[Solved] Flashed Netgear RBR50 V2 OK, Doesn't seem to boot

rwillett1 · December 19, 2024, 4:59pm

[TL;DR]
Problem was due to using RBR50 V2 rather than a RBR50 V1. Basically don't
[/TL;DR]

Hi

I've downloaded and installed the latest openwrt firmware for the Netgear RBR50 (V2).

I used nprmflash to install the .img file from a Mac using a wired Ethernet connection to the RBR50.

The install looks OK according to the nprmflash docs. I used the -vvv flag and can see a lot of syncs and acks as data is transferred (or I think it is).

At the end of the install it says "reboot your device now."

I reboot the RBR50 and it doesn't appear to boot anything. The LED light above the power switch is solid (not flashing) red and not green.

The ring on the top of the RBR50 is white flashing.

I do not get a IP address provided by DHCP. I put in a manual IP address of 192.168.1.2 and try to make a connection to http://192.168.1.1 and get a time out. Eventually I get 169.254.167.189 on HDCP so I assume thatst the default from the Mac.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 fails as expected.

I've read the nmprmflash docs and the docs at https://git.openwrt.org/?p=openwrt/openwrt.git;a=commit;h=2cb24b3f3cd89692f3c0bd137f3f560ada359bfa

and can't see anything there. Searching this forum doesn't pull up anything that seems similar to my problem.

I've reinstalled the openwrt IMG a few times and the same result each time.

Any help or suggestions or pointers very welcome

Thanks

Rob

brada4 · December 19, 2024, 5:46pm

What was the file name you flashed?

rwillett1 · December 19, 2024, 6:38pm

Hi,

Thanks for the response

I used the firmware selector at https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/ with RBR50.

This gave me the page https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=23.05.5&target=ipq40xx%2Fgeneric&id=netgear_rbr50

I downloaded the Factory image
openwrt-23.05.5-ipq40xx-generic-netgear_rbr50-squashfs-factory.img

as it said it was for OpenWRT for the first time.

Nothing I read seemed to say I needed the Kernel image first.

brada4 · December 19, 2024, 7:02pm

Your device is not V1. It is new not yet supported device.

rwillett1 · December 19, 2024, 7:24pm

Hi

Ah! I read that the RBR50 V1 and V2 only had the USB as the difference and I took that to mean that OpenWRT would work with it. My fault for assuming when I should have checked more carefully.

I have just checked everything again and I cannot find any reference to OpenWRT working on RBR50 V2

Many thanks for your help. I was using this as a test for an upgrade to an existing Orbi network. From memory the RBR50 is a V1, not sure about the RBS50's, so will check, Anything thats a RBS50 V2 will therefore not work.

The RBR50 V2 is just about to go on eBay in case anybody is interested in the UK.

Thanks again for your help

Rob

brada4 · December 19, 2024, 8:15pm

Can you revert to factory anfd try to explore if hw has any semblance to v1?

rwillett1 · December 20, 2024, 9:37am

I can revert it back, but not sure what I need to do to check HW has any semblance to V1.

I brought this as a three pack to get the two satellites and have used the satellites but not this. If it gets bricked, it gets bricked, so tell me what you want to do and I'll see what I can do.

Rob

brada4 · December 20, 2024, 9:47am

Get boot logs from oem - soc, ram, mtd+ubi partitions.

rwillett1 · December 20, 2024, 9:59am

So these are the boot logs when its back as a factory reset Orbi 5?

I'm out until Monday but will have a look when back home and see what I can do.

brada4 · December 20, 2024, 10:01am

It is to examine them whether device is minimally changed or completely new.

rwillett1 · December 21, 2024, 5:25pm

I'm back early and refreshed the RBR50 firmware so its a new build.

I've gone to 192.168.1.1/debug.html and set most of the logging that looks appropriate. No idea what DAL.log is but set it anyway.

I started capturing Router Analytic Log and have downloaded a 1.1MB Zip file.

Shall I post the zip file here?

Thanks

rob

brada4 · December 21, 2024, 5:45pm

Unzip and try to look for
"Linux version " - should have cpu soc ram described nearby.
"mtd" "ubi" - storage size / layout.
optionally wifi wlan wl ra ap followed ny number - wireless hardware
gpio - lights buttons etc.
If device is based on supported platform:
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-developer/add.new.device
first there is to get stable access to oem bootloader like to boot images f$om network etc, most likely soldering diagnostic serial header + adapter. You can also chicken out, after doc note that v2 is different or v2 is hopeless or so.

rwillett1 · December 21, 2024, 8:33pm

I can pull data that appears to have these strings in, such as mtb or UBI, but I have no idea what they mean so unsure what I'm pulling from log files.

I'm not a hardware expert and getting out of my depth here. The prospect of soldering a "diagnostic serial header + adapter" would mean I have to get a soldering iron first and learn to solder.

I'm very happy to give the RBR50 V2 for nothing to somebody who can do this sort of thing properly. I'll even post it for free to anybody in the UK if it helps get another device going.

