Firmware Restoration Issue on ASUS RT-AX89X

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi everyone,

I'm reaching out for some help with my ASUS RT-AX89X router.

I've been running the latest OpenWRT snapshot for over a month, and today I tried switching back to the ASUS stock firmware.

Network Configuration Used:

  • WAN: 192.168.50.1
  • LAN: 192.168.50.75/24

Issue Encountered:

The ASUS Firmware Restoration Tool fails to connect to my router.

I then tried using TFTP to upload the necessary .trx files in recovery mode, one by one, for testing purposes:

  • kernel.itb and uImage.itb → Failed.
  • initramfs-factory.trx → Successfully uploaded once out of five attempts, but nothing has worked since.

Current Symptom:

When I reboot the router, the last LED on the right blinks slowly every 4 seconds, but there’s no proper boot process.

I'm running out of ideas... Any suggestions or solutions?

Thanks in advance for your help!

3

Hi, there is a tool to upload factory images onto openwrt to revert.

@remittor is the author and the main thread is here

4

Indeed, I came across it in some posts, but the ASUS snapshot is on SNAPSHOT (r28331-3c7134fa32) with APK packages. It is not part of the opkg > apk package system.

5

Easy way would be to downgrade to 24.10-rc2, there are no major changes past brand new package manager

OR
ipk is just a tarball in tarball

cd /tmp
tar xvfz file.ipk
tar xvfz data.tgz
(copy files to /www etc, restart router)

OR
ask in other thread to package apk too.

6

Thank you for your response, Brada. For now, I’m mainly focused on unbricking my router. I’ve tried several sequences to erase the NVRAM and transfer the correct files via TFTP, but nothing works. It keeps blinking and doesn’t respond when I try to regain control using MobaXterm or PuTTY.

7

here is a stable way to revert, also worth trying asus restoration tool

8

Hi Brada.well actually, I've already managed to recover the boot and with a simple method. by emptying the NVRAM with WPS then disconnecting the power supply for half a day.I recover the recovery mode and the boot from my .trx transferred to tftp.
Nevertheless, I'm still going to try your procedure for ipk to apk.

thank you.