Help with installing openwrt on dynalink DL-WRX36

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hello,
I'm new to openwrt. Up until now I've been running asus-wrt merlin. That router is not longer supported, so I got a dynalink DL-WRX36. I tried to following the instruction in the openwrt wiki to flash openwrt but I got stuck in the first step; I'd be most appreciative for your help.

Following part 1 of the wiki https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36 I was able to enable ssh into the router, installed the initramfs image, and then rebooted the router. But the next step fails: The router still runs but I was not able to ping 192.168.1.1. I tried both the 24.10.2 firmware (the lastest stable release available from openwrt) as well as the 24.10.0 version (which is the version listed as "supported current release" on the wiki). I did make sure to use the correct version number in the

fw_setenv bootcmd ...

command in (Part 1, step 8(a)) of wiki.

Additional note: When I first got the router and before I tried to flash openwrt, I updated the router to the latest firmware. Was that the source of the problem? Is there a way to "go back" to the original firmware?

Many thanks for your help!

2

Can you paste the whole command you are running?

Are you able to post the output of your ssh session too?

3

After step 1 and after a reboot can you still SSH into the router ?
If not then reboot your PC and see what address your PC has got, assumming you have Windows then from a Command prompt: ipconfig /all.
If OpenWRT is running it should be 192.168.1.X if the stock firmware is running it should be 192.168.216.X

4

Thanks for all the replies! I've sent along the output of my ssh sessions below. Here's the answers to questions raised in these replies:

@d687r02j8g: I can still ssh into the router, using askey1234 as password

@egc: The IP address of my desktop is 192.168.216.167, and I can log into the web interface of the router from 192.168.216.1, so presumably I am still running the stock firmware.

Many thanks for your help!

output of ifconfig:

enp0s31f6: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.216.167  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.216.255
        inet6 fe80::61bb:4647:941:d4cf  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 48:4d:7e:d7:4a:c4  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 2154  bytes 2476453 (2.4 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 1260  bytes 188407 (188.4 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 16  memory 0xf7000000-f7020000

ssh session (using 24.10.0):

ssh -o HostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa -o PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes=+ssh-rsa admin@192.168.216.1
admin@192.168.216.1's password:

BusyBox v1.32.1 (2024-04-17 03:48:56 CST) built-in shell (ash)

     MM           NM                    MMMMMMM          M       M
   $MMMMM        MMMMM                MMMMMMMMMMM      MMM     MMM
  MMMMMMMM     MM MMMMM.              MMMMM:MMMMMM:   MMMM   MMMMM
MMMM= MMMMMM  MMM   MMMM       MMMMM   MMMM  MMMMMM   MMMM  MMMMM'
MMMM=  MMMMM MMMM    MM       MMMMM    MMMM    MMMM   MMMMNMMMMM
MMMM=   MMMM  MMMMM          MMMMM     MMMM    MMMM   MMMMMMMM
MMMM=   MMMM   MMMMMM       MMMMM      MMMM    MMMM   MMMMMMMMM
MMMM=   MMMM     MMMMM,    NMMMMMMMM   MMMM    MMMM   MMMMMMMMMMM
MMMM=   MMMM      MMMMMM   MMMMMMMM    MMMM    MMMM   MMMM  MMMMMM
MMMM=   MMMM   MM    MMMM    MMMM      MMMM    MMMM   MMMM    MMMM
MMMM$ ,MMMMM  MMMMM  MMMM    MMM       MMMM   MMMMM   MMMM    MMMM
  MMMMMMM:      MMMMMMM     M         MMMMMMMMMMMM  MMMMMMM MMMMMMM
    MMMMMM       MMMMN     M           MMMMMMMMM      MMMM    MMMM
     MMMM          M                    MMMMMMM        M       M
       M
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
   For those about to rock... (Chaos Calmer, 3a148e6+r49254)
 ---------------------------------------------------------------
admin@DL-WRX36:~# fw_setenv bootcmd 'usb start && fatload usb 0:1 0x44000000 openwrt-
24.10.0-ipq807x-generic-dynalink_dl-wrx36-initramfs-uImage.itb && bootm 0x44000000; b
ootipq'
admin@DL-WRX36:~# reboot
admin@DL-WRX36:~# Connection to 192.168.216.1 closed by remote host.
Connection to 192.168.216.1 closed.
5

Can you tell us more about the usb stick you are using?

It might be that it's too new

6

@d687r02j8g: I used a 10+ years old Kingston_DataTravler 4G flashdrive. I did reformat it to fat32 before I load the openwrt files.

I logged into the router and confirm that it does see the usb stick. I also notice that the router offers the option of running (1) FTP server, (2) Samba, (3) DLAN. By default they were off. Just for testing, I endabled ftp, created account + access, and was able to ftp into the usb drive from my desktop, so I assume that this flashdrive does work. I also enable (1), (2), (3) first and then run

fw_setenv bootcmd 'usb start && fatload usb 0:1 0x44000000 openwrt-
24.10.0-ipq807x-generic-dynalink_dl-wrx36-initramfs-uImage.itb && bootm 0x44000000; b
ootipq'

and then reboot, but I still cannot ping 192.168.1.1.

7

The drive needs to be read by the bootloader rather than the main os. So those tests don't necessarily mean the drive can be read by the bootloader.

8

Thanks @d687r02j8g ! How then can I test/enable bootloader access to the flash drive?

9

Trial and error unless you hook it up using serial, and can see what's actually going on.

10

I would try using another drive