FS#3853 - ath79: NETGEAR WNDR4300v2 Bricked on Power Cycle After Flash

[openwrt-bot]

rvernica:

On a NETGEAR WNDR4300v2 with stock firmware I flash OpenWrt. It works fine after flash (not power cycled yet). On the first power cycle the device is fails to start. I'm able to restore the factory firmware using nmrpflash.

Device: NETGEAR WNDR4300v2 Factory firmware: V1.0.0.58 OpenWrt firmware: openwrt-21.02.0-rc2-ath79-nand-netgear_wndr4300-v2-squashfs-factory.img

I checked the OpenWrt firmware checksum. I did a factory install. On first boot, OpenWrt works just fine. I'm able to adjust settings and Save & Apply them. If I power-cycle the device it fails to boot. The problem exists even if I don't change any settings in OpenWrt. The Power led is amber continuously. The led for ports 1-4 flash once then remain off. After about 18 seconds the cycle repeats.

I'm able to restore the factory firmware by connecting to port 1. I set a static IP 192.168.1.100/255.255.255.0 Gateway:192.168.1.1. I ran the nmrpflash tool and power On the unit:

> sudo ./nmrpflash -i enp0s25 -f WNDR4300v2-V1.0.0.58.img Waiting for physical connection. Advertising NMRP server on enp0s25 ... | Received configuration request from xx:yy:... Sending configuration: 10.164.183.252/24. Received upload request: filename 'firmware'. Uploading WNDR4300v2-V1.0.0.58.img ... OK Waiting for remote to respond. Remote finished. Closing connection. Reboot your device now.

Once completed the factory firmware is restored.

[openwrt-bot]

xspio:

exactly the same problem +1

[openwrt-bot]

rvernica:

Tried with the August 25, 2021 snapshot and the behavior is the same.

[openwrt-bot]

lss4:

Just flashed OpenWrt master (built using ImageBuilder with necessary packages included). After power cycle the same issue happens. +1

[openwrt-bot]

lss4:

Does the same issue happen on WNDR4500v3 also? I read that these two devices are similar in terms of hardware and are supported by OpenWrt in a similar fashion.

EDIT: I just read the forum and found someone suggested flashing the image twice: First using the factory image (from stock), then flash the sysupgrade image after booting OpenWrt. The second flash would correctly detect and mark the bad blocks. The same applies to WNDR4500v3 as well (which uses similar hardware).

See this: https://forum.openwrt.org/t/support-for-netgear-wndr4300-v2/26099/42

If this really turns out to be a case where sysupgrade is handling the process correctly, but stock flashing process doesn't, then I don't think it's likely that the issue could be fixed on this side. As such, I seriously think someone who has access to the wiki should put a big red warning about this, as well as the necessary steps to recover/reflash in case a user ended up this way.

[openwrt-bot]

lss4:

An update.

Can confirm that flashing a sysupgrade image (can be the same build) after flashing the factory one is MANDATORY to ensure the router would not brick after a power cycle.

I flashed the factory image and then the sysupgrade image afterwards, after recovering the router using NMRP. The kernel showed some bad blocks being marked when flashing the sysupgrade one, and when I power cycled it today (as I'm moving it to another place), the router works fine.