Newbie with GL-AR750S-Ext

Scenario 1:

Have you ever tried using an older WIN10 box? Turn it on. It needs to do 2 days of updates (I have had this happen). Did you need to use it today? This week? Try to open chrome edge. Nothing responds. 2-3 mins later it opens 5 instances.

Would you try using that to flash openWRT on something? Literally useless. Install ubuntu on the same machine in under 20 minutes. Boots up in 10 seconds. Rock solid.

Scenario 2:

You have a newer WIN10 box. So do I. So does user @memilanuk. User @memilanuk has been trying to flash an AR750S for days now, dozens of attempts using 2 different (new) WIN10 machines. Almost all failed. What if WIN10 decides to start updating, sending telemetry or reboot during flashing?

I recommend he try ubuntu. Bet it works on the second try.

HTH

If a VM or live usb would work, I might give it a try. Otherwise I'm not reorganizing my life for the sake of flas0a travel router.

I've been using Linux off and on for a fairly long time, including a few stints as my 'daily driver'. I'm familiar with the benefits and trade-offs of running it on my laptop - and the answer is 'no'.

Dude stop, this is not related to his issue. Web browsers and network protocols work in the same way, and that's all that matters for this thread.

I already said, at most it's a "the current browser is screwed up for some reason" and using a different browser works around it.

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Can you stop sending me rude messages? How you connect to your router is up to you. Keep openWRT fun.

Addendum:

If a user is sending you inappropriate or off topic messages you can mute them under 'users' in your account.

HTH

Sidenote:

On topic, how many AR750S do you have again @bobafetthotmail ? I have 4 in a mesh with over 100h testing and configuring. Solid routers.

I too, just purchased a GL-AR750S-EXT (a.k.a. Slate), and am about to undertake the same path to install OpenWRT (well, one from here, as I understand there is a GL.iNet version of OpenWRT already installed on the device). It took a while to wrap my head around this thread and references to other pages from this thread, but I believe I can conclude the following:

Based on this thread (please correct me if I'm wrong), it appears I have a couple different options for installing OpenWRT on the GL-AR750S-EXT.

Option 1: go with the "Current stable series" (19.07+) of OpenWRT

-or-

Option 2: live life on the edge, with the "Next stable series" (21.02+)

Among other differences, sounds like 19.07+ only supports running out of NOR flash, but that 21.02+, allows using NOR flash and NAND flash.

Sounds like either path is best accomplished using the uboot method (power down, ensure only 1 network cable is plugged in, hold the reset button, power on, wait until the led blinks 5 times and stays on, then release reset button, etc...), detailed a bit more on the "oem_easy_installation" web page referenced above.

If I go with Option 1, sounds like I will use the "vanilla" (a.k.a. "-generic-") binary image. "16F84" seemed to suggest that to get to the latest build on the AR750S (19.07.8), I should first use the uboot method to install 19.07.7 (to avoid the unsupported format warning message/installation failure), and then upgrade through LuCI to get to 19.07.8.

If I go with Option 2, sounds like I will use the uboot method to first install the "-nor-squashfs" (NOR only, but "NAND aware") binary image, and then use LuCI to upgrade to the "-nor-nand-squashfs" binary image (and any/all subsequent upgrades). Though having said that, "memilanuk" expressed reservations with the 21.02+ path at this time, though I think because package upgrades were applied, that probably shouldn't have been. Installing "-nor-squashfs" followed by LuCI-based upgrading to "-nor-nand-squashfs-" without any further updates found on the 'Software' page, may be ok.

Regardless of which path I take, the "firmware selector" (16f84 provided a link, above) has the various images, based on which release I wish to move forward with.


Pleased to report that I did Option 2 - as "16F84" indicated, went from out of the box to 21.02 in less than 15 minutes, with no issues.

Many thanks to memilanuk and Budoka for blazing the trail, 16F84 for giving me the courage to just go for 21.02+, and bobafetthotmail for keeping us between the lines!

JohnG

21.02.0 has become "current" in the meantime.

Hello, another new guy here :slight_smile:

I can confirm a successful flash of OpenWrt 21.02.1 on my GL-AR750S (which I purchased Q3 2021) via the two steps described by bobafetthotmail (thanks!) here or here. Or "Option 2" as johngo said it ^^ .

The stock firmware version of the device was OpenWrt 19.07.7 r11306-c4a6851c72 and now I'm running OpenWrt 21.02.1 r16325-88151b8303

I have to say that I was a bit confused after reading the wiki page for the device and looking for the files. I had to do a few searches and then found this thread. Here the steps I followed, summarized for the next newbie :sunglasses: :

  1. Booted the device in uboot recovery mode as described here.

  2. Flashed via the Uboot Web-UI (which was reachable from a "normal" linux machine) the NOR openWRT firmware: openwrt-21.02.1-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin. That took about 2 minutes.

