OpenWrt Forum Archive

Topic: Flashing firmware via programmer, need to worry about bootloader?

The content of this topic has been archived on 22 Apr 2018. There are no obvious gaps in this topic, but there may still be some posts missing at the end.

Hi, I am about to flash my  ZTE H108N with OPENWRT firmware.
Instead of going with tftp (since the firmware update is not possible via web-gui)
I will be taking the eeprom chip and flash it using programmer (it is easier for me to do)

I am hoping it works right away after I put back the chip with new openwrt.bin.

Unless- there's a bootloading system that also needs to be changed.

Let me know if I can choose this path upgrading before I proceed, of course back up is important.


tia

While that may be easier for you (unlikely, unless you're looking at flashing them by the dozen), it also lacks all the safeguards present in the normal flashing procedures - including tftp. This means you have to make sure that bootloader, MAC addresses, hardware IDs, WPS pins, calibration data et al are at the correct location and remain unique to the individual device.

If a TFTP flash is supported on your model that is what you should use.  TFTP is a lot safer to not erase the bootloader or unit-specific factory data like the MAC address and radio calibration.

Of course make a backup of the whole chip before writing anything.  You will probably need to piece together a binary image with some partitions from the factory.

Thanks for the info on mac-address hwid radio calibration etc, it looks like i have to go to the trouble of tftp afterall.

-B

The discussion might have continued from here.