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La Fonera Hacking
"FON is the largest WiFi community in the world. Community members, known as 'Foneros', share some of their home Internet connection and in return gain access to free Wifi worldwide."

The device that is used to provide the connectivity is the La Fonera (a.k.a. FON), a single Ethernet Port Wireless router with a standard range between 10-50 meters depending on the environment.

The FON is a relatively simple and inexpensive router, built on the AR531x/231x Atheros WiSoC (Wireless System-on-a-Chip), a platform for which the OpenWRT project recently added a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), i.e. the OpenWRT firmware can be deployed on the FON. In short, the FON has all the attributes required to be added to digital playground. Fonera

Where to buy a La Fonera

The Fonera web site and store is available in several languages and the store accepts all kinds of currencies and ships worldwide. Check them out at https://www.fon.com/ or buy it from Amazon.com.

La Fonera (2100) Hardware

  • CPU: Atheros AR531X_COBRA - MIPS 4KEc V6.4 - 183.50 MHz
  • RAM: Hynix hy57v281620etp-h - 16 MB
  • Flash: ST(84) H - 25P64V6P - MYS 636 - 8 MB
  • Ethernet: (1x) Altima AC101 (10/100 Mbit/s) [Auto-MDI(X)]
  • Wireless: IEEE 802.11b / 802.11g (up to 54 Mbps)
  • Serial Port exposed on PCB J2
  • Antenna Connector: RP-SMA Connector (Reverse SMA)
  • Antenna Omni-Directional detachable antenna (2dBi)
  • Powersupply Input: 100-240V ~ 50-60 Hz 0.3A. Output: 5V DC, 2.0A Output
  • Power Consumption: 4 Watt

The 2200 model has a somewhat resigned PCB, seems to consume less power and has the serial port exposed on J1.
The La Fonera+ has two ethernet ports on the back, the La Fonera 2.0 adds two Ethernet Port and a USB 2.0 port. More details on the 2.0 model will be added here, as soon as it arrives.

Putting the OpenWRT firmware on the La Fonera

The Fonera is certainly not he cheapest nor the most capable WIFI router. However, it is one of the most affordable WIFI routers that can run OpenWrt, a Linux distribution for embedded devices. OpenWrt opens the Fonera to a whole universe of packages, including SFTP servers, Java Runtime Environments, or bit torrent clients, to name just a few.
Installing OpenWrt is not for the faint-of-heart, but has already been documented many times and I will just point to what I found the most helpful or detailed recipes. Fonera

Pre-Requisites (OS X Releated)

  • TFTP Server for OS X. TFTP is a simple protocol used to transfer files, and therefore was named the Trivial File Transfer Protocol or TFTP.
  • Ethernet Cable, to connect the FON to your Mac.

Flashing the La Fonera with OpenWRT

The different FON versions and localization may require slightly different approaches. However, the goal is the same, getting SSH on the FON. Here is the outline:

  • To get to RedBoot (the bootloader) over telnet, the RedBoot Config needs to be re-configured.
  • Since the FON firmware does not enable telnet or ssh out of the box, a cross-site scripting hack to start ssh needs to be performed.
  • The FON kernel does not allow you to overwrite RedBoot Config. Therefore, an older 'signed' version of the FON's kernel that includes a flashing utility that does allow overwriting the RedBoot Config partition needs to be deployed.
  • Reboot into the modified kernel and overwrite the RedBoot Config partition again.

Fonera FON related posts at wolfpaulus.com

  1. La Fonera Hacking
    Does the FON have all the attributes required to be added to the digital playground?
  2. La Fonera (FON2100) Hardware Details
    A detailed look at the La Fonera (FON 2100) hardware.
  3. La Fonera 2.0 (FON2202) Hardware Details
    A detailed look at the La Fonera 2.0 hardware.
  4. La Fonera 2.0 (FON 2202) Hacking, Cleaning House
    Preparing the FON 2202 for reflashing with OpenWrt or DD-WRT
  5. OpenWrt, Post Kernel System Initialization
    A closer look at what happens when OpenWrt boots on the Fonera FON Router
  6. PhoneME, a JavaVM for the Fonera FON Router
    A closer look at how a JavaVM could be built, packaged, and deployed into an embedded system, running the OpenWrt firmware.

Detailed flashing instructions

What's next..

Coming up: More about RedBoot and more importantly Building a customized OpenWRT distribution yourself.


Disclosure: This blog is written and edited by me, it contains my words and my opinions only, and does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.
I am not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. This blog does not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, I will and do accept and keep free products, services, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network and identified as such.
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Published on: Wednesday, November 19th, 2008  •  Category: [embedded]
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