This is no problem at all you can solder header pins on the product - amazon will send the damaged routers back to us
The AR300M-Ext worked out of the box, and on every power supply I’ve thrown at it so far. I’m happy with what I’ve got, I don’t think I’ll be bothering with the LITE any further. Thanks all, what a ride. 
Hi, as I couldn’t find the 300M boot problem thread anymore, I’ll just drop my Amazon review of my newly purchased 300M16 in here:
It’s a very good device, easy to setup including VPN setup with for example NordVPN PPTP.
After disconnecting and reconnecting the ethernet and micro USB plugs to put it in its definite spot, the device was not visible anymore in wifi. Tried everything including different adapter and cable (as described in the support forum from the manufacturer).
What I finally found out is that the small “male” part of the micro USB connector in the device was relatively high. I used a small flat screwdriver to bend this small part a little, do contact with the cable should be better. This did the trick! So it’s a great device, but the micro USB receptor is flawed and will cause a lot of annoyance and returns if users are not willing to jam a screwdriver in it… Therefore -1 star.
I think the usb power adapter is flaw is individual problems.
If you give 1 star it means the device is no good feature at all. It is too harsh. Can you change that?
He said -1 star, that means 5 - 1 = 4 stars 
I see. Thanks both! I am OK with that.
I just purchased a GL-AR300M with no suffix, just this model number. I went into the device and attempted to load a new package, now the luci web interface is missing, the router is still serving as a client and I can get the remote internet that I configured as the client for the wifi, I can log into it with ssh and I can try to update the image with
sysupgrade -v /tmp/openwrt-ar300-2.264.bin
sysupgrade -v /tmp/openwrt-clean-gl-ar300-1.0.bin
The image does exist in the /tmp/ directory and I moved it there successfully using Windows SCP.
The sysupgrade command keeps telling me the image is invalid. Now I tried powering on with the reset button held in and I get a solid red and green light but I don’t know what to do from there.
I also tried using mtd but it failed with invalid image as well.
** the link above is a dead, the how to regarding a debrick link.
Unbrick it using the Uboot GUI, as per the docs.
if you have an ar300m - use the ar300m firmware
http://download.gl-inet.com/firmware/ar300m/nand/v1/
the latest stock firmware is:
http://download.gl-inet.com.s3.amazonaws.com/firmware/ar300m/nand/v1/lede-ar300m-nand-2.27.tar
Well that did it, thanks. When did OpenWRT start accepting tar files? Or did you mod it?
Also can you give me a list of packages that are for China that are not needed in the US? I am wondering what all the DNS and other mystery items do.
Also, can you tell me how to bypass the GLiNet and go to Luci other than ending the URL with /cgii-bin/luci. I would like the URL to skip the GliNet menu.
Also can you tell me, are there any data collection routines in this firmware which I have found in other router vendors adaptations?
Also I am curious how the OPKG pulls all data from Glinet and how I would change that in the future if Glinet every stops supporting OPKG.
Thank you.
For all of the above you can compile the official OpenWRT.
Sorry, I should have added “without compiling the official OpenWRT.”
I have a windows box and I couldn’t compile a version of anything if my life depended on it. However, I can delete a few packages and change some configuration files if I knew what to do.
To be clear I don’t work for glinet - but I know the software stack fairly well. None of the packages installed for ‘China’ are running by default, they do nothing unless you specifically set up shadowsocks or ChinaDNS or whatever. There is nothing I am concerned with.
The only ‘collection’ is the dynamic dns updater that phones home and will setup a DDNS entry for your device at gl-inet.com for remote WAN access. You can see your DDNS name at the bottom of the GL-Inet Web UI. It sends your current LAN IP, WAN IP, device model, and unique device id.
If you want to disable it - delete /usr/lib/ddns/glddnsupdater.sh
If you want to ask further questions I suggest starting a new thread - as this is off topic of this one.
Thank you. Agreed on the new thread but this form of BB software I am having difficulty managing my way around. I don’t see the typical format of forum BB architecture and I find this one difficult to navigate. Have actually not found a list of open forum topics and only landed here through Google. Thanks for you comments, however, as that was exactly what I was looking for.
This forum is good at searching, not browsing.
Hp laptop boot very fast but hp gaming laptop does not boot fast because it has hp touchpad not working
A google search brought me here.
Seems my LITE has the same booting issue as initially described.
The item seems a complete mess.
Even the LED colours are different from the video on YouTube.
I cannot access any UI. Sometime after booting the item has the left (red) LED permanently on, sometimes (the red and middle one) sometimes both outer ones. None blinking anymore after some time. No WiFi is established.
In any case no access to the UI.
As people here already mentioned Chinese SW.
How to get rid of it completely?
There are no really private companies in Communist China and the new law introduced in just 3 days there makes me really consider dumping several items from China for security concerns.
The source code is all on github for the base system, and you are free to compile your own OpenWRT to put it on the router. You can also download a precompiled image from the OpenWRT site here:
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/19.07.0-rc2/targets/
You are equally vulnerable to US spying if you use software such as Chrome or services such as Facebook that don’t even hide that they sell your data.
First I need to get it running at all.
I’m not tech-savy. 
So will use a SW from a trusted source asap. But at the moment I only have a brick.
Spend hours googling the issue. So my understanding now is I bought the LITE version which is faulty in its design!?
It seems ‘normal’ that it becomes inaccessible after flashing alternative SW? At least there are many posts online that suggest it’s a problem with the LITE only since WiFi is off in SW and the LAN socket not existing. 
I opened up the case and located the UART. Now, I should connect a USB to TTL converter to connect GND und Tx/Rx? Router powered by its own mini-USB?
So would this be the right SW for the LITE device?
There is another one with ‘kernel’…
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/19.07.0-rc2/targets/ath79/generic/openwrt-19.07.0-rc2-ath79-generic-glinet_gl-ar300m-lite-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Is the process of flashing via TTL decribed somewhere?
Some suggested tool under win7?
Many thanks!
Have you followed the guide here?