Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion

[X0rCode]

I like the LEDs too it is timeless

[richb-hanover-priv]

@efahl

... Attended Sysupgrade works by running opkg to find all the packages you've installed, then building a custom .itb image including those packages. It's a very slick solution to an otherwise tedious problem.

There's a wiki page at openwrt.org that talks about the Attended Sysupgrade package... https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sysupgrade

And I just saw @efahl 's link to the OneMarcFifty video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFTPA6GkJjg&t=1034s Really nice description!

[Gr0d]

Hi everyone,

I hope this messages finds you all well, I recently got a belkin rt3200 and I am interested in installing OpenWRT in order to install a vpn on it and also have the ability to surf without the VPN. The only problem I am having is that I have never done this and really don't know where to start. Any help is definitely appreciate it!

[ka2107]

@Gr0d I would suggest following these steps:

1. Download the *.itb files from the latest release at https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer/releases .

2. Follow step 1 to step 6 of https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer#assuming-the-device-is-running-stock-firmware-version-10-and-is-brand-new-or-just-after-factory-reset

1. Connect any of the LAN ports of the device directly to the Ethernet port of your computer.
2. Set the IP address of your computer as 192.168.1.254 with netmask 255.255.255.0, no gateway, no DNS.
3. Power on the device, wait about a minute for it to be ready.
4. Open a web browser, navigate to http://192.168.1.1 and wait for the wizard to come up.
5. Click exactly inside the radio button to confirm the terms and conditions, then abort the wizard.
6. You should then be greeted by the login screen, the stock password is "admin".

3. Note down which version of stock firmware your RT3200 is currently running.

4. Follow step 7 and then at Step 8, instead of "recovery-installer.itb", follow https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer#device-flash-complete-backup-procedure to load "initramfs-recovery.itb" and then follow the rst of the steps to save complete backup of stock firmware (in your RT3200) to your PC.

5. Once you have saved the stock firmware backup images, power cycle the RT3200 (power off, wait 1 min, power on). Confirm that you are back in stock firmware and then continue to next step.

6. Follow step 6 to step 12 of https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer#assuming-the-device-is-running-stock-firmware-version-10-and-is-brand-new-or-just-after-factory-reset and flash the " initramfs-recovery-installer.itb" at step 8. Final step # 13 is optional.

7. You should now have OpenWrt installed in your RT3200. If you want additional packages connect to your RT3200 using SSH and then use opkg to install additional packages.

@daniel Please let me know if the above order of steps are correct. Thank you for providing the UBI installer files.

[daniel]

I wouldn't recommend to go through all the extra loops to take the full backup unless you want to be extra safe in terms of having the option to go back to stock firmware even under post-apocalyptic circumstances.

Having the boot chain backup'ed (the minimal backup which is done automatically by the installer) is absolutely sufficient as you can download the remaining content from Belkin/Linksys server, see https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer#restoring-the-vendorofficial-firmware

[Lynx]

@Gr0d regarding VPN you should setup WireGuard and once you have that setup then use VPN with netifd PBR which can be setup via LuCi - see here:

Set different Upstream for specific source IP

In addition to the above perhaps this example might help provide inspiration: The idea is to set a routing table for each interface and then set rules for routing packets through each interface. I think the reason your rule above doesn't work is because it lacks a routing table for VPN. So I think you should label tables as described here: Here are mine: root@OpenWrt:~# cat /etc/iproute2/rt_tables # # reserved values # 128 prelocal 255 local 254 main 253 default 0 …

It's not so well documented but the above approach works very well and is easily configurable in LuCi. So you can redirect traffic from a specific device through wan rather than VPN for example.

[joaochainho]

Hi everybody,

I've installed OpenWrt (UBI) on my RT3200 using owrt-ubi-installer v0.6.5, which doesn't include the latest NAND bad block improvements yet. I've got no bad block issues so far, so should one upgrade the bootloader nevertheless? If that's the case, how?

Many thanks!

[daniel]

If your devices works fine with the version of ARM Trusted Firmware and U-Boot you are using at this point there is no need to update anything but OpenWrt itself. You shouldn't touch ARM Trusted Firmware or U-Boot unless there is a good reason for that (such as having a device with bad-blocks early in the flash like it happened here to @vasilii)

[joaochainho]

@daniel, many thanks for your feedback! Won't touch ATF and U-Boot then

[edwrap]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but bad blocks will become more of an issue as these devices age, though, right? (unless FIP doesn’t matter after a successful conversion to UBI)

Is there no way to easily/safely update the bootloader - is that why it’s been discouraged multiple times?

