To the above point regarding the C7V2, iirc it was ~2-3 months from units manufactured with the changed flash device, and a kernel push that supported the device; check the changelog
The download page used to have downgrade instructions to 1.0.6.181063 still last week, but apparently 1.0.6.186168 is seen as good enough, so that those have been removed.
I'll try another build with this patch and see how it goes. I never had serial connected so i wouldn't have spotted this change if it applies to WRT32X as well.
I saw that but was not convinced that was the right bit, and seems you feel same from exchange and posts. I seems this would just find its way into a kernel push, rather than having to be backported. But if things are there in 4.11k, it would be easy enough for those with the issue to try out a 4.14k image.
So, I assume no respite from the exchange in the other thread? Was just looking through the wiki page for the wrtpac devices and I see no mention of advising people to back-up mtd bits. Until this recent event that has not proven to be an issue(except for the early days on the mamba), but still..., and then of course there is the questionable advice to flash the same thing to both partitions.
The reason my boot loader is corrupt is because I rolled back to the previous WRT3200ACM boot loader to see if this would solve the firmware issue. I didn't know about the Winbond change at this point . So didn't think it would have been that big a of a deal.
As for flashing both partitions with the firmware I don't see any harm as you still have access to the boot loader to make any further changes.
Also not really sure how one goes about backing up the mtd data as that would have been useful.
My new WRT3200ACM was manufactured on 2017/12/26. I have compiled OpenWRT 4.9.77 from source code – not working. The official images do not work either. I see comments that in the new kernel 4.14, there should be support for the new flash chip.
How do I compile OpenWRT with the new kernel or how do I integrate the required patches to compile and test?
Can I compile a RAM image, then upload and boot it? How? If yes, then I will be able to extract the u-boot that @GaZaai needs.
If anyone has ideas to test, we can experiment on my device. Serial logs will be provided as a feedback.
With the image I compiled, OpenWRT flashes successfully, then it fails to boot three times in a row and I'm back to factory. I have attached to the UART header, here are some logs:
BTW when I open the case, the front part slides easily so attaching to the UART was easy, but I can't disassemble the back of the case. I bought this device for software development and I might want to solder a jTAG header one day. How do I open that?