Vanilla firmware on an external drive

K14M · August 10, 2024, 4:17pm

Hello comrades, I have a non-standard question

I have a router ASUS RT-AX59U and now it has OpenWrt 23.05.4. I installed OpenWrt right after I bought it. But at the same time I would like to study the standard firmware from the manufacturer. And I don't want to re-flash back.

Is it possible to install the official firmware on an external drive and make the router run the firmware from the external drive when this external drive is connected. Otherwise load OpenWrt from internal memory.

I would like to have the opposite, vanilla firmware in the internal memory and OpenWRT on the external memory, but this is probably impossible.

brada4 · August 10, 2024, 4:59pm

Very few routers support A/B dual booting. Not yours. If you want to study firmware there are tools like binwalk etc.

psherman · August 10, 2024, 5:04pm

Booting from external storage is typically only possible on more general purpose compute systems such as SBCs and x86 devices. Your device is not such a system, so no, you can't use external storage to boot your router.

K14M · August 10, 2024, 5:09pm

Got it. Then another question. Can I ask it in this thread or should I create a new thread?

Is it possible to save (make a backup) all my current firmware with all settings and installed packages to install the native firmware of the router. And then (if necessary) to flash the backup of OpenWRT firmware with all settings and installed packag

psherman · August 10, 2024, 5:15pm

If you use attended sysupgrade, you can have it create a monolithic firmware image based on what is currently installed and it will allow you to download it. You can flash that image later when you want to reinstall OpenWrt with all the packages you've got now. This covers the packages.

As for the backup of your settings/configuration, create a backup and that can be restored later, too. So you'll reflash the above image, then restore your backup, and you should be right back to where you are now.

K14M · August 10, 2024, 6:23pm

What do you mean, attended sysupgrade? I installed the firmware according to these instructions

Download .trx file from https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1A20QdjK7Udagu31FSszpWAk8-cGlCwsq (trx image is unofficial image, you may need to be used with caution.)

Browse to http://www.asusrouter.com/Advanced_FirmwareUpgrade_Content.asp

Upload .trx file to router

Wait for it to reboot

trx image is initramfs version. You must upgrade to squashfs version.

Browse to http://192.168.1.1/cgi-bin/luci/admin/system/flash if LuCI is installed

Upload squashfs version .bin file to router.

Wait for it to reboot

Telnet to 192.168.1.1 and set a root password, or browse to http://192.168.1.1 if LuCI is installed.

In other words first I flashed openwrt-23_rt-ax59u-initramfs.trx from google disk over the vanilla firmware. And then over this firmware I flashed openwrt-23.05.4-mediatek-filogic-asus_rt-ax59u-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin from https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org.
Is this the attended sysupgrade?

How do I do that? Is this it?

Img

So now to make a full backup of the router I first need to backup the firmware and then backup the configs. After that I need to restore the firmware first and then the configurations.

The firmware and configs are in different sections and they can't be saved in one file?

brada4 · August 10, 2024, 6:26pm

attended sysugrade aka auc is OpenWRT program that upgrades to next minor release with all packages intact. Down the road you can skip upgrading part but download full sysupgrade image, i.e first do trx upload, then upgrade to sysupgrade image shown by auc -n

psherman · August 10, 2024, 10:09pm

Did you install any packages that are not part of the default set?

ASU/AUC is an optional package that you can install which is useful if you have installed a bunch of packages after you flashed OpenWrt to your router.

No, this is used for different purposes -- mainly backing up the contents of the vendor's original firmware or other things such as factory calibration data.

Correct.

K14M · August 10, 2024, 10:29pm

I've installed a lot of these packages. In pure OpenWRT there is nothing at all. Even the vanilla router firmware has more features than pure OpenWRT. The same torrent client is not included in pure OpenWRT, nor is WireGuard, nor is PBR, Mount Points and more

Then how am I supposed to create

psherman · August 10, 2024, 10:38pm

It sounds like this was a surprise to you... the point is to keep OpenWrt as lightweight as possible by default. This reduces the size of the firmware image and allows users to install the packages that they want/need. OpenWrt has much more flexibility than the vendor firmware, and there are far more capabilities available via installing packages.

