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Topic: failsafe mode help needed

The content of this topic has been archived on 26 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

OK i guess it had to happen at some point, but i've finally had a bad flash to my r8000 and it is stuck in a boot loop.

after a bunch of messing around trying tftp etc i finally got it into failsafe mode and can ssh to the router.

When I try mount_root I get

root@(none):~# mount_root
loading kmods from internal overlay
overlay filesystem has not been fully initialized yet
switching to ubifs overlay

unfortunately when I try firstboot or jffs2reset i get

This will erase all settings and remove any installed packages. Are you sure? [N/y]
y
/dev/ubi0_1 is not mounted
/dev/ubi0_1 will be erased on next mount
writing /dev/ubi0_1 failed: Bad file descriptor

trying to sysupgrade causes:

root@(none):/tmp# sysupgrade -n -p -v lede*chk
Image metadata not found
Found CHK image with device board_id U12H315T00_NETGEAR
Found a valid TRX version 1
Commencing upgrade. All shell sessions will be closed now.
Failed to connect to ubus

Any thoughts are appreciated!

although sysupgrade would not work for me using mtd did (sort of)  after using mtd the router rebooted into tftp mode and I was able to flash the firmware.

I have seen a ton of posts from people with the same issue (reboot loop) who seemed their only hope was to get a serial cable.

To get into failsafe mode on this dang thing wait until the power light turns white then start mashing the reset button it will start to flash, then flash very fast and you will see pings that have a ttl of 64 permanently.

you can then ssh to the router,
use nc to transfer the file to /overlay/work/work
use mtd to write the firmware
if it reboots with a constant ping ttl of 100 (does it forever) its in tftp mode so send firmware again

hope this may help someone else stuck like me.

(Last edited by WWTK on 22 Nov 2017, 21:04)

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