Rob

brada4 · December 21, 2024, 9:33pm

Start of boot log (see SoC, machine name and RAM in hex)

[    0.000000] Linux version 6.6.65 (builder@buildhost) (mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc (OpenWrt GCC 13.3.0 r28187-25268f724b) 13.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.42) #0 Mon Dec 16 12:04:21 2024
[    0.000000] Board has DDR2
[    0.000000] Analog PMU set to hw control
[    0.000000] Digital PMU set to hw control
[    0.000000] SoC Type: MediaTek MT7628AN ver:1 eco:2
[    0.000000] printk: bootconsole [early0] enabled
[    0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 00019655 (MIPS 24KEc)
[    0.000000] MIPS: machine is TP-Link RE200 v4
[    0.000000] Initrd not found or empty - disabling initrd
[    0.000000] Primary instruction cache 64kB, VIPT, 4-way, linesize 32 bytes.
[    0.000000] Primary data cache 32kB, 4-way, PIPT, no aliases, linesize 32 bytes
[    0.000000] Zone ranges:
[    0.000000]   Normal   [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Movable zone start for each node
[    0.000000] Early memory node ranges
[    0.000000]   node   0: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]
[    0.000000] Initmem setup node 0 [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x0000000003ffffff]

mtd half boot log

[    1.309603] 0x000000000000-0x000000020000 : "u-boot"
[    1.323590] 0x000000020000-0x0000007c0000 : "firmware"
[    1.336621] 2 tplink-fw partitions found on MTD device firmware
[    1.348453] Creating 2 MTD partitions on "firmware":
[    1.358299] 0x000000000000-0x0000001ee424 : "kernel"
[    1.368142] mtd: partition "kernel" doesn't end on an erase/write block -- force read-only
[    1.387068] 0x0000001ee424-0x0000007a0000 : "rootfs"
[    1.397006] mtd: partition "rootfs" doesn't start on an erase/write block boundary -- force read-only
[    1.417707] mtd: setting mtd3 (rootfs) as root device
[    1.427892] 1 squashfs-split partitions found on MTD device rootfs
[    1.440168] 0x000000570000-0x0000007a0000 : "rootfs_data"
[    1.453552] 0x0000007c0000-0x0000007f0000 : "config"
[    1.466128] OF: Bad cell count for /palmbus@10000000/spi@b00/flash@0/partitions
[    1.481215] 0x0000007f0000-0x000000800000 : "radio"
[    1.494231] OF: Bad cell count for /palmbus@10000000/spi@b00/flash@0/partitions

rwillett1 · December 22, 2024, 6:04pm

Got it, not at home now but will send it.

Examples are easy to follow, anything else?

Rob

brada4 · December 22, 2024, 6:51pm

grep on linux or open text files and search on windows

file should be dmesg, boot.log etc.

rwillett1 · December 31, 2024, 1:09pm

Finally back from Xmas break. Happy Xmas all.

No issues with using grep. The debug.log files expand to whats below:

I'll do this in chunks to hopefully make it easier to follow

rwillett1 · December 31, 2024, 1:12pm

So searching for Linux in the directory tree using grep -R Linux *

From Console-log1.txt

Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
Linux version 3.14.77 (kun.hk.huang@Ubuntu16_04-GCC5_4_0) (gcc version 5.2.0 (OpenWrt GCC 5.2.0 r6043) ) #2 SMP PREEMPT Thu Dec 1 10:07:40 CST 2022
CPU: ARMv7 Processor [410fc075] revision 5 (ARMv7), cr=10c5387d
CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
Machine model: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. IPQ40xx/AP-DK04.1-C1
Flash name: NAND_FLASH
Memory policy: Data cache writealloc
PERCPU: Embedded 8 pages/cpu @dfbc6000 s8448 r8192 d16128 u32768
Built 1 zonelists in Zone order, mobility grouping on.  Total pages: 125952
Kernel command line:  rootwait clk_ignore_unused user_debug=0xff
PID hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 496716K/507904K available (4264K kernel code, 258K rwdata, 1348K rodata, 172K init, 356K bss, 11188K reserved, 0K highmem)
Virtual kernel memory layout:
    vector  : 0xffff0000 - 0xffff1000   (   4 kB)
    fixmap  : 0xfff00000 - 0xfffe0000   ( 896 kB)
    vmalloc : 0xe0800000 - 0xff000000   ( 488 MB)
    lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xe0000000   ( 512 MB)
    pkmap   : 0xbfe00000 - 0xc0000000   (   2 MB)
    modules : 0xbf000000 - 0xbfe00000   (  14 MB)
      .text : 0xc0208000 - 0xc0783500   (5614 kB)
      .init : 0xc0784000 - 0xc07af100   ( 173 kB)
      .data : 0xc07b0000 - 0xc07f0a78   ( 259 kB)
       .bss : 0xc07f0a78 - 0xc0849b40   ( 357 kB)
SLUB: HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=4, Nodes=1
Preemptible hierarchical RCU implementation.
NR_IRQS:16 nr_irqs:16 16
Architected cp15 timer(s) running at 48.00MHz (virt).
sched_clock: 56 bits at 48MHz, resolution 20ns, wraps every 2863311552512ns
Switching to timer-based delay loop
Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 96.00 BogoMIPS (lpj=480000)
pid_max: default: 32768 minimum: 301
Mount-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Mountpoint-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
CPU0: thread -1, cpu 0, socket 0, mpidr 80000000
Setting up static identity map for 0x80213278 - 0x802132d0
CPU1: Booted secondary processor

