bkil vs. programming

A friend called for help when one of his computers failed a distribution upgrade. The upgrade was started from 12.04 LTS via the GUI. I'm not sure which version he had previously, but the standard update procedure stopped midway. The upgrade could not be resumed, so manual intervention was needed. I'm not sure whether the issue was caused by a bit error in memory, an out of space issue or by something else. Unfortunately, I don't have the error messages at hand. The solution boiled down to doing the following tedious steps: apt-get update apt-get dist-upgrade do-release-upgrade dpkg --configure -a apt-get -f install mcedit /var/lib/dpkg/status # delete section which is complained about mktexlsr # note down errors updmap-sys --synthwithtrees # note down errors mcedit /etc/texmf/... # remove invalid map file lines updmap-sys apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

I've found out that even this particular entry level router supports anti-bricking, so there's no need for soldering, unless of course you are modding. The method I used is the following: Set up a tftp server  on your PC and verify if it works correctly (configuration, permissions, firewalls, etc.) Rename your target firmware to wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin and copy it to your base folder (by default /tftpboot). I tested with openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr740n-v4-squashfs-factory.bin r43602. Set up the following static IP for your PC: 192.168.0.66 /255.255.255.0. If you're not sure about the firmware name on a different model, start a packet sniffer on your PC ( tcpdump -i eth0 -n -l ) and look for the name in the RRQ message. Preferably disconnect WAN from the router Connect the PC to a LAN port Power off the router Press and hold the reset button Power on the router After the leftmost (power) LED and the rightmost (padlock) LED turn on alone in a few seconds, release...