pazitka
November 18, 2025, 6:51am
1
Hello.
I have a problem with my openwrt on Fortigate 50e.
–edited: sorry for aruba image here–
When I upload openwrt-24.10.0-mvebu-cortexa9-fortinet_fg-50e-initramfs-kernel.bin as image.out and run it from RAM I see whole disk.
But when I upgrade to sysupgrade image, it showed me only 21.50MB.
I wanted to install some software but now I don’t have free space. Is there any solution to this problem?
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 2.5M 2.5M 0 100% /rom
tmpfs 1008.6M 236.0K 1008.3M 0% /tmp
/dev/mtdblock7 21.5M 1.9M 19.6M 9% /overlay
overlayfs:/overlay 21.5M 1.9M 19.6M 9% /
tmpfs 512.0K 0 512.0K 0% /dev
Currently, the only way I'm able to install and test software is by connecting my device to UPS and using initram image.
I tried this: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/advanced/expand_root but it restarted 2 times and failed to partition my disk.
durring resize:
root@FortiWrt:~# . ./expand-root.sh
root@FortiWrt:~# sh /etc/uci-defaults/70-rootpt-resize
Error: The device /dev/mtd6 is so small that it cannot possibly store a file system or partition table. Perhaps you selected the wrong device?
Warning: Error fsyncing/closing /dev/mtd6: Invalid argument
[ 140.259483] mv88e6085 f14.mdio-mii:n1: left alicast moded state
[ 140.318349] mv88e6085 f14.mdio-mii:n1: left pruous mode
[ 140.513006] mv88e6085 f104.mdio-mii:n1: Link is
[ 140.699614] mv88e6085 f14.mdio-mii:n2: left pruous modede
[ 141.025108] mv88e6085 f14.mdio-mii:n3: left pruous modede
[ 141.377313] mv88e6085 f14.mdio-mii:n4: left pruous modede
[ 141.712626] mvneta f1070thernet ethft allmultimodest mode
[ 141.774894] mv88e6085 f104.mdio-mii:n5: left pruous mode
[ 142.517292] br-wan: port h2) enteredbled state
[ 142.567082] mvneta f1030thernet ethft allmulticmode
[ 142.628792] mvneta f10300thernet ethft promiscuode
[ 142.817544] mvneta f10340thernet ethft allmulticmode
[ 142.876724] mvneta f1034thernet eth2ft promiscuode
[ 146.529194] reboot: Restag syset ethnk is Down
and more about disk:
root@FortiWrt:~# lsblk
-ash: lsblk: not found
root@FortiWrt:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
mtdblock0 31:0 0 1.8M 1 disk
mtdblock1 31:1 0 64K 0 disk
mtdblock2 31:2 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock3 31:3 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock4 31:4 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock5 31:5 0 6M 0 disk
mtdblock6 31:6 0 24M 0 disk /rom
mtdblock7 31:7 0 21.5M 0 disk /overlay
mtdblock8 31:8 0 6M 1 disk
mtdblock9 31:9 0 24M 1 disk
mtdblock10 31:10 0 18M 1 disk
mtdblock11 31:11 0 18M 1 disk
mtdblock12 31:12 0 30M 1 disk
This device should have 1GB of flash memory so why is there so little space?
frollic
November 18, 2025, 6:58am
2
because that's how the vendor partitioned it.
you could try to create a mtd13 containing the remaining flash space, and use as extroot .
1 Like
Where do you get that information? All of the FG/FWF-5X and FG/FWF-3X devices have only 128MB of SPI Flash. Details for your device can be seen from my teardown details at FortiGate FG-50E at WikiDevi .
2 Likes
frollic
November 18, 2025, 7:58am
4
then OP's mtd post doesn't add up, that's at least 150MB ... ?
1 Like
+---------------------------------------+
| |
| rootfs (mtdblock6, /rom) |
| +-----------------------------------+
| | |
| | rootfs_data (mtdblock7, /overlay) |
| | |
+---+-----------------------------------+
2 Likes
Then is he talking about the device named in his upload?
When I upload openwrt-24.10.3-ath79-generic-aruba_ap-105-initramfs-kernel.bin as image.out and run it from RAM I see whole disk.
I was confused about what the aruba_ap-105 image had to do with a Fortigate 50E.
1 Like
frollic
November 18, 2025, 8:07am
7
yes, I noticed this too, but ignored it.
pazitka
November 18, 2025, 8:14am
8
Ups…. I worked with aruba a few days ago.
Sorry.
The flash memory chip inside Fortigate is 1Gbit (not 1GB…).
Also, sorry.
