Linksys EA8300 spontaneous reboots (OpenWRT 22.03.5 & 24.10)

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I'm new to OpenWRT and have followed the OpenWRT install process for the Linksys EA8300 but have run into a problem with the router spontaneously rebooting after anywhere from 30secs to 20minutes.

I flashed OpenWRT 22.03.5 okay and then did set fw_setenv kernsize 500000 and verified that it was set. I then created an OpenWRT 24.10.1 firmware package (into which I included the BATMAN mesh packages) and flashed that through Luci. This all seemed to work fine and I was part way through setting up my Mesh network when the EA8300 decided to reboot itself.

I managed to start the EA8300 & logged back into Luci, and after some re-attempts at getting things setup, I ended up having to flash (through Luci) the recommended/supported OpenWRT 24.10.0 image. This also started rebooting itself after a few seconds/minutes.

I then flashed (through Luci) the original OpenWRT 22.03.5 image. This seemed okay at first, but also spontaneously reboots after a few seconds/minutes.

When the EA8300 reboots, I get a slow blinking yellow 'WPS' light, which is then followed by a rapid blinking white 'WPS' light. At that point the EA8300 is stuck and I have no option but to power off.

If i power off the EA8300 and wait a few seconds, usually the EA8300 will boot and give me the white 'Linksys' light - at that point I can log into Luci at http://192.168.1.1 normally and check a few things. But after a few seconds/minutes, it will once again spontaneously reboot and mostly becomes stuck at the rapid blinking 'WPS' light.

Does anyone know why my EA8300 keeps rebooting even on OpenWRT 22.03.5 ?
Does anyone know how to recover it? (I haven't tried the dual-boot thing to get back to the Linksys firmware as I've: a) never done it before b) not sure where i would go from there other than to repeat the OpenWRT flashing process and perhaps just end up back where I was with a rebooting EA8300?

I did try switching the power-adapter just in case it was faulty, but this made no difference.

I did capture a Syslog and Kernel Log, but this was soon after powering on the EA8300 and before any spontaneous reboots had happened (and i'm not sure which version of OpenWRT it was running when I took the logs)

Any help/advice/suggestions??

2

I think you should have set the kernsize BEFORE installing 23.05. You might try installing 22.x and then setting the kernsize again. Then upgrade to a newer version. Also, if you've installed OpenWRT twice already, then the original Linksys firmware has been overwritten.

2 Likes
3

Recommended is 24.10.1, it solves the LAN to LAN issue. The download page does not update correctly hence it still displays 24.10.0.

So after the spontaneous reboot, the device enter a non usable state. Reboot is not successfull. Can you log the boot with serial console in order to find where it stucks?
Have you try to use the default image (hence no batman nor extra package) ?
Did you start with a fresh install, so not keeping settings from any previous version?

4

Damn right ! I wonder how the OP managed to flash and run 23.05 before this.

5

Oops, sorry - i got the version numbers wrong in my original post - it was 22.03.5 i flashed from the original Linksys web interface (not 23.05). I'll correct my original post as otherwise it'll confuse matters.

So I flashed 22.03.5, then set the kernsize, then flashed my 24.10.01 image (which was built with BATMAN included). This all worked and I started setting up BATMAN Mesh, and about 20mins in, it spontaneously rebooted.

I was able to restart and get into Luci and quickly uploaded a 24.10.0 image (without BATMAN). But the spontaneous reboot thing keeps happening after a few minutes.

I did manage to install BATMAN and set everything up and it was running for perhaps 1-2 hours, and now I find it has rebooted and the 'WPS' light is once again stuck in fast blinking and the device is in a non usable state.

I did manage to install the Advanced Reboot package and I can see that OpenWRT is now on BOTH partitions (but different versions).

I dont actually have a serial console cable and i'm not sure I would have the knowledge to know how to use it (i didn't get to that part of the OpenWRT instructions yet).

6

Sounds better :wink:

That's the expected behavior. You can still flash back Linkys GUI if you want.
http://downloads.linksys.com/downloads/firmware/FW_EA8300_1.1.4.191539_prod.img

24.10.1 solves the LAN to LAN issue, so forget 24.10.0.
Try to start with the default 24.10.1 image and do not keep settings when flashing. Setup a basic configuration and use the device for several hours.
In case the fault is still here, than the serial log at boot is the key. It's not that hard to use.