  3. After resetting the network settings I opened 192.168.1.1 in a web browser and was greeted by LuCI.

  4. I flashed via LuCI the NOR-NAND firmware: openwrt-21.02.1-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin. That took about 3-4 minutes.

And it was done! After the 2nd flash I had to clear the cookies as mentioned here, otherwise LuCI wouldn't let me in. The device was acting a bit funny afterwards (like not showing DHCP leases), but following a reboot it's working fine so far :slight_smile: .

So overall it took me 15 min to flash the device, and a couple of hours to find the right info and files :sweat_smile: . So yeah, the wiki device page should probably be updated/revised.

Thanks everyone!

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Hi @Air1,
Are you running GLi's web UI and their other packages from the OEM firmware on 21.02.1? Are they stable?
I'm looking at doing this and was wondering if I'd need to install using the kernel image to clear them out first.

Thanks!

Hello @LewisSpring,

no, I'm running vanilla OpenWrt 21.02.1 - apart from the config I didn't modify the installation so far. I used the OEM firmware for a couple of days and OpenWrt now for about 2 weeks, both have been stable.

So if you're trying to run OEM UI + packages on OpenWrt 21.02.1 I am sorry, I can't provide any info on that. I suppose it ain't easy though...

If you still want to try it, you should look/ask on the GL iNet forum for more info, that's probably the better forum for this. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply!

In that case, I'll start from scratch and copy configs - just to minimise risk.
Thanks in advance for your tutorial!

Good Morning @Air1,
Thanks again for your instructions! They worked perfectly, no issues at all.
Cheers!

1 Like

Hey, I am another newbe trying to flash this.
But after flashing the NAND version from lucy, I cannot connect anymore via LAN.
(Resetting to the pure nor image works).
Is there anything I have to take into account to flash from luci?

It's possible to build your own image using the glinet image builder. However, I also use OpenWrt 21.02.1 since a couple of weeks and I noticed it's faster and more stable. I run AdGuard on it without any problems and I had to install some additional packages to make USB tethering possible.

I`m thinking of adding this to GitHub as a package builder source with these base packages in place, so I can easily switch to a newer release of OpenWrt (now f.e. 21.02.2) without having to flash it, install packages, configure some basic stuff.

Anyway, long story short, it would also be possible to build it with the GL-iNet UI in place, but you have to have some knowledge about the image builder process. Luckily there's a lot of info available regarding this topic how to do so.

@benneti no, after flashing the NOR firmware and logging into OpenWrt I flashed directly via LuCI the NOR-NAND firmware and it worked right away. Check if you

  • downloaded the right file (also verify integrity)
  • the device is behaving like expected: is the power LED blinking when booting the device? See entering failsafe mode for more info.
  • have correct network settings on the LAN interface of your client (Automatic / DHCP). Also bringing the interface down and up helps sometimes.

Also: The current available version is 21.02.2, I flashed version 21.02.1, you could try the .1 version to be on the safe side, but I doubt that's the issue.

Thanks for the reply. Thats strange I tried both versions but neither
worked while nor
worked with no problems.
Not working as in dhcp did not assign me a address on the lan port.

Reading the failsafe article it might be that for some reason it booted to failsafe mode.

Anyhow I replaced the device now (with beryl) because I got annoyed and was able to set everything up as I wanted.

@benneti I'm seeing the same issue that you did with the 750s. Sometimes after flashing the nor-nand image it seems to get into a boot loop (ethernet will connect, but no http or ssh) and other times the power LED will just get very dim.

Same here. I tried it several times, every time openwrt-21.02.3-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin flashed fine but trying to flash openwrt-21.02.3-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin the lights stopped flashing a bit too quickly and then I couldn't get ethernet to connect, had to go back to uboot and reflash NOR to get anything working.

When flashing fails, should I expect to be able to recover any error log somehow, or is it more of an "either it works or it doesn't" kind of thing? I hope somebody figures this out eventually. It seems pretty consistent that we're all seeing issues only with NOR-NAND.

If you flash nor nand using the stock firmware advanced settings, does it work? If it doesn't, try what I did

  1. Go to uboot and flash openwrt-21.02.3-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-initramfs-kernel.bin (do note that this version of openwrt only saves changes in ram, changes will be lost after reboot)
  2. Go to uboot again and this time flash the stock firmware
  3. After that, go to advanced settings and go to the stock's firmware luci.
  4. Go to system > backup / flash firmware. Under flash new firmware, press the button "flash image" and flash your nor-nand flash copy glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin [NOT KERNEL]

This worked for me, I guess I did it by accident or it was what I was instructed to do by frollic.

