Upgrading on x86

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum. Sorry if I missed any related postings.

I've just installed version 21.02.0-rc2 a few days ago on an x86-based system (old Asus-ePC) in a cascaded router environment for testing purposes and to learn how the system behaves (before installing 21.02 stable later on for production use on a Linksys device).
As expected I had to install several hardware-specific additional packages to activate WLAN. All went fine, I can access the internet, all devices in LAN can connect to WLAN devices and vice versa. Great distribution!

Now I saw that rc3 is out. To understand the mechanisms behind and to gain experience for further updates I wanted to upgrade from rc2 to rc3 without loosing the additional packages and corresponding config files.
I found https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.sysupgrade#reinstall_user-installed_packages and https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/advanced/opkg_extras which both describe the way well.
However, how do I add the functionality of opkg extras? I do not understand how to proceed. Or where is my thinking error?
Can I use sysupgrade and opkg extras to complete the update without the need to reinstall and reconfigure packages?

Thanks a million for your help and hints!
Mat

2

Yes and No, that methodology will backup your configuration and store a list of installed packages. But after the upgrade the packages still need to be installed using this methods.
So yes in the end packages and configurations will be available but the will be reinstalled after upgrade.

3

You can use the automated section to simplify the installation process:

The latter one is required to automatically trigger the restore process upon the first boot.

4

Hi @faser, @vgaetera,

I understand! The script must be loaded from the given URL :slight_smile: PEBCAK, as usual :slight_smile: Thanks a million. I'll try and report.

However, might be a good idea to add a note about this at the top of the wiki page?

Best,
Mat

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