Edit: My model is actually a EDUP EP-RT2960s AX1800 ... Note the s
EDUP EP-RT2960 AX1800 - Recovering from a : mtd erase
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I'm yet another "newbie" that bought an EDUP 2960 AX180 router w. a factory openwrt installed.
Foolishly enough i followed the guide here, as best as i could understand it.
I tried via luci to flash the "factory" image, but the router didn't seem to take it.
Unfortunately i never thought of trying the sysupgrade image at that point ... (newbie)
Bricking the router
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Instead reading the Flash Layout note for EDUP version
I foolishly enough (via ssh) did an : mtd erase
And immediately bricked my EDUP.
Well it kept the ssh session , but not much else worked.
And after a power off/on - It newer came back on the network. I even checkked w. wireshark.
It ended up w. a blue led permanently on, that was it.
INFO
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All of this was made on linux (mint desktop & debian server)
And the router LAN interface i used was LAN1 ... NOT WAN
Restoring the router
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Well I know a bit about embedded devices, and played around w. the Linksys WRT54 back in the days of tomato, and later dd-wrt (we talk 20 years back).
Not wanting to give up i decided to see if i could restor the router.
Opening the roter i could see they (kindly) had made a 4-pin 2.54mm standard pcb header for a 3v3 serial connection, next to the WAN plug.
So i soldered a 4-pin header in , connected a 3v3 USB --> Serial adapter (ftdi) :
Router TX --> FTDI RX
Router RX --> FTDI TX
Router GND --> FTDI GND
And fired up putty w. 115200-N-8-1, now I was greeted with an uboot prompt .. so far so good 
Prerequisites:
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1: Soldering iron
2: 4-pin header
3: 3v3 USB-Serial adapter - Watch out some CH340 are 5v on rx/tx even if 3v3 is selected.
4: tftp server - For tftp loading the recovery kernel in uboot - I used one on the same /24 subnet as the router-lan IP.
5: Web server - For http loading the sysupgrade image - Might be optional if you can scp the image to /tmp
****** Download Kernels & Sysupgrade files from here**
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Simac fw (new 24.1.0)
The Kernel image can boot via tftp
Copy kernel to the tftp server data dir.
Copy sysupgrade to the http server data dir. - Note i specifically used http, as i was not sure if there were any valid certificates in the recovery image.
Connect to router uboot via serial adapter
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I fired up putty w. 115200-N-8-1.
****** Run in uboot to prepare IP & tftp**
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setenv bootdelay 5
setenv ipaddr <router-lan-ip> - I'm quite sure uboot defaults to a /24 netmask
setenv serverip <tftp-server-ip> - I would make sure the tftp server is on the same /24 subnet as the router-lan-ip
****** tftp load the recovery kernel**
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tftpboot openwrt-24.10.0-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-initramfs-kernel.bin - Or whatever the kernel image you downloaded was named
Now "nice things happens" ... The recovery kernel is tftp downloaded , and booted
Now we have a recovery linux kernel running.
**Preparing the load of the sysupgrade **
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The recovery kernel defaults to lan-ip 192.168.1.1, it didn't fit my setup - The examples given below assumes 192.168.2.x/24 LAN , adapt to your needs.
Adapt network settings in recovery kernel
ip addr add 192.168.2.10/24 dev br-lan - Add new LAN IP that fits your requirement
ip addr del 192.168.1.1/24 dev br-lan - Delete the default LAN IP
route add default gw 192.168.2.1 br-lan - Add default gateway, should match the LAN IP
change dns to 192.168.2.1 in /etc/resolv.conf - Optional - Enable DNS resolving, if needed
For editing /etc/resolv.conf I used vi ... "Poor MS users"
Perform the sysupgrade
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sysupgrade -n http://<my local http server ip>/<downloaded sysipgrade-image name>
sysupgrade -n http://192.168.2.25/openwrt-24.10.0-ramips-mt7621-sim_simax1800t-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Router should load & program the new OpenWRT image permanently in flash.
And then reboot from the new flash image.
When booted the LAN-IP should default to 192.168.1.1
I used the serial connection to change it to fit my requirements, before connecting to luci.
Things i have noticed after the new install
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1:
The led ends up as blue, when uboot has loaded the new image.
Even if i have (newbie) tried to do a "led green" when kernel loaded.
There might be a LED I/O or definition issue.
2:
opkg upgrade failed - Due to bad linux date/time.
DNS resolving wasn't set properly, so NTP wasn't sync'ing.
This is so far i have come for now.
2025-05-13
/Bingo
