sysupgrade will not nuke partitions, as long as the partitions in the image match those already on the disk. It's a somewhat high risk strategy, because few of us will actually track whether there have been partition changes. However, it does allow you to have the OS and persistent data on one SD card.
I am keeping regular backups and will just roll the dice, every time I upgrade.
Hi! Does the R4S dual ports work immediately with 22.03 rc6 image? Nothing to install to get both ports working?
Or only 1 port initially works and then you have to manually install a package to get 2nd port?
Thanks !
havent tried. i'm still using an older anaelorlinski image.
untill they sort openwrt for stable i'm not really spending time trouble shooting rc builds as i dont have much free time lately.
edit : also given they just disabled ARM hardware encryption cos of arguments over the pi not supporting it. I'd rather have hw encryption than not. its NOT a god damn router and the fact you do not have hw licence in place for transcoding or encryption cos raspberry crew didn't pay for it makes it a VERY poor choice as a router as VPNs will be crippled on it. also its wifi is pitiful 1x1
Its suppose to work, at least it worked for me when i tried rc1 and rc3 when i owned a R4S which i sold recently to buy this:
Anyway if you still did not buy a R4S, then i would advise you to wait for the R6S and get that instead, since it has a much better CPU.
They have worked fine for me with snapshots since before 22.03 was tagged.
Confirmed. All ports works out of the box with all 22.03 RCs and snapshots.
So, how is it configured?
I've been thinking of doing the same.
If you are going to use openwrt you can either run it using a NVME SSD, Sata SSD, a good quality USB stick or a SD card.
The only thing to pay attention is that if you are going to use a NVME SSD, you will need to add a heatsink to the NVME and might need to add a 40mm 5v 4pin fan to the bottom of metal case, otherwise the NVME generates a lot of heat.
BTW that link that i provided is the best version out there right now, its the brand new V4 version with a brand new 2.5 Gbe ethernet controller the intel I226-V.
Also dont buy the combos which include ram and ssd, buy the bare bones unit(no ram and no ssd) and buy good quality ram and storage by yourself.
You can also buy it strait from the board manufacture ChangWang, since they also now have a store in aliexpress:
Thank you
I build my own PCs and have DDR4 and a few M2 drives.
I also have the heatsinks from those as motherboards come with their own. Shoot, I even have a 40mm Noctua setting around.
I think the new offering is what I've been waiting on.
I won't buy anything without 2.5 Gbe Ethernet ports any longer.
Thanks again for the info!
Of course, there's always the 'are there drivers for new hardware' thing with OpenWRT
Just keep in mind that according to the board specifications pdf, the fan header on it, its a 5v 4pin one:
http://pan.changwang.com:8888/1/main/产品规格书/主板规格书/迷你主机系列/第三版N5105文档资料
Yes, this new v4 version is using the brand new intel I226-V 2.5 Gbe which might not be supported by openwrt yet.
If that is a problem, then you can buy the v3 version instead which comes with the intel I225-V B3 2.5 Gbe ethernet controller which is already supported by openwrt as you can see below:
I225-V B3
I226-V
Its brand new.
Hi all
There is only a "sysupgrade" image for R4S.
There is no "factory" or base image to install.
So how do I actually install 22.03 rc6?
What base / factory image do I use ?
There’s in the wiki page https://openwrt.org/toh/friendlyarm/nanopi_r4s_v1 -> Firmware OpenWrt snapshot Install
Install it and upgrade to the RC6 or snapshot
But even that is sysupgrade? Don't you need a "factory" first, for sysupgrade to work?
No because there’s no “factory OS” on the R4S 
you have only an empty microSD card. For that it needs an “install” and not “factory to OpenWrt”.
You need to flash the sd with the “install” (ext4) and then upgrade to ‘what you want’ (I suggest to use the squashFS)
Ok thanks, I tried it anyway and just got it work
Another question if you can help. The internet is working fine now through R4S router but when I try to run opkg update I get this:
Anything wrong with my config files?
You set the R4S IP to .2.1, are you sure of it? It can ping 1.1.1.1 (from it, not from the clients)?
If the address is correct, then try to set in the R4S the gateway of your “main” router or modem… you need to explain your network 
Yes sure it is .2.1 - that's the only way I can correctly ssh to it.
These screenshots is via ssh on a client. Ping looks fine ?
Ok I will try but internet is working fine . Only thing not working is opkg update
It's a simple network here. R4S plugs into modem on WAN. R4S plugs to unmanaged network switch on LAN.
Errors via Luci:
I'm building a dashboard for Grafana using Prometheus for the R4S but the nice features is that I have both the R4S as a router stats + the R7800 as AP wifi stats.
And I've also recreated the local dashboard to Grafana Cloud free account, so I can browse my home stats without using VPN but I use the local dashboard to save long term stats and receive the alerts (features not free for the Cloud Grafana)
I use this setup also to retrieve sme push alerts to the iPhone when xyz trigger is active, useful for know when the R4S is "working" for SQM or the temps rise a bit too much, an ayz Mac address join the WLAN, etc..
Here's a video link (also for the cloud dashboard, that's identical to local): https://streamable.com/gu2lya
Preview
Alerts panel
I'm writing an article with the details for the dashboard and setup, the R4S is a very nice device. I'm also trying a wifi 6ax AP attached to it with OpenWrt (the Netgear WAX202) but I'm not happy with the speed, near the AP I get 7/800mbps, but just few meters far and I have worse speed than the R7800 wifi 5ac. Maybe is too soon to use wifi ax on OpenWrt.
I'm only waiting for the Gigabit home connection. Now to me seems incredible to have 0 bufferbloat under load. And I don't have any issue but I think my device is one of the latest because it's different from the review I saw online, for example it doesn't have the hole on the rear (what's this? for a wall mount? but it's horrible 
), and the "rubber/plastic feet" (but maybe he added them) and it doesn't suffer from the microSD power with safe reboot. I can reboot it via SSH without need to manually remove the power cable.
And what's the modem IP? .1.1?
You have not posted screenshots of the ping from the R4s to internet, just to understand if it's a DNS issue or not, because opkg needs to resolve the addresses to avoid the failures you are getting.
Yes but I suspect you can browse internet because you have the right DNS on your clients and not on the R4S, from your config there's only WAN DNS, try to set the DNS also on the LAN interface:
Example, my config, use your/cloudflare DNS in your setup 1.1.1.1
config interface 'LAN'
option device 'br-LAN'
option proto 'static'
option netmask '255.255.255.0'
list dns '192.168.1.4'
option ipaddr '192.168.1.2'
PS: sometimes, in my case (during the first setup)by just using service network reload after I changed the network settings, didn't work correctly, I had to restart the device. I have no idea of why.