Disabling reset button

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi, would it be possible to disable the reset button on a router running Openwrt 23.05 (i.e. Linksys EA8300)?

2

How would you recover if you misconfigure it ?

3

Software side, once OpenWrt has fully booted up: yes
boot process side (aka failsafe/ firstboot): only with source modifications
bootloader side (push-button tftp recovery, switching boot slots, etc.): no, not without changing and rebuilding the OEM bootloader from the OEM GPL tarball and hoping that it works.

Phyiscally: sure, just desolder it (which still wouldn't disable Linksys a/b boot failure guard though).

3 Likes
4

Remove file /etc/rc.button/reset? Reset will not work while OpenWrt is running.

3 Likes
5

The reset is the only thing that works when nothing else work, so it’s obviously not software dependent…

Reset is usually hardware and not software and reset buttons are often connected to both single chip reset pins, SoC reset pin and hardware watchdogs and other circuitry plus maybe some kind of software reset (which only triggers the actual watchdog reset).

So it ain't even guaranteed to be in the device dts tree so you can’t remove it in software.

You can never really say that you can disable it in hardware either.
Desolder it won’t necessarily work either which could result in a continuous reset forever depending on the design of the PCB and the switch.

1 Like
6

I would say the easiest solution is to either fill the reset hole with epoxi glue or glue a protection cover over the reset hole.

But I can pretty much guarantee that you will regret yourself sooner or later if running OpenWrt…

7

I'd say via failsafe, tty console, eeprom

8

Thought of all aforementioned options theoretically, except the desolder. Thanks for the comprehensive opinion :+1:

9

Failsafe's triggered by the button you just disabled...?

10

According to me @slh and @flygarn12 both qualify for a comprehensive answer/solution.
Which should I pick as solution?

12

If reset is disabled via /etc/rc.button/reset , no impact on failsafe. Thanks.

13

Then you haven't, technically, disabled it, or your question's lacks details....

14

Agree. Thanks.

15

whats your intention ? If your trying to prevent open access via failsafe or backdoor methods to that effect. You can add a simple password auth, or just change what a button press does by, as slh said, modifying to the source. As i recall, I used to use a uci-defaults script to achieve this at firstboot,.

for option A the password method, this should help -->Enable telnet login with password

for option B (change what a button press does) see here -->Attach functions to a push button

I would suggest option A, it may be a little more work, however, still having access to failsafe with a password is something you'll be happy to have ....if and when you need it.

16

Why would anyone do this:

  1. telnet is not secure
  2. telnet support has been dropped from OpenWrt (a long time ago)
  3. telnet support has been dropped from many operating systems because of #1
  4. ssh (which is secure) is available and enabled by default for failsafe mode as well as normal operation (accessible only by the lan in the default config) and has been this way for a long time.
1 Like
17

ah you again. I never said this was the method. If you look at the patches, it has some good info on adding simple passwd auth ... I used this info, and much more to create the script i spoke of. It worked and work well. Now I am not about to argue with you and you text book approaches. Have a nice day sir