Using the Attended Sysupgrade 'upgrade' path -- this will allow you to download the image that has all the same packages included. Or, you can use the firmware selector to do the same (but you have to manually specify all of the user-installed packages, whereas the ASU method will figure that out automatically).

K14M · August 10, 2024, 11:02pm

Well, that's why I installed WireGuard and other packages. I don't need pure OpenWRT

Quote from this page

The Attended SysUpgrade (ASU) facility allows an OpenWrt device to update to new firmware while preserving the packages and settings.

So will the settings still be saved or do I need to save them separately? Are settings and configs the same thing or are they different?

Does it need the luci-app-attendedsysupgrade package installed? Will this program find those packages that I installed from github and not through the package store? Like Transmission advanced web interface

psherman · August 10, 2024, 11:07pm

And that's why the package manager exists (and the ability to build custom images in general).

They will still be separate. The quote you pulled describes the scenario where you are upgrading from one version of OpenWrt to a newer one... for example, 23.05.3 > 23.05.4. It will request a custom image from the online image builder and then it will install that while also keeping the configuration settings in place. If you want to back this up for later use, you need to download the custom image and the backup file (2 files total).

Yes.

No. It works only with the packages that are available on the official OpenWrt repo.

K14M · August 10, 2024, 11:12pm

And there is no way to save an image of my current firmware FROM the ROUTER? In Windows it is possible, in Android with root rights it is possible. But not here?

psherman · August 10, 2024, 11:15pm

I've told you how to do it, but it cannot save the packages installed from other repos. However, you can easily reinstall those packages as needed by following their directions.

K14M · August 15, 2024, 9:40pm

I forgot to ask the most important question. And how do I get back to my native firmware? I downloaded it from the website
https://www.asus.com/ru/supportonly/rt-ax59u/helpdesk_download?model2Name=RT-AX59U
the latest firmware. I unpacked the archive and received the file RT-AX59U_3.0.0.4_382_52497-g01c7f59.trx. I'm trying to flash them, the router just reboots and remains OpenWRT.

Am I doing something wrong?

brada4 · August 15, 2024, 9:59pm

Kind of you lucky you did not brick it dead with cross-flashing firmware from other device. Lets determine which one you have?

Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button:

Remember to redact passwords, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:

ubus call system board

K14M · August 15, 2024, 10:05pm

Using username "root".
root@192.168.1.1's password:


BusyBox v1.36.1 (2024-07-15 22:14:18 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

  _______                     ________        __
 |       |.-----.-----.-----.|  |  |  |.----.|  |_
 |   -   ||  _  |  -__|     ||  |  |  ||   _||   _|
 |_______||   __|_____|__|__||________||__|  |____|
          |__| W I R E L E S S   F R E E D O M
 -----------------------------------------------------
 OpenWrt 23.05.4, r24012-d8dd03c46f
 -----------------------------------------------------
root@K14M:~# ubus call system board
{
        "kernel": "5.15.162",
        "hostname": "K14M.lan",
        "system": "ARMv8 Processor rev 4",
        "model": "ASUS RT-AX59U",
        "board_name": "asus,rt-ax59u",
        "rootfs_type": "squashfs",
        "release": {
                "distribution": "OpenWrt",
                "version": "23.05.4",
                "revision": "r24012-d8dd03c46f",
                "target": "mediatek/filogic",
                "description": "OpenWrt 23.05.4 r24012-d8dd03c46f"
        }
}
root@K14M:~#

brada4 · August 15, 2024, 10:09pm

Go with ASUS recovery tool:
https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1000814/
Note you have only one shot and you absolutely need to use AX59U firmware and best if you delete all AC59 files you downloaded on your PC.

K14M · August 15, 2024, 10:14pm

What kind of firmware did I use? Is this a link to some other website? Not an ASUS?

https://www.asus.com/ru/supportonly/rt-ax59u/helpdesk_download?model2Name=RT-AX59U

K14M · August 15, 2024, 10:25pm

Is there a manual for Windows 11?