Hi,
I have Linksys E8450 (UBI) OpenWrt 23.05.5 r24106-10cc5fcd00 / LuCI openwrt-23.05 branch git-24.264.56413-c7a3562 installed.
I am trying to use Attended-Sysupgrade to upgrade to the latest version 24.
It seems it creates the firmware but when I install it and it finishes the installation process, I am still with the same old version 23.05.5.
I read a few post here about different installers but id not clear to me if those are needed for the initial upgrade or for the UBI already existing openwrt installation.
Can someone please suggest me how to upgrade this router to the latest version?
It is just a dumb AP butI would like to retain the configuration if possible.
thank you
There was a major data layout change between 23.x UBI and 24.10 UBI. In order to upgrade to 24.x UBI, you must run the new installer from https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer/releases/tag/v1.1.4. If you don't run the installer, the new firmware will refuse to load. The process of running the installer is similar to the one you ran for 23.x. You upgrade to the file marked recovery-installer, and then you must upgrade to the 24.10 sysupgrade file. You cannot retain the configuration between the two versions. If you try to restore the old configuration, there are things that can break and it will also prevent future upgrades.
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Upgrading is described at https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/e8450.
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Ok, thank you.
So in the link to https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/e8450 i read:" Just flashing the UBI image alone is not enough and will brick the device! Be sure to run the installer above!"
So, since I already 23.05.5 openwrt installed, is the following file the correct installer before installing the 24.10 release?
-24.10.0-mediatek-mt7622-linksys_e8450-ubi-initramfs-recovery-installer
1.1.4 is the one I would have used, yes.
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The device page here gives a specific procedure for migrating a config, but it doesn't work for me, and your post suggests it cannot work. Is the device page procedure for migrating the config valid or not?
Yes, the device page does show the correct method to force the firmware to accept an old configuration. However, unless your configuration is extremely complex, I personally don't recommend retaining the configuration when upgrading to a new major release or when moving to or from snapshot.
There have been significant changes across releases before (and this happens frequently in snapshot), and retaining an old config won't usually take that into account. To the credit of the devs for this device, there have been few breaking changes device-wise. Packages, on the other hand, are a very different story. In other words, you may or may not have success in using a configuration intended for a different major release.
Thanks. Not sure who maintains the device page, but perhaps a bigger disclaimer along the lines of your post might be helpful to folks like me who followed the instructions but couldn't understand why it wasn't working. It doesn't look like an open wiki, so I don't think I can just go in there and cross-post your note. Thanks again for the response.
Just bellow the paragraph you read that, you'll find the proper instructions to upgrading to 23.05.x to 24.10.x or current SNAPSHOTs.
See, here.
Anyone with a GitHub account can edit the wiki. In fact, I wrote the instructions for upgrading to 24.10.x.
After I wrote the instructions, someone else edited them to improve the language, but the proedure is the same (flash the 1.1.4 installer, router will reboot to recovery, flash the 24.10.x sysupgrade there, profit). To restore an old config, you must add the compat_version 2.0 to /etc/config/system by issuing a SSH command beforehand. And also remove the ubi layout files, must be done.
I applied the procedure on 2 routers and went fine. And many other people on the RT3200 main thread have done so. You can ask here or there, to see what's wrong in your case.
Many thanks. I will take some more time to see if I can figure out what's breaking when I activate the old config, having deleted the ubi layout files. I suppose I have to crack it open and get at the serial port to know, unless you can think of some other trick - like a strategy to grab ever-larger sets of specific old config files and overwrite the v24 default backup with those files to isolate which old config files cause the problems.
If I can't figure it out, perhaps I'll edit the wiki and add the cautionary note. Thanks again.
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Yikes I am in trouble. I actually had my build of v24.10.1 running, but when I made some small changes to menuconfig and re-flashed, I got an image warning again. So I did the procedure: re-flashed the dangowrt installer latest (v1.1.4), booted into intitramfs, but from there flashing the sysupgrade (which doesn't require -F) or my own build no longer works, I'm stuck forever booting into the recovery partition.
Now what?!
On the step 4 of the upgrade in the Wiki it clearly states:
All future releases can be safely flashed using LuCI, Attended Sysupgrade or OWUT unless a new installer is required and is instructed to be flashed.
So, you made the mistake of using the installer again.
Maybe @grauerfuchs can chime in and help you how to recover and get the router working.
Again, DO NOT use the installer if you're already on 24.10.x or SNAPSHOTs after February 2024. You only have to flash sysupgrade images from now on and posibly forever.
Thanks. Yes, I made that mistake, but when I do flash a normal release, it no longer works, it just keeps restarting in recovery.
Hello, I have E8450 running since 22.03 till now so gonna update it to 24.10.1 or latest snapshot.
I used installer 0.6.5,
then flashed openwrt-22.03.0-rc6-mediatek-mt7622-linksys_e8450-ubi-squashfs-sysupgrade.itb
is it I have to use install 1.1.4,
then sysupgrade 24.10.1 linksys_e8450-ubi-squashfs-sysupgrade.itb ?
cannot use linksys_e8450-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin ?
If you're already on 24.10 and try to re-run the installer, it won't work. Instead, it'll leave the router in the variant of the recovery firmware contained in the binary. With the installer written into flash, there is no production firmware; The installer has taken its place but it can't do what it's expected to do.
Let the device boot into recovery. From there, You should only need to install the proper 24.10.x sysupgrade and that will replace the broken image.
If that doesn't work, you can perform the operation from the U-Boot menu by running the 'Load production system via TFTP then write to flash' boot menu option followed by 'Reset all settings to factory defaults.'
Edit:
If the router keeps booting into recovery even after it has been given the correct sysupgrade, you may need to disconnect power and all cables from the router, wait 30 seconds, and then try again. Some people are having an issue where the router keeps going back to recovery because (we think) there is something stuck in the memory that makes it think it needs recovery. The memory is completely cleared when you perform a cold boot.
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Yes, you need to run UBI installer 1.1.4 to upgrade your router from the old 0.6.5 (23.0.x) layout to the 24.10 layout
Correct, the sysupgrade you must use contains the -ubi- text. If the file name does not contain that text, it is not compatible with your router and will break it in bad ways.
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Many thanks. I ended up taking it apart and restoring it via the serial port, the special utility, and tftpd. It's all set.
What caused me to wrongly think I needed to run the installer a second time was that when I tried to do a routine flash of a minor update to my build, I got the image warning screen (do you want to force...). I foolishly assumed that the UBI fix from the special installer had somehow reverted and needed to be reapplied.
The cause was a missing config_version statement in uci that caused the installer to warn. The warning screen language in luci should probably have that case added.
Thanks for the time and help
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