I have a Netgear R7800 running Openwrt 23.05.6 and would like to upgrade it to 24.10.6. The upgrade method I usually use, which is going to System → Backup / Flash Firmware does not work. The upload of the 24.10.6 file succeeds but I’m presented with a two red warning boxes with confusing wording.
The first red box seems to say that I cannot keep my settings, so I tried unchecking the “keep settings” option but was still unable to proceed (it says to click “continue” but the continue button does nothing if clicked).
The second red box seems to be a warning not to use the “Force” checkbox because “the image format check failed” so I have left it unchecked. It sounds like something that might brick the router but it’s not clear to me what this warning means. I tried re-downloading the firmware and uploading to the router again but still get the second warning that the firmware image check failed.
Is there just not a way to do an upgrade from 23 to 24 on the R7800? Or am I missing something obvious?
I was able to upgrade my Netgear WAX220 from 23 to 24 with no problems and did not get either red warning message that I’m seeing on the R7800.
This has been adressed numerous times during past years. You need to upgrade without keeping settings as the newer version runs with DSA. This is told ... by the red warning !
After flashing you need to reconfigure from scratch (but you can import data from the previous settings). Finally consider upgrading to 25.12.
This target may have already migrated in an earlier version. Hence no warning message.
Ok, but how do I upgrade is the question. Even if I uncheck the “keep settings” box, I still can’t get past the dialog. What else do I need to do in order proceed with the upgrade? If you can point me to another discussion that has the answer, that would be enough. I’ve searched the forum but not found anything helpful yet.
Thanks for the help! I ignored the big red warning not to force and checked force In the end it worked out ok. Took a couple of hours to find and reset all my config stuff and get everything working again but I’m back online now.
I think that warning message could use a rewrite to be a little more clear; something that tells the user they actually NEED to check force if they want to upgrade in a case where they can’t keep their config settings. That stuff about a failed image check makes it sound like something is wrong with the firmware image and using force will cause some breakage.
In the end it worked out ok. Took a couple of hours to find and reset all my config stuff and get everything working again but I’m back online now.