D-Link DIR-895L stuck in boot loop but only with DD-WRT

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Svuppe
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Joined: 20 Nov 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 7:06    Post subject: D-Link DIR-895L stuck in boot loop but only with DD-WRT Reply with quote
Hi.

I have been running a D-Link DIR-895L with DD-WRT (BS) without any problems for a couple of years. Yesterday I made a couple of changes in the configuration (added a static ip assignment to a new mac address, and made a few changes in port forwarding). Some time after doing that (10-20 minutes), port forwarding stopped working. When I looked at the port forwarding page, it was empty. Then I thought the router was due for a reboot, so I did. BIG MISTAKE.
After rebooting, the router was stuck in a never ending boot loop. One led lights up orange for a while, changes to white and then turn off. And then it starts over.
I have tried all sorts of things, including the old 30-30-30. I can put the router in recovery and upload new firmware. Uploading any dd-wrt (the same version as was installed before, newest BS build or older) gives a success and then straight into boot loop. Uploading official D-Link firmware works fine, and the router starts up. As soon as I then upgrade to dd-wrt (using factory-to-ddwrt), it is back to boot loop.

My guess at this time is that there is a corrupt dd-wrt configuration, that isn't erased by the official D-Link firmware. Is it possible, somehow, to erase the nvram without having a dd-wrt that can boot up completely?
Or do you have other suggestions that I can try?
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kernel-panic69
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Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 14:28    Post subject: Reply with quote
30-30-30 doesn't work on Broadcom ARM, and it's advised against. Should only require about 10 seconds holding it in while powered up or on power-up, depending. It could be the actual DD version you are flashing.... which you didn't mention.
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Svuppe
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Nov 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 15:40    Post subject: Reply with quote
kernel-panic69 wrote:
30-30-30 doesn't work on Broadcom ARM, and it's advised against.

Right I also saw that, but there is so much contradicting information when googling, and when everything else fails, I might as well try it. Well, it has been tried and it didn't do any good.

Quote:
It could be the actual DD version you are flashing.... which you didn't mention.

I first tried r33772, which is what the router had been running for the past 2 years (rock solid I might add).
I then went back to r29147, same boot loop.
And finally I have tried the newest, r41892, which also ends up in a boot loop.

I think I saw something about connecting a serial console inside the router. That'll probably be my next step, at least to see if it prints any hints to what goes wrong.
Svuppe
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Nov 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2020 17:08    Post subject: Reply with quote
Got access to the console. I have attached the full log.
The interesting seems to be here:

Creating 1 MTD partitions on "brcmnand":
0x000000000000-0x000008000000 : "ddwrt"
blk_update_request: I/O error, dev mtdblock2, sector 0
SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x0
squashfs: SQUASHFS error: unable to read squashfs_super_block
VFS: Cannot open root device "1f02" or unknown-block(31,2): error -5



bootloop_dir-895.txt
 Description:
Boot log dump

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 Filename:  bootloop_dir-895.txt
 Filesize:  17.74 KB
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novarov
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 02 Apr 2020
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 16:37    Post subject: Reply with quote
Hey Svuppe, did you ever solve this? I have a dir-895L router and was able to install dd-wrt, but I must have messed up the settings cause now I'm stuck in a reboot loop and can only go back to the original firmware. Any dd-wrt install goes back into the reboot loop. Unfortunately I don have a serial connection to get any logs
Thanks
Svuppe
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Nov 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 13:29    Post subject: Reply with quote
novarov wrote:
Hey Svuppe, did you ever solve this?

Sorry, but no.
I eventually gave up and got a Netgear R7800 instead. It doesn't have two separate 5GHz radios like DIR-895L, but frankly I haven't missed that.
kernel-panic69
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2020 16:21    Post subject: Reply with quote
Did you ever try breaking CFE via serial console and issuing an 'nvram erase && reboot' to see if that would fix it? That was going to be my next suggestion. Normally Emergency Room should work without that, but. Wondering if the flash has somehow developed bad blocks or things got corrupted.
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Svuppe
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 20 Nov 2017
Posts: 7
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 10:41    Post subject: Reply with quote
Yes, I did try that a couple of times. No joy.
I have also been wondering if it is flash corruption, but that won't explain why stock firmware works, and flashing back to dd-wrt fails immediately.

I still have it lying around. I may have a another (and more intense) try at fixing it, and if it bricks completely, so be it. After all, it doesn't do me any good now.
kernel-panic69
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Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 14126
Location: Texas, USA

PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2020 16:56    Post subject: Reply with quote
It may be that DD doesn't handle bad blocks as well as stock firmware or something, who knows. If you decide to give up on it and not try again, feel free to let me know.
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