ENS202EXT / 18.06.2 - Firmware refusing to be updated via LuCI or sysupgrade!

YaM_PT5 · February 3, 2019, 6:22pm

Hello there,

I am new on using OpenWRT firmware, have installed it on my EnGenius ENS202EXT device a month ago by using 18.06.1 version. The unit is quite stable and there are a lot of new options available so I am very happy with changing from stock firmware.

However today, have tried to update to the lastest version ( 18.06.2 ) by using LuCI web Gui, it after clicking on update it loads the new file and got the message confirming the correct installation, then the device reboots and goes into the log in page again. All normal.

Problem is, at main page, the version keeps exactly the same 18.06.1, and not 18.06.2 as it should be.

Have tried to update and reset several times but nothing is changing !
Also tried to downgrade to 18.06.0 and it holds on 18.06.1.
So no matters what I try to do, nothing works, either upgrade or downgrade !

Can post a few pictures if necessary, but do not think it can helps because there are no visible errors or issues during the updating process.... only issue is that it does not update unfortunately, period !

Would be someone here able to telling me if I am the only one facing this issue ?
Any help would be very appreciated

lleachii · February 3, 2019, 6:27pm

Did you previously run 18.06.0?

hnyman · February 3, 2019, 6:30pm

Download the firmware image to /tmp and run the sysupgrade script from ssh console, so that you see more verbose output.

YaM_PT5 · February 3, 2019, 6:31pm

Hello,
I flashed from stock firmware using directly the 18.06.1 version file.
Firstable used the "factory" and then "sysupgrade" one. This is the method I read so far for the first installation.
Cheers

YaM_PT5 · February 3, 2019, 6:33pm

Well, I am not very skilled on Linux, but can give a try.
Is there any special log in command to go into script, or it flashes normally like using Gui ?

hnyman · February 3, 2019, 6:39pm

The command is simply "sysupgrade".
Luci actually runs that for the sysupgrade job

hnyman · February 3, 2019, 6:44pm

Example for you:

root@router1:~# cd /tmp/
root@router1:/tmp# wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.2/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
...
root@router1:/tmp# sysupgrade /tmp/openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

EDIT:
http instead of https (if you have not installed SSL support into wget)

YaM_PT5 · February 3, 2019, 6:48pm

Definitely am going to try that to see what happens, and will post the output.

Many thanks !

doublez13 · February 3, 2019, 7:07pm

Are you sure it's actually upgrading to 18.06.2?
I seem to be having the same issue on my ENS202EXT .
After reboot, it says 18.06.1, and the kernel version is still 4.9.120, so nothings actually been upgraded.

hnyman · February 3, 2019, 7:20pm

That is really the question, about which the sysupgrade script's verbose output should give more information. What happens when syupgrade is tried? What is the possible error message or warning shown on the screen?

doublez13 · February 3, 2019, 7:23pm

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# sysupgrade -v openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin 
Image metadata not found
Saving config files...
etc/config/dhcp
etc/config/dropbear
etc/config/dropbear-opkg
etc/config/firewall
etc/config/luci
etc/config/luci-opkg
etc/config/network
etc/config/rpcd
etc/config/system
etc/config/ubootenv
etc/config/ucitrack
etc/config/uhttpd
etc/config/wireless
etc/dropbear/authorized_keys
etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key-opkg
etc/fw_env.config
etc/group
etc/hosts
etc/inittab
etc/luci-uploads/.placeholder
etc/opkg/keys/1035ac73cc4e59e3
etc/opkg/keys/5151f69420c3f508
etc/opkg/keys/72a57f2191b211e0
etc/opkg/keys/792d9d9b39f180dc
etc/opkg/keys/9ef4694208102c43
etc/opkg/keys/b26f36ae0f4106d
etc/opkg/keys/b5043e70f9a75cde
etc/opkg/keys/c10b9afab19ee428
etc/opkg/keys/dace9d4df16896bf
etc/opkg/keys/dd6de0d06bbd3d85
etc/passwd
etc/profile
etc/rc.local
etc/shadow
etc/shells
etc/sysctl.conf
etc/uhttpd.crt
etc/uhttpd.key
etc/uhttpd.key
etc/uhttpd.crt
Commencing upgrade. Closing all shell sessions.

YaM_PT5 · February 4, 2019, 1:25am

Well actually looks like I was wrong, and looks like we are on same boat.... but after double checking here, one buddy with an R8000 is stuck on same problem.
I am going to type here everything I got on my end.

YaM_PT5 · February 4, 2019, 1:37am

Screenshot from Main page.

Main%20page

Then after selecting the correct file, SHA256 checksum number matches exactly to the download page, so the file integrity was not broken.

Updating

Finally, that's the message I thought it was flashing correctly.... but in fact, the unit was just reboot normally, nothing else happens after that.

flashing

After tried to connect "sysupgrade" using SSH method sugested by "hnyman", that's what I got on my end:

BusyBox v1.28.3 () built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt 18.06.1, r7258-5eb055306f
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~# cd /tmp

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.2/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Downloading 'http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.2/targets/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin'
Connecting to 148.251.78.235:80

Writing to 'openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin'
openwrt-18.06.2-ar71 100% |*******************************|  3776k  0:00:00 ETA
Download completed (3866628 bytes)

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# sysupgrade /tmp/openwrt-18.06.2-ar71xx-generic-ens202ext-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

Image metadata not found

Saving config files...

Commencing upgrade. Closing all shell sessions.

YaM_PT5 · February 4, 2019, 1:39am

Apparently, the firmware file is what is causing the problem, because of the "Image metadata not found" message.

YaM_PT5 · February 6, 2019, 2:59pm

Hello,

Was making new attempts to update my device, what happens exactly if we try to run "sysupgrade -F | --force" ?
As far as I read, it skips the image metadata verification forcing it to be updated anyway. Anyone here tried that already ?

hnyman · February 6, 2019, 3:04pm

Yes, it does just that.
It skips the verification and just flashed the image file to router.

(I have not tried that with your router, but have used it several times, when jumping back and forth between 17.01, 18.06 & master, or between ar71xx and ath79.)

YaM_PT5 · February 7, 2019, 12:48pm

Tried that anyway, but ended up exactly with same result as before. No matter what I try to do, it refuses to upgrade or even downgrade, by LuCI or sysupgrade.

Last resource in my view is TFTP to revert it to stock again, and update it again but now using the latest OpenWRT version.
Unless if you have a different suggestion ?

mpratt14 · February 10, 2021, 10:26pm

I have done much more work with ENS202EXT since this issue happened
just wanted to share some extra info

For any Engenius / Senao product that has a "failsafe" partition
AND
for any version of openwrt that is not ath79 or snapshot with those boards
(version 19.07 or less)

failsafe image will be loaded next boot after deleting the kernel

mtd erase kernel

OR
for ath79 (version 21.xx or SNAPSHOT)

failsafe image will be loaded next boot after deleting a checksum from uboot-env

fw_setenv rootfs_checksum 0

see the partitions with

cat /proc/mtd

YaM_PT5 · March 2, 2021, 2:48pm

Hello mate,

Thanks for your efforts on looking into this, however, I did already post a similar method where I forced unit to enter into "Failsafe mode", and from there, we are able to use any firmware version we wish to.
Here's the link :

Cheers