Just provided Wiki Admin @tmomas documentation with detailed steps for a painless upgrade path. I shared your frustration in the upgrade process but found a key piece of info from the OEM, also provided, in addition to figuring out the proper upgrade order to make it happen.

End result: Fully running 22.03.0 :sunglasses:

@dbarnett @benneti @davegdev @wafles

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For those interested, this is what I submitted to @tmomas for entry into the Wiki page.

Wiki reference page:

Good evening,

I don't need an edit level account but like to contribute documentation with detailed steps I figured out for a painless way to upgrade to the latest OpenWRT release, 22.03.0 as of this writing, from OEM firmware. No TFTP server or unnecessary waste of time using various firmware revisions from OEM without a proper solution.

Hardware:

GL-iNet 750M Gigabit Travel Router
Model: GL-AR750S-EXT

Contributed: Oct 2022

Download the needed files.

OEM GL-iNET AR750S-EXT Firmware v3.025 initial firmware to upload

NOTE: Earlier versions did not work for me. Web interface would fail.

OEM GL-iNET AR750S-EXT Firmware v3.105 needed to be able to upgrade to newer OEM release

OEM GL-iNET AR750S-EXT Firmware v3.215, latest as of this writing, based on newer OpenWRT base

OpenWRT 22.03.0, latest as of this writing, for GL-AR750s Firmware BIN file

NOTE: Check for latest OpenWRT version by..

* Visiting: https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/
* Find latest version that does NOT contain RC (Release Candidate status) in the name and click on it
* Click on "targets"
* Click on "ath79"
* Click on "nand"
* Scroll down to and click on "glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" to download it

Enter Debrick/Firmware Upload Interface:
(NOTE: Copied and edited from original wiki page referenced up top)

* Power down unit

* Ensure only 1 network cable is plugged in to a LAN port denoted as <...>

* Hold the RESET button and Power ON

* Wait until the led blinks 5 times and stays on, then release reset button. 

* Change your IP to 192.168.1.2

* Connect to http://192.168.1.1, where you can upload and flash the "openwrt-ar750s-3.025.img" image.

[Step upgrade 1/3]

Once that firmware is loaded and unit restarts:

* Change your IP back to DHCP

* Connect to router at gateway address provided (should be 192.168.8.1)

* Choose your language and click "Next"

* Set basic password as it will be reset after upgrades

* Click on "Upgrade" on the left side panel

* Click on "Local Upgrade" tab towards center of screen

* Select file "openwrt-ar750s-3.105.tar" by browsing or dragging into the designated area

* Verification should result in "Pass"

* Turn off "Keep Settings"

* Click "Install" (This process will take several minutes)


[Step upgrade 2/3]

When unit restarts:

* Connect to router at gateway address provided (should be 192.168.8.1)

* Choose your language and click "Next"

* Set basic password as it will be reset after upgrades

* Click on "Upgrade" on the left side panel

* Click on "Local Upgrade" tab towards center of screen

* Select file "openwrt-ar750s-3.215-0921-1663732520.tar" by browsing or dragging into the designated area

* Verification should result in "Pass"

* Turn off "Keep Settings"

* Click "Install" (This process will take several minutes)


[Step upgrade 3/3]

* Connect to router at gateway address provided (should be 192.168.8.1)

* Choose your language and click "Next"

* Set basic password as it will be reset after upgrades

* Click on "Upgrade" on the left side panel

* Click on "Local Upgrade" tab towards center of screen

* Select file "openwrt-22.03.0-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin" by browsing or dragging into the designated area

* Verification should show:

"Firmware Verification
The uploaded firmware is older than the current firmware or is a 3rd-party firmware. It make break the router due to hardware incompatibility. You are also suggested to NOT keep settings."

Verification Result "Pass"

* Turn off "Keep Settings"

* Click "Install" (This process will take several minutes)

NOTE:  OpenWRT uses 192.168.1.1 as it's default address so you don't have to wait until the percentage bar reaches 100% as it's waiting for the router at the previous address.  Use a terminal/cmd prompt window to ping 192.168.1.1 to check for connectivity.  Once up and running, simply browse on a new tab or window to "192.168.1.1"

* There is no password set so you can click on "Login"

Done! Enjoy pure OpenWRT! :sunglasses:

Link to post where I found info on needed firmware that did the trick.

Source: https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/gl-inet-ar750s-firmware-verification-fail-failed-error-incorrect-firmware-format/15331/11

Clip of post from GL-iNet Staff:

"Just be more clear, for AR750S, upgrade from old firmware (3.104) which is based on openwrt 1806 to latest firmware 3.201 which is based on openwrt 1907 could cause verification failed.

In 3.105 (openwrt 1806) we made special treatment so that it can be upgraded to openwrt 1907 and later."

Comments/verification of steps welcome!

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