What a mess a typo can make

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

EA8300, brand new, loaded the factory.bin, set the kernsize variable, and now it won't apparently boot correctly. the reason? i did fw_setenv kernsize=500000 with that stupid = sign in the middle. I can't make it swap to the other fw either. Is there a trick I've missed, or am I getting out my soldering iron and case opening tools?

Thanks

Dave

2

No solder required :slight_smile: This may help

-Boot 2012.07 [Chaos Calmer 15.05.1,r35193] (Nov 02 2017 - 16:33:09)

CBT U-Boot ver: 1.2.9

smem ram ptable found: ver: 1 len: 3
DRAM:  256 MiB
machid : 0x8010006
NAND:  ID = 9590dac2
Vendor = c2
Device = da
ONFI device found
SF NAND unsupported id:ff:ff:ff:ffSF: Unsupported manufacturer ff
ipq_spi: SPI Flash not found (bus/cs/speed/mode) = (0/0/48000000/0)
256 MiB
MMC:   qca_mmc: 0
PCI0 Link Intialized
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
machid: 8010006
flash_type: 2
Net:   MAC0 addr:0:3:7f:ba:db:ad
PHY ID1: 0x4d
PHY ID2: 0xd0b1
ipq40xx_ess_sw_init done
eth0

Updating boot_count ... done

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 

Memory test start,  banksize=0x2000000, data size=0x8000, test count per bank=64
Memory test end, lapsed time = 3 seconds

The test result is success


NAND read: device 0 offset 0x5f80000, size 0xa080000
Attempt to read outside the flash area
 0 bytes read: ERROR
(IPQ40xx) #

I can't get a key press in to stop the auto-boot, and there is also no keyboard input as far as I can see when the error presents.

3

Hi.
Why did you do that? Changing this bootloader variable is only needed for installing a master snapshot.
Did that command bricked the router? It should have been ignored as the command needs two arguments. You only gave one: kernsize=500000. My guess is yes, you may nned to solder a serial console link and enter uboot maze.

4

Our posts have 'crossed'. I wasn't paying attention plain and simple, and the device is brand new so I have to make that change according to the instructions.

5

The instructions are only meant for installing a master snapshot. You don't need them for a stable 22.03.
I know the instructions, I wrote them for the MR8300 after testing in late december.

As the device is brand new, just repack it and return it to the vendor. Just state that it doesn't boot and you don't know why :star_struck: Use you best poker face.That may not be honest, but it's up to you.

6

I was just following the text, no idea what a master snapshot is, I just assumed it was required, as it is part of the section called 'Preparation for OEM GUI-Based Install', which is what i was doing. I would break that out into a separate section personally, although i'll put money on me being the only person inattentive enough to cock it up :slight_smile:

However, good news for anyone as dumb as I was, I have managed to get to a working console by turning off flow control in my putty config. Reset the kernsize variable to 300000 (it was actually missing), SAVEd it and it now boots as intended. Thanks for pointing that out though, hopefully this post will stop others or help them if they follow me down this path

7

You have two kind of releases:

  • stable : latest is 22.03.3. This is the default to install if you want a proper system. It has Luci included by default.
  • master snapshots are nightly builds. They are meant for testing purpose and can have untested issues. They haven't Luci included by default.

I have find this chapter and it is NOT appropriate.

That chaper is what you need.

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/22.03.3/targets/ipq40xx/generic/openwrt-22.03.3-ipq40xx-generic-linksys_ea8300-squashfs-factory.bin

Good that you were able to recover.
You don't need to change the variable for simply running a stable 22.03. However you may consider changing in order to prepare your device for the future. It will continue to boot 22.03 and you won't notice anything.
Just don't make the mistake twice :rofl:

1 Like
8

Thanks - will certainly try not to. if i do i'll just end up back here, reading my own post I imagine. All good fun.

9

EA8300 - looking to upgrade from 22.03.2 so will take the path thru 22.03.5 as described to tweak the kernsize to 5MB.

Here's my question though, if the new size is indeed five MEGAbytes then why is the instruction defined to set the kernsize set to 500 KILO-bytes?

Copied from https://openwrt.org/toh/linksys/ea8300:

fw_setenv kernsize 500000

Yes, I'm not Linux proficient so maybe this is perfectly correct but from my novice perspective it looks incorrect, i.e., we appear to have a Zero discrepancy.

Plz advise this old engineer...

TY

10

It's taken in hex, so read it as 0x500000 (hex) = 5'242'880 (dec).

2 Likes
11

Palm to forehead with a resounding Doh!

12

Just curious - I think you indicated above that the device wouldn’t boot correctly, but how come you were able to ssh, and what does ‘flow control’ do and why did disabling it allow you access to fix the problem?

In any case, well done in fixing the issue without having to recreate a scene from Back to the Future.

13

It's serial console, not ssh.

2 Likes