I’m running a Flint 2 with v4.8.3-op24. (mt6000-op-4.8.3-op24_beta1-911-1108-1762535859.bin) I see that I’ve downloaded several openwrt-mediatek-filogic-glinet_gl-mt6000-squashfs-sysupgrade files, but don’t know what these are and if I’ve installed any of them. (The latest is openwrt-mediatek-filogic-glinet_gl-mt6000-squashfs-sysupgrade-20260109.bin.) Since the file names contain “glinet” I assume they are GL-iNet patches rather than, say, native OpenWRT modules.
I don’t see anything in either the GL-iNet admin GUI or in OpenWRT LuCI that mentions these patches (or whatever they are). Is there any way to determine if I’ve loaded any of them? I want to try v4.9.0-op24 but want to be able to return to my current firmware level if I run into problems.
Those patches are compiled into those firmware and you cannot track this.
There is only a major distinction between: op24 and non op24, if we talk about the gl download site only and not the OpenWrt download site.
The non op24 is using vendor sdk, your router runs on a mediatek cpu, and mediatek has a base image GL build on top of, the difference lay in the propetairy drivers, in the OP24 you do not get Mediatek drivers but a offshoot which tries to intepret what Mediatek does by using the same datablobs, but with more features, this is often why OpenWrt is able to put much higher kernels besides that vendors sdk also choose for stability meaning a older kernel too!, you will see this kind of firmware also on regular non GL-iNet routers but that is something you find out when you hack it with a interest for OpenWrt support.
So between these very distinct firmwares you want to flash without settings kept for the best result.
The only advise I give is keep using images with sysupgrade in it's name, OpenWrt vanilla not on the gl site has also a factory image don't do it keep it on the sysupgrade, because otherwise it replaces the U-boot by OpenWrts which mean when you want to debrick it no longer works with a fancy web ui...