Hey Heinz,
Thanks a lot for the reply.
I actually ended up returning to Amazon and getting a new one.
However, when I flashed this one, it completed the flash but I am unable to get to 192.168.1.1
Did everything the same as the last router but the last one was successful. Don't know what went wrong with this one. And I really don't want to return this one again cuz then Amazon will flag my account. Also, don't wanna take advantage of them.
Any help is appreciated. This is really turning into a nightmare for me lol.
EDIT:
Had to manually reboot it to get the LuCi interface. Not sure why. Just saved myself from a heart attack lol.
UPDATE:
Successfully managed to flash the firmware with sysupgrade.
I wanted to thank everyone for the help.
I really want to improve the wiki for this router so that it shows the correct way to flash the original firmware and also the process that @Heinz described above.
I assume the correct flashing procedure for original firmware is to remove the first 256 bytes and then flash it. Please let me know so I can go ahead and update the wiki.
Thank You!
EDIT:
Can someone please help me with this? Changed LAN IP. Now unable to connect to router
Thank you!