How do I flash GL-AR300-LITE?

I understand GL-AR300-LITE is supported by snapshot, but I fail (technical abilities lacking) to get that working.
I don't like trusting the OEM, it is said to phone home.
Is there a step-by-step guide on how to openwrt this device?
Thanks!

Installation instructions:

Installation instructions from OEM (OpenWrt variant):

  • Install sysupgrade.bin using OEM's "Advanced" GUI (LuCI),
    • Do not preserve settings
    • Access rebooted device via Ethernet at OpenWrt default address

See also: https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl.inet_gl-ar300m-lite#installation

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Thanks.
no DHCP
setting manual IP to 192.168.1.2 and router to 192.168.1.1 and subnet to 255.255.255.0 has no web (html) response (timeout)
no wifi (to be expected from instructions)
ssh root@192.168.1.1 has no response (timeout)
Default IP openwrt is 192.168.1.1, right? If so, why no luck?

Were there any warnings or messages in the OEM GUI when you tried to flash? If so, do you remember what they were and how you responded? I’m guessing you’re still running OEM, accessible at the previous address (192.168.8.1 is GL.iNet default)

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Maybe it kept the settings from the OEM firmware (which is an OpenWrt fork). Try 192.168.8.1.

Might be worth a shot doing the install through the uboot recovery interface. See this https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/2/troubleshooting/debrick/ and read any instructions you find in the WARNINGs yellow box from your device's recovery interface. Some GL.Inet devices will only flash files with a specific word in the name, indicated in that box.

I uboot-ed
re-flashed with openwrt-ar300m16-3.024.bin found on the https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ page (page https://dl.gl-inet.com/firmware/ar300m/v1/ respectively)
rebooted, set up password, set WAN to LAN, logged into advanced, flashed openwrt-ath79-generic-glinet_gl-ar300m-lite-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin from openwrt, did keep settings, rebooted.
Can ssh to 192.168.8.1 on wifi but no internet connection.
FAILED

I uboot-ed
re-flashed with openwrt-ar300m16-3.024.bin found on the https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ page (page https://dl.gl-inet.com/firmware/ar300m/v1/ respectively)
rebooted, set up password, left WAN as is, logged into advanced, flashed openwrt-ath79-generic-glinet_gl-ar300m-lite-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin from openwrt, did keep settings, rebooted.
Can ssh to 192.168.8.1 on wifi but no internet connection.
FAILED

I uboot-ed
re-flashed with openwrt-ar300m16-3.024.bin found on the https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-ar300m/ page (page https://dl.gl-inet.com/firmware/ar300m/v1/ respectively)
rebooted, set up password, left WAN as is, logged into advanced, flashed openwrt-ath79-generic-glinet_gl-ar300m-lite-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin from openwrt, did not keep settings, rebooted.
Can NOT ssh to 192.168.8.1 as no wifi and no ethernet either.
FAILED

And I tried so many variants, the maximum obtained is ssh through wifi, no ethernet and no internet to install luci.

snapshot sysupgrade for this device broken ?

Instructions say:
Only the ath79 GL-AR300M-Lite build is configured to come up with the Ethernet port as “LAN”.
FALSE, no lan, and no wifi on the openwrt-ath79-generic-glinet_gl-ar300m-lite-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin when not saving settings, only wifi and no internet when saving settings, so not possible to install luci.

Instructions say:
To prevent a lost connection, click on “Use WAN as LAN” in the original firmware and make sure that “keep settings” checkbox is selected during firmware update.
FALSE, no internet connection to install luci when saving settings.

Also tried to flash the so called "clean" versions from gl.inet, no wifi and no ethernet.

This device a trojan or are there clear instructions for non geeks (simple step by step CLI copy-paste is OK) on how to get openwrt with luci running on this device? Thanks.

Is it clear to you that a device with a single Ethernet jack can't be "magically" connected to a computer on wired LAN and a modem for wired Internet access?

When you had ssh access to 192.168.1.1, that is as far as "install" goes. Past that, you need to configure the device to your own needs.

