Now it doesn't boot from the first partition, power led is stuck blinking, lan ports blinks with traffic, no other led light up, no ping response.
I was able to the 3 power-downs to change it to boot from the second partition, still with stock firmware (version 1.0.6.186168).
I want to flash either DD-WRT or factory FW to the first partition, leaving the factory FW on the second partition as a backup.
Is there anyway to flash stock or ddwrt on the first partition without touching or flashing the one on the second partition?
I figure if I could flash ddwrt on the second partition I could telnet/ssh to it and manually flash it from there (seen some guide(s) but I'd like to leave that as last resort (if it is feasible).
What is the safest possible way to flash on the first partition without touching the second one?
If I missed providing any info or did something wrong in this post, please let me know so I can learn, try to correct it and avoid (if at all possible) doing the same mistake again next time (posting and flashing).
Be kind. Thanks in advance.
Edit1: Instead of trying a lot of stuff I´m asking for help, as to not risk making it worse. This was a great expense/investment for me (% exchange rate and % of my income) and I plan to keep this router 5 years at last, so this is important for me. Thank you.
Joined: 30 May 2017 Posts: 582 Location: Rural Manitoba
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:32 Post subject:
I"ve had this happen a few times, for that matter I actually tried to upgrade from a backup file once. Anyway, I do have a question before I continue. How do you know you are on partition 2?
Regardless of which partition you are on, do an upgrade with a factory to stock build, preferably ne that is recognized as working properly. I personally have all my routers on r40009 which have been the most stable for all so far, but take a look at the forum and make your choice based upon the comments for the various builds.
Your sequence of events describes exactly the same things that I went through and in every case I just did an upgrade, in most cases with builds from earlier in the year but that being because I run 1200 and 1900 units and they have trouble with the newer, larger builds. As for my 3200's I have always been able to recover once I powered off/on a number of times and got a stable run. I believe it has been mentioned in other posts, but I suggest you do not configure the router at all, make sure it is not connected to the WAN or anything else for that matter, and just upgrade.
The 3200's are quite forgiving and easy to recover unlike the successor 32X which is somewhat more complicated. Although the 3200 is a bit quirky, if you read the posts you will see that most problems have either been resolved or at least have workarounds.
I am sure there will be others jump in and likely confirm what I have said, so you may want to review the various posts while you wait for more replies, but as I said getting the 3200 back up and running is not a major issue. If at any time you wish to revert to stock, just upgrade (from DD-WRT) with the stock firmware.
Just as a side note, you will see numerous posts regarding high temps on the 3200 and other wrt's which don't have internal fans. Although it has been noted that the highs are within spec, I as an old time specialists still worry about heat as an enemy and have both my 3200's and 1200 with 120mm fans on top running at slow speeds which maintain my routers at the same temperature as my 1900's. _________________ Starlink & DSL -> TPLink TL-R470T+
->
WRT3200acm Master WDS 5GHz 80Mhz CH 100 (+6) r55819
Ath1 2.4Ghz Disabled
99 Static Leases
ExpressVPN
WRT3200acm r55819 WDS Station 5Ghz
Ath1 AP N/G Mixed Channel 11 HT40
WRT1900Ac V1 5Ghz r55819 WDS Station
(Defective, no 2.4Ghz but 5Ghz works great)
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS Station r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT1900ACS SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC SPARE r54914
WRT1900AC V1 5Ghz AC 80Mhz WDS-AP r55819
2.4Ghz AP Ch1 HT20 Mixed
WRT54G DD-WRT v3.0-r37305 micro AP CH 6 Mixed - Not in use
Joined: 04 Aug 2018 Posts: 1447 Location: Appalachian mountains, USA
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 14:08 Post subject:
Simple answer: if you can boot into the factory firmware, from there flash with factory-to-ddwrt.bin to install a dd-wrt release known to be solid. Don't worry about which partition is which as you can sort that out later. By default it always flashes the opposite partition from what is running.
