Ubnt Litebeam ac gen 2 upgrade

[patcheremo]

Litebeam ac gen 2 upgrated latest sysuograde configuration loss in rebooted. sysversion is 23.05.2

[frollic]

@patcheremo

configuration loss in rebooted

Cool......

[grizlyadams]

I also have this problem

[mk24]

There is a bug which is being fixed. It affects many Ubiquity models that have a particular flash chip.

Powerbeam M5 XW Configuration Loss after reboot

Hi, I tried upgrading to the latest snapshot in my Powerbeam M5 with image builder and after configuring it, the configuration changes were lost after rebooting, I have tried using the master snapshot without luci the same issue is reproducible, and this issue isn't reproducible with 5.10 kernel. Logs filtered to jffs and overlay: [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 [ 0.299228] jffs2: version 2.2 (NAND) (SUMMARY) (LZMA) (RTIME) (CMODE_PRIORITY)…

Use a snapshot build until the next release, which should contain the fix. Since the installed OpenWrt cannot write to flash at all, sysupgrading does not work. It is necessary to TFTP recover to stock and repeat the installation process.

[grizlyadams]

I've done the tftp back to stock then installed older openwrt releases and they are the same. Is there a known older version that works?

Thanks in advance.

[mk24]

22.03.6 should work. The bug was introduced in the new kernel for version 23.
Although there may be another problem with other flash chips. Does your boot log show the SPI-NOR is an MXic chip?

[grizlyadams]

Thanks very much - I thought I'd tried that version, but perhaps I didn't go that far back. I'll report back on the boot log and try loading that version later..

Thanks again, much appreciated

update -I have 22.03.5 downloaded and I'm pretty sure I tried that - but will re-do the install now with 22.03.6 and see how it goes.

[grizlyadams]

how do I look at the boot log?

[grizlyadams]

I've tftp'd the WA.v8.7.9.46843 (can't do any earlier as it errors and won't load web UI)

Then set the password

SCP'd the firmware file above and openwrt-22.03.6 squashfs

Did the fwupdate.real of the WA file and stopped it after a few seconds

Loaded the openwrt-22.03.6 file into mtdblock2 and 3 in two separate parts.

Rebooted and connected to web UI and set password, changed the LAN IP address, saved and applied and connected on the new LAN address.

Rebooted and all changes were lost with password gone and iPaddress reset to 192.168.1.1

Should I try an older version?

further update.....

ok - final update. Good news is that it works.

I reflashed it with 21.02.7 in an effort to go backwards until i found one that worked. That didn't work.

I upgraded from within LUCI to 22.03.6 (the firmware I posted about above) and after that upgrade config changes are surviving reboots.

So:-

1. install 21.02.7 via the tftp Ubi firmware route
2. connect via LUCI to 192.168.1.1 and upgrade the firmware to 22.03.6

[grizlyadams]

just in case someone finds this - my last fix no longer works.... here's what I had to do after the "stable" 24.10 release.....

ok, I got it sorted in a pretty convoluted way - well not so convoluted once it was boiled down to a few steps, but the journey there was pretty convoluted!

These guys at AREDN also have firmware for the Litebeam AC Gen2 and they are also experiencing all of the same pain as us who are trying to install OpenWRT on ours. BUT their firmware has the patch to deal with the 8.7.4 UBNT firmware that we can't downgrade from. So I thought I would give their firmware a try to get off UBNT firmware then see if I could then upgrade via their web UI to an OpenWRT version and I am very, VERY happy to report that it worked - I uploaded OpenWrt 23.05.4, restored a backup of my config and bish-bash-bosh - its working!!!

What a bloody palava!!!

Anyway, if you're stuck trying to fix your Litebeam AC Gen2 after the "stable" 24.10 release has goosed it, do the following:-

1. Download and install UBNT 8.7.4 via tftp

2. after the tftp reboot, use the web UI to re-upload the same firmware and reboot.

3. download the ARENT firmware using their firmware selector here https://downloads.arednmesh.org/afs/www/

4. then connect via SSH and follow the instructions here https://openwrt.org/toh/ubiquiti/common#wa_v874xc_v874 to patch the fwupdate.real binary and copy your f/w from step 3. to the antenna. Let it upload and reboot

5. Then set your NIC you used for the tftp and SSH to DCHP - you will receive a 10.x.x.x ipaddress from the Litebeam

6. log on to the ARENT web ui using the 10.x.x.x address. and set your node name and passowrd as per the instructions on their page.

7. Go to the firmware part of their web UI once you're logged in (note - its not obvious in the UI that parts are clickable - they are)

8. upload your chosen, working OpenWRT (i used 23.05.4)

9. after the upload/reboot - connect to the 10.x.x.x ip address again and either restore your config or re-set it all up.

10. reboot, pour red wine and breathe a sigh of relief....

[grizlyadams]

Of course, the other way is to compile your own firmware with the patch mentioned in the link in item 4. above, but I'm not a Linux guy or a dev guy so, for me, this was the shortest route to recovery rather than having to spin up a Linux box and learn how to patch and compile.