[SOLVED] TL-WA750RE factory reset on reboot

[pdsccode]

Hey there,

I've used a TL-WA750RE v1 for several months now without any problems. That was until I decided to relocate the device to another room (due to some re-decoration). Until that day, I did not have any reboots or power-loss after config. That's maybe the reason why it worked well for so long.

Now to the main question. Since the model is listed as supported and I don't have any extras installed or added to the ROM (used the firmware from the official website), how comes that even a simple configuration change will be lost when rebooting? Even setting a password does not survive.

Maybe I did something completely fatal and bricked it?

[lleachii]

@pdsccode, welcome to the community!

If you didn't upgrade the device, that is odd. Since you don't mention what version you have installed, etc., I can only provide you general information.

• Check warning on this page: https://openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wa850re
• Definitely read this: https://openwrt.org/supported_devices/openwrt_on_432_devices

@pdsccode

Since the model is listed as supported and I don't have any extras installed or added to the ROM (used the firmware from the official website), how comes that even a simple configuration change will be lost when rebooting?

• Are you saying that similar unsupported models reboot or something?
• Do you notice anything before the router reboots?
• What other settings changes did you make - other than the password?

[pdsccode]

Hey @lleachii, thanks for the fast reply and for the welcome.

I'm using the firmware "OpenWrt 18.06.4 r7808-ef686b7292".

I did nothing beside the firmware flash and linking it up to my WIFI as Client (using it as a wireless bridge between two rooms). So on the config side I just changed the password and linked it up.

I don't know if similar ones reboot since I only have the one I mentioned. The router does not reboot by itself. It holds the configuration until I trigger a reboot or power it off. After that, it starts right back into a reseted state.

[jeff]

What is the output of

mount
df -h

when the device is running?

My guess is that the image is too large and you don't have a persistent overlay.

From a NOR-based device (with larger flash), seeing

/dev/mtdblock4 on /overlay type jffs2 (rw,noatime)

(rather than tmpfs) mounted on /overlay tells me that the MTD flash is being used for the overlay, not just RAM-backed temporary storage.

jeff@garage:~$ mount
/dev/root on /rom type squashfs (ro,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct,blkio,memory,devices,freezer,net_cls,pids)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime)
/dev/mtdblock4 on /overlay type jffs2 (rw,noatime)
overlayfs:/overlay on / type overlay (rw,noatime,lowerdir=/,upperdir=/overlay/upper,workdir=/overlay/work)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=512k,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,mode=600,ptmxmode=000)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,noatime)

See also

Report Devices Here With 18.06.0 Provided Image too big to save overlay

Sure, here is what I could exctract from this topic (and other topics that are linked to this one): This posting is wiki, i.e. everybody can edit it for adding more affected devices. Please make sure to only add devices with 4MB flash. Devices with 8MB flash are not affected and shall not be added to this list. Brand Model Topic link / Comment ASUS RT-N10+ B1 Cisco Valet M10 Linksys e1000 failing to install 18.06.1 firmware D-Link DIR-300 B5 D-Link DIR-300 B1 D-Link DIR-60…

[pdsccode]

Hey Jeff,

I ssh'ed into the device and got the following output from 'mount':

root@OpenWrt:~# mount
/dev/root on /rom type squashfs (ro,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime)
tmpfs on /tmp/root type tmpfs (rw,noatime,mode=755)
overlayfs:/tmp/root on / type overlay (rw,noatime,lowerdir=/,upperdir=/tmp/root/upper,workdir=/tmp/root/work)
tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=512k,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,mode=600,ptmxmode=000)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,noatime)

And the following from 'df -h':

root@OpenWrt:~# df -h
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                 2.3M      2.3M         0 100% /rom
tmpfs                    13.6M    532.0K     13.1M   4% /tmp
tmpfs                    13.6M     56.0K     13.5M   0% /tmp/root
overlayfs:/tmp/root      13.6M     56.0K     13.5M   0% /
tmpfs                   512.0K         0    512.0K   0% /dev

[trendy]

@pdsccode

overlayfs:/tmp/root 13.6M 56.0K 13.5M 0% /

Unfortunately you are very low on resources and the root partition is mounted on temporary file system which is lost after reboot. Not much you can do there, but upgrade to a newer router.

[pdsccode]

I thought about upgrading. Unfortunately I'm not ready to do so yet. Just prepared a dev-env to strip down the firmware and free up some space. Maybe this works. Just need to figure out how to remove packages before compiling.

[trendy]

If your problem is solved, feel free to mark the relevant post as the solution; and edit the title to add "[SOLVED]" to the beginning (click the pencil behind the topic).

[pdsccode]

Since I now know the reason for the behavior and the initial question has been answered, I changed the topic to solved.

Thanks for any help.