I found a discarded Cisco Meraki MR33 in a strange state - by default, it boots into Meraki's default OS but is unable to connect to the Meraki cloud. Amazingly, attempting a factory reset makes the LED start blinking orange and the device boots into OpenWRT. Power cycling the device boots back to Meraki's OS. I suspect that someone attempted to flash OpenWRT onto this device, but wrote to the incorrect device or messed up something else and gave up when OpenWRT wouldn't boot.
Ideally, I'd like to install OpenWRT onto this device properly. Please advise me what course of action to take - whether to try to salvage this botched install and install through Telnet, to discard this botched install and use serial for a clean install, or to give up this endeavor altogether.
I'll try to provide some clues about the state of the device. After booting OpenWRT, I managed to telnet into the device:
$ telnet 192.168.1.1
Trying 192.168.1.1...
Connected to 192.168.1.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
=== IMPORTANT ============================
Use 'passwd' to set your login password
this will disable telnet and enable SSH
------------------------------------------
BusyBox v1.19.4 (2016-08-17 13:40:35 CST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT (master, f228337)
-----------------------------------------------------
* 1/4 oz Vodka Pour all ingredients into mixing
* 1/4 oz Gin tin with ice, strain into glass.
* 1/4 oz Amaretto
* 1/4 oz Triple sec
* 1/4 oz Peach schnapps
* 1/4 oz Sour mix
* 1 splash Cranberry juice
-----------------------------------------------------
Contents of /dev, df, fdisk:
root@OpenWrt:/# ls dev/
bus hwrng msm_sps null shm ttyS0 zero
console i2c-0 mtd0 port snd ttyS1
cpu_dma_latency i2c-1 mtd0ro ppp switch_ssdk ubi_ctrl
crypto input mtdblock0 ptmx tty urandom
full kmsg network_latency pts ttyMSM0 watchdog
fuse mem network_throughput random ttyMSM1 watchdog0
root@OpenWrt:/# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 115.5M 100.0K 115.4M 0% /tmp
tmpfs 512.0K 0 512.0K 0% /dev
root@OpenWrt:/# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/mtdblock0: 0 MB, 524288 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 0 cylinders, total 1024 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
you have to sysupgrade to v18 for sysupgrade new format
then to 19.07.latest for platform architecture change
then to v23 or v24
Or factory tftp with v24 https://openwrt.org/toh/meraki/mr33
root@OpenWrt:/# ubus call system board
Command failed: Not found
root@OpenWrt:/# ubus list
network
network.device
network.interface
network.interface.lan
network.interface.loopback
I don't think that the boot loader has been replaced. I suspect that the previous owner flashed OpenWRT onto the storage device used for holding recovery data for factory reset... I'm unable to use commands such as ubinfo, here's a list of the commands that are available to me:
You risk permanently bricking your device if you try to enter the U-Boot command prompt on a device running any other version then U-Boot 2012.07-g97ab7f1. If 'Secure boot NOT enabled! Blowing fuses... Resetting now.' is printed on the serial console, it is too late and your device is bricked...
while you are in the openwrt install, can you type dmesg
Really? It lit up SSIDs named "OpenWrt", telnetting in welcomed me to a linux calling itself OpenWrt!
In other news, I got the thing open and I got a serial cable ready. I read the warning on the wiki that said that I'd brick the device if I attempted to run the script on a new bootloader version, but considering that the device wasn't touched since 2016 and is unable to connect to the meraki cloud, it should be safe, no? Or is there some reasonable way to check what version of bootloader the device is running?
EDIT: There is a reasonable way... Simply plugging the device into serial, opening up minicom (baudrate needs to be changed to 115200) and powering the Mikrotik up tells me all I need. Yep, U-Boot 2012.07 I'll proceed with the flashing and tell you how it goes
Flashing went through smoothly without an issue, all I had to do was copypaste commands from the wiki. Thank you and I'll be seeing you gentlemen around here as I play around with the device.
I'll proceed with the flashing and tell you how it goes