When you flash, as WENED said, have your computer connected to the router via ethernet (with its wifi turned off, just to be sure), and don't have anything else plugged into the router, especially not the "internet" WAN connection. Give it at least two minutes to finish flashing and rebooting, even when everything looks good re the panel LEDs, before changing what is plugged into the router or attempting to get the GUI back up. Don't hover over your browser clicking to refresh the screen. Don't distract the router until you are sure it is good and done. As was pointed out, some people have had trouble flashing with Chrome. I use Firefox and have never had an issue (except the first time, when I ignorantly had the WAN connection in place).
I agree with WENED that 40009 is a good choice of release. Don't worry initially about having the "latest" dd-wrt release, because most new releases come with new problems, at least minor ones, and when starting out you don't need the confusion of not knowing whether something you are encountering is a configuration problem or a problem with the release. Stick for now with one known to be solid. 40009 is less than two months old, i.e. essentially brand new. You can upgrade from there in a few months to one that is again not the latest but by then known to be quite solid. I was on 39144 from March until last week, when I finally upgraded to 40009. Notice that I did not immediately go for the newest release! And in fact there was really no urgency to update at all, as 39144 has been great for me. I could have just stayed with it. (In fact, if you are interested in using DNSCrypt for DNS, say using Adguard DNS as your DNS provider to filter out malware and ad networks, start with 39144, as DNSCrypt is much easier to set up in that release than in the recent ones.)
If you flash successfully, go immediately to the Cliff Notes sticky at the beginning of this forum for advice re configuring. If you are aiming for features beyond the basics, go slowly and test things out as you go. Don't try to get a complicated setup going all at once. _________________ 2x Netgear XR500 and 3x Linksys WRT1900ACSv2 on 53544: VLANs, VAPs, NAS, station mode, OpenVPN client (AirVPN), wireguard server (AirVPN port forward) and clients (AzireVPN, AirVPN, private), 3 DNSCrypt providers via VPN.
Anyway, I do have a question before I continue. How do you know you are on partition 2?
I do this steps
Power off router with power switch.
Turn power back on and Power LED will light.
As soon as all LEDs turn off (~2s), power off router with power switch, repeat 3 times in total.
Then the 4th turn on I leave it and it switches from which partition it boots. The first time I did it instead of being stuck on the power led blinking it booted and was able to log in to the web gui, wifi, the works.
I concluded I can consistently switch back and forth partitions doing this steps, and the behaviour is it either boots the stock fw in the second (so far untouched) partition, and the router works (wifi, Internet, webgui). If I repeat the steps and boot from the first partition it is stuck with the power led blinking (no ping, no webgui, no internet, no wifi). I didn't mention it before but I set static IP address on the NIC of the computer, on the same subnet as the router is configured.
WENED wrote:
Regardless of which partition you are on, do an upgrade with a factory to stock build, preferably one that is recognized as working properly.
That is the whole issue, as I mentioned, I'm unable to flash anything, the router is stuck with the power led blinking if I boot from the first partition. (. When booting from the first partition, with what I think was the incorrect image to flash, the router does not reply any ping, there is no wifi, the power led is stuck blinking.
WENED wrote:
Just as a side note, you will see numerous posts regarding high temps on the 3200 and other wrt's which don't have internal fans. Although it has been noted that the highs are within spec, I as an old time specialists still worry about heat as an enemy and have both my 3200's and 1200 with 120mm fans on top running at slow speeds which maintain my routers at the same temperature as my 1900's.
I plan to do the same, I'll move the 120mm fan from my EA6500 to this one, when I resolve this issue.
foz111 wrote:
What browser are you using to flash from GUI?
I've had Chrome fail a few times i recommend IE if your on windows.
Yes, I used Chrome on Windows 10 but I do not think that is the issue.
Can anyone confirm me if I flashed the incorrect file to begin with? I flashed ddwrt-linksys-wrt3200acm-webflash.bin (r40559), should I have flashed factory-to-ddwrt.bin (it was on the same folder) first?
How do I flash a FW when the power led is stuck blinking and there is no ping reply no wifi, etc, when booting from the first partition.
Joined: 08 May 2018 Posts: 14217 Location: Texas, USA
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 14:54 Post subject:
xta wrote:
Can anyone confirm me if I flashed the incorrect file to begin with? I flashed ddwrt-linksys-wrt3200acm-webflash.bin (r40559), should I have flashed factory-to-ddwrt.bin (it was on the same folder) first?