Probably memory is divided into 2 parts. Because the bootloader allows to store the main image and backup one.
But I should have more then 20MB.
pazitka
November 18, 2025, 8:38am
10
And that is the question:
x
1.80
1048576
1887436.8
64.00
1024
65536
64.00
1024
65536
64.00
1024
65536
64.00
1024
65536
6.00
1048576
6291456
24.00
1048576
25165824
21.50
1048576
22544384
6.00
1048576
6291456
24.00
1048576
25165824
18.00
1048576
18874368
18.00
1048576
18874368
30.00
1048576
31457280
156814541
B
153139.2
kB
149.55
MB
if there is 1Gbit of memory then how is it possible that I have ~150MB of storage.
I will need to open the case and investigate what components are there.
frollic
November 18, 2025, 8:39am
11
check the chip next to the bar code sticker.
1 Like
If you want to resubmit that patch, I can review and test it. Perhaps a better possibility of it getting merged if I provide a tested by.
2 Likes
pazitka
November 18, 2025, 8:55am
13
MX66L1G45G
3V, 1G-BIT [x 1/x 2/x 4]
CMOS MXSMIO® (SERIAL MULTI I/O)
FLASH MEMORY
frollic
November 18, 2025, 8:57am
14
pazitka:
MX66L1G45G
same as in the tear down linked to earlier by @RaylynnKnight .
antonk
November 18, 2025, 12:56pm
15
Some partitions must be overlapping, I can't see another explanation.
1 Like
pazitka
November 18, 2025, 9:29pm
16
Do you know what other blocks are used for?
Maybe there is a way to repartition it?
root@OpenWrt:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
mtdblock0 31:0 0 1.8M 1 disk
mtdblock1 31:1 0 64K 0 disk
mtdblock2 31:2 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock3 31:3 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock4 31:4 0 64K 1 disk
mtdblock5 31:5 0 6M 0 disk
mtdblock6 31:6 0 24M 0 disk
mtdblock7 31:7 0 21.5M 0 disk
mtdblock8 31:8 0 6M 1 disk
mtdblock9 31:9 0 24M 1 disk
mtdblock10 31:10 0 18M 1 disk
mtdblock11 31:11 0 18M 1 disk
mtdblock12 31:12 0 30M 1 disk
hmm…
root@OpenWrt:~# block info
/dev/mtdblock10: TYPE="jffs2"
/dev/mtdblock12: TYPE="jffs2"
/dev/mtdblock6: UUID="985f8bd6-f139e46b-2a1eebac-80d1cce2" VERSION="4.0" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/mtdblock7: TYPE="jffs2"
root@OpenWrt:~# block detect
config 'global'
option anon_swap '0'
option anon_mount '0'
option auto_swap '1'
option auto_mount '1'
option delay_root '5'
option check_fs '0'
root@OpenWrt:~# blkid
/dev/mtdblock1: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/mtdblock6: BLOCK_SIZE="262144" TYPE="squashfs"
It is still a bit too hard for me.
Maybe it would be a good idea to make a firmware dump from a flash chip. But I will need to get the original Fortigate image first and try to install the firmware once more just to check if this block differs in any way from its current state.
I’m not sure will my ch341a be able to read flash chip on this board. It failed in aruba. Maybe some other device will be required.
Perhaps it is like this:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS What is it
mtdblock0 31:0 0 1.8M 1 disk bootloader
mtdblock1 31:1 0 64K 0 disk ?
mtdblock2 31:2 0 64K 1 disk ??
mtdblock3 31:3 0 64K 1 disk ???
mtdblock4 31:4 0 64K 1 disk ????
mtdblock5 31:5 0 6M 0 disk - something for openwrt?
mtdblock6 31:6 0 24M 0 disk /rom - main rom
mtdblock7 31:7 0 21.5M 0 disk /overlay - main overlay
mtdblock8 31:8 0 6M 1 disk - something for backup openwrt?
mtdblock9 31:9 0 24M 1 disk - initram for openwrt backup
mtdblock10 31:10 0 18M 1 disk - some jffs2
mtdblock11 31:11 0 18M 1 disk - who know what
mtdblock12 31:12 0 30M 1 disk - free space?
frollic
November 18, 2025, 9:36pm
17
It got an USB 3 port, why bother ?
1 Like
pazitka
November 18, 2025, 9:40pm
18
I might need more time than a few hours in the morning before work and a few hours before bed to do this. But that might be the solution.
Anyway, I'd really like to take a dump of this Flash and play around with it using binwalk.
I don’t understand why it have so many blocks. Such waste of storage.
system
November 28, 2025, 9:41pm
19
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