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
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)
Go to uboot again and this time flash the stock firmware
After that, go to advanced settings and go to the stock's firmware luci.
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.
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.
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!
Link to post where I found info on needed firmware that did the trick.
"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."
@CommunityHelper6 Finally got a chance to try this flavor of install. It sounded promising, but still didn't work for me . After successfully installing stock GL.iNet v3.215, I tried updating to openwrt-22.03.2-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin (latest as of this writing) and still couldn't get a working nor-nand... still fails to connect on ethernet.
Is v3.105 just a means for getting v3.215 installed here, or are you thinking the upgrade will only work if you actually have .105 installed before .215? I couldn't seem to get it to accept stock v3.025 or v3.105 for your steps 1 or 2. It would just come up to a sort of boot loop with the power LED showing solid but flickering off & rebooting every 30s or so. When I was trying to flash those, uboot at http://192.168.1.1/ it did have a message saying "The firmware version must be 3.201 or newer", which might explain why it didn't take, but OTOH /index.html had a slightly different uboot UI without that message.
@wafles same for your instructions using initramfs/stock/nor-nand. After trying to go from stock to nor-nand, it goes into some kind of boot loop.
Is there a way to get any better idea what might be wrong? How might an OpenWrt developer go about isolating and fixing this kind of issue? I'm guessing there wouldn't be any explicit sort of "error message" I could access after it starts boot looping?
I am afraid that I don't have the knowledge to answer your questions. I am not sure if I ever encountered a boot loop while figuring out how to do this. Maybe just try again? Maybe the update got interrupted when you did stock to nor-nand? I would try my steps from the beggining just once, but it's hard to know if that will make a difference because we don't know if there's any error message.
I personally managed to get this to work consistently twice.
If I reply again, I'll try to provide more detailed instructions on how to do it. I have a lot of things to deal with right now
. After successfully installing stock GL.iNet v3.215, I tried updating to openwrt-22.03.2-ath79-nand-glinet_gl-ar750s-nor-nand-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin (latest as of this writing) and still couldn't get a working nor-nand... still fails to connect on ethernet.