OpenWrt 21.02.0 - First Stable Release

eric · 2021-09-06T16:11:41.991Z

I feel that this site is more for the users of GL iNet products then the GL iNet developers, so someone passing on an announcement that a new major version of OpenWrt that runs on these devices is now available is a fine thing to post here. It is nice that the NAND devices like the AR300M and AR750S uses are finally supported by a released version of OpenWrt.

fch · 2021-09-06T18:29:41.484Z

Talking about that I got my X750 a few days ago, should I just wait for an automatic update? Is it reccomended to update manually?

eric · 2021-09-06T19:28:15.942Z

This is an announcement for the OpenWrt firmware which is different than the GL iNet firmware. GL iNet supplies a modified version of OpenWrt, and some of us prefer the pure Open Source version of the software for our GL iNet routers. If you are new to GL iNet, I would recommend you stay with the GL iNet firmware, and that you update to the latest version of GL iNet’s firmware as normally new routers come with an older version of the firmware.

fch · 2021-09-06T19:47:04.304Z

I tried installing the OpenWrt firmware on my router, but I bricked it around 10 days ago, fortunately I was able to recover it. Is there a guide to how to install the OpenWrt properly?

eric · 2021-09-06T19:55:54.686Z

I don’t know of a good guide for loading the OpenWrt firmware on all the different GL iNet routers, as I have had to use different methods for loading the OpenWrt firmware on the different router types. For me, getting OpenWrt on a new GL iNet router normally takes reading both the GL iNet forum and the OpenWrt forum on information on how other people have done it.

fch · 2021-09-06T20:06:16.286Z

I have the X750, I could not find something usefull of howto do it, maybe I flashed the wrong file, it was not a snapshot…maybe I am just too n00b for that yet

alzhao · 2021-09-07T03:37:53.040Z

Download the firmware from OpenWrt Firmware Selector

Flash it via the original firmware or uboot, do NOT reserve settings and that is it.

eric · 2021-09-07T05:29:37.183Z

That did not work for an AR300M trying to get OpenWrt 21.02.0 NAND firmware to load with uboot, as the new uboot loader seems to look at the file extension of .bin and decides it is a NOR code load. Renaming the OpenWrt NAND .bin file to .img, and using uboot just bricked the router, so I ended up loading the NOR OpenWrt .bin firmware with uboot, then power cycled it enough times to get it to boot the NOR firmware, and finally used sysupgrade while running the 21.02.0 NOR firmware to load the NAND 21.02.0 OpenWrt firmware. Great way to blow off a day. It never is as straight forward as it should be and is different with everyone of your router types.

fch · 2021-09-07T06:03:01.087Z

Should I download the kernel or sysupgrade?

eric · 2021-09-07T13:06:37.458Z

I used the sysupgrade bin file.

fch · 2021-09-07T14:06:59.023Z

that’s the one that bricked my router last time…

mainer · 2021-09-07T15:20:43.391Z

Just to add my experience with an AR750S loading OpenWrt 21.02.

I found that I had to use Uboot and load the “nor” .bin version and NOT keeping settings. I could then connect, log in (no password) and use the System > Backup / Flash Firmware menu to load the “nor-nand” version successfully. Loading the “nor-nand” with Uboot does not actually brick the device as you can simply go back and reload the “nor” version.

fch · 2021-09-10T08:25:06.785Z

Alzhao, should I use the kernel or sysupdate image? I have the latest gl-inet firmware atm.

alzhao · 2021-09-10T09:35:06.485Z

fch:

sysupdate

sysupdate is the correct firmware file

fch · 2021-09-10T15:51:10.406Z

I am a new user of the router, received a few weeks ago, I am still in doubt if I should install the openwrt directly or go along with the GL.inet firmware, how long does it take in general to a new firmware fromGL.inet to be relased after the openwrt has been released?

alzhao · 2021-09-11T20:24:25.287Z

It is hard to answer your question. Actually we prefer not to upgrade if firmware runs stable and without secure bugs.

After upgrading to openwrt 1907 we are still facing various issues.

Actually from product perspective, never upgrade the openwrt version and never upgrade kernel.

fch · 2021-09-11T20:26:30.744Z

But on a security perspective, we should always have the latest version, right?

alzhao · 2021-09-11T20:31:12.303Z

Security can be fixed in the old version as well. You know that openwrt still upgrade old version to fix security bugs. So there is 19.07.x version.

There is always some trade off. Generally for new models we will try using the latest openwrt stable release.

fch · 2021-09-11T20:33:09.231Z

I see, makes sense. Is the firmware from GL-inet also open sourced?

alzhao · 2021-09-11T20:34:24.260Z

Not all software modules are open source.