Linksys Wrt3200acm Can’t Factory Reset Firmware Update

OpenWrt offers several means to “start over” with your router.

Factory Reset
depends on completing the boot procedure. If
Manufacturing plant Reset
is not working, endeavor with
Failsafe Mode
instead.

OpenWrt
allows you to boot into a
failsafe mode
that overrides its current configuration. If your device becomes inaccessible, due east.one thousand. after a configuration error, so failsafe fashion is at that place to help yous out. When you reboot in failsafe style, the device starts up in a basic operating country, with a few difficult coded defaults, and you can brainstorm to ready the problem manually.

Failsafe mode
cannot, nonetheless, fix more deeply rooted problems like faulty hardware or a cleaved kernel. It is like to a reset, even so with failsafe, you lot can access your device and restore settings if desired, whereas a reset would just wipe everything.

Caveat:
Failsafe mode is but bachelor if yous have installed firmware from a SquashFS image, that includes the required read-but root partition. To verify whether your device has the SquashFS root division, check for “squashfs” either in the
OpenWrt
epitome proper noun or perform the following check on your device:

grep squash /proc/mounts

The terminal should return something similar to this:

/dev/root /rom squashfs ro,relatime 0 0

Make certain you utilise a wired connection, since the failsafe will disable your wireless connectivity. Sometimes you need to connect to a specific network port of your router to get connectivity. Try the
LAN
ane port first.

On most routers, OpenWrt will blink an LED (commonly “Power”) during the kicking process after it gets control from the initial bootloader (similar u-kicking). OpenWrt volition rather early in the kicking wheel check if the user wants to enter the failsafe mode instead of a normal boot. Information technology listens for a button press within a specific two second window, which is indicated with LEDs and past transmitting a
UDP
parcel.

To enter failsafe manner, follow one of the procedures listed below:

Recommended for virtually users: Wait for a flashing LED and press a push button.
This is usually the easiest method once yous figure out the right moment.

For most users and most devices, the LEDs now (2018) provide sufficient clues as to timing to be able to avoid older recommendations to “press the Thirty button equally fast as you can until …” for entering failsafe fashion.

There are three different (power) LED blinking speeds during kicking for most of the routers:

Alternate for adept users: Wait (with a package sniffer) for a special broadcast packet and printing a button.
The packet will be sent to destination accost 192.168.1.255 port
UDP
4919. The packet contains the text “Please press push button now to enter failsafe”. And then for example, in a terminal and using tcpdump, with the router continued to port eth0, y’all would enter the command

tcpdump -Ani eth0 port 4919 and udp

Alternate for practiced users with serial connection: Watch for a boot message on the series console and press a key (“f”) on the serial keyboard.
This requires that you accept attached a series cable to the device. The message shown in the panel is “Press the [f] key and hit [enter] to enter failsafe style”

Usually, it is easiest to watch the LEDs. However, practise consult the available documentation for your device, as at that place is no default button assigned as a reset button and not all procedures work on every device. Whichever trigger you use, the device will enter failsafe mode and you can access the command line with
SSH
(ever possible) or a series keyboard.

Notation that modern OpenWrt always uses
SSH, but early OpenWrt releases (15.05 and earlier) offered a telnet connexion in this state but no
SSH.

Once failsafe manner is triggered, the router volition kick with a network address of 192.168.1.1/24, usually on the
eth0
network interface, with only essential services running. When in failsafe mode, the
DHCP
server volition non be running. Y’all must prepare your figurer’southward ethernet port to use a static
IP
address in the 192.168.one.0/24 network (valid IPs are 192.168.1.2 – 192.168.1.254, subnet mask 255.255.255.0)

Using
SSH
or a serial connection, y’all can and so mount the JFFS2 division with the post-obit command:

mount_root

After that, yous can start looking around and ready what’south cleaved. The JFFS2 partition volition be mounted to
/overlay, every bit nether normal functioning.

Failsafe extroot

If you use
extroot_configuration, the failsafe is pretty uncomplicated:

# unplug external device reboot # plug external device # mount external device, due east.g. block info mountain /dev/mmcblk0 /mnt # fix the issue, e.thou. half-dozen /mnt/upper/etc/config/network # verify external device volition be mounted automatically, e.g. 6  /overlay/upper/etc/config/fstab # reboot

A factory reset returns your router to the configuration it had just later on flashing. This works on whatsoever install with a squashfs / overlayfs setup (the norm for nearly installations), since it is based on erasing and reformatting the overlayfs.

x86 builds (made for PC/Server hardware) with an ext4 read-write rootfs cannot exist reset this mode.

With a large NOR scrap, it can take 3 to 5 minutes for the overlayfs to be formatted in the flash. During this time, changes cannot be saved.

On devices with a concrete reset push button, OpenWrt tin can be reset to default settings without serial or
SSH
admission.

1. Power on the device and wait for the condition led to stop flashing (or become into failsafe mode, every bit described to a higher place).

2. Press and hold the reset button for x seconds.

3. Release the reset push.

The device volition do a hard factory reset (see below) and then reboot. This functioning can exist slow on some devices, then wait a few minutes earlier connecting again.

If y’all want a clean slate, there’s no need to flash again; just enter the post-obit commands. Your device’southward settings volition exist reset to defaults like when OpenWrt was first installed.

Issuing “firstboot” or “jffs2reset” command will attempt to delete all files from the jffs2 overlay partition. Note that this “soft reset” is performed with file organisation actions, so in some cases it is not plenty.

firstboot && reboot at present

Note: If the commands above (all on ane line) don’t work, try those commands on separate lines in the terminal.

Note: for most routers, “firstboot” really just issues a “jffs2reset” command, then there is not much difference compared to the “hard reset” advice beneath.

Note: if yous’re issuing this command inside a bash script, remember to add the pick -y to force firstboot:

firstboot -y && reboot at present

Here is a log of soft manufacturing plant reset process in action, obtained via serial connection, during router startup:

Tips:
afterwards (a openwrt based) router reboots or starts, it goes thru the bootmenu (selection menu for boot options) within 1 to two seconds (or, within 1 second, after preset filibuster time has passed). The boot menu accepts UP/DOWN & ENTER buttons, so avoid those or any other buttons for that period of fourth dimension. After that bootmenu stage, within 3 to 8 seconds later (depending on CPU speed, etc) the failsafe way appears & passes, so you lot have to printing the “f” push button within that time only for once (one time), then press ENTER to enter into failsafe way.

This command will erase and reformat the whole JFFS2 division and create it again. They key for a real “hard reset” is to unmount the overlay partition outset and only then issue the jffs2reset (or firstboot) control:

umount /overlay && jffs2reset && reboot now

While in most cases this is producing similar finish-result equally the “soft reset”, this marks the whole flash area of the JFFS2 (read-write) overlay division as a empty non-initialised JFFS2 sectionalization. Thus the division will be re-created at the next mount, usually at the next boot. So, this hard reset bypasses the current file system of the overlay.

Explanation: based on the mount condition of the overlay, jffs2reset selects either a file-based delete operation or a sectionalisation mark-it-empty action:
https://git.openwrt.org/?p=project/fstools.git;a=hulk;f=jffs2reset.c;h=dbe049881f5;hb=Head#l43

Another method to force F2FS reformatting if the above doesn’t work:

          dd
          if=/dev/zero
          of=/dev/loop0
          bs=1M; reboot

It’s possible to edit and transfer files from the Failsafe fashion, by using scp control/protocol from Linux or Mac, or past using

WinSCP

from Windows.

If you lot transfer over a sysupgrade epitome, you tin can also do a commandline sysupgrade (
syupgrade -n /path/to/file
) as normal.