Router unreachable after install, initramfs image help request

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

(Machine is Buffalo WCR-1166DS.)

Hi. I tried flashing 18.06.1 (openwrt-18.06.1-ramips-mt76x8-wcr-1166ds-squashfs-factory.bin) onto the router using the router's web GUI. I thought the flash had completed successfully, but actually, all the LEDs blink every 15 seconds or so. And I'm not able to reach the device at 192.168.11.1 (device's original address) or 192.168.1.1 (OpenWRT address), via web browser over wifi, or via SSH over ethernet.

I'm also not receiving any data via
tcpdump -Ani eth0 port 4919 and udp
(OpenWRT: Failsafe Mode, Factory Reset, and Recovery Mode)

I contacted the person who helped porting OpenWRT to the device, as it's a device that doesn't have a lot of info available in English. He said the LED blinking is probably a bad sign.

He also said I may be able to use tftp boot to try to rescue the device, but I'd need the initramfs image, which isn't available as far as I can see. Would someone be willing to build the initramfs image?

Is there a way to find out if I'm able to communicate with the router via tftp now? (I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want you to spend time building the image if I can't connect to the router anyway.)

Sorry if I made any ridiculous requests. I'm not too familiar with router firmware.

2

i had a similar issue with my wrt 1900acs. what i did to resolve it was to power cycle it a few times not allowing it to boot fully between these power cycles.

3

I compiled the initramfs image for WCR-1166DS (snapshot):
https://taiha.net/contents/openwrt/fw/openwrt-ramips-mt76x8-wcr-1166ds-initramfs-kernel.bin

And, please use above initramfs image and try the "tftp boot" procedure on the following page:
http://naobsd.org/lede-openwrt/#WCR-1166DS

note: In mt76x8 subtarget, initramfs image is not compiled by default. So it will not be compiled with the official buildbot and it is not provided in downloads.openwrt.org.

1 Like
4

Thanks. I gave power cycling a shot, but nothing changed.

5

Thanks so much for the initramfs image! I'll try out tftp boot as soon as possible. And I will reply later with the results.

6

P.S.: If "tftp boot" fails, try "linux.trx-recovery" instead of filename "linux.trx-recover".

7

I tried flashing, I noticed a message that says "bad cksum" like this:

12:56:06.346823 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 58080, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.35270 > 192.168.11.1.3247: [bad udp cksum 0x9779 -> 0xd9b1!] UDP, length 12
E..(..@.@..................y..timeout.3.

so I disabled checksumming.

But, anyway, I see a lot of messages that say "timeout", like this:

sudo tcpdump -vv -Ani enx00e04c6800cd
tcpdump: listening on enx00e04c6800cd, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
13:10:35.152962 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.11.2 tell 192.168.11.1, length 46
..............................................
13:10:35.153009 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Reply 192.168.11.2 is-at 00:e0:4c:68:00:cd, length 28
..........Lh................
13:10:35.165113 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 21848, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 65)
    192.168.11.1.1939 > 192.168.11.2.69: [no cksum]  37 RRQ "linux.trx-recovery" octet timeout 3
E..AUX@................E.-....linux.trx-recovery.octet.timeout.3.
13:10:44.466847 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 40769, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.35699 > 192.168.11.1.1939: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(.A@.@..0.........s..... ..timeout.3.
13:10:46.238553 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 15192, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 169)
    192.168.11.2.5353 > 224.0.0.251.5353: [udp sum ok] 0 [9q] PTR (QM)? _ipps._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _ftp._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _webdav._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _webdavs._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _sftp-ssh._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _smb._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _afpovertcp._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _nfs._tcp.local. PTR (QM)? _ipp._tcp.local. (141)
E...;X@....E.....................	......._ipps._tcp.local......_ftp......._webdav......._webdavs......	_sftp-ssh......._smb......._afpovertcp......._nfs......._ipp......
13:10:47.179434 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 40865, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.44871 > 192.168.11.1.1939: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(..@.@............G.....L..timeout.3.
13:10:50.674498 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 21853, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 65)
    192.168.11.1.1939 > 192.168.11.2.69: [no cksum]  37 RRQ "linux.trx-recovery" octet timeout 3
E..AU]@................E.-....linux.trx-recovery.octet.timeout.3.
13:14:05.343895 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Request who-has 192.168.11.2 tell 192.168.11.1, length 46
..............................................
13:14:05.343929 ARP, Ethernet (len 6), IPv4 (len 4), Reply 192.168.11.2 is-at 00:e0:4c:68:00:cd, length 28
..........Lh................
13:14:05.356019 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 21860, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 65)
    192.168.11.1.3165 > 192.168.11.2.69: [no cksum]  37 RRQ "linux.trx-recovery" octet timeout 3
E..AUd@..............].E.-....linux.trx-recovery.octet.timeout.3.
13:14:05.356615 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 4527, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.45149 > 192.168.11.1.3165: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(..@.@............].]...l..timeout.3.
13:14:08.360150 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 4774, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.45149 > 192.168.11.1.3165: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(..@.@............].]...l..timeout.3.
13:14:08.447981 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 255, id 21861, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 65)
    192.168.11.1.3165 > 192.168.11.2.69: [no cksum]  37 RRQ "linux.trx-recovery" octet timeout 3
E..AUe@..............].E.-....linux.trx-recovery.octet.timeout.3.
13:14:08.448583 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 4778, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.40428 > 192.168.11.1.3165: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(..@.@..............]......timeout.3.
13:14:45.195101 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 9041, offset 0, flags [DF], proto UDP (17), length 40)
    192.168.11.2.35749 > 192.168.11.1.3165: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 12
E..(#Q@.@.. ...........]...$..timeout.3.
^C
131 packets captured
131 packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel

And I don't think anything is happening in the router. Is it looking for the correct port?

Do you know what I have to do?

And you were right. The router is looking for "linux.trx-recovery", not "linux.trx-recovery"

8

Perhaps WCR-1166DS is not able to connect to the TFTP server.
Please check if the TFTP server on the computer is running on 192.168.11.2:69.

9

I tested using

sudo tftp 192.168.11.2 69

and I could get the file on my computer with this command. So I think the port and IP address are okay.

I wonder what is wrong.

10

Hmm... I also do not know what is the cause...

11

Do you have a firewall enabled, is the test from the same computer or elsewhere ?

1 Like
12

I thought I didn't have any firewall rules enabled to close any ports.

But I added a rule to iptables via ufw (on Ubuntu 18.04) to make sure the ports were open. The new rules:

sudo iptables -L

Chain ufw-user-input (1 references)
target     prot opt source               destination         
ACCEPT     tcp  --  anywhere             anywhere             tcp dpt:69
ACCEPT     udp  --  anywhere             anywhere             udp dpt:tftp

and

sudo ufw status

Status: active

To                         Action      From
--                         ------      ----
69                         ALLOW       Anywhere                  
69 (v6)                    ALLOW       Anywhere (v6)

so port 69 is open and tftp traffic is now allowable.

And the image transferred to the router, I think. (Thanks @mbo2o for the advice about the firewall.)

However, the power LED flashed quickly, for a long time, which means that the image was flashing to the device, I think. But unfortunately, it kept flashing for about 8 hours (overnight). I unplugged it, and it isn't booting (with same symptoms as in original post). It shouldn't take hours to flash, right?

I will try again later today. Maybe the data corrupted on transfer.