmware install?
The steps for installing the Tomato firmware onto the EA6700 router are a little different than that of normal routers. It has 2 locations where it stores firmware, and if you try to install AdvancedTomato as per normal, it will just reboot back to the stock Linksys firmware.
This is why we first “upgrade” to the stock firmware (into the first location), then again with AdvancedTomato, into the second location, which is what it runs from by default. (at least this is my understanding)
The long guide (for beginners)
- Download the AdvancedTomato firmware from their very nice download page: https://advancedtomato.com/downloads/router/ea6700
- Once you have the tomato-EA6700-AT-ARM-2.9-131-AIO-64K.trx file (exact name may differ) rename the extension from .trx to .img, as this is what the Linksys uses (however I don’t think this step is needed)
- Download the stock firmware from Linksys (or google “EA6700 firmware”, as the link may die) http://www.linksys.com/ph/support-article?articleNum=148526
- Wipe the devices settings (it’s in one of the router menus), or hold the reset pin for 30 seconds, then release and you should see all the NIC lights, lightup.
- Once the device is back up, login (admin/password) and upload the stock Linksys firmware.
- Once the device finishes its “upgrade”, log back in and upload the new AdvancedTomato firmware that was downloaded earlier and renamed to .img.
- Wait about 5 mins, then goto http://192.168.1.1/ if nothing loads, then take the power out and plug it back in (reboot it), when it comes back you will be on AdvancedTomato!
- The default username/password is admin/admin.
Feel free to leave any feedback in the comments.
The quick guide (for advanced users)
- From official Linksys firmware, wipe the devices settings
- After reboot, upgrade to the official firmware.
- Upgrade to AdvancedTomato firmware.
- “Erase all data in NVRAM memory (thorough)” in Administration > Configuration.
Some acronyms (as I understand them):
AIO = All In One (has everything)
VPN = A cut down version of the firmware with specific VPN support. (but not 100% on this)
OFW = Official Firmware, e.g. what originally come with the device
CFW = Custom Firmware, e.g. what we’re putting on the router (Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWrt etc).
NIC = Network Interface Controller (the things where you plug the network cables into)
Disclaimer
I am by no means an expert in flashing firmwares, only done it a few times, first a netgear router (DD-WRT), then a Linksys (DD-WRT), and now this Linksys router (AdvancedTomato), just thought I’d share this as I couldn’t find anything online on this specific router and Tomato based firmware, and didn’t have much success with my initial attempts.