Netgear r6220 'bricked' - confusion in how to rescue

Installing and Using OpenWrt
83

Also made no difference.

84

Sorry. Actually it did - the thing would time out, not complain about permissions.

$ sudo nmrpflash -i enp0s25 -f R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img
Advertising NMRP server on enp0s25 ... -
No response after 60 seconds. Bailing out.
85

But enp0s25 surely isn't the name of your USB Ethernet adapter. It's usually enx<MAC ADDRESS>.

86

well, honestly this may be reflecting my ignorance. Its the result of:

$ ip a
...
2: enp0s25: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 3c:97:0e:cf:00:ec brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
...
87

Oh, sorry sorry - no, there is another entry there for the USB ethnet adapter

I used:

$ sudo nmrpflash -i enx9cebe80718e1 -f R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img
Advertising NMRP server on enx9cebe80718e1 ... |
No response after 60 seconds. Bailing out.
88

I'm noticing you're using nmrpflash installed from apt, which is hopelessly outdated. Version 0.9.14 was released in 2020, more than 4 years ago!

Please the USB ethernet adapter with a current version of nmrpflash.

89

wow. I hadn't thought to check , I didn't think apt was that bad. Lesson learnt.

Will change and come back with a report later.

90

i do not think that is possible, 160MHz on that device.
sorry for offtopic

91

bad news:

$ sudo ./nmrpflash -i enp0s25 -f R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img
Waiting for Ethernet connection (Ctrl-C to skip).
Advertising NMRP server on enp0s25 ... -
Received configuration request from b0:39:56:1a:bc:00.
Sending configuration: 10.164.183.253/24.
Received upload request without filename.
Uploading R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img ... sendto: Operation not permitted
92

Also this:

$ sudo ./nmrpflash -i enp0s25 -f R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img
Advertising NMRP server on enp0s25 ... -
Received TFTP_UL_REQ while waiting for CONF_REQ!
Received upload request without filename.
Uploading R6220-V1.1.0.114_1.0.1.img ... sendto: Operation not permitted

The router descends into a bootloop, and it just seems to be something it returns depending on where it is in that cycle. Usually its the former.

93

Damn !!
I didn't wait that long. I used to the behavior of the router when using windows, and I have assumed the behavior would be the same when using Linux. That is not the case.
Ok I will give it a try the next time.

94

You router is R6200 while my router is R6260 so there could be differences in their behaviour when flashing.

95

a shot in the dark by try:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /path-to-nmrpflash/

then run nmrpflash again

96

it uses the MTK 7615 chip which supports BW160 (I guess BW means bandwidth). Using a wireless scanner you can clearly see it broadcast a 160MHz signal. Technically it should support data rates of 1.8Gb. Could not test it because I don't have any other device that supports BW160. Anyway, I only use 80MHz of bandwidth because I live in a residential area so don't want to occupy more bandwidth than I truly need.

97

i know that, but not in every case it support BW160, i think is just a web interface thing in ddwrt

98

I also had what you described. The behavior while flashing with Linux has been different from what I'm used to while flashing with windows.

99

Ultimately, even the developer of nmrpflash is unsure what is happening here:

jclehner commented May 20, 2024 •

Hmm... I'm kinda stumped by this one.
...
...related to something locally, not the router...

Which has me wondering about a hardware/firmware flaw in my computer.

1 Like
100

you could try downloading hirem boot CD which you can flash to flashdrive and boot into windows 11. If it recognizes your network adapter then you could try nmrpflash for windows that way.

101

I understand the advice was given in good faith.

However, for any that follow this route, please beware that hirem may not leave your hard drive untouched.

My experience:

  • Installed ventoy (allows multiple .iso files to be installed in bootable form on your USB)
  • installed hirem, rescuezilla and system rescue .iso on the bootable USB
  • booted my computer from hirem --> failed to boot Windows in any manner
  • tried rescuezilla and system rescue out of curiosity.
  • booted into normal system --> discover that several files are not longer accessible / corrupted.

ONE of these tools - at least - has corrupted data on my SSD. I have backups for some, not everything.

Really quite angry, and frustrated with this whole situation.

102

Woah! Just chill for a moment.

You broke your router...now you have corrupted data on your HDD and now you're blaming others for your mishap. Not cool dude!

If you have any technical background then you must know that hiren's is a popular ISO used in the tech support world. Yes, there are some very dangerous apps on the ISO that can destroy data on your HDD if you don't know how to use them properly. Yes, if you are not technically competent stay away from hiren's boot CD.