Sysupgrade Upgrade Error

[trancekat]

Hi all. I've gone back to try to upgrade my R7800 again.

Everything works, just not the upgrade. I generated a tar.gz backup as I do not want to lose my many settings.

When I try to upgrade, I get an error i haven't been able to solve.
Ca-certificates is installed.

Hostname
router
Model
Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800
Architecture
ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v7l)
Firmware Version
OpenWrt 19.07.4 r11208-ce6496d796 / LuCI openwrt-19.07 branch git-22.115.68448-712bc8e
Kernel Version
4.14.275
 

This is the error I get when I try to upgrade via luci. Cli fails as well.

#### Error connecting to upgrade server

Could not reach API at "https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/". Please try again later.

SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input

root@router:~# nslookup sysupgrade.openwrt.orgServer:         127.0.0.1
Address:        127.0.0.1#53
 
Name:      sysupgrade.openwrt.org
sysupgrade.openwrt.org  canonical name = asu-01.infra.openwrt.org
Name:      asu-01.infra.openwrt.org
Address 1: 206.81.21.114
sysupgrade.openwrt.org  canonical name = asu-01.infra.openwrt.org
root@router:~#
 

Apologies, but what log should I be looking at to troubleshoot, please?

And thank you.

[gee_one]

@trancekat

https://sysupgrade.openwrt.org/

I'm not an expert, but if you go to that website from your browser, it will tell you that 19.x is not supported.

Maybe download the image and upgrade manually? I think when you jump versions, there might be a limited gap that you can upgrade without having to re-do your settings.

[gee_one]

Also, upgrading might require resetting your router because of the shift to DSA.

DSA Mini-Tutorial

[psherman]

@gee_one

I'm not an expert, but if you go to that website from your browser, it will tell you that 19.x is not supported.

I don't know that it does tell you this... but the upgrade path being attempted is, in fact, not supported (i.e. < 22.03)

Sysupgrade can be used to upgrade a device from 22.03 to 23.05, and configuration will be preserved in most cases.
Sysupgrade from 21.02 to 23.05 is not officially supported.

• ipq40xx EA6350v3, EA8300 and MR8300 require tweak to the U-Boot environment on update from 22.03 to 23.05. Refer to the Device wiki or the instruction on sysupgrade on how to do this change. Config needs to be reset on sysupgrade.

OpenWrt 23.05.0 - First Stable Release - 13 October 2023

[trancekat]

I was actually hoping to upgrade from 19.07 to 21.02 as this page stated it is supported: https://openwrt.org/releases/21.02/notes-21.02.0

Did I misunderstand?

Is there no upgrade path where I can keep all my settings, please?

[psherman]

Yes, the upgrade from 19.07 > 21.02 is supported in general, yes.

But before we worry too much about this, can you tell us the following:

• how complex is your configuration (are you running VLANs, lots of custom firewall rules, VPNs, other things that might be a bit difficult or time consuming to reconfigure)?
• Do you have any/many user-installed packages?

Sine you're looking to upgrade and you're looking at 3 major revisions to step through (19.07 > 21.02 > 22.03 > 23.05), it may be easier to simply upgrade directly to 23.05 and start fresh. Understanding the level of complexity of your setup will help us provide you with the best path.

[trancekat]

Hi Peter.

First, thank you again for your time and help.

• how complex is your configuration (are you running VLANs, lots of custom firewall rules, VPNs, other things that might be a bit difficult or time consuming to reconfigure)?

I have 5 VLANs assigned, with all of them trunked to a port that connects to my Ruckus switch for more ports.

I have about 9 custom firewall rules - restricting internet access for my cameras, allowing ntp, holes into my lan from the dmz, etc.

I have 3 VPNs - 1 acting as a server for when I am out of the house, and 2 nailed up VPNs to surf out of based on IP assignment.

I have 2 DDNS systems I sync to for remote access on 2 different domains.

7 interfaces defined (including WAN and WAN6)

6 SSIDs

50 Static DHCP Assignments

4 DHCP Servers with custom assignment for DNSs

• Do you have any/many user-installed packages?

I have a number of packages installed:

kmod-usb-storage wpad-basic blockdev ddns-scripts_cloudflare.com-v4 luci-i18n-wireguard-en dnsmasq lsblk netperf luci-ssl-openssl kmod-fs-nfs-v4 nfs-utils odhcp6c msmtp ethtool uci kmod-fs-ext4 collectd lynx luci-app-vpn-policy-routing blockd logd openvpn-openssl luci-app-attendedsysupgrade luci-i18n-adblock-en e2fsprogs acme-dnsapi luci-i18n-openvpn-en auc git htop luci-i18n-uhttpd-en libuhttpd-openssl gnunet-utils wireguard luci-app-acme ddns-scripts_freedns_42_pl arp-scan

I also have a house full of little kids and an S O that are very dependent on the interwebz.

[psherman]

You've got a lot there... I understand why you want to use the ASU process.

@trancekat

I have a number of packages installed:

Are you using extroot on your router? If so, that will require that you start over anyway -- there is no ASU method for extroot.

[trancekat]

No, sir. No extroot.

[psherman]

ok... so ASU should be possible, but I'm not sure why it isn't working for you (I've never used it).

You could build a custom image using the online image builder and then use that for your upgrade.

[trancekat]

Would I be able to restore so my settings?, please?

[psherman]

This should hopefully answer your questions on that front:

ASUS RT-AC68U 21.2 to 22.3 upgrade fail. DSA?

Regarding keeping your config between upgrades... In the case of n-1 > n upgrades, it is usually compatible unless there has been a major backend change cuch as swconfig > DSA (or ar71xx > ath79 that happened several years ago for that specific set of target devices). Every recent release has stated that n-2 > n upgrades (as a single step) are not supported. This doesn't necessarily mean that it won't work, but it isn't tested and there isn't logic in the code to migrate config items where sy…

[trancekat]

Thank you.

Looks like I'm going to have to do it the hard way. Appreciate the assist none the less.