OpenWrt One - "refreshing" full stack

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi there, I am preparing a short guide for the OpenWrt One for paranoid people.
Meaning, I want to flash everything what was compiled on my machine.
Roughly said, this will be - in that order:

  1. NOR (incl DDR4 initialization file, NOR BL31/uboot image) using mtk_uartboot
  • mt7981-ram-ddr4-bl2.bin
  • openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-bl31-uboot.fip
  1. NOR (incl uBoot, preloader and nor-factory image) using TFTP
  • openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-bl31-uboot.fip
  • openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-preloader.bin
  • openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-factory.bin
  1. NAND (incl preloader and nand-factory image) using NOR recovery and USB stick
  • [openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-snand-preloader.bin
  • [openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-factory.ubi
  1. NAND (upgrade firmware) using USB
  • openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-squashfs-sysupgrade.itb

One question:
From a logical perspective, there is guides mentioning:
Boot into NAND recovery Mode: The device will now boot a recovery initramfs image
--> When and how is this openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-initramfs.itb getting flashed?

Two questions:
If I really setup my new devices with 1. 2. 3. --> I dont need 4. anymore, right?

Last question: Shouldnt openwrt_one-snand-factory.bin be used in step 3.?

2

I just ran through the procedure to flash NOR over TFTP using the precompiled binaries from the website, and I found in step 2, the boot menu looked like:

        ( ( ( OpenWrt ) ) )  [SPI-NOR]       U-Boot 2024.10-OpenWrt-r28518-39b61
      1. Run default boot command.
      2. Boot system via TFTP.
      3. Unlock NOR. (Make sure the NOR/WP jumper is populated)
      4. Load BL31+U-Boot FIP via TFTP then write to NOR.
      5. Load BL2 preloader via TFTP then write to NOR.
      6. Load recovery system via TFTP then write to NOR.
      7. Lock NOR. (Remove jumper afterwards)
      8. Reboot.
      0. Exit
  • Option 4 installs openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-bl31-uboot.fip
  • Option 5 installs openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-preloader.bin
  • Option 6 installs openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-initramfs.itb, which isn't what the instructions say.

I never installed openwrt-mediatek-filogic-openwrt_one-nor-factory.bin over TFTP, but I suspect based on the sizes that the "-factory.bin" files are an image of the fully installed NOR and NAND.

1 Like
3

Have you ever successfully flashed NOR factory and booted into this new one?

My experience was: Whatever I flash to NOR, it boots with the NOR that was shipped with the device.
As of now, I was not able to flash NOR successfully.

4

Was your WP jumper installed? Did you unlock NOR before flashing?

I don’t see the need to boot from NOR fwiw. Normal operational mode is from NAND only.