GL-MT2500 and GL-MT2500A bricked after update to 4.5.0

Dabman · 2024-07-14T21:29:04.847Z

I contacted support via email adress provided by you.
And...
14th of June I sent email to them.
They asked me about units (I have 3 of them. Two in Poland, one in Norway). Discribe that two of them are bricked after update. They asked if I can update 3rd one. I said NO. I won't fly to Norway to replace it in case if it is brick. Also I will loose access to VPN. So they wrote that they are going to send replacement. They asked for order etc... I provide it. From that moment no contact. I also send to them few more emails last week. Nothing. If i would replace 3rd one i couls be without 3 units and also no internet in 3 locations. Is gateway. No travel router. No competence at all with firmware testing and no after sale support. No contact. Nothing. Already have many units from GL-Inet. Soon migratong to Mikrotik. Same will do in first issue with units which I recommend to my customers. Nightmare and monkey business.

admon · 2024-07-15T04:52:10.223Z

@alzhao Can you check?

alzhao · 2024-07-15T05:07:59.078Z

Sorry that customer service didn't deal with the ticket well last month.

We received your email several hours ago and replied you.

But we didn't receive any email last week. Will check email servers.

Dabman · 2024-07-15T10:22:44.252Z

Well. Month for getting new unit is way too much. I would be without 3 gateways out of 3 after listening support. Btw: now support want units to be returned. Hope they will send returning label... And i won't wait another month when they received it and send new onces.
Btw: alot of digging. For some ppl helped GPT for other nothing. I was expecting to update GPT and then when is rebooting to use tftpd client and sideload latest fw but did not helped. Router is looking after booting for openwrt-gl-mt2500.bin
Maybe is any "magic" firmware which can boot it?
Can someone alao provide uboot for this router? Maybe this one is defected.

20240715_1217171920×1440 226 KB

alzhao · 2024-07-15T10:29:27.922Z

Sorry for this. I am pushing them to give you a simple solution. Let's just replace it.

Dabman · 2024-07-15T11:07:39.429Z

Sure, but would be nice to have that many files as it possible for the future. Maybe we have gpt, we have fw, maybe uboot and other files help people to unbrick devicez

Dabman · 2024-08-02T17:17:15.801Z

Well... I have to say. I have not seen worst fuckup.
I was able to recover one unit to atock OpenWRT - snapshot (all the time when from snapshot im doing upgrade to GL-inet firmware is dead). But...
I decide to buckup working one (fresh from gl-inet support, replacement unit). I mean dd of full disk and copy it to "bricked".
So i have unit in my backpack, brand new. Just updated to 4.6 and turned off. Plugging in and... Is dead AF. No even recovery option works. What did you mess in that firmware?

anonymousOx · 2024-09-03T02:06:04.219Z

I bricked my device in the update as well. I loved the brume2 until I spent 5 hours trying to get the firmware to work after following the unbrick steps and trying multiple .bin files

Same issue.

I even tried the side loading with tftp but upon reboot and switching back ip settings it’s still dead. Did anyone test the fw before pushing it to prod?

Dabman · 2024-09-03T08:54:24.422Z

I recover it with clen OpenWRT.
But without functionality of GL-Inet gui so clean OpenWRT.
Even full backup by DD won't help because they changed something with partitions.
Bad that they did not developed solution to recover it. Only way is replacement. It takes long time so I just needed to buy new one and this time decide to invest in Mikrotik.
No fast solution, long time waiting for replacement.

anonymousOx · 2024-09-03T17:52:35.970Z

Dabman:

backup by DD won't help because they changed something with partitions.
Bad that they did not develope

Sorry to hear about it. Mine broke on me while I was thousands of miles away from it.

The gui and the ease of configuration was what attracted me to the product at first. But if the product is unreliable, sometimes you have to do it yourself -> I've already built out a replacement vpn server with raspi 4 and the speeds are pretty good, especially since I can dedicate cpu cores to wireguard.

I hope GLiNet notifies me when they or if they fix this issue. The MT2500A is in the junk drawer in the meantime.

admon · 2024-09-03T18:00:21.497Z

@alzhao Maybe there is a solution available already?

Dabman · 2024-09-03T19:22:27.188Z

Happend to me also far away. They sent two replacement units. But i was away without vpn... They offer to update 3rd one. Which is 1500km away. They I would be grounded totally. You can recover it but with OpenWRT. No with GL-Inet. I even did it via dd. Working to bricked but won't boot gl firmware anymore. Bricked. Only with openwrt works...

ywp · 2024-09-04T10:23:27.425Z

hello
@Dabman @anonymousOx

Notion

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It's the all-in-one workspace for you and your team

Can you try the methods in this document?

alzhao · 2024-09-04T11:01:02.012Z

ywp provides a method even uboot is bricked. But you need UART to flash it.
Not sure if everyone can get this done.

We want to send replacement because we are not sure if it is hardware failure. If it is hardware failure, reflashing it will not sovle it.

We can send replacement before you return so it will be quick.

Dabman · 2024-09-04T20:32:03.216Z

same useful like everything related to GL-MT2500...

1st. instruction is not complete. Try step by step this procedure and you will face somewhere here the wall...

PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot> dir

Directory: C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot

Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

d----- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM .github
d----- 04-Sep-24 10:15 PM .vs
d----- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM src
-a---- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM 9 .gitignore
-a---- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM 11945 Cargo.lock
-a---- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM 302 Cargo.toml
-a---- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM 35184 LICENSE
-a---- 04-Sep-24 10:11 PM 2476 README.md

PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot> cargo build
cargo : The term 'cargo' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check
the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1

cargo build

  + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (cargo:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
  + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot>

but if you download already compiled file

PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot-v0.1.1-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc> .\mtk_uartboot.exe -s COM4 -a -p .\bl2-mt7981-bga-ddr4-ram.bin -f .\fip-mt2500.bin
mtk_uartboot - 0.1.1
Using serial port: COM4
thread 'main' panicked at src\main.rs:143:17:
Failed to open port: Error { kind: NoDevice, description: "Access is denied." }
note: run with RUST_BACKTRACE=1 environment variable to display a backtrace
PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot-v0.1.1-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc>

basically nightmare.
I already check many times what happen with this unit using uart. and I will provide you with this link.
anyway - instruction is not complete. So no point to wasting time and googling. Gl_inet get paid for units, GL-Inet should provide STEP by STEP instruction. This one does not work.

I believe google translate will be more useful than instruction...
GL-MT2500 Brume2 uwalony (Strona 1) — Sprzęt / Hardware — eko.one.pl

edit: finally when I started few times it works. But without any result. logs are too long to past it here. No way to install GL-Inet firmware, OpenWRT without any problem.
PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot-v0.1.1-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc> .\mtk_uartboot.exe -s COM4 -a -p .\bl2-mt7981-bga-ddr4-ram.bin -f .\fip-mt2500.bin
mtk_uartboot - 0.1.1
Using serial port: COM4
Handshake...
hw code: 0x7981
hw sub code: 0x8a00
hw ver: 0xca00
sw ver: 0x1
Baud rate set to 460800
sending payload to 0x201000...
Checksum: 0x6f0e
Setting baudrate back to 115200
Jumping to 0x201000 in aarch64...
Waiting for BL2. Message below:

NOTICE: BL2: v2.10.0 (release):v2.10.0-mtk
NOTICE: BL2: Built : 13:17:08, Mar 1 2024
NOTICE: WDT: Cold boot
NOTICE: WDT: disabled
NOTICE: EMI: Using DDR4 settings
NOTICE: EMI: Detected DRAM size: 1024MB
NOTICE: EMI: complex R/W mem test passed
NOTICE: CPU: MT7981 (1300MHz)
NOTICE: Starting UART download handshake ...

BL2 UART DL version: 0x10
Baudrate set to: 921600
FIP sent.

NOTICE: Received FIP 0x9ca45 @ 0x40400000 ...

PS C:\Users\dabman\Downloads\mtk_uartboot-v0.1.1-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc>

hansome · 2024-09-05T04:31:15.587Z

Notion

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

A new tool that blends your everyday work apps into one. It's the all-in-one workspace for you and your team

The guide has been updated, now no need to compile the binary.

Dabman:

NOTICE: Received FIP 0x9ca45 @ 0x40400000 ...

When this appears, you have loaded uboot to the board successfully.
Now you should use terminal tool to connect serial port or use uboot failsafe web.

"option 2(recommended): push the reset button near the message “NOTICE: Received FIP” appears, wait LED flashes about 5 times and becomes constant-on which indicates uboot failsafe web is ready."

Upgrade fip-mt2500.bin at page http://192.168.1.1/uboot.html
Upgrade openwrt-mt2500-4.6.2-0628-1719560735.bin at page http://192.168.1.1/

Dabman · 2024-09-05T06:21:17.291Z

Error /dev/mmcblk0

Does not matter what and how I will do.

But. OpenWRT is working. You messed on production with class like never before.

Any solution how to fix it. Fix not send anywhere. Because this post is to find solutions for people which bought device for VPN purpose. They can not just buy ticked and fly few 1000 km to fix device after GL-Inet push miracle update.

Booting and updating uboot via website

Pastebin

=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= PuTTY log 2024.09.05 08:17:12 =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=...

Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.

anonymousOx · 2024-09-05T15:51:17.702Z

Thanks for the update, shame that it errors out.

It's infeasible for me to do the UART at this time anyway, i don't even have the screwdriver to pop the case off.

Raspi 4 is giving me better speeds. I hope GL.inet is more careful with their updates in the future. When things work, it's a good product.

briekske · 2024-09-13T16:07:25.000Z

This is the topic i was looking for.
I have two pieces, one that is still older version and working (v4.2.3).
The other one is my vpn that i use on occasion, that has suddenly failed and was in 4.6.2. I'm willing to ship this one piece wherever so you can examine it?

Unless there is an easy unbrick solution by now, because i'm not familiar with UART.
The snapshot on openwrt will not help me either without luci. I tried downgrading to 4.2.3 as well but that didn't help...

alzhao · 2024-09-14T15:29:15.684Z

briekske:

I'm willing to ship this one piece wherever so you can examine it?

Can you contact our customer service via email cs at gl-inet.com?
Cite this post and they will process quickly.