Need assistance upgrading MR18 (OpenWrt 18.06.4, r7808-ef686b7292) to 24.10.0

donald_f · June 26, 2025, 5:44pm

Hi,

I am attempting to upgrade a MR18 that I have from OpenWrt 18.06.4 to 24.10.0.

I attempted to use the command line as luci seems to be down.
I have downloaded the file to /tmp
ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6809897 Jun 26 17:29 openwrt-24.10.0-ath79-nand-meraki_mr18-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

When I run the below command I get this error.
root@OpenWrt:/tmp# sysupgrade -v openwrt-24.10.0-ath79-nand-meraki_mr18-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Invalid sysupgrade file for mr18
Image check 'platform_check_image' failed.

Can someone guide me on how to go about upgrading to 24 or point to some article where I can upgrade without bricking. I have already bricked two units a year back.

Thanks

frollic · June 26, 2025, 6:10pm

Release by release...

donald_f · June 26, 2025, 7:16pm

To my knowledge Openwrt wasn't ported all all releases due to some drivers issues with ath79... only the later releases...

brada4 · June 26, 2025, 7:20pm

19.07.latest mandates config reset. Not "issue" but architecture change.

donald_f · June 26, 2025, 8:53pm

Thanks
I have upgraded to 19.07 successfully. Performed a factory reset.
Now if I try to upgrade to "openwrt-23.05.5-ath79-nand-meraki_mr18-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" or "openwrt-24.10.0-ath79-nand-meraki_mr18-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" via Luci I get the below error...

Device mr18 not supported by this image Supported devices: meraki,mr18 Invalid sysupgrade file for mr18 Image check failed.

The uploaded image file does not contain a supported format. Make sure that you choose the generic image format for your platform.

badulesia · June 26, 2025, 8:58pm

Follow @frollic 's advice : perform upgrade to the next major release, step by step. Don't keep settings, and reconfigure only when reaching 24.10.2.

brada4 · June 26, 2025, 9:36pm

The settings had to be lost on 18->19 , nothing left to keep.

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 8:54am

The MR18 did not have a release for 21 & 22. Up until OpenWrt 19 it was a tar file, since OpenWrt
23 a bin file that's provided.
I tried following these steps which caused the device to be bricked... https://www.reddit.com/r/openwrt/comments/1ay1o1x/meraki_mr18_device_not_supported_by_this_image/

lleachii · June 27, 2025, 9:16am

Which steps?

Ones located by browsing somewhere on the official Wiki link provided by the OP, or
The unsupported steps located below about altering a BIN file and repacking it?

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 9:42am

I tried uploading the bin file via luci but it failed, hence I tried the reddit article.
My previous experience with uploading tar file worked fine.
How do I deal with a bin file ?

lleachii · June 27, 2025, 10:03am

In the context of the one you altered, no clue.

In general, you never alter a BIN file (the rare exception is when you're altering something binary in a file (e.g. a MAC address in a partition backup) - which you weren't.

As a rule of thumb, official OpenWrt documentation doesn't mentioning altering firmware as found at downloads.openwrt.org

Nonetheless, you bricked your device now - perhaps another user is knowledgeable about unbricking the MR18 in particular.

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 10:34am

Thanks lleachii,

I am not worried about the bricked unit as I still got a another one. I can deal with the bricked unit later.
I am trying to upgrade this unit..

I have downloaded the file from (http://downloads.openwrt.org/) openwrt-23.05.5-ath79-nand-meraki_mr18-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
When I attempt to upload it gives this message

Any idea how to sort this issue ?

badulesia · June 27, 2025, 10:42am

Download both 19.07 and 23.05 files. Decompress their content. Both have a directory and three files. Files have the same names, but notice that the directories don't have the same name.
An idea : decompress 23.05 directory, rename it sysupgrade-mr18 to mimic 19.07 tarball, tar the directory. Flash it.
I also notice that kernel file from 23.05 is only 2.5 MB, which is rather small (maybe too small to be valid).

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 10:51am

That's exactly what I did which bricked the unit. When I uploaded the file it did not give any error or warning during validation as I got on the above screenshot 2. It looked fine so I proceeded.

Now I am stuck.

Edited: you are right the kernel file is smaller compared to 19.07

badulesia · June 27, 2025, 1:06pm

I have checked for a device I know from this subtarget and values are almost the same. Issue may be elsewhere.
Have you also checked that the board name is different in control file?

Have you tried tftp or mtd methods?

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 1:41pm

Thanks for your support...

In older firmware its BOARD=mr18 and new firmware it BOARD=meraki_mr18. I have created a tar with BOARD=mr18, which bricked.

I know only UART method.

hecatae · June 27, 2025, 1:55pm

do you want an initramfs image for the mr18?
That way you can boot the mr18 from it's substantial ram and then do a sysupgrade without saving settings

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 2:01pm

What I really need is some guidance and the correct files.
I have bricked units that I can deal with later.
I have another unit running OpenWrt 19 that I want to upgrade to 23 or 24.
A link to the correct working file and the process to flash it will greatly help.

hecatae · June 27, 2025, 2:08pm

Understood, how many units have you bricked?
tftp a initramfs image and then checking the sysupgrade takes from the booted initramfs would be the simple way to check everything is working as intended.

are you able to compile or would you like someone to volunteer with a fast machine?

donald_f · June 27, 2025, 2:20pm

3 bricked units... they don't even request an IP from DHCP server. Weird leds flashing on the Ethernet port of these units.
Compiling is out of my league, if someone can provided a compiled file with some instruction on how to go about would be nice.

Thanks for your time.