Snapshot builds for MR8300

For Developers
19

No, just the very first time. :crazy_face: That would be insane.
First time you flash, your device will start with default settings. Setup the settings the way you like than backup them. Next time you flash, just restore the settings.

You should not retain settings from 22.03 because the syntax of the network has changed (DSA).
You can manually recover some settings (wifi ..) but you should know what you are doing. The easier is to reconfigure from scratch the very first time.

None, it's up to you. For example, you can install a stable on one partition and a snapshot on the other. That device was my very first one with dual boot, so my lack of experience led me to be precautious.

I have never tried on this device, but I guess that mtd method is the key.

1 Like
20

Thanks again for your quick response. Btw, does MR8300 work very well without issues on 22.03 or the snapshot build? Btw, are the snapshot builds named 23.x?

Btw, let's say I want to have openwrt on both partitions and I flash factory 22.03 and make the kernel config changes and flash snapshot. It goes to the other partition upon boot and setup from scratch and when I update another snapshot build, the settings are retained, correct? In this case, snapshot builds are on both partitions and I don't think I will ever want to go back to Linksys OEM.

And, I can always flash from snapshot to 22.03 and setup everything from scratch? In other words, going back to 22.03 from snapshot is not a problem, correct?

21

It works well on both. But I have noticed better performance and bandwidth with snapshot. This is due to kernel 5.15 and DSA.

There are no 23.x build yet but they will be forked from master snapshot someday.

I guess so. If you perform a sysupgrade, it will flash the "other" partition. Settings from 22.03 and snapshot are not compatible. So flashing between 22.03 and snapshot while keeping settings may lead to issues.

Yes.

Once the bootloader has been tweaked, the device is ready for the future and still can boot any Linksys or 22.03. I have already tried several flashes this way.

1 Like
22

Thanks again. I just flashed 22.03 with kernel tweak. Now, ready to flash the snapshot and am just going to overwrite to the other partition and don't care about OEM anymore. Hopefully, I don't regret my decision. lol

23

When I tried to flash the snapshot from 22.03, I am getting a message saying that the image is incompatible based on the image version (1.0 -> 2.0). Kernel partition size must be increased. I already increased the kernel partition size and confirmed the change and did a reboot as well.

Do I have to force upgrade now?

root@OpenWrt:~# fw_setenv kernsize 500000

root@OpenWrt:~# fw_printenv
kernsize=500000
root@OpenWrt:~#

This is the error:

image
image1326×657 77 KB

24

No, there is an issue with USB:

Please check with the current snapshot if possible.

1 Like
25

Are you flashing a factory or sysupgrade ?
keeping settings or not ?

26

I forgot about this. But as I wrote before I dontt use USB, so I don't face this issue.

27

Sysupgrade and NOT keeping the settings... I posted the screenshot in my earlier message. Please check it out.

28

Before flashing, reboot so that the bootloader tweak will be active. 22.03 should still boot.
Than flash a factory image as advised by the error message, without keeping the settings.

29

I did reboot and checked the bootloader setting and it looks correct. I will try the factory image and not keep the settings and still get an error saying that the image metadata not present and it's asking me to force upgrade.

EDIT: It took me back to Linksys OEM firmware after I did a force upgrade and I guess it didn't like it.

30

Flash from Linksys, that's what I always do. That works !
At least for the very first flash. After you may try sysupgrading.

31

I tried to update it to snapshot from Linksys and after a reboot, I was NOT able to login to the router. I refreshed the page and even set a manual IP (192.168.1.2) and still could not connect. I had to switch to the other partition (OEM) and I flashed 22.03 and it works!

Couldn't get snapshot to flash. Bummer!

32

Default snapshot from OpenWrt doesn't have Luci installed. You can log with SSH and manually install Luci or create a custom build.
192.168.1.1

EDIT : incoming 22.03.3 just released an hour ago ! No official annoucement yet !

33

Really? Wow! I just spent 30 minutes to figure out. lol

The instructions say that after flashing snapshot, configure as usual. I thought 192.168.1.1 was available. Hmmm...

EDIT: Found it here - https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/luci/luci.essentials#basic_installation

34

It is expected that you know that ANY snapshot doesn't have Luci embedded :wink:
With the custom image builder, you can create an image that already embeds Luci.

open a command line
ssh root@192.168.1.1
password should be empty

opkg update
opkg install luci
opkg install luci-app-advanced-reboot

You should be able to login to the GUI now.

1 Like
35

Thanks. Well, I am using the snapshot on my R7800 and it has luci along with other packages.

Maybe ACwifidude is packaging it for R7800 with the build and that's why I was not aware of the manual installation. Anyways, thank you for you help and much appreciate it.

36

It's a custom build than.

Is it working ? I guess you own me a beer than :beers:

37

No, I didn't update snapshot yet as I need to replace my existing router with this one and I need internet for work. I was configuring everything offline so far.

EDIT: Flashed it now and configuring!

38

What wifi settings do you have? Are all the bands turned on?

For some reason, my internet speeds are NOT going above 80 - 90 Mbps on the snapshot. When I am on Netgear R7800, I get about 480+ Mbps. What could be the reason? Settings are identical between R7800 and MR8300 as both of them are running snapshot builds.

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