Issues upgrading from DD-WRT to OpenWRT - Archer C7 v4

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Greetings,
I'm migrating my wireless infrastructure to OpenWRT. The Linksys and Buffalo devices were a cinch to upgrade. The Archer....not so much. I tried both the factory and the upgrade packages. It says it's upgrading but then reboots back into DD-WRT. I found some instructions that said I needed to reset the original firmware, so I tried. The firmware does the same thing...says it is updating but then reboots back into dd-wrt. I found someone in the OpenWRT forums having the same issue with v2 so I tried that...says it is upgrading and reboots back into DD-WRT...I found directions that say I have to install DD-WRT before I can install OpenWRT, well I'm half way there already! Guess what...says it is updating the firmware and boots right back into DD-WRT.

Found someone say they couldn't update except via command line...so telnet into the Archer C7, wget the firmware, and run write /tmp/firmware.bin linux. Says it's updating...reboots into DD-WRT.

So I tried upgrading DD-WRT to the latest daily just to make sure that I hadn't broken anything. Updated just fine. (And booted back into DD-WRT :wink: ).
Well, now that I'm on the latest version of DD-WRT I might as well try a few things again...when I update either of the OpenWRT firmware images, says it updates but then reboots into DD-WRT...and the factory reset image? Reboots back into DD-WRT. Tried the command line again:

root@DD-WRT:~# write /tmp/firmware.bin linux
flash : /tmp/firmware.bin: Bad trx header

Well, at least it's something different. :slight_smile:

I'm at a loss; nothing but DD-WRT seems to update. What am I doing wrong?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks!

2

Careful with your experimentation, it's easy to overwrite your radio calibration data (ART) or bootloader that way. Make sure to backup as much as you can and save it securely.

3

don't know for V4, but for C7V2, I just issue the following:

mtd -f write openwrt-factory linux

HTH

4

That did it! Thank you very much! :confetti_ball:

And just in case someone else needs this tip, I wget the sysupgrade file saving it as /tmp/fimware.bin

root@DD-WRT:~# mtd -f write /tmp/firmware.bin linux
Unlocking linux ...
flash : Could not unlock MTD device: linux
linux: No such file or directory
Writing from /tmp/firmware.bin to linux ...  [w]
Warning unaligned data, we use manual padding to avoid errors. size was 301!!!
root@DD-WRT:~# reboot

And it worked.

2 Likes
5

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.