R7800 only works with 1 Build. (Other builds loop) :?

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fourbin
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 17:14    Post subject: R7800 only works with 1 Build. (Other builds loop) :? Reply with quote
I bought an used R7800 recently just to experiment with and compare to the R7000 I have been using for the last few years.

Change from OEM to Kong 40270 worked just fine. Erased nvram and all was good until I tried to upgrade to BS r46069. The firmware upgrade put the router into boot loop.

After using TFTP to go back to OEM, I again went to Kong 40270 without issue. This time I tried to go to BS r45632 but had the same bootloop issue as before.

The last thing I tried was going directly from the OEM firmware to r45632 without going to 40270 first, but the router still went into boot loop.

I've read about some R7800's having bad blocks, and am wondering if that is what's going on with this router, but what is special about the 40270 build that allows the router to work correctly? Confused
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blkt
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 17:39    Post subject: Reply with quote
The file is smaller. Two days ago I upgraded R7800 1.0.2.28 to r40270M then r46069 avoiding TFTP recovery.

Hard reset stock firmware (reset button 7 to 10 seconds), then "nvram erase && reboot" after r46069 reboot.

There is also a back to stock firmware binary in egc's Netgear R7800 Install Guide thread but I never used it.

Is your model made in China or Thailand, also the part number? Out of curiosity, not that it means anything.

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fourbin
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 18:30    Post subject: Reply with quote
This is a Thailand unit (Model 272-12536-01)

I'll also add that when it arrived, it was running the latest stock NG firmware (V1.0.2.80). The couple times I had to use TFTP recovery, I used V1.0.2.62 just in case I wanted to enable telnet for some unknown reason.

I might try a couple earlier builds of DD-WRT just to see what happens.
blkt
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 18:33    Post subject: Reply with quote
Maybe coincidence, see Different versions of R7800? The back to stock file is 1.0.0.40 firmware version.

Last edited by blkt on Tue Mar 23, 2021 19:23; edited 2 times in total
Alozaros
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Joined: 16 Nov 2015
Posts: 6407
Location: UK, London, just across the river..

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 18:47    Post subject: Reply with quote
I do have some old, Kong's factory builds and some old Stock builds for R7800, give me a shout if you need any of those...2 days ago i used an old Kong factory to revert after 46130 gone bad..
In my all experience with R7800 (various made in's) never had a flashing issue, but i know there are few reports here in the forum, I guess its either bad blocks or flash chip funny...if TFTP is not helping you out, just forget it...do keep in mind last few BS builds are bigger...

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egc
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 18 Mar 2014
Posts: 12834
Location: Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 18:52    Post subject: Reply with quote
45632 was the last medium sized build after that they became huge.
so you might want to try that one.

But it sounds like bad blocks what is dmesg telling you? (run from CLI (telnet/putty) )

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Routers:Netgear R7000, R6400v1, R6400v2, EA6900 (XvortexCFE), E2000, E1200v1, WRT54GS v1.
Install guide R6400v2, R6700v3,XR300:https://forum.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=316399
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danlat1417
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 30 Jul 2020
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 18:55    Post subject: Reply with quote
Restore the R7800 back to stock firmware using the attached firmware (originally provided by Kong to revert back to stock. Other methods sometime cause bootloops)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e2bqagpgkcm7pul/ddwrt-to-netgear-fw-R7800.bin?dl=0



Then run the 46069 factory to DD-WRT firmware;
https://download1.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/betas/2021/03-17-2021-r46069/netgear-r7800/factory-to-ddwrt.img
fourbin
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 20:24    Post subject: Reply with quote
egc wrote:
45632 was the last medium sized build after that they became huge.
so you might want to try that one.

But it sounds like bad blocks what is dmesg telling you? (run from CLI (telnet/putty) )


45632 was one of the builds tried in my original post.

