I attempted to install OpenWRT after following the guidance in the referenced pull request. My unit is an A0 revision with sufficient memory, and I successfully unlocked mtd0 and completed the initial preparation steps. However, during the USB-based initial OpenWRT install, the device stopped responding normally. It now powers on to a solid orange LED, briefly blinking three times after about ten seconds, with no LAN activity or link lights. Reset no longer appears to function
I am concerned the device may be bricked and am seeking insight or recovery options.
I used a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller and the Raspberry Pi Imager to do a FAT32 partition on it because I find that the rPi imager works best when I've done FAT partitions for other things (SD cards for cameras and such). Maybe FAT32 isn't a good choice? Maybe 1GB isn't a good choice (even though the image sizes are < 6MB)?
Hm. That's what I thought. Maybe my 1GB is bad. I may have a 512MB flash card I can put in an adapter and use that. I'll see what happens. The 8GB USB stick formatted as a 4GB FAT partition is doing the same thing.
Okay, thanks. I'm finding the smallest I have is a 1GB thumb drive and that one doesn't seem to work. It may be a bad drive though, so it might not be a valid test. I have more at home but I'm not there right now.
Well, now I have a 512MB USB drive formatted as FAT with openwrt-bcm5862x-generic-meraki_mx64a0-initramfs-kernel.bin on it in the MX64. The drive has an LED light that blinks when in use. It blinked briefly at about the same time that the MX64 LED blinked, and then all blinking on both lights has stopped.
Am I supposed to rename the .bin file to something else? The instructions said not to but maybe they're old? I've run out of USB sticks here at the office.
PS C:\Users\Eric Loyd> chkdsk g:
The type of the file system is FAT.
Shadow copying the specified volume is not supported.
Volume NEW VOLUME created 1/8/2026 3:31 PM
Volume Serial Number is 5ABF-5309
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.
What should the LED behavior be if it's successful?
Well, I guess I'm at an impasse then unless I can get some very small SD cards to use as USB drives from home tonight. Nothing I do seems to let me get past the three blinks and you're out stage.
Just try different USB sticks first, keep in mind that you can (temporarily) repartition (DOS MBR, FAT16) to get smaller filesystems (leaving the rest unpartitioned. Yes, the chances are better with old/ small USB sticks, but that doesn't imply that you can't get lucky with not quite that old/ small ones (if properly prepared; using linux for this might make this easier). Serial console access is of course always beneficial, to help you see what's going on.
Thanks. I did try reducing the partition size to make it smaller, but the smallest I tried was 128MB. Maybe I need to go smaller. I'll keep trying. Thanks!
Well, I guess I'm stuck. I have a 512MB USB stick that I tried it with, and it doesn't work. I reduced the partition size down to 8MB, and it doesn't work. I tried it with the .bin file called all of the following, and it doesn't work. Every time I power it up, after 10 seconds I get three blinks on the MX64 LED and if I happen to have a memory stick plugged in that has an activity light of it's own, I get a few blinks on that and then nothing. Can someone confirm that at least one of these is the correct filename?
How easy is it to get a console on one of these things? I don't see any obvious ways to open it up short of destructive ones.
So I've now tried this with 512MB USB flash drive, a 128MB CompactFlash drive with a USB adapter, multiple versions of some form of USB stick with 16MB partitions created, and I've put all three versions of the filenames mentioned in my previous post onto these things. No luck. I still get three orange LED flashes at about 10 seconds and then nothing.
Interestingly, if I plug a LAN port into my desktop switch, the desktop switch gets a link light but the MX64 LAN port does not. Not sure what that means.
I'm at a loss of what to do with this thing now, because I can't even seem to reset it to try all of this over again. I'm happy to jam a UART cable onto it to stare at console messages, but I'm not sure how to get it apart. Any guidance anyone can offer at this point would be groovy.
Minor progress. I made a bunch of changes to the name of the file that I put on the drive and finally got something different to happen. The MX64 orange LED blinks three times still, but then the activity LED on my USB stick blinks a bunch of times for a few seconds and then stops. This is new behavior. I still don't have link lights on the LAN ports or network though.
The filename that made things better was openwrt-bcm53xx-generic-meraki_mx64_a0-initramfs.bin but it still is basically a brick.
If anyone knows how I can open this thing to get to a console UART, I would appreciate it.
The full thread discussing the MX64 and MX65 support is over here:
You will have to remove the rubber feet to get to the screws that allow you to open the device. There should be a header on the board for uart if I remember correctly.
The MX64 and MX65 were working with Clayface initial OpenWrt images. Then things stalled and it took a while for someone else to make the final changes to get them officially supported. I'm not sure which install images you are using but it is probably best to hook up serial such that you can see the actual file names that it is expecting.
Thanks for the link. I was using the image placed in the thread that said a previous thread had stalled. But I'll take it from here. I ripped a rubber foot off earlier but didn't see a screw. I guess I didn't realize there's a layer of thick adhesive. I see them now. I'll UART it and see what it says. Thanks!
