Help Troubleshooting BPI-R3 Hard Lock / Freezing

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,

I've successfully installed OpenWRT v 23.05.2 - r23630-842932a63d on a BPI-R3 router. It works wonderfully except for one major issue. After a random period (days, weeks, or months), the router seems to "hard lock". To be more specific, I am unable to connect to it (ssh or http), all devices connected to it lose access to the internet, and services hosted on a server become inaccessible from anywhere. The only thing that indicates its active are the blinking lights. A power cycle resolves the issue but is hardly a reliable fix. How would I begin to troubleshoot an issue like this? Where do I look? I assume the logs, but I have no idea what to look for. Heck, I don't understand most of what's going on in the logs. I also can only view the logs after a reset, not while the problem is occurring which further complicates the issue. Any assistance would be greatly appreciate.

2

there's a debug UART port, connect an USB TTL to it, and log everything sent to the port.

3

Ok, I can give that a try. So I just get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/USB-to-TTL-Serial-Cable/dp/B00N2FPJ0Q and install some software that will capture the output? Is there something I should look for? It can take a long time for the issue to occur, so there will be a lot of data.

4

yes, but there are cheaper ones.

if you're lucky you could even run it on the device itself, like a loop back :wink:
screen cat /dev/USBttyX >> /mnt/flashdrive/logfile.txt
depending on how the BPI freezes, it might be able to catch it.

you'll need a location large enough for the log to continuously get written.

5

That is a wonderful idea and would be more conducive to my setup (no pc near the router). Is that the exact command I need to type in SSH. I use a 64gb MicroSD card so space shouldn't be an issue.

6

the command should be close enough to reality, for you to be able to figure out the rest.
might need to do a logread -f 1st, over serial, and leave it running, before you do the screen

trial and error.

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7

Did you observe the freezes when running from EMMC too? The SD-Card might be the problem. I’m booting my r3 from emmc and it’s running rock solid. But I saw problems, caused by slowly dying SD-Cards on raspberry pis already.

8

No, I've only tried from SD. I will give that a shot too. Thanks for the idea.

9

Seems you are not the only one.

10

Thank you for the link. They understand those log files WAY better than I would. I'll add myself to the list of users that are having an issue.

11

Just FYI:

There are multiple threads in multiple forums trying to sort this out.

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12

And again, I have to reiterate, I have NEVER experienced any of this.
And I have really abused mine via testing softwares, configuration, etc.
Shrug...

You can also post on the BPI forums, very helpful people there.

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