So, this one's a bit interesting. We recently suffered a power loss and, as a result, all of my configurations and settings were lost. This includes my VLAN configurations, interfaces, and wireless APs I set up. Everything went straight to factory settings. Additionally, OpenWRT will not accept and implement the backup configuration I pulled recently. It just resets everything back to factory conditions. Am I missing something crucial that I should be implementing or should this be an expectation for me going forward? I have a Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 Wifi 6 router that I used as my main access point.
See @slh ‘s more accurate description of this device’s sort-of dual boot behavior in the post further down.
This is a dual partition device, so the behavior you are seeing is likely related to the power outage causing the 'other' partition to boot. I'm guessing that you have an older version of OpenWrt on the other partition, and that is why your backup is not accepted.
An upgrade/installation is written to the non-booted partition and then booting is set to that newly written partition. If there are a certain number of partial/failed boots (usually set to 3), the bootloader will switch partitions for booting. This way, there is always a fall-back in the event that the new firmware doesn't work properly... but, it can be accidentally triggered by unstable power situations (i.e. the quick on/off or flickering of power when the power is going out or being restored).
To fix your situation, try intentionally causing partial boots... disconnect the power from your router, reconnect it, wait for like 10 seconds or so (such that it doesn't fully boot), then disconnect and repeat for a total of 4 cycles -- at the end of this, let the device fully boot.
Before you do this, check the settings and the current version of OpenWrt that is running now. Then try the power-cycling fix and check the version again... this will be a tell-tale if the partition switched.
It's not true dual boot, but early versions would boot into a RAM-based recovery kernel if something crashes. Cutting the power (not just a software reboot command) should cause it to attempt a normal boot again.
If you are running an early OpenWrt version, of course upgrade it. You may need to repeat the install process with an updated django install image before upgrading.
Did I give incorrect information? If so, I’ll edit my post accordingly.
Yes and no, it's a bit more nuanced…
This device has no dual-firmware, in the sense of there being two alternative partitions, each containing a (potentially different-) firmware (-version) and their corresponding overlay.
It however does have a special recovery partition, essentially an OpenWrt initramfs like environment that comes up if there are contents in pstore (so effectively if the previous boot crashed/ OOPSed, etc.). This should be cleared after a power-off event, however - not all power losses are 'neat', the power might brown out, come back multiple times in close successions, etc., this can leave ramoops/ pstore content in RAM (which would have to be deleted manually). This recovery environment, like a more normal initramfs image, doesn't have any persistent configuration (but it should clearly indicate in luci that the recovery is running right now), so its behaviour can indeed match the description given.
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