Thanks for that info. I have now recovered the router and can login to lede web interface.
Steps:
Connect UART cable. in Mac terminal "screen /dev/tty.usbserial-11240 115200 "
Clear Uboot environment variables:
Repower the device and press "0" during the uboot countdown. It will enter the command line mode.
Then on the uboot menu I selected the 'start web falisafe ', connected browser to 192.168.1.1, upload the vendor supplied Z8103AX-W_V23.06.28_wifi6.bin file.
Now the router is back to normal.
Next step is to upgrade to pure Openwrt image. Any links to the correct image file? or is it not ready yet?
Good news. The latest snapshot build from OpenWRT (openwrt-mediatek-filogic-zbtlink_zbt-z8103ax-squashfs-factory.bin) succesfully loaded. Luci and luci-ssl, etc. all added on. all fine.
I'm an absolute beginner and I just purchased a Z8103AX-D router these days.
I selected it because it has openwrt and I intend to implement NordVPN on it (Nord VPN propose an how-to for openwrt using Luci).
When I connect it, the interface is labeled as Z8103AX-W and looks as follow. It's not Luci interface. The firmware version is 23.11.02.
As it's not Luci interface, that's seems not ok to follow the how-to for NordVPN.
Is it possible for me to change the firmware and interface ? There is an "update" option to do so, but I'm not so confident in my skills and fear to block the device ...
I tried to connect with SSH from my Windows 10 on the device to have a look on it, but I experience some trouble (I think because it's the very first time I try SSH ) :
I type : ssh holiv@192.168.2.1 (my name and the device address), the ssh asks for a password. I tried the device password but it doesn't work. Something seems special for me : on password line, there is no return from keyboard.
Then after 3 attemps the ssh disconnect, is it normal ?
I know my questions may be very simple, but I'm really an ABSOLUTE beginner .
It would be great if you can comment the specs of your router here.
My router, a Z8103AX-D, came with the same OS (Intelligent Router) as yours when the seller shipped it to me. So there's a chance it would work just fine. You could also ask the seller whether to know whether there's a difference between those two variant.
Send us a picture of your router as well for reference for people out there
I just looked at the seller's page, and it seems I could have order it directly with an OpenWRT firmware . Unfortunately I didn't see the advice from the seller, so I'll have to change it...
Here are the specifications of the router (as described on aliexpress at the supplier page). more infos on the seller's page. There is also some photos on this page.
I'll send one of my device in the next message.
Z8103AX-D router
Adopt MT7981B+MT7976CN solution, dual-core ARM Cotext-A53 CPU, main frequency up to 1.30GHz
Adopt independent WIFI chip, 2.4G is QCN5022, 5.8G is QCN5052
Up to 3000Mbps, 2.4G wifi rate up to 1200Mbps, 5.8G wifi rate up to 17500Mbps, support MU-MIMO
128MB NAND Flash + 256MB DDR3 RAM
One-click mesh connects more routers and covers a wider WiFi range.
I also had gone thru same issues, and successfully loaded the latest snapshot build of openwrt, after getting this link in this same thread. ZBT Z8103AX-D: upgrading from 21.02 to 23.05 - #61 by Justinhei
So as the first step can you try to get to the Uboot web page by following the steps in page 4 of the linked document, which goes by:
Set the PC’s IP address to 192.168.1.x;
Press and hold the reset button, then power on the device. You can use the cmd window to ping the IP address of 192.168.1.1. After about 10 seconds, the ping will be successful. At this time, you can release your hand;
Open the browser (it is recommended to use the Google kernel browser), enter the IP address as 192.168.1.1 in the address bar,
if yes, where can I find the proper file to get a standard openwrt and Luci GUI firmware ?
if not : I'll try to follow your advice. Some "absolute" beginner's questions :
what is "PC's IP address" ? the IP address of the router ? how to "set" it ? what means "x" on the latest digit 192.168.1.x ?
If it's the IP address of the router, mine has the 192.168.2.1 address. I tried to change it to 192.168.1.1 with the seller's interface, and the router don't want ! At the end it takes the 192.168.2.1 IP again...
can I use the present 192.168.2.1 IP for the following ?
if ok, question about point 4) of the howto : where to find the proper file for flashing to standard openwrt and GUI ?
I'd like to share more of my experience with upgrading its firmware. I've had two units, one ordered from AliExpress in Feb-March last year, and another purchased in May-June last year.
Successful Upgrade of Second Router
My second router is working fine after upgrading to OpenWRT snapshot using the openwrt-mediatek-filogic-zbtlink_zbt-z8103ax-squashfs-factory.bin file. Here's how I did it:
• Connected a UART cable to access the terminal
• Discovered the "U-boot web fail safe" option, which allowed me to upload the firmware via http://192.168.1.1
• Successfully upgraded the router, and all is well
However, I'm still unsure if there's a way to activate the U-boot web page without a UART cable. If anyone has a solution, please share!
