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Solved please clarify. Upgrade without reset?

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eleVator

Regular Contributor
Keep running into fw upgrade unsuccessful on my last few upgrades, it is frustrating having to Hardware reset.
To my knowledge there is no other way around then having to go through every setting from scratch, then install each amtm application manually all over again or is there a way to simplify this task?

EDIT:
Managed to get 386.2 installed but had to redo amtm and lost all data and settings.
How can i keep my scripts, data and settings through updates, what am i missing?
 
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Keep running into fw upgrade unsuccessful on my last few upgrades, it is frustrating having to Hardware reset.
Are you saying that the new firmware fails to install unless you precede it with a hardware reset? That probably indicates a lack of memory, which in turn is probably caused by the addon scripts you have running. So prior to installing the firmware disable the addon scripts, remove any USB drives and reboot the router.
 
Are you saying that the new firmware fails to install unless you precede it with a hardware reset? That probably indicates a lack of memory, which in turn is probably caused by the addon scripts you have running. So prior to installing the firmware disable the addon scripts, remove any USB drives and reboot the router.
Thanks, i had the USB removed and was under the assumption that the scripts wouldn't be working anyway during the fw upgrade.
I had a nvram backup from yesterday and made 30m before the fw upgrade another nvram-backup.
current version: RT-86U 386.1_2


The nvram-backup from today doesnt not want to restore correctly, the backup from yesterday though works.
After yesterdays update i had done amtm updates, one of them being unbound and i think that there might be the problem.

Will now disable everything in amtm scripts, unplug the USB, reboot and try fw upgrade again.
Dreading each new upgrade is not something i like looking forward too.
 
Just a thought but it might be simpler to disable "JFFS custom scripts and configs" in the GUI (and reboot) rather than turning off individual scripts through amtm.
oh yes, you are right thanks again, especially since many arent exactly stop able
 
no dice, been through a few hardware factory resets now, it is like the last fw upgrade all over again, just sucking up time, sigh
 
got the firmware installed, unfortunately i have to go through amtm re install, is this what everyone is doing after a fw upgrade?

There must be a way to not have to go through all scripts again and loose the previous data collected, what am i missing?
 
Unmount the USB Drive using GUI. Take it out. Reboot. Upgrade. Plug the drive in and reboot.

Unmounting the drive triggers /jffs/scripts/unmount, which should stop diversion and syslog-ng (which can eat a lot of memory) and stop the swap file. It doesn't stop everything though, like the GUI addon pages, I don't think.
 
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Unmount the USB drive. Leave it in. Upgrade. Reboot. Drive will be mounted at reboot. Done.
 
Tried and failed, let's see how this behaves with next upgrade.
I fear that the ASUS Board might have a problem that is causing this, since i had upgrading problems before using AMTM and stock reset was necessary and had to be done a few times.

Part of me is thinking to order a PC Engines Board and go from there if each upgrade is going to be as painful as the last three have been.
 
For most with the 86U there is plenty of memory and except in particular circumstances just upgrading (a "dirty upgrade") is fine. So you might see if you can return this one.

And now for something completely different. Before you upgrade, save the jffs file, and then also save the configuration.

Unmount and unplug the USB drive, upgrade, then restore the jffs file and the config, plug the drive back in and reboot. You shouldn't have to, but I think that would be a lot faster.
 
Finally found the error in my doing, umount would not work as easy and you guys were referring to "Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs" option, and disabling that allowed me to upgrade.
 
So I am considering upgrading my AX3000 from 386.1_2 but like you I don't want to go through a full hardware reset if it can be avoided. What are your steps to upgrade to 386.2_2. The only amtm app I am running is VNstat and I do have an 8GB USB mounted jffs which I just backed up. Thank you for any help.
 
So I am considering upgrading my AX3000 from 386.1_2 but like you I don't want to go through a full hardware reset if it can be avoided. What are your steps to upgrade to 386.2_2. The only amtm app I am running is VNstat and I do have an 8GB USB mounted jffs which I just backed up. Thank you for any help.

