Crashed AR300M, NOR ssh cli, but no web ui and no uboot

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi,

I crashed accidentally an AR300M.

Now I have only NOR ssh cli, but no web ui. I tried to start the uboot, but I didn’t get it running.

Is the procedure on “Debrick via Uboot - GL.iNet Docs” not the right way for the AR300M?

Is there a way to flash a new NAND firmware from the NOR ssh cli?

Regards

Stefan Klatt

1 Like
2

Playing around with firmware I did the exact same thing with my AR300M… I was able to re-flash NAND in Uboot. The directions in the link were a bit off for what I did so here’s my steps:

 

  1. Connect only one cable to the LAN port on the AR300M. The other to your computer.
  2. First, press and hold the Reset button firmly; then power on your device.
  3. The LEDs will start to blink. Keep holding it (about 6 blinks. There is one initial power on blink then 5 after that) until the flashing stops.
  4. Release your fingers.
  5. Set your computer’s IP address to 192.168.1.2
  6. User Firefox or Chrome to visit http://192.168.1.1
  7. Find your firmware and upload (I used openwrt-gl-ar300m-ubi-2.21-3.img)
  8. Wait around 3 minutes. Don’t power down your device while upgrading.
 

Good luck! It took me several times before I got it working.

3

AR300M’s uboot may boot slow. So just keep the button pressed and wait for the LEDs to flash.

4

Thanks LostDog. On this way I got the uboot. Probably I didn’t wait not long enough.

5

I followed these steps. The LED is flashing, and I can access the firmware upload screen. When I select the newest firmware from OpenWrt and press “Upload”, the http connection is reset, and nothing more happens. I can still ping to 192.168.1.1. Is it broken for good?

Also I cannot access the uboot console via serial UART.

6

Why you cannot access uboot console? Does the serial UART has output at all?

7

No, the screen stays empty without any output. I tried minicom, screen and kermit. Also the RX/TX leds on the serial adapter do not flash.

8

First, you need to use a 3.3V USB uart adapter.

Second, you should connect TX, RX and GND correctly. Then there must be output.

9

I just checked again, sorry my fault. Seems I connected to the PCIE port. Will try again and report success.

10

I have now connected RX->TX, TX->RX, GND->GND. When I start the AR300 with reset button pressed, the LEDs are not flashing at all. No output on the serial console.
When the serial UART is not connected, I can reset the device and the LEDs are flashig. Then I can connect to http://192.168.1.1 and get the Firmware Update screen. But the connection is reset as soon as I try to upload a firmware file.

11

Can you give a picture of your uart adapter and the way you connect?

12

I got one step further. Now I used kermit instead of minicom, now at least there is some output. It says:

U-Boot 1.1.4-g9abb38de (Aug 25 2016 - 08:51:31)

DRAM: ath_ddr_initial_config(219): (16bit) ddr1 init
4 MB

and nothing more. Any more hints?

13

I know from my AR300M that some uboot loaders seem to not like Windows for some reason. Did you try uploading the firmware from a ubuntu live disk (or something like that)?

14

I run Debian Linux on my Notebook. No Windows involved.

15

Can you check if you have set correct baudrate?

16

It’s set to 115200. And as reported above, I do get some messages now.

17

If nothing more it seem the router is stuck for some reason.

But if you disconnect uart and uboot still works, it is weird.

18

I made a little progress. When I disconnect the uart, press the reset button and power cycle, and then reconnect the uart, I get a uboot command prompt where I can execute comands like help or tftpboot. On my laptop I have a tftp server running. How to proceed? I would like to flash the newest openwrt firmware 21.02.1.

19

Seems your UART adapter has problems. Is it 3.3V, not 5V?

Check here https://docs.gl-inet.com/en/3/dev/uboot/

20

Yes it is set for 3.3 V.