Voxel Custom firmware build for R7800 v. 1.0.2.106SF

[cliffman]

Restoring the overlays back might work. Not 100% sure though, as I believe certain things on overlay are changing between upgrades.
Moreover, this would be writing the NAND twice for each upgrade, wearing it twice as fast.

The advantage of USB is that thanks to the auto mount script, you don't have to think about anything after an upgrade (ssh credentials, etc…), and the upgrade process is as simple as It can get.
Also, the extra disk gives you a working partition that is not on the NAND.

Yes, you right, a stable working space is important, if download and sharing functions are needed, there is no way but connect a USB.

 

[Armitage]

Hey Voxel. Firmware runs smooth as usual , for the most part. Firstly a minor issue I've noticed with 104SF onwards - Access Control under security settings will turn itself off if the router is rebooted, which didn't used to happen. As I say I noticed it in 104SF but it may have started happening prior to that release, I don't update my router every time you release a new firmware so it may have appeared before then (prior to 104SF I was using one from early 2023 I believe couldn't say which one though).

A second and perhaps somewhat major issue I've just found is that Readyshare doesn't seem to be working right either. Trying to access it via Basic or Advanced now chucks out a "The CGI script took too long to produce a response" error on a black screen when I have drives connected (the GUI works fine if I haven't got anything connected to the router). When I plugged in my drives (I use three with both USB and the eSATA ports) at first they seemed to be accessible but then quickly stopped working at all. I downgraded to 105SF and this time plugging my drives in seemed to cause the whole GUI to freeze until I unplugged them. I then downgraded back to 104SF and readyshare started working normally again, so seems to be an issue with 105 onwards.

Anyway, thanks.

Me again, with regards to this I was still having issues. I thought I'd try a clean slate; so I reinstalled 106 then reset the settings and re-did them all. Still had problemns with Readyshare, so I looked into it more. I have three drives, two USB and a SATA, connected to the R7800. I found that only one drive (which is 4tb) seems to cause issues at the moment (like I've said before it never used to). The other two work flawlessly with the router but it's when I plug in the 4tb drive the router starts throwing a wobbler.

I figured maybe the 4tb drive needed repairing, so I stuck it on my PC, moved everything off it and wiped it clean (like literally wiped it, erased all partitions and everything, started fresh), repartitioned it and formatted it NTFS like it was before. Plugged it into the router, works fine! Great I thought it must just have been this drive afterall. So pluged it back into my PC and copied all my data back to it (2tb worth) and plugged the drive in and bang, router becomes unresponsive again.

So, my guess is it's got something to do with the fact the drive has over 2tb, it didn't used to have over 2tb on it, it was just under, but it's quite possible it went over 2tb around the same time I started having issues so, I'm guessing the R7800 either can't handle drives over 2tb or at least it doesn't like them when they have over 2tb of actual data on them?

Edit: Just downgraded to 100 from a year ago and it doesn't seem to have any issues at all now. Though then again the problem did seem intermittent before so I may yet still have trouble. I'll report back again if it crashes or stops working at some point with the big drive connected but if I don't then I suppose just assume I never had another issue again on 100, meaning whatever the problem is it's got something to do with larger than 2tb drives and was introduced in one of the firmware versions after 100. Cheers.

Edit edit: Oh btw, something I always forget to mention to you, pertains to Access Control (but not what I mentioned before about how it turns itself off now after router reboot). Say I have access control on and block all new devices connecting, if a device then connects router blocks it. If I select device from list, select edit, change it from block to allow and save, the router completely ignores this and carries on blocking the device, even rebooting doesn't fix it unless I do it a particular way: I've found the only ways I can prevent this is to A) add the device MAC and make sure it's set to allow first before it connects, B) turn off access control or change it to allow all new devices to connect first, then have the device connect, or C) disconnect the device, change it to allow and restart the router then have the device connect or lastly D) disconnect the device, delete it from the list of "blocked devices not currently connected", re-add it to the allowed list and then restart the router. If I do it any other way the device remains blocked. That's often annoyed me about this router, and in fact it used to have this behaviour on the official Netgear firmware so it might be something you can't fix but figured I'd mention it in case.

