Upgrading from vendor QSDK based image to OpenWiFi image

For Developers
1

Hey everyone,

A newbie here. I am trying something very basic. We have a Qualcomm board with the below QSDK (vendor stock):

"kernel": "4.4.60", "description": "OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05.1" version

We are trying to upgrade to a different Linux and OpenWrt version. We have compiled the image from openWiFi repository with below outputs:

openwrt-ipq807x-cybertan_eww622_a1-squashfs-sysupgrade.tar
openwrt-ipq807x-cybertan_eww622_a1-squashfs-nand-factory.bin

When we did the sysupgrade via GUI, the board was stuck on uboot and won't move further.

When we asked Qualcomm support regarding upgrade they said:

You can upgrade the platform from Linux-4.4 based release image to Linux-5.4 based release with single image. i.e., nand-ipq807x-single.img or norplusnand-ipq807x-single.img You cannot upgrade kernel alone with uboot unchanged.

What exactly does this above statement mean?

How can we update the uboot?

Do we have to boot the factory image on the router? (factory.bin file)

Anything will be helpful to understand how to boot this firmware on the board.

Regards,

2

Exactly what it says. Unlike on a desktop Linux distribution you cannot just replace or upgrade the kernel.

Yes. Factory images must be used when migrating from vendor firmware. Do not confuse the QSDK frankenfirmware with OpenWrt proper.

Sounds like you bricked it. Sysupgrade is designed for OpenWrt proper, and you are using it here to upgrade from an SDK image to another project's image, both not vanilla OpenWrt. FWIW, if you can still boot into u-boot, u-boot itself should still be OK.

You should check with the OpenWiFi community about installing their images. These are not official OpenWrt images, nor is IPQ807x a supported architecture at this point. The OpenWrt community cannot help you with this. For us, this is a black box.

I have modified your topic title to reflect more accurately what you are trying to achieve.

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3

Thanks for your reply! I will try to boot the factory image once.