Tomato Shibby on ASUS RT-N66W

I decided to change up the firmware on my router. I want more control than the standard firmware gives. It’s for fun.

I own an ASUS RT-N66W.

With my last router, I had DD-WRT firmware installed (which I liked), but I want something new. This time I’m trying out Tomato by Shibby.

“Tomato is a system based on Linux, dedicated for routers with Broadcom chipset and distributed on the GPL license. Its development was started by Jonathan Zarate. This advanced system consists of especially user-friendly interface, thanks to which even inexperienced users can work with it easily” (http://tomato.groov.pl).

On the Tomato website, there isn’t a firmware download specifically for the RT-N66W version, however there is one for RT-N66U. The two routers are almost identical and can operate the same firmware. The firmware I used was:

K26RT-N -> build5x-115-EN (latest english version at the time) -> Asus RT-N66u 64k -> tomato-K26USB-1.28.RT-N5x-MIPSR2-115-AIO-64K.trx

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I suggest going and getting a backup of the router’s default firmware from ASUS… just in case.

Now, ASUS has software that will help you put new firmware on your router but I haven’t had any luck with it. I found it very unreliable. The first time I tried to install Tomato on my router I used the recommended software and the upload failed repetitively, leaving my router in this limbo state… not fun. Instead, I recommend using the web interface. Much easier!!

Here are the steps to upload the new firmware:

  • Put the router into recovery mode.
    • unplug the power from the router
    • press and hold in the reset button (circled in picture below)

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    • plug the power back into the router
    • push the power button to turn the router on (make sure you are still pressing the reset button)
    • wait until the power light slowly (and I mean very slowly) flashes on and off
    • release the reset button
  • Connect an ethernet cable from any of the ports (excluding the port connected to the modem) to your computer.
  • Statically set your ethernet network adapter IP on your computer to 192.168.1.2 and net mask to 255.255.255.0. If you’re not sure how, Windows users can follow these instructions.

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  • With that changed, you can now force your computer to open the recovery webpage. In a browser go to 192.168.1.1.

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  • Choose to upload the firmware you downloaded earlier.

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  • The following screen tells you the upload is complete and to chill until the unit reboots.

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  • I waited about 15 minutes and this screen never changed, I did not even notice my router reboot. I just got tired and clicked “continue.”
  • Next thing you know, you have Tomato Shibby installed on your RT-N66W. You should be able to view the router’s web UI on 192.168.1.1. The default credentials are admin:admin.
  • It is suggested to clear the NVRAM. This clears any old firmware settings and is a good practice. This can be done in the router’s web UI. Go to Administration -> Configuration, then choose “Erase all data in NVRAM…” under Restore Default Configuration.

NVRAM

Tah Dah! You now have Tomato Shibby installed, have fun.

3 Replies to “Tomato Shibby on ASUS RT-N66W”

  • thanks, used your instructions successfully. although at first i only waited for about a minute after flashing before pressing “continue” button, which didn’t do any good. did another flash and waited longer, so it would probably be a good idea to recommend people to wait, say, 10-20 min (?) before continuing with the process.

  • Hi,

    Did all the instructions and got:

    XML Parsing Error: unexpected parser state Location: jar:file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Mozilla%20Firefox/browser/omni.ja!/chrome/browser/content/browser/aboutneterror/netError.xhtml Line Number 340, Column 50: &netReset.longDesc;

    ————————————————-^

    What would you advice?

    Thanks,
    J

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