Solved - ZTE MF286D - Wrong Image Format for bootm command

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Trying to re-install OpenWRT via tftp and can't get the initramfs kernel to boot.
I downloaded the initramfs itb from here:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.5/targets/ipq40xx/generic/openwrt-22.03.5-ipq40xx-generic-zte_mf286d-initramfs-fit-zImage.itb

Then renamed the file by removing "22.03.05" so that it matched the install instructions for copy / paste into putty but for some reason the file is not recognised by bootm:

(IPQ40xx) # setenv serverip 192.168.1.3
(IPQ40xx) # setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.72
(IPQ40xx) # set fdt_high 0x85000000
(IPQ40xx) # tftp openwrt-ipq40xx-generic-zte_mf286d-initramfs-fit-zImage.itb
MAC0 addr:0:3:7f:ba:db:ad
PHY ID1: 0x4d
PHY ID2: 0xd0b1
ipq40xx_ess_sw_init done
eth0
eth0 PHY0 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY1 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY2 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY3 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY4 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
(IPQ40xx) # bootm $loadaddr
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!

Is it simply that the tftp is not working?
Any thoughts gratefully accepted!

2

did you remove some of the console output ?
there's usually more data shown during the transfer of the image.

can you see the image being pulled, on your TFTP host ?

3

No, nothing removed from the console output, I did wonder if there should be more info on the amount of data being downloaded. I'll investigate the tftp side a bit more.

4

most common reason for TFTP transfers failing, is the firewall on the host side.

5

Is this the correct IP for the TFTP host?

6

Yes, 192.168.1.3 is the address on the host interface.
The host is running Linux, not had any problems before today which is why I'm a bit puzzled.

7

OK, it's working again.

I'm not really sure what happened, but I changed the ethernet cable and also erased the existing OS via

nand erase 0x1800000 0x1d00000

After that the TFTP worked without a problem and then sysupgrade to get OpenWRT working again.

Here's what the TFTP should have looked like

(IPQ40xx) # tftp openwrt.itb
eth0 PHY0 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY1 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY2 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
eth0 PHY3 up Speed :1000 Full duplex
eth0 PHY4 Down Speed :10 Half duplex
Using eth0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.1.3; our IP address is 192.168.1.72
Filename 'openwrt.itb'.
Load address: 0x84000000
Loading: #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #################################################################
         ############################################################
done
Bytes transferred = 6597052 (64a9bc hex)

Thanks to all that replied.