There is no "one way" to configure the device. There are literally dozens of ways that the networking could be set up. As some quick examples:

  • Ethernet as upstream, AP bridged
  • Ethernet as upstream, AP routed
  • Ethernet as upstream, AP routed with NAT
  • Any of the above with multiple VLANs on the Ethernet
  • Wireless as upstream, STA mode, Ethernet bridged
  • Wireless as upstream, STA mode, Ethernet routed
  • Wireless as upstream, WDS mode, Ethernet bridged
  • Wireless as upstream, WDS mode, Ethernet routed
  • Wireless 802.11s mesh, Ethernet bridged
  • Wireless 802.11s mesh, Ethernet routed
  • Any mesh option with BATMAN or OLSR or ...
  • Any of the above with additional APs

The list goes on and on, each requiring a different configuration and many requiring a different order of configuration.

You need to specify exactly what you want, then someone can provide steps.

This forum is mostly for those running official builds obtained from downloads.openwrt.org or built from the source code.

When flashing the manufacturer builds from the GL site you need to seek support there, because they are different. They include some usability features for a single-port device. If you use an official build you'd find no wifi at all after the flash, it must always be configured as @jeff said.

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I think what I need is step-by-step instructions how to set up a wifi connection through ssh (simple wifi connection to the device si I can ssh to it through wifi, no security needed at this stage), then change lan port back to wan port through ssh, and then install luci through ssh.
No idea how to do the first 2 (wifi + lan to wan) through ssh. Can anyone help please?

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Does the router you are using for internet access have ethernet ports? Because it's much faster like that, I can post instructions.

Do you know enough vi to be able to edit files directly on the router?

I can copy-paste-edit-etc in Nano, but without access to the net can't install. worst case I can scp text files as long as there is ssh ?

configuration files can be edited with uci commands too, no need to learn the bullshit alien text file editor shipped by default.

you don't have nano in a default install, but it's not required to just alter normal OpenWrt configuration.

Could you please answer the question I posted above?

Does the router you use right now to access the internet have an ethernet port you can use or not?

Then I can post instructions. I hope you have access to ethernet as that's so much easier than connecting to an existing wifi network.

On this device there is only 1 ethernet port, it is configured as LAN so it can be accessed (ssh).
The steps as I understand (which could be wrong) are:

  • ssh to the router through the ethernet port (I can do)
  • set up a simple wifi access point through ssh so I can connect to the router through wifi with DHCP (I can not do)
  • ssh to the router through wifi (I can do, once wifi DHCP is set up)
  • set up the 1 ethernet port from LAN to WAN (I can not do)
  • install LUCI and I am saved
    I imagine some firewall rules and zones need to be set up along the way too.

EDIT: Or I need to install LUCI snapshot while offline. How di I do that? I got to LuCI installation section "minimalistic offline installation", and a page suggesting it is a mips_24kc device, and a luci packages page but the base packages listed in the minimalistic instructions are not there. Where do I get the packages for offline lucy snapshot installation?

You already said that.
I asked a specific question and you still don't answer. It is important.

What device are you using to connect to the internet from your laptop right now?

Does this device also have ethernet ports?

You are posting on a forum right now so we are sure you have internet access. Are you using the GL-AR300-LITE to connect to the internet? I hope you are not.

Instructions differ. It is all easier if you can connect to an ethernet port on the modem/router so I would like it more if you can do that.

If you cannot use an ethernet port on the modem/router, can you at least create a wifi without password? Again it is easier.

When you answer these questions I will post instructions for your case.

in snapshot, the "luci" package is called "luci_git"

but there are others that are installed automatically when you install luci that are not mentioned in the instructions.

The best way is to make an image with the Image Builder https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/imagebuilder

I can also assemble an image like that for you (as I do this for my devices already), if you trust me more than the device manufacturer I can give you a link with the images.

What device are you using to connect to the internet from your laptop right now?

ISP branded modem, has 4 ethernet and wifi

Does this device also have ethernet ports?

4

Are you using the GL-AR300-LITE to connect to the internet?

no, I will use it between my ISP modem and my laptop

If you cannot use an ethernet port on the modem/router, can you at least create a wifi without password?

On the ISP modem I can set up a guest wifi without password.
On ar300-lite I do not know how to without luci.

make an image with the Image Builder

Err, that's way over my ability level.

if you trust me

Very kind of you, not a matter of trust, I would like to be able to do this. Snapshots are like 24 hours before signatures change, and I wish to be able to reset the device and start over whenever, install additional/new packages as needed. Thanks.

I'm guessing that bobafetthotmail is considering if you can set up the GL-AR300M-Lite as a client of your LAN, which would be a relatively simple way to get LuCI installed without as many steps as getting wireless running and the Ethernet switched over to "WAN".


