Here's how to get the hardware production date info out of a previously created mtd3 backup of the original OEM firmware. This will not work on a running OpenWRT device, as the mtd3 has already been overwritten. Assuming filename of mtd3 was used for the backup.
Does setting the CPU governor from ondemand to performance accomplish this, or is it an entirely different thing?
(I haven't experienced any power-on or reboot issues on my RT3200 but switched to performance as a precaution, now I'm wondering if it's even related?)
Reporting another dead RT3200 here.
Purchased from amzn Jan 2024.
From new-in-box state, I used the OpenWRT install tool with no obvious trouble. The unit worked fine for a few days, across reboots etc. After I was finished with the initial setup, I disconnected it for installation and it failed to boot at the next power-on. The absence of power indicator LED made me suspect a faulty PSU, regulator, fuse, etc. After I verified the PSU and fuse with a meter I hooked up the serial line and saw the boot failure.
Curiously--after numerous power-cycles--it managed to boot one more time, and not again since.
I did upgrade to the .2 release after setup but I can't remember if I did a full power-cycle after that or not. I didn't know it was something worth recording.
Missing sw_version= line from the original firmware, but I seem to remember it was in the 1.0 range.
History: I bought this unit "brand new" in January 2023 off an eBay seller in the U.S. for $67 shipped, and I have not experienced any reboot or power-on issues after a full year of 24/7 usage on 1Gbps internet service, using SNAPSHOT from the beginning, while updating regularly.
Well, I have successfully sysupgraded my RT3200 altogether 306 times since June 2021. No problems so far.
(CPU frequency scaling defaults have varied during that time...)
Most sysupgrades have naturally been warm reboots, but I tested last week a hard power-off reboot, and it worked quite ok.
EDIT:
Interestingly,
The success stories so far seem to be 48SAR601.0GA from 2020 (me, FanOfOpenWRT, rvs513, Elmer),
while failures / dead routers are 48SAR601.0GB from 2021 (wavejumper00, el_charlie, usrlocalben)
Hi, just for reference, here is the data from my RT3200.
It has been running OpenWrt since I got it in September 2022, no issues so far.
Since 23.05.x it has been running with 'ondemand':
If that was a recent build you should have read the warning in the commit message:
Quote: "DO NOT flash or run even just the initramfs image unless you have run the updated installer which moves the content of the 'factory' partition into a UBI volume."
If that is what you did now, then well, it will be tricky. There are ways to recover the device via JTAG and we may have another more easy way coming up soon.
Due to the switch to an all-UBI layout all users will have to re-run the installer before being able to flash recent snapshots as well as upcoming 24.xx and all following releases.
Make sure to backup you boot_backup volume device before proceeding, the content of the boot_backup volume will be lost and is needed to allow you to go back to stock firmware (and find out the manufacturing date of the device, for example).
Hi daniel, thank you!. I have a question though: is it possible to come back to the previous "mixed" classic+ubi partitioning (by using again the 1.0.3 installer, for example) if something is not working with the newest snapshot and I need to come back to an earlier firmware?
There are four files to choose from. If we are currently running UBI OpenWrt (as of prior to the commit that requires this new installer), which do we install and in what order?
Edit:
See Daniel's response below for detail.
In hindsight, after loading the installer with a "force upgrade," LuCI made it quite clear with a message box that the system was in recovery mode and needed to have the sysupgrade image loaded next.
The upgrade went very smoothly for me. My RT3200 AP is up and running again on the 6.1.78 kernel. No issues to report.
Special thanks to Daniel for his continued first class support of this device!
Well, now that the updated UBI setup is available, I figure it was time to try to revive my (mostly) dead RT3200. Previously, connecting to the serial header on the board, I verified that it was dying with the same BL2 failed to load image error that others had seen n their devices.
I was not looking forward to soldering a jtag header on, and trying to get a functional OpenOCD instance for the unit set up and working to do a ram loaded recovery. So, I did a quick power on check to make sure was still dead (it was), decided to try the old freezer trick that worked for some others. That happened to do the trick for my device and router make it through the loader chain and booted to my old working openwrt install.
Once I made it to that point, I updated the device with the new version recovery installer that was just released, to get the updated layout and recovery on the device. That rebooted and was working, and from the new recovery I then flashed the companion sysupgrade file.
All appears to be well, though I'm not sure I'll have much further information to report for a while, since I'd already replaced it with a new router and it will now live in the drawer as a backup.
Using the scripts in the repository you link (tweaking a few included packages), I've built the itb files. Then from Luci, I uploaded the recovery installer, pressed "force" and "continue". At this point I expected the router to reboot in the installer firmware, to then have the ability to upload the sysupgrade and have a working RT3200 on the new 6.1 kernel. However, instead the router reboots in the old image as if the firmware is just ignored. The same happens when I download the installer that you published as the prerelease.
Lacking any logs to investigate what could be wrong, let me take one step back: Is there a step-by-step guide that I should follow to upgrade from 5.15 to 6.1 using Luci or the command line, without the use of TFTP or other means that require me to open up my router?
Special thanks to Daniel for his continued first class support of this device!