 i2c devices info
CPU1: thread -1, cpu 1, socket 0, mpidr 80000001
CPU2: Booted secondary processor

 i2c devices info
CPU2: thread -1, cpu 2, socket 0, mpidr 80000002
CPU3: Booted secondary processor

 i2c devices info
CPU3: thread -1, cpu 3, socket 0, mpidr 80000003
Brought up 4 CPUs
SMP: Total of 4 processors activated (384.00 BogoMIPS).
CPU: All CPU(s) started in SVC mode.
VFP support v0.3: implementor 41 architecture 2 part 30 variant 7 rev 5
pinctrl core: initialized pinctrl subsystem
regulator-dummy: no parameters
NET: Registered protocol family 16
DMA: preallocated 2048 KiB pool for atomic coherent allocations
cpuidle: using governor ladder
cpuidle: using governor menu
hw-breakpoint: Debug register access (0xee003e17) caused undefined instruction on CPU 2
hw-breakpoint: Debug register access (0xee003e17) caused undefined instruction on CPU 3
hw-breakpoint: Debug register access (0xee003e17) caused undefined instruction on CPU 1
hw-breakpoint: CPU 3 failed to disable vector catch
hw-breakpoint: Debug register access (0xee003e17) caused undefined instruction on CPU 0

and from basic_debug_log.txt

-----------------------cpuinfo-----------------------
processor       : 0
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 96.00
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 5

processor       : 1
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 96.00
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 5

processor       : 2
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 96.00
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 5

processor       : 3
model name      : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
BogoMIPS        : 96.00
Features        : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt vfpd32 lpae evtstrm
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant     : 0x0
CPU part        : 0xc07
CPU revision    : 5

Hardware        : Qualcomm (Flattened Device Tree)
Revision        : 0000
Serial          : 0000000000000000

rwillett1 · December 31, 2024, 1:19pm

Grepping for mtd finds very little. Your mtd shows a lot of stuff around file systems. I get one entry for mtd

======================hw_revision check======================
/tmp/hw_revision : 02
in artmtd hw_revision: 02

followed by stuff like this for some time

---------------------------- 4019 Board data --------------------------------
b6163343fab5ed3210fd5746b294c028  /lib/firmware/IPQ4019/hw.1/athwlan.bin
368883406134772d135a812eb89085a1  /lib/firmware/IPQ4019/hw.1/athwlan.codeswap.bin
....

and then

---------------------------- 9984 Board data --------------------------------
a3207dc80b2f5c70b2eb9243378279cc  /lib/firmware/QCA9984/hw.1/athwlan.bin
... Stuff deleted as I don't think it's necessary (but could be wrong)

there's some interesting wireless stuff

-----------------------Fri Dec  2 09:04:19 UTC 2022----------------------
-------------------------------iwconfig---------------------------------
ath02     IEEE 802.11b  ESSID:"NETGEAR-Guest"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/94  Signal level=-95 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ath0      IEEE 802.11ng  ESSID:"ORBI93"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 4A:A5:6E:59:EF:B2
          Bit Rate:400 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:B3B6-2DCB-C941-3879-3BCE-BFFF-DFEA-C076 [2]   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=94/94  Signal level=-97 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:18488  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ath1      IEEE 802.11ac  ESSID:"ORBI93"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:5.18 GHz  Access Point: 44:A5:6E:59:EF:B4
          Bit Rate:866.7 Mb/s   Tx-Power:21 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:1B4C-DE6B-A8D6-AF9B-97E0-4E46-1A5D-C864 [2]   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=94/94  Signal level=-97 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:9750  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ath2      IEEE 802.11ac  ESSID:"NETGEAR_ORBI_hidden16"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:5.54 GHz  Access Point: 44:A5:6E:59:EF:B5
          Bit Rate:1.7333 Gb/s   Tx-Power:27 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:2448-9ABA-BBD2-99A1-A352-D2AB-14B5-60C3 [2]   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=94/94  Signal level=-97 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:24816  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ath01     IEEE 802.11ng  ESSID:"NETGEAR_ORBI_hidden16"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:2.452 GHz  Access Point: 4E:A5:6E:59:EF:B2
          Bit Rate:400 Mb/s   Tx-Power:18 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:3DF1-464F-00D5-1607-F1A9-58B3-D3A4-CC95 [2]   Security mode:restricted
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=94/94  Signal level=-97 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:18488  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

ath11     IEEE 802.11ac  ESSID:"NETGEAR-Guest"
          Mode:Master  Frequency:5.18 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power:21 dBm
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=0/94  Signal level=-95 dBm  Noise level=-95 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

rwillett1 · December 31, 2024, 1:20pm

I do know what a Linux set of log files look like. These do not look like the boot files I would expect to see, stuff like syslog, dmesg etc etc.