GS108T v3 AWOL after flash attempt

Installing and Using OpenWrt
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So, yeah. I just got a GS108T v3, one of those Realtek switches OpenWrt recently gained support for. And following the instructions in the git commit, I wrote the

Commit:

I've done this:

  • Grab a ramdisk image (from the 21.02 snapshot builds). Granted, I didn't check whether they were LZMA compressed, but since it's GS108T v3 specific one would assume it is.
  • Flash that onto partition 0 (Netgear calls them image1 vs. image2)

According to the overly complicated Netgear web UI, you then need to set the active partition somewhere else in the UI (which I did, although it was already using image1). I then rebooted (which is yet another submenu :+1: ).

And then the lights (literally) went out. All I see now is that amber power LED looking at me accusingly. The Netgear reset procedure (hold reset button pressed for more than 10s) isn't doing anything, nor is yanking the power - I was kind of hoping that would trigger a failover mechanism that would make the bootloader switch to the second image.

Anyone got any tips that don't involve soldering (since serial headers pin holes are present but filled with solder).

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Try to get serial console access, even without soldering and just pressing the cables at the right places (second set of steady hands would be beneficial), that gives you the best idea what might have happened.

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I managed to connect to OpenWrt through the serial console. Turns out it is working as intended, except for that dreaded default management VLAN (VID 100). I kept trying without of course.

All good now! Except for the Ethernet LEDs, they don't work at all. But might be my multi-image realtek target build.

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Hello, what have you changed to make it work? Have you change whole configuration or ?

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I removed the VLAN 100 from the configuration. See the wiki for a sample /etc/config/network:

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Ouch. I believe that VLAN default should be removed ASAP, while we still can without confusing those who have been accustomed to it.

IMHO the management config for this target should be the same as any other OpenWrt device. Treating it as special is just confusing. If you want management on a VLAN (and I do), then you can easily configure that yourself after upgrading to OpenWrt. The role of the default config is only to make the initial installation as smooth as possible. We should make this guide apply to realtek too: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-quick-start/walkthrough_login

I wonder if maybe we should have 3 alternative addresses for the default management interface?

  1. well known OpenWrt default 192.168.1.1/24
  2. dhcp
  3. stock management VLAN+IP read from stock config in the JFFS2_CFG partition

This would make it much easier to do a "blind" OpenWrt installation from the stock UI.

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Personally from a functional point of view, I'd prefer the 2) dhcp-client option, although 1) would require less (no) target specific documentation.

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Some more things that seem important about this newly supported device installation image, or is this normal for snapshot images?:

  • No Luci configuration web-interface is installed (only above mentioned access using ssh over VLAN 100 on Port1)
    -> opkg update ; opkg install luci-ssl

Then it seems a subsequent sysupgrade is required to fully complete the install (failsafe mode is said to require squashfs).

However, the luci install seems limited:

  • Luci does not seem to indicate the sysupgrade requirement.
  • Luci does not install with its sysupgrade feature (not available).
  • Luci does not install with its VLAN configuration feature (missing).

Maybe it's just some missing packages? Can somebody tell or help?

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snapshots never ship with Luci.

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@jms Use the 21.02 images, those have LuCI and for now the images are still built for that branch.

LuCI has no full DSA support yet and this target is 100% DSA.

Also, please open your own topic if you need further help instead of hijacking this one.

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Thanks @frollic and @Borromini you helped me to understand the situation better.

The device page in the wiki simply referred me only to the daily snapshot download, and https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02-SNAPSHOT/ seems still hidden when only browsing the site and directories (without a direct link).

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Yes, it's not officially released yet, so the wiki points to snapshots until then, I'm running 21.02 builds on all my GS108T v3 and GS1900-10HP & GS1900-8HP, no complaints.

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