Broken sysupgrade on OpenWrt SNAPSHOT-r6886

For Developers
1

Firmware version: OpenWrt SNAPSHOT-r6886
Router: Mikrotik 951Ui-2HnD
Problem: sysupgrade from OpenWrt SNAPSHOT-r6886 to LEDE 17.01.4 is not working properly.

After sysupgrade from OpenWrt SNAPSHOT-r6886 to LEDE 17.01.4 and automatically restart:

  1. In web-interface instead of "LEDE" hostname still "OpenWrt" router name.
    But along with that, version of core is changed to 4.4.92 (like in LEDE 17.01.4).
  2. In web-interface on page "Overview - Network"
    instead of "Active Connections * / 16384"
    it shows "Active Connections 0 / 4096"
  3. In web-interface, firewall page is empty, looks like some services is missing.
  4. Can't open web pages through browser, but can download packages using opkg.

The problem is solved by using Netinstall and returning back to RouterOS
(Before using Netinstall, bootloader settings must be reset by Reset-button).

I want to report this problem to developers (maybe it's already fixed).
New upcoming release 18.06.0 must have correct sysupgrade function
with ability to downgrade to 17.01.4 without any problems.

2

You sometimes have to use the command line sysupgrade with the -F (force) argument to install older versions of OpenWrt/LEDE firmware.

3

Yeah. This isn't an upgrade you're doing, like you said yourself it's a downgrade. There may have been some changes that break downgrading - more specifically: that break existing configurations upon downgrading. And that's how this process is supposed to work (it's called upgrade for a reason).

It's highly recommended to:

  • Back up your existing configuration (will be a tarball with plain text files)
  • Flash your new firmware image without keeping settings (# sysupgrade -n)
  • Reconfigure your device with your backup as a guide (copy/pasting settings indiscriminately will end up breaking your setup just like using sysupgrade while keeping the configuration did).

This procedure is recommended both ways: for upgrades, but also for downgrades.

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