 
USB drive is not jffs,
This is something i am still trying to wrap my head around.
I do run nvram-save.sh before any fw upgrade. I also do backup jffs and config files via Browser even though i cannot and should not use these after an fw update.
The only use case for these backups is reverting back fw?
And in such a case of uploading an older firmware nvram-restore.sh is the way to go, please correct me if i am wrong.
What exactly is the difference now between jffs and .CFG backup from browser vs nvram-save.sh?


So I am considering upgrading my AX3000 from 386.1_2 but like you I don't want to go through a full hardware reset if it can be avoided. What are your steps to upgrade to 386.2_2. The only amtm app I am running is VNstat and I do have an 8GB USB mounted jffs which I just backed up. Thank you for any help.
I do not know if you run customs scripts like amtm on an external USB connected drive, i am assuming you are.
Learn how to use nvram-save.sh, can be installed with amtm and make a backup.

Try this.
  1. Go to Administration > System, switch.
  2. "Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs" to NO
  3. Remove USB drive.
  4. Reboot just to clean up Memory probably not really needed.
  5. Upload new fw and wait for it to be fully done, it will reboot the device (read the Text shown during update)
  6. Check fw version Number in browser, should be up to Date, if not something went wrong, start at 1 again
  7. Plug in USB drive
  8. "Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs" to YES
  9. Reboot
  10. Enjoy
 
What exactly is the difference now between jffs and .CFG backup from browser vs nvram-save.sh?
The router has two areas of flash storage, one called "nvram" and the other "jffs".

nvram contains the router's settings, both user settings and low-level "internal" settings that aren't exposed to the user and may be device specific. It also contains temporary and transient data the router uses for normal operation. jffs typically contains system log files, the traffic database and custom user scripts and configs. However, things are more complicated on the HND routers because some of the router's settings have been moved from nvram to jffs.

Because an nvram backup file is just an unfiltered dump of an area of storage it contains a lot of data that doesn't need to be restored. Some of it may even be incompatible or sub-optimal if reloaded onto another router or a different firmware version.

nvram-save.sh is an attempt to make a safe backup and restore process that works across different models and firmware versions. It does this by using a curated list of known nvram variables and only restoring those. It also has clean/migration options that exclude obsolete or unused variables and therefore stops nvram being filled up unnecessarily.
 
jffs is a portion of the onboard flash memory mounted as a directory that you can read and write to. The firmware doesn't need it and sets it aside for this purpose. This area is where a lot of scripts are stored. The firmware also has hooks to expand customization, and if those hooks are enabled the firmware looks for them in /jffs/scripts.

Backing this up and restoring it is a convenient way of copying those files. When you do a dirty flash you leave this jffs file system intact. On some occasions an upgrade to the firmware will change how much of the onboard flash memory is set aside, and then you can run into corruption problems. It isn't always the case that you can't use the backup though.

The usb stick is flash memory also mounted but obviously not onboard. Some of the addon scripts in /jffs/scripts point to files on the usb stick, saving memory in /jffs where the addon is built around entware or otherwise is relying on the presence of a usb stick.

Nvram variables customize the firmware. Backing up the configuration backs these up. Sometimes the firmware adds new nvram variables, or stops using old nvram variables. A dirty flash leaves the old variables intact, and this can cause problems. But it isn't always the case that you can't use the backup configuration. The nvram scripts try to limit this by only doing some restores (as @ColinTaylor nicely put it, a curated list).

One reason upgrades fail is because the system doesn't have enough memory to do the upgrade. All this stuff about unmounting the usb stick, removing it, rebooting the router, disabling addon scripts etc. is a way of putting the router in a state where no memory is being used by the stuff we load up, giving the system enough memory to do the job. Unmounting is usually enough because diversion and scribe (which can use a lot of memory) exit and release the memory they have been using. Not all scripts do that though. Disabling the addon scripts and rebooting means none of the scripts ever get started. But this still amounts to a dirty flash, since the nvram and jffs sections remain.

One thing you don't want to do is yank the usb drive without unmounting it. Among other things, you likely have a swapfile in use. If you do your steps #2 and #4, you don't need to do #3, but if you are going to do #3 unmount it first.
 
Thanks for info, thinks make more sense now.

Have been reading the change log before flashing and my understanding is to keep dirty flashing until i run into a problem or when change log says i should (major version upgrades and such) or when missed a few upgrades.
 

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