PC Engines apu2e4 update... ignored?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Basics:
PC Engines APU.2E4 running OpenWrt 19.07.4. Uploaded what I'm pretty sure is the right update package to 21.02.1. It looked like it was installing, waiting several minutes, rebooted and was still on the old version 19.07.4. What do I do now? Which log should I look in and what should I look for?

Boring blow by blow in case I missed something:
I purchased a PC Engines apu2 system about... year and a half ago? ( apu2e4 APU.2E4 on the invoice)
I figured it was time to check for openwrt updates. I am currently running OpenWrt 19.07.4 r11208-ce6496d796 and the latest atm looks to be 21.02.1. So I searched for the right package, apu2e4 is not on the list of packages:
https://openwrt.org/toh/views/toh_fwdownload?dataflt%5BBrand*%7E%5D=PC+Engines+&dataflt%5BModel*%7E%5D=apu2

But the apu2e4 is the same processor AMD GX-412TC. I'm pretty sure I installed using that same generic squashfs initially. So I downloaded:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/21.02.1/targets/x86/64/openwrt-21.02.1-x86-64-generic-squashfs-combined.img.gz

I backed up my setting on the router using LuCI, System -> Backup/Flash Firmware. I then attempted to flash the update. It uploaded, I got a checksum (which I didn't check) and proceeded to run the update. I got a message it was updating and a spinny wheel saying it may take several minutes. The router rebooted, all interfaces came up and... it's still the old version 19.07.4.

2

First step would be to try it through an SSH session with the 'sysupgrade' command. Make sure to disable wireless interfaces before trying.

3

Ah OK, can I ask why disabling the wireless is preferred?
(And doing this requires that I hook up to it directly with my laptop but I will try it when I can)

4

Sysupgrade can abort if some processes cannot be killed, and at some point that was often the case when wireless interfaces couldn't be brought down. At that point the network connection had already been cut, so unless you had serial access you wouldn't see any info about that. I have a little wrapper script that pulls in the binary, kills the wifi if present, then runs sysupgrade (I often perform remote upgrades).

WiFi can be one of the issues, other processes might hang as well. But WiFi is one of the more frequent ones, if that happens.

What you could do (over wireless is), through SSH:

  • grab the sysupgrade binary (with wget or curl e.g., or just scp it over, store it in /tmp/) and verify the checksum (please, always do this)
  • then issue the following command: # wifi down && sysupgrade /tmp/$sysupgrade_binary

Then give it some time to upgrade and come back up.

5

this might be an option Sysupgrade help for x86_64 - #14 by frollic