Hello, I believe I bricked my MX8500. Inwas troublshooting a different issue after upgrading to from 24 to 25 when I made an error that made things worse.
- I tried reflashing since that allowed me to install a few packages sometimes. I installed one item at a time until it broke and then uninstalled that package. From that point on it said I couldnt install OPKG packages which was strange because I 25.x doesn’t use the OPKG installer. From that point on, regardless of what I reset/reflashed that error plagued my system and rendered the installer useless.
- I booted into failsafe, ran firstboot reboot, same result.
- Next I tried reflashing from GUI (to whatever the current ver. 25.x) using sys upgrade without saving settings, thinking it would overwrite everything. But I noticed my packages were already pre installed and the error was still there.
- Next I tried reflashing the same way using CLI from failsafe. Same result.
- Next I tried reflashing 24.x from the GUI using sysupgrade. It didn't downgrade and everything stayed the same.
- Next I tried the same thing again using CLI from failsafe. Same result.
- Then I messed up. I watched a youtube about how to fix deeper kernel issues by flashing back to stock OEM and I followed the instructions. I flashed it and it and when it came back up I lost connectivity with any ports. My computer gets link lights but I manually assigned an IP and that doesn’t work. I also tried resetting the router and rebooting to failsafe but nothing happens.
At this point, unless there is a fairly straight forward solution I am probably going to buy a second Linksys MX8500. The reason I am leaning towards buying a second is because the recovery/unbricking process isn’t nearly as clear to me and I don’t currently have time for a drawn out side project and I also meed this working as soon as possible because I cannot VPN into my home server for work using my ISP router (I can limp along without it for a few days). Plus my computer is an old mac and the commands for building a USB bootloader don’t seem to work. It looks like if I buy a second router I can create a USB bootloader, then I can sell one and keep the USB for future emergencies or if all else fails, keep the router that works.
Anyway, I’m up for any ideas, solutions, or even recommendations on an alternate router to buy that is at least Tri band with Quad Core Processors and 1 Gig of Memory for under $100.