MikroTik RouterBOARD 493G - Install / Upgrade from OpenWRT

Installing and Using OpenWrt
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Edit: I never posted back, but the sysupgrade method does work for a 493G using LEDE 17.01.4.

Steps taken:

  1. Boot router via TFTP using lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-mikrotik-vmlinux-initramfs-lzma.elf as image.

This is required as the OpenWRT sysupgrade is not capable of operating on this device, so we need a modern LEDE one on hand...

I personally used dnsmasq on a local PC and plugged the router WAN to the PC Ethernet port to boot, plus used a null-modem serial cable to tell the 493G bootloader to boot from network.

pc$ ip address add 192.168.1.10/24 dev enp2s0
pc$ dnsmasq -i enp2s0 --dhcp-range=192.168.1.100,192.168.1.200 \
    --dhcp-boot="lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-mikrotik-vmlinux-initramfs-lzma.elf" \
    --enable-tftp --tftp-root="/tmp/" -d -u $USER -p0 -K --log-dhcp --bootp-dynamic

pc$ screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
(then pick "o" for boot option, and "1" for from ethernet)

This should get you a local BusyBox shell with LEDE 17.01.4 booted in memory. You can kill dnsmasq now.

(set a password as this allows remote login later)
router$ passwd

Done!

  1. Flash with sysupgrade using lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-mikrotik-nand-large-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin as image.

Plug PC into the LAN port on the router now, and get an IP from the newly booted router via DHCP.

pc$ dhclient -r enp2s0
pc$ scp lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-mikrotik-nand-large-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin root@192.168.1.1:/tmp

Back in the router session, trigger the upgrade.

router$ sysupgrade -n /tmp/lede-17.01.4-ar71xx-mikrotik-nand-large-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

That's it!

Hopefully this can be of use to other people in future.

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