7

You really need to get a serial cable so you can check console status / errors.

I have an EA8300 and 6350v3 that I compile my own images for and then flash.

For some reason, with 24.10.0, the kernsize variable reset/cleared while doing a flash upgrade on the 6350v3 (also ipq40xx). I had no idea that happened until I hooked up the serial cable.

Once I reset that kernsize variable to 500000, restarted, the router booted up normally. Then I flashed 24.10 twice, and it has been working fine ever since then.

If you can get into the router console again, re-check your kernsize variable.

1 Like
8

Okay, I've realised now that every time it ends up in this 'frozen' state with the WPS light fast blinking white, that when I power it off & back on again, its booting the other partition.

I can still get it to stay alive long enough to flash a new image, so I have just re-flashed 22.03.5 and SSH'd in and done a fw_printenv

root@OpenWrt:~# fw_printenv
altkern=5f80000
auto_recovery=yes
baudrate=115200
boot_part_ready=3
boot_ver=1.2.9
bootcmd=if test $auto_recovery = no; then bootipq; elif test $boot_part = 1; then run bootpart1; else run bootpart2; fi
bootdelay=2
bootpart1=set bootargs $partbootargs && nand read $loadaddr $prikern $kernsize && bootm $loadaddr
bootpart2=set bootargs $partbootargs2 && nand read $loadaddr $altkern $kernsize && bootm $loadaddr
ethact=eth0
ethaddr=00:03:7f:ba:db:ad
flash_type=2
flashimg=tftp $loadaddr $image && nand erase $prikern $imgsize && nand write $loadaddr $prikern $filesize
flashimg2=tftp $loadaddr $image && nand erase $altkern $imgsize && nand write $loadaddr $altkern $filesize
image=dallas.img
imgsize=5800000
ipaddr=192.168.1.1
kernsize=500000
loadaddr=84000000
machid=8010006
netmask=255.255.255.0
partbootargs=init=/sbin/init rootfstype=ubifs ubi.mtd=11,2048 root=ubi0:ubifs rootwait rw
partbootargs2=init=/sbin/init rootfstype=ubifs ubi.mtd=13,2048 root=ubi0:ubifs rootwait rw
prikern=780000
serverip=192.168.1.254
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
boot_part=2

So the kernsize is as it should be. So I will now try flashing the 'standard' 24.10.1 sysupgrade image for the EA8300 (ie. not my image with the BATMAN bits installed) and then i'll leave it running for a few hours and see what happens.

(oh, i've always said to 'Not Keep Settings' and 'Force Update' when flashing the images)

9

Okay, now applied the 'standard' 24.10.1 sysupgrade image for EA8300 and logged back into Luci and the frontpage says:

Hostname OpenWrt
Model Linksys EA8300 (Dallas)
Architecture ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
Target Platform ipq40xx/generic
Firmware Version OpenWrt 24.10.1 r28597-0425664679 / LuCI (HEAD detached at 2ac26e56) branch 25.103.51521~2ac26e5
Kernel Version 6.6.86

So I'll leave it like that for a while and see what happens.

1 Like
10

Sounds reasonable.
Now that you have OpenWrt on both partitions, keep one with a stable settings that you have backed up. Always install luci-app-advanced-rebbot, it allows to return from an unstable partition to the stable one, for flashing again.

11

Okay, its been running 30mins on 24.10.1 without any reboots (although I've not actually been logged into it or doing anything with it).

So I hooked up a WAN cable, Updated Package Lists, and installed the Advanced Reboot package. Then I rebooted it. The Advanced Reboot options gives:

Linksys EA8300 Partitions

Partition Status Firmware Reboot
01 Current OpenWrt 24.10.1 (Linux 6.6.86) Reboot to current partition
02 Alternative OpenWrt (Linux 5.10.176) Reboot to alternative partition...

And if Google tells me correctly, Linux 5.10.176 = OpenWRT 22.03.5. So I'll leave that partition there and wait and see if the current 24.10.1 partition does any funny reboot stuff.

If everything goes okay, i'll reboot to the OTHER 22.03.5 partition and try applying the 'standard' 24.10.1 sysupgrade image there. That way i'll have two safe 24.10.1 partitions.

