on power loss normally end @ CFE

[donbowman]

If i hit the power switch my RT-AC66U will normally 'do the right thing' and then come back. Same with the 'reboot' button in the web environment (or reboot in ssh).
If my power blips for a second or so, i will very invariably find the router comes back up in CFE mode (the browser connects to it on Ethernet to find a 'upload firmware' prompt).

If i re-upload the same firmware, its magic, and boots, and all settings are saved.

I'm running Bootloader (CEF) 1.0.1.1, and 3.0.0.4.372.30_2

i show running 39895 / 65536 bytes, so i assume its a 64K nvram etc.

it shows BCM5300 chip rev 1.

I'm about to try the .374.32 image (although this problem has been here for a while, and through more than one rev of the firmware).

Does anybody have any suggestions? Is it possible to upgrade the CFE on this (I see a lot of references to doing so for the N66U but not the AC66U). If so, where would i find the newer image?

there is a USB flash plugged in if that matters (its ext3 filesystem). and JFFS is enabled. I'm not sure if the filesystem getting shut down dirty is causing it to want to 'fsck' and there's no one to hit a key, or what.

it kind of drives me nuts, i only loose power about once or twice a year, but invariably i am not @ home and have to talk my wife through this process.

 

[ichon]

If i hit the power switch my RT-AC66U will normally 'do the right thing' and then come back. Same with the 'reboot' button in the web environment (or reboot in ssh).
If my power blips for a second or so, i will very invariably find the router comes back up in CFE mode (the browser connects to it on Ethernet to find a 'upload firmware' prompt).

If i re-upload the same firmware, its magic, and boots, and all settings are saved.

I'm running Bootloader (CEF) 1.0.1.1, and 3.0.0.4.372.30_2

i show running 39895 / 65536 bytes, so i assume its a 64K nvram etc.

it shows BCM5300 chip rev 1.

I'm about to try the .374.32 image (although this problem has been here for a while, and through more than one rev of the firmware).

Does anybody have any suggestions? Is it possible to upgrade the CFE on this (I see a lot of references to doing so for the N66U but not the AC66U). If so, where would i find the newer image?

there is a USB flash plugged in if that matters (its ext3 filesystem). and JFFS is enabled. I'm not sure if the filesystem getting shut down dirty is causing it to want to 'fsck' and there's no one to hit a key, or what.

it kind of drives me nuts, i only loose power about once or twice a year, but invariably i am not @ home and have to talk my wife through this process.

Nomatter the firmware, all hardware will act weird during spikes, powerouts and brownouts - Hence really hard to test for and safeguard against, for consumer hardware (expensive). How "it" acts depends on capacitor discharge time, internal hardware layout, etc..

Get a small UPS and be done with it. Conditioned power == -hardware

 

[RMerlin]

Using a UPS is indeed a good solution, especially if you have frequent power issues.

When you end up in the CFE after a power bleep you probably just need to reset the electronics:

1) Turn the router off
2) Unplug the power plug from the router
3) Turn it on for 5 seconds to make it drain any left over charge
4) Turn it off, and plug it back
5) Turn it back on

See if it boots normally then.

 

[donbowman]

its on a UPS.
Every single time i use the power switch, it will come back up in CFE.

is there a CFE update for the AC66u? is there something corrupt in the nvram that it gacks on?

note that when i reflash the exact same firmware, it boots and comes up w/ all parameters remembered.

this is a bit of a PITA.

 

[donbowman]

Using a UPS is indeed a good solution, especially if you have frequent power issues.

When you end up in the CFE after a power bleep you probably just need to reset the electronics:

1) Turn the router off
2) Unplug the power plug from the router
3) Turn it on for 5 seconds to make it drain any left over charge
4) Turn it off, and plug it back
5) Turn it back on

See if it boots normally then.

so its nothing to do w/ the duration of power outage. i can turn the switch off, wait, and on... into the cfe.
or i can press 'reboot' in the web interface, into the cfe.

I have CFE 1.0.1.1 (and now on 3.0.0.4.374.36_beta1).
Interestingly, when it comes up in the CFE, it retains the IP from the NVRAM (172.16... rather than 192.168...). Once its there, nothing will get it going again save reload the fw (turn off, unplug, curse, stamp feet, i tried it all!).

i thought i had this fixed for a while (i reset the nvram and reformatted the USB flash disk w/ the entware, then set the params again). But it is back.

Argh.

Is there a newer CFE that is avail that i can try? I don't know if it wants to fsck the jffs2, or the usb flash, or something like that, or objects to something in the nvram, its pretty opaque what is happening that prevents it from booting.

i see newer cfe for the n66u, is there one for the ac66u? is everyone else running 1.0.1.1 or are they on some newer version?

or should i bust out the serial port and see if its chatty during the failed reboot?

 

[RMerlin]

Asus does not provide CFE updates, so unless you'd be willing to manually hack one either compiled yourself from the GPL code or dumped from someone else's router, you can't upgrade it.

If it regularly gets stuck at boot time I would recommend having it replaced. Asus offers 2 or 3 years warranty on their routers. What you describe sound like a hardware defect to me.