I find that building my own firmware, while the first times were very time-consuming 5-10 years ago, provides a lot of advantages, especially for devices with "only" 16 MB of flash. These days, if I want to add a package, I just build a new image and flash it.

The process for building your own images is outlined at https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/build-system/install-buildsystem and following. Though it is stated there that macOS and FreeBSD can be used, I use a Linux-based distro (Debian) to help maintain a bit of sanity if something goes wrong. You might also want to look at https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/build-system/use-buildsystem#custom_files as a way to pre-configure the device.

Some other suggestions would be to

  • Enable ccache to speed builds
  • Manage your build config (.config and files) with git

On the latter one, if you're comfortable with `nix, you can do it yourself with

git init env
touch env/dot.config
mkdir env/files
git -C env add *
git -C env commit -m 'Empty dot.config and files'
ln -sf env/dot.config .config
ln -sf env/files files

(Note that the above use of -sf will destroy any current .config or files content)

or let the OpenWrt "wrapper" handle it for you

jeff@deb-devel:~/devel/openwrt$ ./scripts/env --help
Usage: ./scripts/env [options] <command> [arguments]
Commands:
	help              This help text
	list              List environments
	clear             Delete all environment and revert to flat config/files
	new <name>        Create a new environment
	switch <name>     Switch to a different environment
	delete <name>     Delete an environment
	rename <newname>  Rename the current environment
	diff              Show differences between current state and environment
	save [message]    Save your changes to the environment, optionally using
	                  the given commit message
	revert            Revert your changes since last save

Options:

Good.

The following instructions give the GL-AR300-LITE a IP address in the same network of the ISP modem, then set the ISP modem IP address as "gateway" and "dns", which is the device providing internet access to client devices. The GL-AR300-LITE will act as a client device and will be accessible through its LAN port, we are not changing that now.

You will change LAN/WAN assignment later when you have installed Luci web interface and enabled wifi.

I will make the example that the ISP modem has IP 192.168.2.1, so we can assign any IP that starts with 192.168.2.xxx. I will assign 192.168.2.200 to the GL-AR300-LITE in the example.

uci set network.lan.ipaddr='192.168.2.200'
uci set network.lan.gateway='192.168.2.1'
uci set network.lan.dns='192.168.2.1'
uci commit
service network restart

This should save the setting and close the ssh connection as the IP address was changed.

You can also disconnect power from the GL-AR300-LITE now, the setting is saved.

Disconnect the cable from the laptop and connect it to the ISP modem ethernet port.

Connect the laptop to the ISP modem with dhcp (normal "automatic IP" way), wifi or ethernet should be the same. Connect to the GL-AR300-LITE at IP 192.168.2.200.

Now it should be able to install Luci.

opkg update
opkg install luci

_
_
Remember, when you installed Luci and you want to use the ISP modem to connect to the WAN port of a OpenWrt router (any router), the LAN IP of the OpenWrt router should be in a different network.
So if your ISP modem has IP 192.168.2.1 your LAN interface on OpenWrt MUST NOT be also 192.168.2.x.
Choose another address like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.3.1 and so on.
So you will probably have to change the IP address of the LAN interface after you installed Luci.

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Writing independently about exactly what @bobafetthotmail just posted. If you completed what he said you don't have to read this.

First identify the network IP and range that your main router uses, and identify an unused IP within that subnet range for your client.
Typically it is either 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 and a suitable unused IP would be 192.168.0.250 or 192.168.1.250 respectively.

Edit /etc/config/network and change the LAN ipaddr to your unused IP. The netmask of 255.255.255.0 is suitable for most situations where the main router is using 192.168.X.1. Also you need to add two lines under lan,
option gateway 192.168.1.1
option dns 192.168.1.1
using the IP of your main router if it is not 192.168.1.1

Edit /etc/config/dhcp and add an 'option ignore 1' to the lan section. This turns off the OpenWrt DHCP server since you want the DHCP server in the main router to handle the network.

Now reboot the router and plug the Ethernet port into the main router. Join the main network in the usual way either wired or wireless and you can log in to the OpenWrt router at its IP address that you set.

Crash course in vi:
vi filename
Hit the "i" key
Use arrows to move the cursor around, as needed type new text or use backspace to erase text. Don't worry if you end up with extra blank lines they won't affect the configuration.
When done hit "esc" ":" "w" and finally "q" to write (save) the file and exit.

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