The only thing I can come up with that might match that description is programming the memory controller timing and other memory mmapping related parameters by the boot ROM.
After much more thought on this issue, here is at least one difference. I would guess that during the boot process the NVRAM Erase procedure is only done if it's either corrupt or unreadable (or simply not there. aka inaccessible). It gets five boot chances before it does this.
During a warm boot however, it is not apparently corrupted in any way, so it's reading NVRAM from a different place. This tells me the NVRAM is not being written to at all, it is being corrupted on a write, or it is being written to the wrong address space.
While I have been educating myself more on this subject matter, I still have much to learn unfortunately. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
I have not, but may be worth a try. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
the EA8500 ...this new kernel just ain't never be right for the EA8500 until BS gets one in his hands
You know, I have said this exact same thing myself in this thread. But....there is really no reason he HAS to have one in his possession. Many of us (EA8500 owners) in this forum have the knowledge and experience to obtain most, if not all the information he may require to fix this. He has not reached out really to anybody with an EA8500 (as far as I know) so he has not really looked into very much, I would guess.
Maybe those with close contact with BS should reach out to him and suggest this. I don't really feel comfortable with contacting BS myself, as it's been 14 years since I last emailed him. I doubt he would remember me. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
My R7800 easily gets huge uptimes like this (WAP/VAP only on r53562), as does my EA8500 Gateway (also on r53562). Not only that, it has over 3.5 years of WAN Traffdat data.
With the recent lack-of-support for the EA8500, I have been looking into a few x86-64 boards to replace my Gateway EA8500 and move it to a WAP/VAP position. This will not happen most likely until a real vulnerability shows its ugly face, but I want to be prepared for it. I have enough spare MBs and NICs that I could do this immediately, but no need to jump the gun. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
If BS would be willing, I can allow him full desktop remote access to a Linux box (or ssh -X access, his choice) with a serial connection to an EA8500 and TFTP server running. I will create an account specifically for him including any specific tools he may need.
This would essentially be the same as him having an EA8500 in his possession. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
I had an interesting private conversation with an EA8500 user who didn't want to post into this thread because he felt his overlooking this thread in the first place made him feel silly. He had flashed r55460 to his EA8500 and experienced all the same as written in this thread (NVRAM erasing over and over again while boot looping). So finally he was able to boot, just like the rest of us if patient enough to wait for it to get there (~35 minutes) so I sent him a different set of instructions to recover without having a serial connection.
I told him to do the following:
Once it boots to r55460, do not log into the GUI or change any settings. Simply telnet into it and login as root/admin. Then I proceeded to instruct him to download the r53562 file into /tmp using curl (he ended up using sftp as it was not connected to the Internet). He then used the write command to flash r53562 onto both partitions, ran the "ubootenv set boot_part 1" and rebooted. All good, it booted to r53562 on both partitions. However, once he changed some NVRAM settings, it booted back to r55460!
WTF? How could this possibly happen? For BS, this may be a dandy clue! _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
I had an interesting private conversation with an EA8500 user who didn't want to post into this thread because he felt his overlooking this thread in the first place made him feel silly. He had flashed r55460 to his EA8500 and experienced all the same as written in this thread (NVRAM erasing over and over again while boot looping). So finally he was able to boot, just like the rest of us if patient enough to wait for it to get there (~35 minutes) so I sent him a different set of instructions to recover without having a serial connection.
I told him to do the following:
Once it boots to r55460, do not log into the GUI or change any settings. Simply telnet into it and login as root/admin. Then I proceeded to instruct him to download the r53562 file into /tmp using curl (he ended up using sftp as it was not connected to the Internet). He then used the write command to flash r53562 onto both partitions, ran the "ubootenv set boot_part 1" and rebooted. All good, it booted to r53562 on both partitions. However, once he changed some NVRAM settings, it booted back to r55460!
WTF? How could this possibly happen? For BS, this may be a dandy clue!
It was I who was working with lexridge to try and resolve my problem, I'd like to say now that this is most likely a red herring, I thought I saw r53562 successfully flashed after following lexridge's instructions but the above scenario seems so improbable that I think was just seeing what I wanted to see. My apologies for not documenting this properly.
In my own case, I eventually managed to get back to two working partitions by reverting to stock, then downgrading all the way back to stock firmware 1.1.3.166845. After flashing this, I had success with flashing r53562. I was then able to flash r53562 a second time to get it onto the remaining partition, but only after selecting the "After Flashing - Reset to Factory Defaults" option.
I'm omitting all the various failures I encountered for the sake of brevity.
I now have two partitions that I can switch between with ubootenv which both have r53562 and no other strange behavior.
This is actually great information. Thanks for bringing it to the forum. So we can get back to r53562 from a bad build (k6.1s) without a TFTP/Serial connection, by going to old factory FW. Good to know that. My spare 8500 is currently in boot loop too after trying r55460, but I am not going to dig into it for a few days, time permitting. I will try your method first and see how it goes. Will post back. _________________ Linksys EA8500 (Internet Gateway, AP/VAP) - DD-WRT r53562
Features in use: WDS-AP, Multiple VLANs, Samba, WireGuard, Entware: mqtt, mlocate
Wireless 5ghz only
Netgear R7800 (WDS-AP, WAP, VAP) - DD-WRT r55779
Features in use: multiple VLANs over single trunk port
Linksys EA8500 WDS Station x2 - DD-WRT r55799
Netgear R6400v2 WAP, VAP 2.4ghz only w/VLANs over single trunk port. DD-WRT r55779
OSes: Fedora 38, 9 RPis (2,3,4,5), 20 ESP8266s: Straight from Amiga to Linux in '94, never having owned a Windows PC.