I just ran dmesg, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Will there be an error message somewhere or am I looking for some other value that is "off"?
fourbin
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Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 20:32    Post subject: Reply with quote
danlat1417 wrote:
Restore the R7800 back to stock firmware using the attached firmware (originally provided by Kong to revert back to stock. Other methods sometime cause bootloops)

Then run the 46069 factory to DD-WRT firmware


Are you saying that I might have better luck if I'm going to DD-WRT from stock 1.0.0.40 rather than from 1.0.2.62 or 1.0.2.80 like I have been?
blkt
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 20:49    Post subject: Reply with quote
Have you tried to TFTP directly a factory-to-ddwrt.img? - Tftpd32: tftpd32.464.zip, tftpd32.452.zip

For Tftpd32 see anticipation window, a checkbox and value in Tftpd32 settings under advanced tftp options.
This is a way to speed up the transfer if the router for some reason times out, try setting value 1024 bytes.
danlat1417
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 30 Jul 2020
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Tue Mar 23, 2021 22:21    Post subject: Reply with quote
fourbin wrote:
danlat1417 wrote:
Restore the R7800 back to stock firmware using the attached firmware (originally provided by Kong to revert back to stock. Other methods sometime cause bootloops)

Then run the 46069 factory to DD-WRT firmware


Are you saying that I might have better luck if I'm going to DD-WRT from stock 1.0.0.40 rather than from 1.0.2.62 or 1.0.2.80 like I have been?


I usually update to the latest Netgear version when going to stock, before switching to DD-WRT, so no harm in updating to 1.0.2.80, but using the firmware update check within the Netgear system UI of their firmwares, rather than manually downloading and updating yourself. Thanks just my preference.
fourbin
DD-WRT Novice


Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 1:59    Post subject: Reply with quote
blkt wrote:
Have you tried to TFTP directly a factory-to-ddwrt.img?


I haven't tried it that way. This might be a dumb question, but I'd rather ask it up front. Would there be any reason that recovering back to stock FW would be more difficult if I used TFTP to attempt loading a factory-to-ddwrt.img and failed?

Is it necessary to use Tftpd32 instead of basic windows CLI TFTP Client?
fourbin
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Joined: 15 May 2019
Posts: 18

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:16    Post subject: Reply with quote
egc wrote:
But it sounds like bad blocks what is dmesg telling you? (run from CLI (telnet/putty) )


Would this indicate bad blocks?
Quote:
[ 2.395482] searching for nvram
[ 2.398331] nvram size = 2097152
[ 2.447993] no valid UBI magic found inside mtd5
[ 2.448043] hctosys: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)

[ 2.457563] VFS: Mounted root (squashfs filesystem) readonly on device 31:6.
[ 2.459359] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1024K
[ 2.538191] random: crng init done
blkt
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 20 Jan 2019
Posts: 5660

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:26    Post subject: Reply with quote
fourbin wrote:
Would there be any reason that recovering back to stock FW would be more difficult if I used TFTP to attempt loading a factory-to-ddwrt.img and failed? Is it necessary to use Tftpd32 instead of basic windows CLI TFTP Client?

No, only directly writes dd-wrt, you can always flash stock again. Windows CLI may not upload fast enough.

Those two dmesg lines are not related and normal. I only know how to check from serial u-boot (nand bad).
ho1Aetoo
DD-WRT Guru


Joined: 19 Feb 2019
Posts: 2927
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Wed Mar 24, 2021 8:23    Post subject: Reply with quote
@blkt

I also already had a new R7800 with badblocks
Could be seen normally in the kernel ring buffer (dmesg)

do not know exactly what was there ... either "bad block at" or "bad eraseblock".

i sent it back because i think that a new flash chip should not have badblocks

@in general

what should definitely work is

TFTP R7800-V1.0.2.80.img
TFTP current factory-to-ddwrt.img

once you have successfully flashed to dd-wrt you defacto do not need to flash the stock firmware again

if the router is soft bricked just flash the current (working) factory-to-ddwrt.img again via TFTP

the stock firmware can be flashed as an intermediate step when flashing back and forth between openwrt and dd-wrt

but it also works without (my personal experience)

otherwise i think this is voodoo with the old kong files
what is the point

from dd-wrt to stock , to an ancient kong version, to a newer dd-wrt version?

3x flashing, you can also flash the version you want directly
The flash chip will thank you for all the unnecessary write operations


Last edited by ho1Aetoo on Wed Mar 24, 2021 17:39; edited 1 time in total
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