Lost password, can't connect to MR3040 router

So after updating the firmware on the MR3040 I telnet into the router and change the password. Then I went to edit the config file with vi. I forgot to type the file name and it just put "vi." Since I forgot how to exit and wasn't connected to the internet (I was connected to the router), I decided to unplug it and remind myself how to exit vi. Going back to reconnect, I had to SSH into it. However, I was unable to do so because the password isn't working. So what do I do? How can I change the password or get into it? Can I/Should I reset it?

I'm making two for people (I guess I should have made sure I was familiar with the process before volunteering). On my second one, I'm getting something that I got on my first one:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
60:2a:ea:99:98:7a:da:7a:87:46:6a:2c:d0:a0:81:ec.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts:2
  remove with: ssh-keygen -f "/home/david/.ssh/known_hosts" -R 192.168.1.1
RSA host key for 192.168.1.1 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

Before, I removed it, and maybe that's why I can't access it anymore. But now it's doing the same thing with second one, and even one I had built before that I never had a problem with. Is it because they all have the same IP address?

Well if you can't connect, look up on openwrt failsafe for that particular model.

mofosyne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well if you can't connect, look up on openwrt
> failsafe for that particular model.

I tried that. There doesn't seem to be a failsafe mode for the MR3040.

There is a failsafe, you sort of have to wait 10sec, then press reset, otherwise the 'tplink recovery mode activates', they wern't able to remove that.

[wiki.openwrt.org]

"" Use the QSS button instead of reset button, everything else is identical to generic failsafe document. :""

Oh, do that instead.

Plus you have to have a static IP, and access over telnet.

mofosyne Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> [wiki.openwrt.org]
> safe
>
> "" Use the QSS button instead of reset button,
> everything else is identical to generic failsafe
> document. :""
>
> Oh, do that instead.
>
> Plus you have to have a static IP, and access over
> telnet.

None of that is about the MR3040. It doesn't have a QSS button, only a reset button and a power switch. What gives me hope (I guess) is that all of my PirateBoxes are doing the same thing. The one I had built previously still works, but I'm having trouble SSHing into it. Maybe there's something in the area connecting to it, so I'm going to try it on the road.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
60:2a:ea:99:98:7a:da:7a:87:46:6a:2c:d0:a0:81:ec.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts:2
  remove with: ssh-keygen -f "/home/david/.ssh/known_hosts" -R 192.168.1.1
RSA host key for 192.168.1.1 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

This message is okay. Because while and after install every new device will have the 192.168.1.1 IP. Because every device have its own fingerprint, you recieve this message... changing fingerprint to a IP adress in the network is very uncommon.
So remove the corresponding line in /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts and try to reconnect.

Remember while using failsafe mode:
You need to run "mount_root" to get you filesystem writable
And change your password with "passwd" - do not edit /etc/shadow with an editor

Matthias Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> This message is okay. Because while and after
> install every new device will have the 192.168.1.1
> IP. Because every device have its own fingerprint,
> you recieve this message... changing fingerprint
> to a IP adress in the network is very uncommon.
> So remove the corresponding line in
> /home/david/.ssh/known_hosts and try to
> reconnect.
>
> Remember while using failsafe mode:
> You need to run "mount_root" to get you
> filesystem writable
> And change your password with "passwd" - do not
> edit /etc/shadow with an editor

Thanks Matthias. Unfortunately, I don't know how to enter fail safe mode with this router. It's the MR3040, the portable one with the internal battery. I'm hoping someone can fill me in on how to get into fail safe mode with this model, because I can't seem to find it anywhere.

No failsafe mode: [forum.openwrt.org]

Sorry

Well, the good news is it's working now. I tried it on Windows with PuTTY, and it does fine. The only difference is that I didn't replace the key. It gave me the options Yes, No, and Cancel. "No" allowed me to connect without replacing the key. Thanks for the help though. I'm excited about making these ultra portable PirateBoxes.

Oh, and the one that worked before and suddenly wasn't working--that was just me being stupid. I thought the password was something else.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2012 04:12AM by Distribution.

Great News!
Congratulations for your own Piratebox!

Hello,

there is a failsafe mode on TP-LINK MR-3040 :

1° Switch on the router
2° Wait almost 5 sec
3° Press the "Reset"

Now you are in failsafe mode ! You can probe it with a "ping 192.168.1.1"

Ah, don't worry with the flashing Led, they never flash in the Failsafe mode on MR-3040

Alain

PS : the Pirate Box on TP-Link MR-3040 is very pleasant and work fine

Thank you.
Added into OpenWRT wiki: [wiki.openwrt.org]

Hello Matthias and Distribution and friends,

I hope this very old thread can still get attentio. Can you please help me on entering the mentioned failsafe mode and changing my password on the mr3040 ? Consider me a total noob in networking and stuff. A brief background info: I got this mr3040 a few months back and successfully flashed the openwrt to be used with my camera via dslrdashboard android app. It worked flawlessly connecting my phone with my camera via the app. Didn't use it for a while and upon taking it out a few days ago I realized I forgot the LAN password that I set and so tried to log into it to change the LAN password only to find that I had forgotten the root password as well that it asks on the openwrt login screen on 192.168.1.1. Now I am totally lost and can't use the damn thing. Have been reading over the internet for a solution and didn't find much except some vague info on getting into failsafe mode, telnetting into the device and change the password (how ?)

