[Solved] Linksys WRT3200ACM accidentally reverted to stock firmware?

I was tweaking my DHCP config file today, and I probably made a typo. I've done this before, and when the router (Linksys WRT3200ACM running OpenWrt 19.07.7) next reboots, various parts (primarily dnsmasq, I imagine) don't work, but I can usually log in via SSH and fix it with no problem.

Today however, I was not able to reconnect to the router. I tried powering off and on a few times, and then I noticed the router's address had changed to 10.126.95.82. When I went there, I was greeted by the stock Linksys web interface login page. Somehow the router was now running the stock firmware, without me doing anything more than power cycling a few times (and possibly crashing dnsmasq with my bad typing).

Has anyone else experienced this before? I had thought that when I flashed the router to OpenWrt, the old firmware was gone from the machine. Does Linksys have some kind of backup anti-bricking system that re-installs the original firmware automatically? I'm so curious!

This is a dual-firmware system... power cycling multiple times without allowing a complete successful boot to happen will switch to the other partition.

1 Like

Correct per @psherman,

Using the power switch,

  • power off ~5sec
  • power on and wait for right side Eth ports to come up and then power down
  • repeat above step 3 times
  • let it boot. It should come back up to your OpenWrt partition.

Pay attention to the led sequences. Don't let it get too far into the boot sequence. A couple attempts might be needed to get the timings right.

Of course! Thank you so much for explaining it to me.

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