[tl-wdr4300-v1] how do I troubleshoot configuration changes not persisting?

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

:wave: hi folks!
I've dusted off my wdr4300-v1 and flashed 21.02.1. It is lovely!

I have noticed that configuration settings are not persisting upon reboot.

searching dmesg for jffs2 yields the following clues:

root@OpenWrt:~# dmesg | grep jffs2
[    0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2
[    0.255547] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY) (c) 2001-2006 Red Hat, Inc.
[   11.063868] mount_root: jffs2 not ready yet, using temporary tmpfs overlay
[   71.782813] jffs2: notice: (2101) jffs2_build_xattr_subsystem: complete building xattr subsystem, 82 of xdatum (68 unchecked, 4 orphan) and 127 of xref (20 dead, 0 orphan) found.
  • do those messages mean my ROM was not mounted properly?
  • how do I verify my ROM was mounted properly?

I am curious about the slow road to a solution so I can learn more about OpenWrt and hopefully make this thread helpful for future travelers.

2

What image did you flash? If you used the initramfs image to install, the behavior you are seeing would be expected. Download and install the sysupgrade image using the currently running openwrt flash upgrade process and you should be good.

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3

What does grep for "overlay" show in dmesg? (And in system log logread)

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4

Ah, thank you for pointing out the expected behavior. I had assumed whatever image I flashed would persist settings. I had downloaded the kernel image here. initramfs it was!

root@OpenWrt:~# dmesg | grep overlayfs
[   72.905131] overlayfs: upper fs does not support tmpfile.

I will install the sysupgrade image and verify my settings persist.

Thank you both for the help!

5

Yup. I thought so. For certain devices, this is actually part of the upgrade process: stock fimrware > OpenWrt (initramfs) > OpenWrt (squashfs). Once you install the sysupgrade image (which is squashfs), you should be able to save your configuration settings properly.

6

:clap: :clap:

For my benefit, is this the expected output from dmesg on a machine that has been flashed with a squashfs image?

root@OpenWrt:~# dmesg | grep mount_root
[   18.093190] mount_root: overlay filesystem has not been fully initialized yet
[   18.106808] mount_root: switching to jffs2 overlay

Specifically the 2nd line. That let's me know the jffs2 mount will be used for all my configuration / system changes.

7

Yes, that looks ok and expected. At that point the overlay in flash is ready and is taken into use.

Edit:
And note that I asked you to grep for "overlay" instead of "overlayfs" just because all relevant lines do not contain "fs".

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8

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