AR-750 (Creta) : free space issue

[Astrolus]

Hello !

I got my Creta AR-750 today.
It is my first GL Inet Router and I am not very technical, so forgive me if the solution is obvious…
I am just exploring this new world…

I was able to configure some basics things like the SSID, then update the firmware, then I enable the file sharing and it did install something for enabling file sharing.
(but I didn’t see where to share my files and where to access my files then, but it is an other subject, I will search).
Then I went to install Luci, because everybody is talking about Luci so I want to see what it is and how it works.
And here is the issue :

Status : intalled failed
Stderr : No enough flash space.

But… what !? It’s brand new, I installed almost nothing, I played with it 5 minutes, and there is no enough space ?
I put a 32Go micro-SD card… but I understand “flash space” is not my micro-SD card. So… how can I free the flash space ?
What can I do ?

Thanks !!

[silkweb]

Here is a post that you may find useful to read:

GL-MT300N-V2 - GL.iNet after upgrade to 3.201 Free space: 6% (0 MB)

GL-MT300N-V2 - GL.iNet after upgrade to 3.201 Free space: 6% (0 MB) File Sharing ERROR: Not installed yet! Multimedia File Sharing ERROR: Not installed yet! Luci ERROR: Not installed yet! luci INSTALL>> Status: installed failed Stderr: No enough flash space what’s going on? Please. help!

and another one here:

2MB free on AR150 after installing 3.201

I didn’t choose to save settings because I read that used more space. But now when I click More Settings > Advanced, it shows Luci not installed yet with only 18% (2MB) free space remaining. I just want to ask if this is normal, this is on a new router. If this is normal, how can I free up some space? I’d like to install Luci, and I also need to install another package.

[Astrolus]

Thanks !

I see lots of posts mentionning the issue of free space but I didn’t really see the solution, or maybe it’s just I don’t understand it.

In the Plug-ins list, I can see 271 installed. Can I desintall some of them to free space ?

Or is there some config to do, to be able to use the micro-SD card space ?

Or I am better to reset to factory settings and NOT upgrade the firmware ?
(But it seems strange to work with an old firmware on a brand new device… Usually the first thing you do when you set up new stuff is to update the firmware… )
Is there security issues of using an old firmware ?

Thanks !

[silkweb]

One of the solutions that seems to work is that found by David here:

AR750: Firmware 3.201beta2 - no free space at all to do anything

Thank you all very much for these explanations. I am not a technician at OpenWRT, so I learn slowly. I finally got the AR750 to work fine. I discovered the new Mountpoints feature in Luci. To solve my problem, I factory reset my AR750 so I have about 150 kb free. I had an old 512MB USB stick, I formatted ext4, and I use the new Luci feature in firmware 3.201 Mountpoints to do the overlay mount point … reboot … now I have 477mb extra and then I restore my settings so I can make changes and inst…

and here:

2MB free on AR150 after installing 3.201

Hello! You have an USB slot. You can put an old USB flash memory there (a little and tiny model not big) and make extroot /overlay to add this USB memory extra space to the router. For example USB is 512Mb, you will have 480Mb extra space for adding plugins, etc… This is very easy in firmware 3.201 in Luci > System > Mount Points > Add >Select USB Device> /make Overlay >reboot. I have did this with AR750, same space problem after update to 3.201 firmware. Bye [AR750 512Mb USB flash exroot] […

[Astrolus]

I will try. I reset to factory. Then I will try.

It may be possible with the micro SD instead of USB stick ? It will be better if yes, I will try…

[Astrolus]

I tried, but without success.

Adding the SD card as a mount point :

!

But after the reboot, still no memory added :

[Astrolus]

Finally … After two other reset to factory… after doing partitions and formatting SD card in EXT4 and NTFS …

I think I succeed !!!

[Astrolus]

oh no … I doesn’t work !
On the Administration panel, if I go to file sharing to install the pluging for file sharing, I still see this :

I understand nothing…

Why I can see 4.2GB free on Luci but still only 2% free on the admin panel ?
It’s strange. Is there an issue calculating percentage ?
But it’s OK finally more than 3000MB. It’s just the percentage that is bugued.

[Astrolus]

Finally everything is OK.
It is juste the percentage % that’s not calculated correctly, seems like a bug.
But I have all the free space I wanted to install everything I need.

For those with same issue, this is the solution :

1- Install AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard. on your computer

2- You don’t want to use all the SD card for the system, so do 2 partitions : one named System in EXT4 (example 4Go, I think it is sufficient), one named Data in NTFS (all the remaining space).
System will be /dev/sda1
Data will be /dev/sda2

3- In Luci, System>Mount Points, add the mount point for the System partition (/dev/sda1) with the type Overlay

Final result :
**

**

It worked for me
Good luck

[alzhao]

@Astrolus

Why I can see 4.2GB free on Luci but still only 2% free on the admin panel ?

It is a stupid bug…

[elorimer]

I think Luci is calculating it as a percent of the total nonvolatile ram, and the admin panel is calculating it as percentage of the non-rom part. Or maybe vice versa.

[YrogergD]

Much thanks for this post! It took a few option toggles and restarts but made my GL-750 usable again on FW version 4.3.18.