after updating my Zyxel NWA55AXE to OpenWrt 25.12 it was not reachable anymore.
Now, I was using serial with `firstboot && reboot` and I got the following error:
```
[ 0.000000] MIPS: machine is Zyxel NWA55AXE
Cannot parse config file '/etc/fw_env.config': No such file or directory
Failed to find NVMEM device
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
Please press Enter to activate this console.
```
Could somebody help me to fix that problem? Thank you!
Seeing this, I think the content of your /etc/fw_env.config should be
# MTD device name Device offset Env. size Flash sector size Number of sectors
/dev/mtd1 0 0x80000 0x20000 4
But I'm not sure. Your uboot-env is huge, so maybe it's not completely used. Maybe 'Env. size' is 0x20000, and in that case 'Number of sectors' is 1.
You can check that by running fw_printenv when you created the file. If it doesn't complain about a wrong CRC, and prints out the u-boot env, the file is OK.
Yes and no. fw_printenv reads the right environment, and it shows the MAC address, so possibly it solves your problem. But there is a CRC error, so the specified size/number of sectors is wrong.
Yes, this is annoying and shows up on a number of devices where '/etc/fw_env.config' doesn't exist. Or doesn't necessarily exist at the point this is running.
I believe the issue was introduced by
which added support for loading some OpenWrt defaults from the enviroment. The problem is that it calls fw_loadenv without any conditions or error silencing. And fw_loadenv runs fw_printenv, again without any conditions or stderr redirection:
let fp = fs.popen('fw_printenv');
So if '/etc/fw_env.config' doesn't exist, which is perfectly normal on lots of OpenWrt devices, you end up with those error messages being printed on the console.
Someone could create a patch to fix this. But it feels like doing the dirty dishes after someone elses party....
I see, I just tried and have exactly the same error.
Cannot parse config file '/etc/fw_env.config': No such file or directory
Failed to find NVMEM device
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
The file exist now:
cat /etc/fw_env.config
# MTD device name Device offset Env. size Flash sector size Number of sectors
/dev/mtd1 0 0x80000 0x200004
Apparently the script is executed before the overlay, containing this file, is added to the rootfs. So you'd either wait for a fix, or create a firmware with this file included, using imagebuilder.
Note that this “error” is harmless and does not need fixing.
Your device should boot just fine.
you simply cannot use fw_printenv to read the bootloader config partition, as this is not configured in the image.
As you do not want or need to adjust the bootloader env typically, this does not have any drawback.
This may be related to your actual error - the kernel not finding the actual firmware - but your stripped your boot log, so there's no telling. Post a full boot log.
@phqzgunsfjror if your device does not boot, it would be good to share the whole `dmesg` or `logread` output. These few lines do not mean that something is wrong - well working NWA55AXE have the same message.
U-Boot SPL 2018.09 (Jan 22 2021 - 07:42:43 +0000)
Trying to boot from NAND
Initializing NMBM ...
Signature found at block 1023 [0x07fe0000]
First info table with writecount 0 found in block 960
Second info table with writecount 0 found in block 963
NMBM has been successfully attached
U-Boot 2018.09 (Jan 22 2021 - 07:42:43 +0000)
CPU: MediaTek MT7621AT ver 1, eco 3
Clocks: CPU: 880MHz, DDR: 600MHz (1200MT/s), Bus: 220MHz, XTAL: 40MHz
Model: MediaTek MT7621 reference board (NAND)
DRAM: 256 MiB
NAND: 128 MiB
Initializing NMBM ...
Signature found at block 1023 [0x07fe0000]
First info table with writecount 0 found in block 960
Second info table with writecount 0 found in block 963
NMBM has been successfully attached
Loading Environment from NMBM... OK
In: uartlite0@1e000c00
Out: uartlite0@1e000c00
Err: uartlite0@1e000c00
Net:
Warning: eth@1e100000 (eth0) using random MAC address - <escaped>
eth0: eth@1e100000
Reading from 0x7700000, size 0x20000
Succeeded
Zyxel version:V1.03
gpio: pin 6 (gpio 6) value is 1
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 0
gpio: pin 24 (gpio 24) value is 1
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Loading FIT image at offset 0x180000 to memory 0x83000000, size 0x32a478 ...
Automatic boot of image at addr 0x83000000 ...
## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Using 'config-1' configuration
Trying 'kernel-1' kernel subimage
Description: MIPS OpenWrt Linux-6.12.74
Type: Kernel Image
Compression: lzma compressed
Data Start: 0x830000e4
Data Size: 3304632 Bytes = 3.2 MiB
Architecture: MIPS
OS: Linux
Load Address: 0x80001000
Entry Point: 0x80001000
Hash algo: crc32
Hash value: 34570db2
Hash algo: sha1
Hash value: aad027f3f42f1596cad1c5e7013b42153366cd2e
Verifying Hash Integrity ... crc32+ sha1+ OK
## Loading fdt from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Using 'config-1' configuration
Trying 'fdt-1' fdt subimage
Description: MIPS OpenWrt zyxel_nwa55axe device tree blob
Type: Flat Device Tree
Compression: uncompressed
Data Start: 0x83326edc
Data Size: 12888 Bytes = 12.6 KiB
Architecture: MIPS
Hash algo: crc32
Hash value: 3de2bc02
Hash algo: sha1
Hash value: 068b01ff8882f79b47d85e82df27e52bf000664a
Verifying Hash Integrity ... crc32+ sha1+ OK
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x83326edc
Uncompressing Kernel Image ... OK
Loading Device Tree to 8fe67000, end 8fe6d257 ... OK
[ 0.000000] Linux version 6.12.74 (builder@buildhost) (mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc (OpenWrt GCC 14.3.0 r32802-f505120278) 14.3.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.44) #0 SMP Wed Mar 25 20:09:53 2026
[ 0.000000] SoC Type: MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3
[ 0.000000] printk: legacy bootconsole [early0] enabled
[ 0.000000] CPU0 revision is: 0001992f (MIPS 1004Kc)
[ 0.000000] MIPS: machine is Zyxel NWA55AXE
Cannot parse config file '/etc/fw_env.config': No such file or directory
Failed to find NVMEM device
Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe mode
Press the [1], [2], [3] or [4] key and hit [enter] to select the debug level
