[SOLVED] Flashing Meraki MR18 can not upgrade or save changes

Hi there,

I have a big problem. Actually I have 5 Merikai MR18 devices which all have the same fault.

I could flash all of them with USBJTAG NT, flashed is the Firmware Version OpenWRT Designated Driver r47958/Luci Master (git 15.354 ...

I have access to the router via webui and can log in. When I change the root password for example this will been saved, until i disconnect the device from the power Supply, if I do so he will lost all changes and the standard settings are set. looks like the information will be only stored in the RAM.

When I go to System/ Software there is no free space shown.

When I try to upgrade to LEDE, the process will hang and after reboot the MR18 is broken, I have to reflash.

I have tried to configure the MR18 as I need, works all fine, but when I unplug from power supply, all is gone.

Has someone an idea or an solution?

I have flashed the MR18 with the instruction from Ricardo Cooper on youtube, three times it worked very well.

Thanks for any help

DarkStar

This is extremely old!!!

I'm not even certain that the MR18 was supported by Designated Driver. Try using 18.06.0.

Did you properly clear the partitions???

Can you provide the results of the command ubinfo -a

That is right, extremely old, but this is only the Firmware I am flashing, after this i will upgrade to the newest version, usually. For the MR 18 I use the openwrt-ar71xx-nand-mr18-initramfs-kernel-ecc Kernel.

I have tried several time to clear the storage, without success, in the Software section there is no free space shown, and this is, I think, the problem.

Here the result from the ubinfo -a:

UBI version:                    1
Count of UBI devices:           1
UBI control device major/minor: 10:59
Present UBI devices:            ubi0

ubi0
Volumes count:                           9
Logical eraseblock size:                 129024 bytes, 126.0 KiB
Total amount of logical eraseblocks:     884 (114057216 bytes, 108.8 MiB)
Amount of available logical eraseblocks: 0 (0 bytes)
Maximum count of volumes                 128
Count of bad physical eraseblocks:       4
Count of reserved physical eraseblocks:  16
Current maximum erase counter value:     854
Minimum input/output unit size:          2048 bytes
Character device major/minor:            253:0
Present volumes:                         0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Volume ID:   0 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        5 LEBs (645120 bytes, 630.0 KiB)
State:       OK
Name:        board-config
Character device major/minor: 253:1
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   1 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        163 LEBs (21030912 bytes, 20.1 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        storage
Character device major/minor: 253:2
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   2 (on ubi0)
Type:        static
Alignment:   1
Size:        41 LEBs (5289984 bytes, 5.0 MiB)
Data bytes:  5259264 bytes (5.0 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        rootfs-23-198280-1
Character device major/minor: 253:3
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   3 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        41 LEBs (5289984 bytes, 5.0 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        rootfs-23-198280-2
Character device major/minor: 253:4
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   4 (on ubi0)
Type:        static
Alignment:   1
Size:        68 LEBs (8773632 bytes, 8.4 MiB)
Data bytes:  8727997 bytes (8.3 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        diagnostic1
Character device major/minor: 253:5
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   5 (on ubi0)
Type:        static
Alignment:   1
Size:        68 LEBs (8773632 bytes, 8.4 MiB)
Data bytes:  8725121 bytes (8.3 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        diagnostic2
Character device major/minor: 253:6
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   6 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        2 LEBs (258048 bytes, 252.0 KiB)
State:       OK
Name:        caldata
Character device major/minor: 253:7
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   7 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        19 LEBs (2451456 bytes, 2.3 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        rootfs
Character device major/minor: 253:8
-----------------------------------
Volume ID:   8 (on ubi0)
Type:        dynamic
Alignment:   1
Size:        457 LEBs (58963968 bytes, 56.2 MiB)
State:       OK
Name:        rootfs_data
Character device major/minor: 253:9

Hi there,

has nobody an Idea want kind of failure this is?

Since you're not showing any free space, and losing all your settings after power-off, it sounds like you're running in RAM only without any storage mounted. That would make saving your settings impossible.

Try flashing a newer firmware as lleachii suggested, latest supported shown here https://openwrt.org/toh/meraki/mr18

Hello, thank you for your support. But the problem is that I have to flash first of all the openwrt-ar71xx-nand-mr18-initramfs-kernel-ecc.bin and with this firmware I have no chance to upgrade to a newer or different version, because this firmware, as you mentioned, will be load in RAM only. So the problem is I can not write anything on the MR18.

Hello all togehter,

problem solved, I could easily flash the new OpenWRT and I have 100 % free space.

Thank you very much for your support:+1::+1::+1::+1:

1 Like

Hi, I know this is old thread but I bet many people will find it having the same problem so .. in my case the problem was that I was making a mistake during the programming with USBJTAG NT. I did all the Read and Erase and Write but just before the write of the bin file I did not click on Kernel 2 tab which means, that I was rewriting the whole flash as I was on AllFlash tab. The correct procedure should be to Erase kernel1 and kernel2 then open the bin file then select the Kernel2 tab and then Write. I had to debrick my MR18 twice before noticing this small detail. If you do the same mistake you will get this exact behaviour - zero free space, no settings stored and not possible to upgrade. Hope this helps.

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