Back to Stock Factory Firmware Linksys E4200 V2? OpenWrt FW to Linksys FW

Wait until it works.
That advice was based on the Linksys 1900 series (1900,1200,3200) dual firmware generic behaviour, but based on the feedback above, 4200 might require something different.

1 Like

So far nothing strange.

Putty loses connection when the router shuts down network during flashing and reboot.

My wrt3200acm stayed similarly in a blinking led situation until I logged in with browser to Linksys admin GUI.

well that's what i was wondering my self but on each attempt i waited about... 10 minutes if not more as soon as i hit enter then tried to see if the linksys page would come up but neither the page would even show and not even a device connected through Ethernet. why i was confused... even tried my phone in case it was throwing out a wifi signal. if it needs longer than that like 30 minutes after hitting enter with the code on putty, i'll give it a try.
but once everyone is asleep here i'll mess with it some more also.

At least the 1900 series flashes in 1-2 minutes and is back up in 2-3 minutes, so the flashing with these modern NAND flash devices is rather quick. Waiting for 10+ minutes is not normal.

lmao, why i waited as a just in case. but i'm just lost on what's happening now since i know what to do and... well.. nothings happening lol. i'm using WinSCP to copy the file over, which i go to the root of the router i assume that is, then click only on the first tmp folder and did notice a second tmp folder in there also. but copying the file to the first tmp folder, then close out of WinSCP, then open putty, login, then run this command exactly without quotes "sysupgrade -F -n /tmp/FW_E4200v2_2.1.41.164606.img"
and that's what happens. lol. unsure if i'm doing something wrong or if something is just not going as accordingly.
now, one thing i did notice when i was searching this before posting in here was a few did say something about file name lengths or characters... granted i think those were to other routers, but not the first time I've encountered that... so i was going to try and rename the file simply "firmware.img" and see if that was the issue. unless something is pointed out that i'm doing wrong.

You might need help from somebody who actually has an E4200v2.

Based on earlier forum discussion regarding flashing etc., at least @DjiPi seems to have been active regarding E4200v2 flashing:

ok, well i sent him a message.
just tried the renaming and the file directly from the linksys site. same thing lol. gotta say though... glad this thing has 2 partitions... able to use it and do this at the same time so i'm not switching routers since i have a old one with dd-wrt on it lol.

Is this solution working on the E4200v2? I assume that this "Management Mode Firmware Upgrade" is integrated in their bootloader:
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article/?articleNum=140001

Also there is this documentation about using TFTP:
https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article/?articleNum=137928

the management thing does not come up at all. just load strait into openwrt like it normally does. even tried doing a firmware update so it'd switch partitions with the attempt to emulate the need for that and tried it, doesn't ping, nothing. just sits there with a breathing light the whole time lol. the tftp doesn't work at all. only get an error trying both ways as above saying "Unable to get responses from the server" that's including on openwrt and me pinging it just fine.

My E4200v2 still has one partition on Lede and the other one on Linksys, so I never had the need to restore an original firmware before.

@fbradyirl, could you chime in? I think that you've played more than me with firmwares on this model.

ok. yeah was hoping it wasn't gonna be this much of a pain, but. hey, it happens lol. hopefully someone has a resolution to this.

By looking in Cisco's Website (at least for French, Italian, UK and USA), they share the same link to the firmware. Would you happen to have a country specific router that would have it's own firmware, failing bootloader validation?

Also, could you install Stangri's " luci-app-advanced-reboot" package to view what are these partitions versions? That's something that needs to be installed in OpenWrt from the packages.

1 Like

not sure how to check that, but my friend online sent it to me and i think he either bought it from walmart or something online like newegg or got it from work since at his job they change out routers often or something. don't remember what state he's in but know he's in central time zone. only and hour behind me since i'm in NY
only thing i found on the back was a thing called "Canada ICES" with numbers next to it.

i have no idea how to go about that lol. looked at the package thing before so i could DMZ my pc since i found a post about having to have some package(i could never find) installed and was instantly lost on how to use all the package stuff and so on. something like that you may have to literally tutorial/walk me through it lol. yeah sorry i'm so slow with that stuff any more.

then looks if there is US/Canada firmware

For sure you do have US/Canadian version (TBH, I'm 99% sure that this model doesn't have country specific firmware). To install the package, go to the SSH console (putty) and type:

opkg update
opkg install luci-app-advanced-reboot

Then go to the routers GUI menu, I think it adds an Advanced Reboot menu, I'm doing this from memory... It shoud look like the image in this documentation:

Please tell us what Firmware/OS (Kernel) it says for each partition.

well that was nice and easy lmao. now i know i guess everything seems to be using putty for this. anyways. worked perfectly. under the "System" Tab the Advanced Reboot is now there. went to it and this is the screen shot.

Can you try the "Reboot to alternative partition..." (Partition 2)? You seem to have a valid firmware on there...

Just be prepared to go back to the OpenWrt partition (Partition 1) using the power trick if it doesn't boot. Power trick:

  • Initial power disconnection
  • Repeat 3 times:
    i) Connect Power
    ii) Wait 5 secs
    iii) Disconnect power
  • Connect Power

After this you should be switched to the alternative partition. Each time you do that, you simulate a 3-time boot failure that triggers the internal mechanism of switching partition for booting up.

yep, no different than trying to install the firmware. the GUI just has a loading circle saying waiting to apply settings, and nothing happens and the router does a continuous breathing mode on the light.

also, i did want to point this out, before posting this thread i did remember seeing something where you had to delete a partition or something THEN do a special trick with installing the firmware, but again, think this was for a different router type and literally couldn't find anything for this model for some reason except the wiki page which seems like we've tried just about everything from it lol. though... was tempted to try the EA4500 firmware since everything is showing it's suppose to be the exact same but wasn't sure if i should even try it. since the EA4500 has a V1 and a V2 also apparently...

With the power light flashing it is probably in http or tftp recovery mode. Let it keep flashing and set your PC to a static IP 192.168.1.10/24 and try to ping the router at 192.168.1.1. If that works try to http that address or tftp put the factory firmware to it.

You must static IP your PC to use recovery mode as the bootloader does not have a DHCP server.

will give that a try in a moment. currently i have my pc static to 192.168.1.2
also, never understood the /24 part unless that's the port number lol. kept only seeing that since openwrt and never knew what that was.

yeah nothing different than before. unable to do anything connection wise. and in the network settings in windows it shows as an unidentified network.