Flash EDUP EP-RT2960 to official

I currently have a TP-Link Archer C80 router connected to my fiber broadband.
DHCP is disabled on my C80.
A Dell Wyse 3040 (thin client) is connected to my network and runs both PiHole and OpenVPN.

I have just bought an EDUP EP-RT2960 router which I hope will replace both the C80 and the Wyse.
I'll replace Pihole with Adguard Home.

I read the forum page about my new router and it's variants and am wondering whether I should flash 'official OpenWrt' and, if so, how to do so..?
From the forum page:

That's simple enough, I already have SSH access.
But under 'Flash Layout' the page states:

Using SSH to execute the command: cat /proc/mtd outputs:

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00080000 00020000 "u-boot-env"
mtd2: 00080000 00020000 "factory"
mtd3: 07a80000 00020000 "firmware"
mtd4: 00400000 00020000 "kernel"
mtd5: 07680000 00020000 "ubi"

I see no firmware and firmware2 partitions there so can I assume that I only need to follow the 'Web UI Installation' steps and not the 'Flash Layout' steps?

Thanks.

Did you see the linked thread on the wiki page ?

The 'Flash Layout' links?
Yes saw them.
But wondered if I need to take those steps as my router does not have the 2 partitions mentioned: 'firmware' and 'firmware2'.
I have just a single partition 'firmware'.

I was referring to EDUP EP-RT2960 AX1800 - Strange OpenWRT router

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I just re-read a load of the wiki page and see posts talking specifically about the EDUP variant router where they establish this variant already has the required partition layout:

So I'll perform the wiki page's 'Web UI Installation' steps and hope that's all that's required.
Thanks.

I tried to perform the 'Web UI Installation' steps but failed on the very first step!
I uploaded 'openwrt-23.05.4-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-initramfs-factory.bin' via the web UI and it shows this error:


A google search shows it's not an uncommon error but I coudn't find a solution specific to my router.
Can anyone help?

Hi! Have you tried flashing with a force upgrade?

just do not keep setting

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One concern I have is which firmware I should use. In this post, pabloalcantara mentioned trying the SIMAX1800T version first:

After the upload, the OpenWRT installation said it’s not compatible with the version HAR-20S2U1.

As I understand it, the SIMAX1800T factory image installed successfully, but the SIMAX1800T sysupgrade was not accepted, so he tried the HAR-20S2U1 sysupgrade instead. Am I understanding that correctly, or am I missing something?

I would do this way:
Boot an initram image, save the partitions of your device and try to flash it.i cannot say much,i do not have the device.

Eventually I took a chance and simply uploaded:
openwrt-23.05.4-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
via luci web interface.
It flashed/updated with no problems and works fine.

As far as I can tell there is no need to flash:
openwrt-23.05.4-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-initramfs-factory.bin

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I bought the version with openwrt pré installed.
With that, I could upgrade using HAR-20S2U1 and its working perfectly.
Don't use the simax, use the har.

Don't they all have (some version of) OpenWRT installed?
They all have a manufacturer custom version of OpenWRT installed?

And we want to replace the custom version with the official version.

I dont know if all of them is using a custom openwrt, but mine was. I ordered specific with the wrt version (I even payed a little more for this) , what I was upset, was because it was using an custon version, só I searched until I find one oficial compatible version.

Thanks for your reply! I tried booting the SIMAX1800T kernel.bin from the Tftpd64 server, and it successfully booted. I’m able to SSH into it and confirm that it’s not the stock firmware running.

Next, I’ll attempt a sysupgrade using openwrt-23.05.4-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin via the stock LuCI web interface.

save mtd block, and use 23.05.3 or 23.05.5, 23.05.4 is not a good for the radio.

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Thanks! It seems to work; I’ll test it further later.

Do I need to erase the firmware partition before performing the sysupgrade to 23.05.3?
Also, could you explain why 23.05.4 isn’t ideal for the radio?