Hello @yuxin.zou and @alzhao
I see many threads like:
Can you guarantee that you are testing your firmware and my update will NOT cause brick?
Device used in hardly critical (for me) home server. No replacement for it.
I am not GL staff, but would like to say something about this as well.
No one will ever be able to guarantee this. That's why every company says, "Do backups before upgrading".
Since I am using GL devices, I never bricked a device. But what can happen, of course, is that you need to reset the settings. This is because OpenWrt is highly flexible - and with great power comes great responsibility.
Would I recommend GL devices in "hardly critical" settings without replacements? No.
Why? Because it's not meant to be used in those environments.
Would it be OK most of the time anyway? Yep!
1 Like
Reset is not the worst. I mean brick like nothing turn on.
It is 2 Raspberry Pi servers. One is opening me access to my ip cams via TOR (.onion domain, ofc with auth) without IP or domain (I am too greedy to buy one) another server operates custom alarm with some “trap” systems. So if they loose contact with internet I will be unsecured or even locked in apartment.
I have no choice. GL is only vendor that uses Cellular modem, comes with openwrt and have normal price.
Sounds like a dead trap. Hardware can fail, connection can fail.
Without redundancy I would not recommend your setup.
No no. I have 3 (!) WAN connections inputs. It is not problem.
From inside I have buttons that operates via LAN (WLAN) but if router brick they will stop working…
Router can brick, router can burn, router can having issues. 
That’s why I asked how to prevent it. I don’t have billions in budget to buy top switches or something like that.
I just need to protect my Spitz. I already made separate 220 connection that has “failsafe” options (protection against voltage jumps). But now I am really concerned about sudden brick because of upgrading firmware
As a long time user, and NOT an employee of GL iNet, I have had several upgrades that failed and required me to UBOOT to debrick my router. I have also had major functionality stop working with some upgrades, and I have had to roll-back to earlier firmware versions. I feel firmware issues with GL iNet routers happens more often than it should in production routers, although some of the examples you listed looks like Snapshot or Beta code. I normally wait a few months after a release to install it, just so other users will find the bugs before I do. I never let my routers auto-update.
Having just one of anything is a problem. Any device can fail at anytime, and I have worked on a lot of expensive gear that has failed at the worse possible time. In your system, I would have 2 or more of everything.
Also don't be in a rush to update to new versions - wait a while until bugs are resolved. Major new releases are likely to have teething issues. There is no reason for you to rush to update firmware if all is well with your current setup
No one can 100% guarantee this ...... environment, hardware aging, extreme conditions of driver bugs leading to bricking these we can not predict, but they probability is very small.
If you are worried about this.
Firstly, don't upgrade to beta like in the link, keep it using stable version.
Secondly, you might consider delaying the upgrade for a month or two. If there is indeed a problem with the firmware, then we will withdraw version when we receive feedback.
This should avoid the vast majority of possible issues.
2 Likes
The thread you mentioned contains mixed cases.
I do believe two are hardware failure.
Another one is not known yet.
Firmware upgrade do brick devices. I met several times because I flash firmware quite frequently.
Only one or two models seems has rare problems of brick, when upgrading. But most of the problem is due to kept settings or firmware bug.
Situation is improving a lot. But to solve such problem completely is quite difficult. Maybe enhanced hardware design and dual-firmware back up etc.
So…
@alzhao and @yuxin.zou what probability to have a brick on my X750v2 and E750v2? Using online update.
Also keep settings will cause brick? Or just reset if something goes wrong?
Depends on what „Brick“ means.
Bricking like the device is defective: None of them.
Bricking like you need to Debrick it using Uboot? Some of them. You can't tell before, the system is too customisable.
I got my Flint 2 earlier this month, put it as my main router but because of bugs in the stable firmware I had to take it out and just use it as a 2nd router for my own devices and not the rest of the family.
There's a lot of feedback and testing required for the firmware imo. Once I do put my Flint 2 back as my main router I don't plan to do as much testing or bug checking.
If I had another Flint 2 then personally I wouldn't mind testing new firmwares and all with my config.