Then i'll use Luci to apply the BATMAN packages and see how it goes from there.

I did read some of the Serial Cable details - i'm thinking that could be beyond my skill level as it appears to mean opening it up and soldering wires to some points on the PCB??

12

These were the packages I was trying to install/remove to get BATMAN Mesh working:

opkg install kmod-batman-adv
opkg install batctl-default

opkg remove wpad-basic-mbedtls
opkg remove wpad-basic
opkg remove wpad-basic-wolfssl

opkg install wpad-mesh-wolfssl
opkg install nano

There's nothing significant in these that might be causing the spontaneous reboot problem is there?

13

Simply sysupgrade from 24.10.1. You'll have both partitions running 24.10.1 and you can also keep settings. What you described means that you want to keep 22.03.5 (I can understand).

Rather than installing packages from LuCI, flash a custom image already including these packages. It's safer. Use the firmawre selector with these packages. Is there any reason that you want wpad-wolfssl rather than mbedtls?

ath10k-board-qca4019 ath10k-firmware-qca4019-ct base-files ca-bundle dnsmasq dropbear firewall4 fstools kmod-ath10k-ct kmod-gpio-button-hotplug kmod-leds-gpio kmod-nft-offload kmod-usb-dwc3 kmod-usb-dwc3-qcom kmod-usb3 libc libgcc -libustream-mbedtls logd mtd netifd nftables odhcp6c odhcpd-ipv6only opkg ppp ppp-mod-pppoe procd-ujail uboot-envtools uci uclient-fetch urandom-seed urngd -wpad-basic-mbedtls ath10k-firmware-qca9888-ct kmod-usb-ledtrig-usbport luci luci-app-advanced-reboot kmod-batman-adv batctl-default wpad-wolfssl libustream-wolfssl20201210

14

Well, creating a Custom image with the right packages, is what I had tried before, it seems to have not worked out for some reason, resulting in the reboots & frozen device.

So I think it may be 'safer' to try installing the required packages within Luci.

The reason I'm trying to install these packages, is because I'm following the instructions given here:

for setting up 802.11s mesh using Batman. I recently bought six Lyra Map AC-2200 devices on eBay (all six were just £20!) and I've flashed them all with OpenWRT and configured my mesh network as per the instructions. Now I want to add my Linksys EA8300 to the same mesh network.

So far, with my EA8300 on 24.10.1 (with only Advanced Reboot package installed) it's been running without any issue. Tomorrow, I'll try installing the additional Batman packages and see what happens.

1 Like
15

Yes sometimes the firmware selector can bug, in this case use a image builder.


Install additional software and upgrade existing packages with opkg.
**Warning!** Package operations can [break your system](https://openwrt.org/meta/infobox/upgrade_packages_warning).

Is it clear? :wink:
Installing packages through a custom image is the recommended way. Especially is you need to remove some for installing others.

In order to have full capabilites in wpad, don't use wpad-mesh-* but the complete package.

16

Okay, I'll use opkg install/remove on the cmdline to install the additional packages, but I don't want to go back to trying to create a Custom Firmware build, as that I think is what caused my reboot problem.

If I can't get it working & stable after installing the required packages, then I might try building a new Custom image.

Are you saying I should install the whole wpad package & all dependencies, not just wpad-mesh-* ??

17

That's exaclty the same problem.

The commands you shown previously displayed errors in packages list. They are mbedtls / wolffssl dependencies issues.

Wiser.

Yes. Files size differences are irrelevant, and at least you will have the full feature capabilities.

18

Just in general.

KERNSIZE is either set correctly - or not (in which case 23.05.x and up can't successfully boot up). This is a black XOR white question, so there's no point going back to a previous version to set it again (the setting is either there, XOR it isn't). Likewise this can't be a cause for spontaneous reboots after the system has already booted up successfully, it can only prevent the system from booting up (but once you can ssh into it, that can no longer be a reason) - and it can't be involved in flaky boots (once it boots up, another time it doesn't), it either always fails or not.

19

No. Installing and removing packages is fine. Upgrading packages is a different operation and it is the upgrades that tend to break things.

1 Like
20

Have you tried replacing your power brick? An insufficient or failing power supply can cause reboots.

Be sure to get/use a supply with the same voltage rating and the same or greater current capacity.