Beiträge von ngevan2k

Here's a picture of my brand new 500GB SSD and the adapters:

It sits very firmly.

I've found the routine which is responsible for calculating the memory size. It's only a single address that gets read. I will use a simple compare which will display the correct amount. When it can't count it fully, it'll display 8192MB instead of 0. Writing the code is easy, but I don't know yet how to insert my own code into the BIOS.

I've found all kinds of different mPCIe cards. There's a card which can be used to decode all video formats in 1080p. It's only 15 Euros and would make a great video player out of this little router. I've also found an expander which supports connecting up to 4 mPCIe cards. I hope the sample I'm trying to get is not too expensive.

For the non-believers, I just made a pic:

As you can see, only one module is inserted and the BIOS shows 4096MB. When you insert both, it shows 0MB. I'll look for a way to display the correct amount. It's just a cosmetical thing anyway. So far it's been working very well. I have to wait another 2 weeks so I can get a bigger SSD because at the moment I only have the 2GB SSD that came with it.

I'm understanding the BIOS better and better. I think I found the whitelist, but the format doesn't make much sense yet. It uses the vendor ID and a 16 byte long hex string. Now I need to figure out what the hex string does. Already found the subroutine which is xref'd to the whitelist. I hope I can disable the check completely.

Update:
Nyarharhar, the 7260 AC+Bluetooth card works

There's 0 byte left on the SSD so I can't even install a driver

I also activated SLIC 2.1 by going into factory mode. Let's see what else can be done.

The 8GB RAM arrived today and both modules work without a problem. I paid less than 20 Euros for this brand new RAM, so I don't even need to consider getting "only" 4GB. You can never have too much RAM on a server
The limitation is only because of the chipset, you don't need to hack anything. If the memory controller supports this much RAM, it'll work without a problem. Usually only Intel chipsets don't support this much RAM.

Hacking the BIOS is rather easy. I just needed to get some stuff before I could proceed. I got a 4315 and also an Intel 6200 which works without modifying anything. Usually, the vendor & device ID get checked by the BIOS so you just need to enter the ID's of the card you want to use or disable this check completely (which is harder). In this case, they took another path and it looks like they just check the device class. I'll see what can be done and share this modified BIOS when it's ready. The goal is to disable this check completely so ANY card can be used.

In around 3 weeks I'll get a bigger SSD than initally planned, then I can install 2 OS's and will also have plenty of storage left for the NAS part. I won't do much until then.

EDIT:
Last weekend I found a mPCIe expander. It gives you 3 slots instead of just one. That's why I won't use 2,5" drives; I need the space for this. There's really no need to put more than one mSATA SSD inside, a 256GB one is cheap. If I ever need more, there's always the possibility of using nano USB sticks on the 4 USB slots on the back. With the expander, I'll update to USB 3.0 which can't be used at full speed but it'll boost the transfer rate to 250MB/s.

Hi YALL !

I got my FX160 some time ago. It's time again for a new router and instead of spending 200 bucks for a very limited little box, I'll make one out of this. It's perfect for the job, has countless improvements over a "normal" router and it's really cheap.

What's on my list are 8GB RAM, an Intel 7260AC wireless card, a 120GB mSATA SSD connected to Port 0 with adapters and 2 SMA connectors on the top for antennas.

I heard from a guy who's working as an IT specialist (like me) that you can upgrade a lot of older chipsets with 4GB modules, even when the chipset doesn't officially support it. He knows someone who's running a FX160 like this and after more research I think it's worth a try.

The 7260AC card can only be used after I finish my BIOS hacking. Since today, I'm already running revision C13 (c for custom) as you can see here:

It's almost ready. Just can't continue right now because I don't have a DELL 1397 wireless card. I need it's UUID to continue. Went through the whole BIOS already and checked if it has the newest microcodes, fixed typos, cleaned it up a bit from the legacy crap that's inside but not used so flashing is faster etc.

This is a picture of the 2 adapters put together:

This should fit great, I just have to saw off a bit of plastic on one side because of the front panel connector.

I'll just drill 2 holes for the SMA connectors; found some which are longer than usual and they also have a 8 inch long cable.

Just for the heck of it, one day I'll get a mPCIe to PCIe adapter and connect a graphics card so I can see the Crysis saga running on this little router in Ultra HD