On this page you can find several files which are of use when hacking and/or running Linux on the Vodafone Station.
Everything in here comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
I'm sorry if something bad happens, but I disown any responsibility whatsoever.

Firmware images

How do I load these?

The newest hacked Italian firmware is B36 (NV2).
The newest official Italian firmware is B36.
The newest official Spanish firmware is B21.

Quick advice:
Out of the box EXT2 filesystem support is only available in B36 NVx hacked Italian firmwares.
If you don't connect with Vodafone Italy and you want to "unblock" your VS to use it with another ISP
use the Spanish version B21.

Hacked Italian firmware b36 (NV2)
My own hacked version (its second version) of Vodafone Italy's B36 firmware .
You can read the changes in the Readme.
It continued where the B36 NV1 version left off.
In few words, fixed usbmount quirks, ledctrl, cfgctrl, new Busybox and ctorrent included.
Hacked Italian firmware b36 (NV1)
My own hacked version (version 1 of it) of Vodafone Italy's B36 firmware .
You can read the changes inside, of interest to most is EXT2 support out of the box.
And as usual in hacked firmwares, telnet access is open.
Hacked Italian firmware version b33
This one has utelnetd running on port 54123, and it should enable the internal telnet in the XML on the flash.
There should be no security problems with this unlike I reported, utelnetd is modified to be on port 54123 without arguments.
Also, it listens on all network interfaces, but closes the connection when it sees that the IP which is connected is not in the private network.
Read this only if you're paranoid.
Italian firmware version b36
This is a recreated firmware image for Vodafone Italy's B36 update.
Spanish firmware version b19
This is a recreated firmware image for Vodafone Spain's version B19 firmware.
This "unblocks" the Huawei interface when flashed on Italian Vodafone Stations.
Even on an Italian VS, when using this firmware, after the bootloader the router has its IP set to 192.168.0.1
This was called "B17" on here, but that's wrong.
Spanish firmware version b21
This is a recreated image for Vodafone Spain's B21 firmware.
Like version b19 of the Spanish firmware it sets the router's IP to 192.168.0.1
Thanks to Jaspy for giving me the dump of his VS' flash memory.
UPDATE: The admin password is VF-EShg553
Irish firmware version b18 adapted for HG553
This is Vodafone Ireland's B18 firmware for the Huawei HG556a adapted for the Vodafone Station (HG553)
This firmware is unlocked, as you can connect to any ISP, and it also has a FTP server and print server.
The LED lights are not lit, though, so you can't know the states they report by only looking at the VS.
Read the readme file inside the archive for further information

Flash memory images
Spanish Vodafone Station flash image dump (thanks to Alvarv)

Root filesystem images
Italian root filesystem version sp01
This is the root filesystem for the original firmware for Italian Vodafone Stations

Linux distros
The kernel is your firmware's. These are just their root filesystem (i.e. needed programs + data)

Debian Linux 4.0 (Etch) for big-endian MIPS
The one which is used in the tutorial. It is the one with more features.
Simple Linux/MIPS 0.1
An older (2000) "prototype" Linux distribution.
It even supplies a development tool archive. (gcc/egcs-1.1.2 (2.91.66), binutils 2.9.5)
Pretty much extract all the archives into a directory, and then chroot into it (with the same tools of the tutorial.)

Source code
Huawei source code for Vodafone Italy's B055 firmware
These sources were released by Huawei after pressure on them.
They do not compile cleanly and you can't make a working image if you do not modify them
Some day a guide on how to handle these will come, happy hacking for now :)

Documents
How to make the Huawei E169 internet key from Tre Italia work on an Italian Vodafone Station
Thanks to Roman Berzin for the procedure.
Article from Hacker Journal #183 about Linux on the Vodafone Station
This is in Italian. Thanks to Massimiliano Brasile.
How to use the Vodafone Station as an access point
Made by alexp and translated by me in English. English/Italian document.
Using cfgctrl
How to use the cfgctrl program included in the B36 NV2 firmware version.

Programs
bcminfo
bcminfo (C source file), requires libmhash and nothing else other than C runtime.
This program gives information about, dumps components from, or creates a firmware image compatible with CFE's http firmware loader
mksquashfs 2.0 with LZMA support
mksquashfs 2.0 with LZMA support, good to make filesystems for the firmware images.
Very buggy, please use the recommended command line in the Firmware Image Information page.
Compiled for Linux x86, libc6.
unsquashfs with LZMA support
This is the program you use to extract files and directories from a squashfs filesystem image.
Compiled for Linux x86, libc6.
Memory dumper
This is useful to dump an image of the flash memory of a Vodafone Station, which you can then extract a firmware from.

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Last Update: January 27th, 2010