Cannot sysupgrade GL.iNet AR750S (and GL.inet AR300M neither) to 19.07.4

ianka · September 26, 2020, 1:37pm

I tried to sysupgrade an Gl.iNet AR750S router with the 19.07.4 vanilla OpenWrt firmware, but it fails.

root@GL-AR750S:~# sysupgrade -v /tmp/openwrt-19.07.4-ar71xx-generic-gl-ar750s-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Invalid sysupgrade file.
Image check 'platform_check_image' failed.
root@GL-AR750S:~# sha256sum /tmp/openwrt-19.07.4-ar71xx-generic-gl-ar750s-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
f37cfdd1a5e72fa6680e6b33804a5866d1c58cb0dbedd0f2b86ccbb9f3576d92 /tmp/openwrt-19.07.4-ar71xx-generic-gl-ar750s-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

The sha256sum is the same as noted in the https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/19.07.4/targets/ar71xx/generic/ directory.

I had the same problem with newer Gl.iNet AR300M routers lately. I could sysupgrade two from an older batch, but not three from a newer one.

What do I do wrong?

pwned · September 27, 2020, 6:08pm

This looks like your device/platform is not recognized correctly. I had sth. like that on my own built images in the past due to update mismatch in my kernel/feeds tree for a different device.
So it could be that there went sth. wrong during the build process from build bot? oO
But that has to be juged be a more qualified board member here.
So just a small bump instead of a solution. Sorry.

tectonic · September 27, 2020, 6:24pm

I'm pretty sure the AR750S cannot be upgraded to 19.07.x. The kernel of 19.07 was increased from 2M to 4M; the original 2M kernel space cannot be upgraded to 4M kernel. I could be mistaken, of course.

ianka · September 27, 2020, 7:33pm

Uh, what? It's a pretty recent device with 16MB Flash and 128MB RAM which comes with OpenWrt 18.06.0-rc1 pre-installed. If such a device isn't upgradeable, which one is?

tectonic · September 27, 2020, 7:47pm

Might be worth getting in touch with the GL-inet support team. There are a few discussions about 19.07.x support for the AR750S on their forum; e.g. https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/ar750s-slate-dropped-from-openwrt-tree/11402/12

ianka · September 28, 2020, 10:07am

Oh. Thanks for that information.

What bugs me most is I have the same problem with some newer AR300M. I could upgrade a previous batch through their U-Boot. But not a newer batch. Such regressions are awful. Any recommendations which small low-cost router to buy as an alternative then?

tmomas · September 28, 2020, 4:49pm

For hardware recommendations please open a new topic in the Hardware Questions and Recommendations category of this forum.

Please see https://openwrt.org/faq/which_router_should_i_buy before asking for recommendations. This way you will get better recommendations and come to a quicker solution.

mpratt14 · September 28, 2020, 10:33pm

@tectonic
@ianka

this has been handled on the master branch, see commit below. If you want to update it now you either have to backport some commits and make your own image, or just flash a snapshot image. Version 20 will have all these fixes in the new ath79 target.

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

ath79: GL-AR300M: provide NAND support; increase to 4 MB kernel

committed 06:38AM - 14 Nov 19 UTC

jeffsf

+181 -54

The GL.iNet GL-AR300M has been supported by the ar71xx and ath79 platforms with …access to its 16 MB NOR flash, but not its 128 MB SPI NAND flash. This commit provides support for the NAND through the upstream SPI-NAND framework. Devices with both NOR and NAND flash can support independent firmware on each, with U-Boot able to boot from either. The OEM U-Boot will fall back to the NOR firmware after three "unsuccessful" boots. The family of GL-AR300M devices on the ath79 platform now includes: * glinet,gl-ar300m-lite "generic" target, NOR-only board * glinet,gl-ar300m-nand "nand" target * glinet,gl-ar300m-nor "nand" target (NAND-aware) NB: This commit increases the kernel size from 2 MB to 4 MB "Force-less" sysupgrade is presently supported from the current versions of following NOR-based firmwre images to the version of glinet,gl-ar300m-nor firmware produced by this commit: * gl-ar300m -- OEM v3 NOR ar71xx (openwrt-ar300m16-*.bin) * gl-ar300m -- OpenWrt 18.06 ar71xx * gl-ar300m -- OpenWrt 19.07 ar71xx Other upgrades to these images should be performed through U-Boot. The GL-AR300M OEM U-Boot allows upload and flashing of either NOR firmware (sysupgrade.bin) or NAND firmware (factory.img) through its HTTP-based GUI. Serial connectivity is not required. The glinet,gl-ar300m-nand and glinet,gl-ar300m-nor images generated after this commit should safely flash each other using sysupgrade. The boot counter is implemented by the OEM using u-boot-env. At this time, it does not appear that the switch on the side of the unit can be used to select NOR vs. NAND boot and the fail-over is only from NAND to NOR. To save flash wear, it is only reset when running the glinet,gl-ar300m-nand firmware. NAND-specific base-files are used to remove impact on existing generic and tiny targets. As there is now no "generic" build appropriate for the GL-AR300M16, (or for users of the GL-AR300M that do not need access to NAND) it will be introduced in a subsequent commit. Note: `mtd_get_mac_binary art 0x6` does not return the proper MAC and the GL.iNet source indicates that only the 0x0 offset is valid The ar71xx targets are unmodified. Signed-off-by: Jeff Kletsky <git-commits@allycomm.com>

mpratt14 · September 28, 2020, 10:54pm

For AR750S the story is a little more complex...
Read the commit messages and comments carefully, there is an issue with kernel size, you may have to update the uboot image.

If you update u-boot using openwrt make sure to save a backup of the original, and after writing to it verify with checksum of the mtd partition (probably /dev/mtd0) before you reboot or there is a chance you end up with a bricked board.

tectonic · September 29, 2020, 7:21am

Thanks, @mpratt14; hadn't spotted that (and was under the impression that the AR750S had been dropped from the OpenWrt tree). I'll point the Gl-iNet support team to your post to see if they're aware.

ianka · September 29, 2020, 9:58am

Thanks for that information. I will try it for the AR300M then.

unipo · September 30, 2020, 6:49am

Hi,
Just created an account here to let you know that my AR750S is rolling 17.04 without any problems, I sysupgraded few hours ago just after I saw this thread to check if I would've been able to upgrade form 17.03 or not.
Still on ar71xx though. But it seems still stable. I use it as my main router + wireguard VPN entry.
I knew for a while it would get to ath79 before 20.0 because of that kernel size issue (i've been following openwrt and gluon git in fear that the AR750s would be dropped)so mine has been 24/7 since 17.01 and sysupgrade each time until now.

All that to say I find it strange you weren't able to install the latest 17.04

I do own a AR300M, I will check it runs 17.04 later today, I keep you posted.

hnyman · September 30, 2020, 6:57am

You are mixing the ancient 17.01.x with the recent 19.07 branch.

17.01 is the third-last release branch, no longer supported. 17.01.7 from June 2019 is the last maintenance version.
19.07.4 is the current release, made from the 19.07 branch with two years newer code than 17.01.

There is no "17.04"

unipo · September 30, 2020, 4:36pm

Sorry bad typo.
But I am using 19.04 on my AR750S, screenshot from my smartphone (I'm at work)

mpratt14 · October 1, 2020, 4:21am

Yeah keep in mind that devices never get dropped, only disabled (and hopefully it is temporary)

From reading the commit comments I think GL.inet made a new uboot image because of this but I could be mistaken, never hurts to reach out to support anyway.