Help restoring original firmware to a ZyXEL NWA55AXE

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Is anyone able to give me some pointers to restoring the original firmware on a ZyXEL NWA55AXE please.
The WIKI entry is a little sparse on information: https://openwrt.org/toh/zyxel/nwa55axe

I had bricked the device, but I can now reinstall OpenWRT OK, via the serial port.
I tried loading the original firmware via the GUI, but received the following error:
"upgrade: Image metadata not present
Use sysupgrade -F to override this check when downgrading or flashing to vendor firmware Image check failed."
Forcing the upgrade, bricks the device.
I guess I need to use MTD, but not sure of parameters?

2

Flash stock using serial, too ?

1 Like
3

sysupgrade is not meant to flash the vendor firmware !
@frollic gave you the solution, and you know how to use it.

4

I have tried this command: mtd write 700ABZL2C0.bin firmware
Which gives this error after reboot:

## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Could not find configuration node
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
5

Is that an u-boot command ?

6

I'm afraid this is where I'm struggling with my knowledge.

7

Then you reboot, is there a menu displayed, or just a count down before the firmware is loaded ?

8

[quote=Then you reboot, is there a menu displayed, or just a count down before the firmware is loaded ?

[/quote]

This is the full dialogue:

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# mtd write 700ABZL2C0.bin firmware
Unlocking firmware ...

Writing from 700ABZL2C0.bin to firmware ...
root@OpenWrt:/tmp# reboot
root@OpenWrt:/tmp# [ 1259.597007] reboot: Restarting system

U-Boot SPL 2018.09 (Jan 22 2021 - 07:42:43 +0000)
Trying to boot from NAND

Initializing NMBM ...
Signature found at block 1023 [0x07fe0000]
First info table with writecount 0 found in block 960
Second info table with writecount 0 found in block 963
NMBM has been successfully attached


U-Boot 2018.09 (Jan 22 2021 - 07:42:43 +0000)

CPU:   MediaTek MT7621AT ver 1, eco 3
Clocks: CPU: 880MHz, DDR: 600MHz (1200MT/s), Bus: 220MHz, XTAL: 40MHz
Model: MediaTek MT7621 reference board (NAND)
DRAM:  256 MiB
NAND:  128 MiB

Initializing NMBM ...
Signature found at block 1023 [0x07fe0000]
First info table with writecount 0 found in block 960
Second info table with writecount 0 found in block 963
NMBM has been successfully attached

Loading Environment from NMBM... *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    uartlite0@1e000c00
Out:   uartlite0@1e000c00
Err:   uartlite0@1e000c00
Net:
Warning: eth@1e100000 (eth0) using random MAC address - fa:26:d7:78:e2:6c
eth0: eth@1e100000
Reading from 0x7700000, size 0x20000
Succeeded
Zyxel version:V1.03
gpio: pin 6 (gpio 6) value is 1
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 0
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 1
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
Loading FIT image at offset 0x180000 to memory 0x83000000, size 0x1b672b4 ...
Automatic boot of image at addr 0x83000000 ...
## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Could not find configuration node
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
9

then write help.

10 
Zyxel version:V1.03
gpio: pin 6 (gpio 6) value is 1
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 0
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 1
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>
=>
=>
=>
=>
=> help
Unknown command 'help' - try 'help'
11

Gah, it's the Zyxel loader, I'm not familiar with the commands it uses :frowning:

Try athe, as posted in Zyxel NWA50AX Pro bricked - #8 by williamthrilliam.

12

ZyXEL usually has reliable recovery methods, despite their dreaded z-loader, use them - they don't involve sysupgrade or mtd write though.

13

I'm guessing atnz, but I've never done it myself.

14

I can recover to OpenWRT, just not the original firmware.

15

I would assume push-button tftp to be available (can also be invoked from zloader), similar to https://openwrt.org/toh/zyxel/nbg6817#debricking (which is the only ZyXEL device I'm familiar with, so take it just a general example). https://openwrt.org/toh/zyxel/nr7101#installation_from_z-loader_vendor_u-boot_application has in-depth information in the same vein for a different ZyXEL device

1 Like
17

Success, thank you all for your help I got it working, the key was "?" can be used instead of "help" to list the commands.

Solution is:

atnf 700ABZL2C0.bin
atna 192.168.1.88
atns "192.168.1.130; tftpboot; bootm"

Where 192.168.1.130 is my tftp server.
This will give an error:

## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Could not find configuration node
ERROR: can't get kernel image!

Then type 'atnz' this will load the firmware
Type 'atgo' and it will reboot in to original firmware

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