I am trying pushing the reset button after powering on the device and I THINK it goes into the failsafe mode because the data transfer led is not blinking and I can't open the openwrt screen on 192.168.1.1 but I am getting the ping response from this IP on the command prompt as Alain mentioned in a previous post. But it only shows the power led and nothing else. The problem is I don't know how to telnet into the device. When I do telnet 192.168.1.1 on the windows command prompt it says "could not open connection to the host, on port 23: connection failed". And when I select telnet in putty on IP 192.168.1.1 it says after a few seconds "network error: connection timed out". Similarly connection is refused when I select SSH in putty. My laptop's LAN card IP configuration is like this: IP: 192.168.1.2 Subnet: 255.255.255.0.

I am not sure what's going wrong here. Whether the device is not somehow getting into the failsafe mode (tried a numbers of times, don't know why) or I don't know how to properly use telnet. I am not very familiar with networks and all and I think I am missing something in the process. I hope you guys can help and guide me on this.


Thanks in advance,
Faisal` .

Hi,
how did you try to connect with the box? Did you use ethernet - if yes, did you disable your wifi connection too (if wifi is on the same IP-range, you may encounter conflicts).

Can you ping the box?
What operating system do you use?

regards Matthias

Matthias Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
> how did you try to connect with the box? Did you
> use ethernet - if yes, did you disable your wifi
> connection too (if wifi is on the same IP-range,
> you may encounter conflicts).
>
> Can you ping the box?
> What operating system do you use?
>
> regards Matthias


Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I am connecting to the MR3040 via the ethernet cable that came with it in the package (works fine). And yes, I did disable the wifi connection and adapter during the process. I have been able to ping the box using the windows command prompt (am using Windows 7 Enterprise by the way) when it is supposedly in the failsafe mode. The thing is there is no definite way to tell if it's indeed in the failsafe mode or not. Why I am assuming it to be in the failsafe mode is because as others have suggested, I am doing the following steps and getting the following results:

1) Switch ON the device and after all the 4 LEDs finish blinking for a second, I press the reset button for 3-5 seconds and this makes only the power LED to stay ON while all the others remain OFF.

2) All this while I leave the ping command ("ping 192.168.1.1 -t") running and after a while it starts to get the ping response from the box. Now in this mode I can only ping the box and can't open the openwrt interface in the browser by typing 192.168.1.1 there, it doesn't connect which might be an indication that it's indeed in the failsafe mode ??? I don't know how to be sure ???

3) Next, in putty I select Telnet, give the host IP 192.168.1.1 and open but after a few seconds of trying it gives the message: Network Error: Connection timed out. Same message is received when trying to telnet from the windows command prompt.

I am totally confused about it. Please suggest a way forward. Will wait.


Thanks,
R/Faisal` .

Hello Matthias,

It seems the problem was with my laptop. I tried the same procedure from my brother's computer and it worked like a charm, took only 2 minutes to get the password changed and to access the box. I hope I can now connect wirelessly to my camera again using my phone

Thank you and all others who go to great lengths to help and support fellow members finding solutions to their problems. Thanks a lot


Best Regards,
Faisal` .

Hi Guys
Iam have the same problem as warpdrive but am unable to sort this out, Followed what he did but not getting a response when ping on 192.168.1.1 just getting a timed out message. everthing was working fine till I tried to add a new file after which could not connect via wifi or cable. tried to get into admin via putty but unit was not accepting the password I had put in.
Can anyone please help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2014 12:43PM by Duncan.

did you setup a static IP on your client device?

Dear all,
Is there anyone who know the ways how to solve the problem that cannot connect to the Access Point by using ssh and WebGui.I installed the openwrt firmware and made some configuration for setting up the openflow into my access point.After I changed the network configuration file,I cannot enter to my access point via ssh session and also via Webgui too.I am sure that I didn't changed the default IP address(192.168.1.1). But now I am not able to enter to my access point.
Any ideas to solve this?Thanks in advanced.

Can you login using an ethernet cable?

Hi Matthias

Yes I set the ip to 192.168.0.2. I have tried access using putty both telnet and ssh but now just get unable to connect to host or connection timed out.
I have also tried to connect via a web browser on my phone here I get the message obtaining ip address then nothing happens, this used to work fine.

Hope you can help.

Hi,
are you sure about that ip 192.168.0.2. - it should be 192.168.1.2 . !

Matthias