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

Edit edit: Oh btw, something I always forget to mention to you, pertains to Access Control (but not what I mentioned before about how it turns itself off now after router reboot). Say I have access control on and block all new devices connecting, if a device then connects router blocks it. If I select device from list, select edit, change it from block to allow and save, the router completely ignores this and carries on blocking the device, even rebooting doesn't fix it unless I do it a particular way: I've found the only ways I can prevent this is to A) add the device MAC and make sure it's set to allow first before it connects, B) turn off access control or change it to allow all new devices to connect first, then have the device connect, or C) disconnect the device, change it to allow and restart the router then have the device connect or lastly D) disconnect the device, delete it from the list of "blocked devices not currently connected", re-add it to the allowed list and then restart the router. If I do it any other way the device remains blocked. That's often annoyed me about this router, and in fact it used to have this behaviour on the official Netgear firmware so it might be something you can't fix but figured I'd mention it in case.

For that part, yes, it is the DNI/Netgear code (from official release) that is the same in Voxel's firmware.

 

[Shaikhisa39]

Hello Sir @Voxel,

I am at your firmware from a pretty long time its almost like 5 years, Now I am started facing a problem in my netgear router which is Netgear Nighthawk R7800, I am currently on the version which is 1.0.2.105SF from some previous update I am facing a problem when ever I restart my router it resets my settings to its default and have to configure my router again and again for that whenever I restart it, I tried doing the hardreset to its factory default, Had tried to Install the official Netgear Firmware and then done a hard reset but its still not work it is doing the same malfunction, Whenever restart it resets it settings, Can you please help me if possible to fix this, I am not sure what it’s causing the problem is it a firmware or a hardware.
Thanks !

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

Hello Sir @Voxel,

I am at your firmware from a pretty long time its almost like 5 years, Now I am started facing a problem in my netgear router which is Netgear Nighthawk R7800, I am currently on the version which is 1.0.2.105SF from some previous update I am facing a problem when ever I restart my router it resets my settings to its default and have to configure my router again and again for that whenever I restart it, I tried doing the hardreset to its factory default, Had tried to Install the official Netgear Firmware and then done a hard reset but its still not work it is doing the same malfunction, Whenever restart it resets it settings, Can you please help me if possible to fix this, I am not sure what it’s causing the problem is it a firmware or a hardware.
Thanks !

This is likely corrupted NAND memory.

I don’t have time to develop now (in bed about to go to sleep). It cannot be repaired, but there is a fix I published here to have your router keep its settings between restart. I will post the link tomorrow unless you can find it before. Look for nvram-utils or something like that in this forum.

Edit: found the link: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r7800-utility-nvram-utils.63585/

 

[Shaikhisa39]

This is likely corrupted NAND memory.

I don’t have time to develop now (in bed about to go to sleep). It cannot be repaired, but there is a fix I published here to have your router keep its settings between restart. I will post the link tomorrow unless you can find it before. Look for nvram-utils or something like that in this forum.

Edit: found the link: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/r7800-utility-nvram-utils.63585/

Thank You so much for yor prompt response, May God bless you dear

 

[spocko]

Hi Voxel. Thank you for your continued support of the R7800, it is greatly appreciated!

Brief success story: I had moved, and out of sheer laziness was using an ISP-supplied modem/router combo unit for a while. It generally gave good wifi speeds, but was less reliable and had less range than the R7800. Then I switched to a different ISP who gave me a "fancy" new 3-node wifi 6-based mesh system. Wifi throughput was poor, even when connected via 5GHz and standing right next to the main AP. The nodes also had constantly-running fans which I didn't like. I came to my senses and decided to switch back to the R7800. Plugged it in, updated to the latest V1.0.2.106SF, and I am a happy camper once again. The R7800 delivers the full 500 Mbps capacity of my service via 5GHz wifi, runs cool and quiet, and surprisingly gives similar or better coverage than the ISP-supplied mesh system. R7800 + Voxel = goodness!