Challenges with First Router
When I tried to replicate the process with my first router today, I encountered issues:
• Couldn't access the "U-boot web console" in the boot menu, despite multiple attempts
• TFTP upgrade with the same firmware file failed
It seems that the U-boot configurations on both routers are different. Can anyone help me figure out how to access the "U-boot web" page on my older router?
I also joined the "club" as I bought 2 of this router
I received it with LuCI installed 21.02 (Powered by LuCI openwrt-21.02 branch (git-22.245.77575-63bfee6) / OpenWrt 21.02-SNAPSHOT unknown 23.1116_062920)
One strange thing I noticed after I opened the case that only 4 antennas are connected, the "A-WF2" is not soldered as it is visible eg on @darknblack 's photo.
I tried to update the firmware with "UART - U-boot web fail safe" method as it was working for @joshymg so I downloaded the factory image (openwrt-mediatek-filogic-zbtlink_zbt-z8103ax-squashfs-factory.bin) from the Firmware Selector but after the update it stuck in a bootloop state
Based on the boot log it seems there is an issue with the UBI(?) volume:
[ 0.965104] ubi0: default fastmap pool size: 25
[ 0.969642] ubi0: default fastmap WL pool size: 12
[ 0.974421] ubi0: attaching mtd4
[ 1.156532] ubi0: scanning is finished
[ 1.160309] ubi0 error: ubi_read_volume_table: the layout volume was not found
[ 1.167614] ubi0 error: ubi_attach_mtd_dev: failed to attach mtd4, error -22
[ 1.174703] UBI error: cannot attach mtd4
[ 1.178816] clk: Disabling unused clocks
[ 1.183496] /dev/root: Can't open blockdev
[ 1.187617] VFS: Cannot open root device "" or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
[ 1.194564] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
[ 1.202915] 1f00 1024 mtdblock0
[ 1.202920] (driver?)
[ 1.209442] 1f01 512 mtdblock1
[ 1.209447] (driver?)
[ 1.215969] 1f02 2048 mtdblock2
[ 1.215973] (driver?)
[ 1.222490] 1f03 2048 mtdblock3
[ 1.222494] (driver?)
[ 1.229015] 1f04 65536 mtdblock4
[ 1.229019] (driver?)
[ 1.235534] List of all bdev filesystems:
[ 1.239539] ext3
[ 1.239541] ext2
[ 1.241455] ext4
[ 1.243368] squashfs
[ 1.245281] f2fs
[ 1.247547]
[ 1.250940] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[ 1.259186] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs
[ 1.263098] Kernel Offset: disabled
[ 1.266572] CPU features: 0x0,00000000,00000000,1000400b
[ 1.271871] Memory Limit: none
[ 1.276936] pstore: backend (ramoops) writing error (-28)
[ 1.282324] Rebooting in 1 seconds..
Could someone suggest what should I try to fix this?
ps: I made backups of the mtdblocks (spi0.0, BL2, u-boot-env, Factory, FIP, ubi) via LuCI before the update if it helps
in the mean time I've contacted with the seller from Aliexpress and he sent me the original firmware via email.
I was able to restore it and got it working with OpenWrt v21 and had a chance to check what went wrong with the v23 update.
It turned out that they changed the mtd naming slightly and the UBI partition size as well.
So I went ahead and changed the "bl2" partion name to "BL2" and increased the UBI size in the dts file and built a snapshot firmware locally.
I updated the sysupgrade bin file via the "UART - U-boot web fail safe" method and it booted properly.
I'm testing it at this moment but it seems to be working ok...
Did you get it to work?
I have two of the same devices and havn't been able to boot the official snapshot build, it just keeps rebooting. I've then tried to build my own with out luck so far. I got it to boot by using the dts that came with my devices but im not able to get any connection to the device. It just blinks likes theres activity when i plugin a network cable in the lan ports.
How did you try to access your router? I mean what IP address did you use?
After the update the IP address is 192.168.1.1 (or maybe 192.168.2.1 as holivman wrote a few posts back). For me when I was done with the update I had to assign a static ip address to the computer from the same range (192.168.1.xxx) and set the routers IP as gateway.
If you did the same and still not able to connect to it then I would think the only solution would be to get the UART access and check the boot log if there is any error message.
Im not able to access it on 192.168.1.1 after flash but will try 192.168.2.1 later.
Can you maybe share the build you made so i can test that if 2.1 doesnt work?
Sure, please find below google drive link to the sysupgrade firmware I built and flashed to my device.
But please note I cannot guarantee that it will work for you as well, so please use it at your own risk.
Thanks.
2.1 did not work. And sadly your build just makes the device reboot exactly like the official build
Guess i have to invest in some uart adapter.
Any specific i should look for when looking for an uart adapter or does any work?
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