U-Boot recovery & install via USB Serial Console wrx36

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

openwrt-23.05.4-ipq807x-generic-dynalink_dl-wrx36-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
openwrt-23.05.4-ipq807x-generic-dynalink_dl-wrx36-squashfs-factory.ubi
openwrt-23.05.4-ipq807x-generic-dynalink_dl-wrx36-initramfs-uImage.itb

U-Boot 0.0.1-1-80112-CS (May 21 2021 - 09:29:10 +0800)
arm-openwrt-linux-muslgnueabi-gcc (OpenWrt GCC 5.2.0 143c855+r49254) 5.2.0
GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.24.0

IPQ807x# help
?       - alias for 'help'
aq_load_fw- LOAD aq-fw-binary
aq_phy_restart- Restart Aquantia phy
base    - print or set address offset
bdinfo  - print Board Info structure
bootipq - bootipq from flash device
bootm   - boot application image from memory
bootp   - boot image via network using BOOTP/TFTP protocol
bootz   - boot Linux zImage image from memory
canary  - test stack canary
chpart  - change active partition
cmp     - memory compare
cp      - memory copy
crc32   - checksum calculation
dcache  - enable or disable data cache
dhcp    - boot image via network using DHCP/TFTP protocol
dm      - Driver model low level access
echo    - echo args to console
env     - environment handling commands
erase   - erase FLASH memory
exectzt - execute TZT

exit    - exit script
false   - do nothing, unsuccessfully
fatinfo - print information about filesystem
fatload - load binary file from a dos filesystem
fatls   - list files in a directory (default /)
fatsize - determine a file's size
fdt     - flattened device tree utility commands
flash   - flash part_name
        flash part_name load_addr file_size

flasherase- flerase part_name

flinfo  - print FLASH memory information
fuseipq - fuse QFPROM registers from memory

go      - start application at address 'addr'
help    - print command description/usage
i2c     - I2C sub-system
icache  - enable or disable instruction cache
imxtract- extract a part of a multi-image
ipq_mdio- IPQ mdio utility commands
is_sec_boot_enabled- check secure boot fuse is enabled or not

itest   - return true/false on integer compare
loop    - infinite loop on address range
md      - memory display
mii     - MII utility commands
mm      - memory modify (auto-incrementing address)
mmc     - MMC sub system
mmcinfo - display MMC info
mtdparts- define flash/nand partitions
mtest   - simple RAM read/write test
mw      - memory write (fill)
nand    - NAND sub-system
nboot   - boot from NAND device
nm      - memory modify (constant address)
pci     - list and access PCI Configuration Space
ping    - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network host
printenv- print environment variables
protect - enable or disable FLASH write protection
reset   - Perform RESET of the CPU
run     - run commands in an environment variable
runmulticore- Enable and schedule secondary cores
saveenv - save environment variables to persistent storage
secure_authenticate- authenticate the signed image

setenv  - set environment variables
sf      - SPI flash sub-system
showvar - print local hushshell variables
sleep   - delay execution for some time
smeminfo- print SMEM FLASH information
source  - run script from memory
test    - minimal test like /bin/sh
tftpboot- boot image via network using TFTP protocol
tftpput - TFTP put command, for uploading files to a server
true    - do nothing, successfully
uart    - UART sub-system
ubi     - ubi commands
usb     - USB sub-system
usbboot - boot from USB device
version - print monitor, compiler and linker version
IPQ807x# chpart
no partition id specified
IPQ807x# usb usbboot
USB is stopped. Please issue 'usb start' first.
IPQ807x# usb start
starting USB...
USB0:   Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
USB1:   Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus 1 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found

IPQ807x# usb
usb - USB sub-system

IPQ807x# usbboot
** No device specified **

I need help installing my firmware via UBOOT.
can someone guide me in the right direction please?

2

Please change the title to "Installing OpenWRT on Dynalink dl-wrx36", so the right people notice your thread.

There is no need to guess with the boot loader, you need to follow the step by step instruction instructions for your particular device:
https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36#installation
You will need to report back, where you got stuck on the steps, so people can help you.

Or you can ask questions related to the installation instructions, if you do not understand something ahead of installation.

3

Hi, thanks for your advise but this is the correct title for the people that I am after.
everything else has been exhausted and is not leading anywhere.
https://forum.openwrt.org/t/dynalink-dl-wrx36/165208

I am looking for help for doing a U-Boot recovery now.'
Everything else has been tried to exhaustion and hasn't lead anywhere and will not do so!

Can anyone help please?

4

I then advise, to change the title to "Need help to desaster recover a Dynalink dl-wrx36", so the right people notice your thread.

OpenWRT is supported on roughly 2000 devices, and each device has a slightly different (and device-specific) recovery procedure. Only a fraction of people in the forum here are experts for specific devices. That is why I would recommend to be as specific as pssible on the title. There is no generic uboot recovery procedure.

The documentation refers to Dynalink DL-WRX36 Askey RT5010W IPQ8072A technical discussion - #398 by luaraneda to recover,
does that help in any way?

By the way, I don't have that particular device. But I did notice that the info you have put in the thread will not be of help to proceed.
This forum does not really work like a support hotline, where someone will go through prepared checklists and guid you along, but rather you need to describe your situation, what steps you have tried so far and questions that you have to understand documented instructions.

5

I did a recovery like this not to long ago, maybe I can help. So to make sure we are on the same page. U-Boot is a boot loader that can be used to "unbrick" the device.

https://openwrt.org/docs/techref/bootloader/uboot.config

I suggest that you need to get a factory firmware image transferred to the devices memory, then either boot to the image stored in memory, or flash it directly to your devices storage and then boot to it. - Depending on the device there can be some very interesting tricks and gotcha's can can permanently brick the device.

https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36#installation

To transfer the image from your computer to the device you might be be best served by using TFTP. TFTP is a much simplified version of FTP that communicates on a different port number and doesn't use authentication, or encryption or anything. There are some instructions here:

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.flashing.tftp

The first step, if you go that route is to setup a TFTP server on your computer so that uboot can download the factory image from your computer using TFTP. Or at least that's what's in my head... Perhaps you need to transfer the file completely over the serial link, and although TFTP can do that with some help, I'm not sure if that's the right way to go....

Any of that help?

6

Isn't it exactly what's documented on https://openwrt.org/toh/dynalink/dl-wrx36#tab__part_1_option_b_-_use_a_serial_connection_33v_to_copy_and_boot_initramfs

If it fails, please post the whole installation sequence, up until where it goes wrong.