Still on 4.5.6, what should I update to (Flint 2 with lots of settings)

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi guys,

A few months ago, I bought the flint 2 which arrived in version 4.5.6.

Today, I wonder if it would not be time to upgrade to a more recent version. (4.6.8 offered directly in the router interface)

I have been looking at the forum for a few weeks now, but I am still quite confused about what I find and what I need.

The little story:
Looking at the forum when I received it, I saw a lot of people complaining about WIFI problems or instabilities after certain updates and since I really needed the router for home and work, I left it at 4.5.6 and configured it according to my needs.

My configurations:

  • DHCP reservation (Home server, and IOT)
  • Port forwarding (Services and games)
  • Change wifi band to get as far away as possible from neighbors' networks. (I live in the countryside and I only have 3 other networks visible around the house)

Questions:
1- If I update to 4.6.8, will I lose all my configurations? (Reservation, DHCP redirection, etc.)
2- Can a backup of my configurations in luci be restored on the new firmware and if so is it recommended or could it be a source of problems.
3- Is the new firmware known to have problems? According to my research, Wifi would be better, but is there anything else to consider?
4- Should I choose one less recent but greater then the 4.5.6?

Problem I currently have:
Sometimes on my cell phone and my girlfriend's, although the wifi still appears as connected, no traffic passes. I'm unable to connect to a website, listen to a video or anything related to the internet. To fix the problem, I just turn off the wifi in the notifications menu and turn it back on 1 second later and the connection comes back. (5ghz network)

It can happen 0 to 2 times a day and seems quite random. Since the workaround is quite simple, I really wonder if it's worth risking a worse problem if I upgrade to a new version.

Well, it's a whole novel, but I would like to have your opinion on the subject.

Thanks in advance and see you soon.

2

  1. As long as it is upgraded normally and "keep setting" is checked, the previous configuration should be there after the upgrade, including Reservations and Port Forwarding.

  2. Not recommended. Export/restore in different versions may cause problems.
    It is only recommended to backup on the same firmware version, for example, export from v4.5.6 and restore in v4.5.6.

  3. Stable firmware generally has no problems.

  4. The latest version can be upgraded.

  5. Regarding the issue about occasional WiFi disconnection, which are related to the compatibility of the WiFi client. We will also maintain communication with MTK to improve its WiFi driver stability.

1 Like
4

Thank you very much for your feedback.

I'll go on with the update next week and see if it work better.

Just to be sure, can you confirm there is no real "one click" solution to backup everything (Firmware and setting) on 4.5.6 and restore it at the same time?

So in case on iof bigger ssues with the newest firmware I will have to :

  1. Install the older firmware
  2. Load the previous settings backup

Finally, can I trust the setting backup or I should screenshot everything just in case it got corrupted?

Thanks again.

5

Exactly. Restoring between different versions can lead to problems. The idea could be:
-Keep the older firmware settings backup
-Install older firmware within Uboot (in case of problems with the newer firmware)
-Restore older firmware settings backup on that older firmware freshly installed.
If the new firmware works well do a backup of newer firmware settings and store it. Only there are few kbs in it of information, so it could be created a lot of times without getting full the hard drive of the PC or cloud.

1 Like
6

One question about this, does it also apply to configurations done via luci or the cli? I have some configurations applied manually for IPTV... with specific vlan tag for a subinterface... with its own dhcp options... and also packages installed that were needed and has config added via CLI (as this package: kmod-ipt-nathelper-rtsp missing)

7

Plugin packages added from CLI may be lost, but can reinstall it by the backup list, since the configuration be supposed to reserve, refer to

1 Like
8

I'd suggest taking a backup via Luci anyway as then at least you have the backup if you need it.

Most well-behaved packages will place their config files in /etc/config which the backup archive should include, although there's a few that are naughty and don't.

Most of the config files are in UCI format so are reasonably humanly readable if you did need to rebuild the configuration for some reason.

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/base-system/uci

Make a note of any plug-ins/packages you've installed as you'll likely need to re-install them

10

Do you mean that in case of issues... the LuCi backup file contains also the custom OPKGs and their configs... so in case of issues as long as I restore that file all should come back to normal? (meaning flint sw release, opkgs, configs...etc)
That would make rollback easier... because it was hard to make my IPTV work... so im still trying to decide even if upgrading or stuck on this release forever :smiley:

11

It does not.

12

Just a small update on my update.

I did the latest firmware install this week via the update button and the automatic process and everything went well.

My settings were saved correctly after verification, everything was there and working.

Thanks for your help.

13

It's not a bad idea to screenshot everything just to have a general backup for uncontrollable situations such as a random router failure etc.