Debricking an ASUS RT-ACRH13

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

In what I now believe to be an unwarranted move, I tried to return to the manufacturer's firmware after possibly successfully installing the 24.10.2 firmware. I am now trying to fix the mess I made of it.

When I power up the router, I get the power light, then I get all the lights flashing then just a steady power light.

If I try the "rescue" boot, by holding the WPS button when starting, after about 15 seconds I get the power light flashing rapidly. It stops when I release the WPS button.

If I try a hard reset, after about 15 seconds, the power light starts to flash rapidly, When I release the reset, the power light flashes slowly.

I've tried the ASUS firmware restore from both a VM and under WINE with no luck. And the laptop I am using for this can't get a response from 192.168.1.1.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks.

2

While I have no personal experience with this device, other ASUS devices of that vintage, the ASUS firmware recovery can't unexpected UBI volumes - you probably require serial console access at this point to get access to the bootloader and tftpboot && bootm.

3

What did you do exactly?
You must use ASUS restore tool from Windows,

4

That requires a Windows computer that I don't have. I tried another method from the list of suggested methods. It was only when that failed that I bit the bullet and created a Windows VM on my laptop - a long and tedious process like anything associated with Windows..

5

BTW: It also failed.