How do I flash a FW when the power led is stuck blinking and there is no ping reply no wifi, etc, when booting from the first partition.
Thanks!
Initial flash is always factory-to-ddwrt file, if it exists for your router. If you still have stock firmware on one of the partitions, you need to get back to it to try again....
Can anyone confirm me if I flashed the incorrect file to begin with? I flashed ddwrt-linksys-wrt3200acm-webflash.bin (r40559), should I have flashed factory-to-ddwrt.bin (it was on the same folder) first?
How do I flash a FW when the power led is stuck blinking and there is no ping reply no wifi, etc, when booting from the first partition.
Thanks!
Initial flash is always factory-to-ddwrt file, if it exists for your router. If you still have stock firmware on one of the partitions, you need to get back to it to try again....
Hi, thanks for the reply, I flashed the incorrect image then, as factory-to-ddwrt exists for this model, thanks for confirming it!
If I boot from the second partition (stock fw) and I perform a flash, would I be flashing the first partition or the second one?
I'd like to avoid flashing the second one if the first one is not working, as I'm using the second one as a life boat/reserve parachute, if something goes wrong flashing the second one, I'll be left with both partitions not booting, this is my main worry.
Joined: 04 Aug 2018 Posts: 1447 Location: Appalachian mountains, USA
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 15:29 Post subject:
Your stock Linksys firmware is in the first partition. Flashing is always into the partition you are not running, so your bad flash was into partition two. If you boot back into the Linksys firmware, either automatically (typical after a failed flash) or using he power-cycling procedure, you will be in partition one again. Flashing the correct firmware from there will again flash into partition two.
Always flash the factory-to... firmware from the Linksys GUI. Always flash the ...webflash firmware from dd-wrt.
Please forgive me if I have the wrong impression here, but you need to read the Cliff Notes. If you are too impatient to do that, you are too impatient to get dd-wrt working. _________________ 2x Netgear XR500 and 3x Linksys WRT1900ACSv2 on 53544: VLANs, VAPs, NAS, station mode, OpenVPN client (AirVPN), wireguard server (AirVPN port forward) and clients (AzireVPN, AirVPN, private), 3 DNSCrypt providers via VPN.
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 20:30 Post subject: Sokath, his eyes uncovered
SurprisedItWorks wrote:
Your stock Linksys firmware is in the first partition. Flashing is always into the partition you are not running, so your bad flash was into partition two. If you boot back into the Linksys firmware, either automatically (typical after a failed flash) or using he power-cycling procedure, you will be in partition one again. Flashing the correct firmware from there will again flash into partition two.
Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, got it! clever. That was the piece of information that I was missing and will help me dig myself out of the hole I got myself into.
SurprisedItWorks wrote:
Always flash the factory-to... firmware from the Linksys GUI. Always flash the ...webflash firmware from dd-wrt.
Thanks for confirming it. After this, I don't think I'll ever forget again.
SurprisedItWorks wrote:
Please forgive me if I have the wrong impression here, but you need to read the Cliff Notes. If you are too impatient to do that, you are too impatient to get dd-wrt working.
I do need to read it (just found the thread, as I wasn't aware of it), and will, tonight after work, before trying to flash it again.
Thanks for your insight how the dual fw/partition works regarding flashing in the new models/generation of Routers, and pointing me in the right direction for further reading.
kernel-panic69 wrote:
I would get both partitions back on stock Linksys firmware first, but that's just me.
Hi!, my wish exactly, I'll flash stock again first, just in case, then I'll start over (with factory-to-ddwrt).
Thanks for your input!
Again, thanks everyone for taking your time and write to help (not just me, overall on the forum surely) I'm not an avid user here but I keep paying it forward whenever I can whereever I can.
Sincerely, many thanks.
Salutations.
Sinceramente, muchas gracias.
Saludos.
Edit (to not make a double post): succesfully flashed back the stock FW, I did the poweroff method 4 times to be sure that both partitions booted corretly. I take away that I have to do my due diligence before flashing anything, specially if it has been a while (years). Thanks!!
