# I've Installed libreCMC

libreCMC is a fully free as in freedom distro for routers. Think o
f Trisquel or Hyperbola, but for routers. Similar to OpenWRT, but
OpenWRT contains some proprietary blobs.

http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html#small-distros

I bought Netgear WNDR3700v4 to use libreCMC. It is an unofficially
supported hardware.

https://librecmc.org/fossil/librecmc/wiki?name=Supported_Hardware

Why I chose Netgear is that you don't have to use TFTP, SSH, &c. t
o flash firmware. Just drop the firmware file on the firmware upgr
ade page that the router officially provides. If you use a TP-link
router instead, you have to use TFTP. And WNDR3700v4 is basically
the most powerful hardware without a need to replace a non-free wi
fi card.



## Some advices

The default Netgear IP was 192.168.1.1, but libreCMC uses 192.168.
10.1. I wasted some time because of this. Don't be like me.

libreCMC comes with LuCI web interface. It is REALLY fully free as
in freedom, so you can see and modify everything about the router.
You can even remove the kernel and brick the router.

libreCMC uses opkg for the package manager. Note that when you rem
ove a package, thoroughly check the dependencies. I bricked my rou
ter several times because of this. All I wanted was just debloatin
g but somehow it removed some kernel modules :(.

If you are going to upgrade the firmware, don't keep the settings.
Instead, just backup the settings and flash without keeping it and
restore the settings. Sometimes (usually when you do some experime
nts with libreCMC), keeping the setting bricks the router because
of the incompatibility.


### Unbricking

If you bricked your device, the first thing you have to do is rebo
oting and pushing the reset button. If you succeed, the firmware w
ill flash the original factory image.

However, if you were like me and did some idiocy to experiment the
system, the factory image might have been gone. But don't worry, i
f it was not an actually serious situation, it will go into the fa
ilsafe recovery mode if you push the reset button. You can see tha
t from the blinking power LED. Then there are some unbrick tools f
or you. For Netgear devices, it was nmrpflash:

https://github.com/jclehner/nmrpflash

I don't know about other routers, but I guess they have their vers
ions of unbrick tool too. Then just flash the factory image.

If you can't go into the failsafe mode, then try to connect to the
bootloader. If you suceed, you can install the factory image via b
ootloader. The process would be similar to OpenWRT unbricking. For
tunately, I haven't entered this level.

If you broke the bootloader (seriously WTF did you do?), congratua
tions. You have hardbricked the router. At this level, all you can
do is hardware flashing just like Coreboot. I don't know, it seems
that there are some options like JTAG port, desoldering the flash
chip, UART serial boot, &c. But I don't have any of these knowledg
es so I can't say anything. Good luck.