[daniel]

Bad blocks become an issue mostly on blocks which are written frequently.
Having new bad block show up in flash regions where you are only reading from (like bl2 and fip) is very very unlikely -- and in that very unlikely case you will anyway always have to reflash the device using JTAG.

[Lynx]

Does updating the installer thus increase the risk?

[hck]

MTK wifi drivers for 22.03.0 https://mega.nz/folder/eYFzkCLZ#iVPXwKfTDVCv1HirtduzAg

[hnyman]

@Lynx

updating the installer thus increase the risk?

Yes. Naturally. Every write operation has risk, so trying to rewrite the boot blocks increases the risk every time.

The bootloader needs to be written just once, when the installer installs the modified bootloader, initialises the basic ubi structure and installs the recovery OpenWrt iniramfs instance. But after that there is rarely a reason to update it.

Normal sysupgrades of the normal runtime OpenWrt instance are later done inside the ubi areas that provides wear leveling.

[ka2107]

@daniel I have a question about your UBI installer instructions. You mention this in step 5 of your instructions

5. Click exactly inside the radio button to confirm the terms and conditions, then abort the wizard.

Why do we need to abort the wizard? If I don't abort the wizard and continue with the stock firmware, will it later prevent me from flashing the UBI installer?

I am already using 3 RT3200 flashed with OpenWrt UBI and I followed your instructions everytime. I never tried the stock firmware anytime. I recently bought a new RT3200 (USD $60 + tax at Walmart.com USA) and I would like to test the stock firmware for a few days and then flash OpenWrt UBI on it.

[ka2107]

@daniel

I wouldn't recommend to go through all the extra loops to take the full backup unless you want to be extra safe in terms of having the option to go back to stock firmware even under post-apocalyptic circumstances.

If I wanted to do full backup, please let me know if the order of steps at Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion - #2785 by ka2107 correct in that case?

I hadn't done full backup for my 3 existing RT3200, but I have the minimal backup files for 2 of them. I haven't tried reverting back to stock firmware on any of them, and don't really plan to except if/when I decide to sell these devices later in the future.

Thanks in advance.

[Lynx]

@hnyman

Yes. Naturally. Every write operation has risk, so trying to rewrite the boot blocks increases the risk every time.

The bootloader needs to be written just once, when the installer installs the modified bootloader, initialises the basic ubi structure and installs the recovery OpenWrt iniramfs instance. But after that there is rarely a reason to update it.

What sort of risk are we talking? 10%? More? How many writes can these things take? Can you check for damage on a production system?

Does rerunning the installer to say get the 22.03 release / recovery rewrite everything or only the new bits?

[daniel]

@Lynx

What sort of risk are we talking? 10%? More? How many writes can these things take?

Much less. In the datasheet of this SPI-NAND chip they write "Max cycling: 100K Program / Erase cycles" which is typical for SLC NAND. But obviously that doesn't mean that you can safely write 100k times and then the 100k + 1 time it will certainly fail. In reality this depends on a lot of factors including small errors in the silicon manufacturing process, exposure high or low temperature, radiation exposure, ... and even the kind of data you are writing to it. Hence, if you don't need to write to area which is critical for the system to boot, I would not do it.

@Lynx

Can you check for damage on a production system?

UBI keeps track of write counters of the area of the flash which is used by UBI (ie. everything but not ARM Trusted Firmware and U-Boot) and wear leveling is based on that information.
The boot area (first couple of megabytes) of the flash is written to only once in the factory and one additional time when you run the installer. There is no tracking or counter of the write cycles used on that area.

@Lynx

Does rerunning the installer to say get the 22.03 release / recovery rewrite everything or only the new bits?

Re-running the installer will re-write everything and you should not do it unless you have a very very good reason to do so.

[daniel]

@ka2107

If I wanted to do full backup, please let me know if the order of steps at Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion - #2785 by ka2107 correct in that case?

Yes, that looks correct.

[daniel]

@ka2107

Why do we need to abort the wizard? If I don't abort the wizard and continue with the stock firmware, will it later prevent me from flashing the UBI installer?

No, it won't prevent you. It just wastes your time and wants you to connect the device to the Internet. Newer versions of the stock firmware also no longer allow you to abort the wizard...