[R7800] Will no longer save settings after reboot.

[HELLO_wORLD]

Was there a long wait?

I went to the Netgear website, logged in with my NG account, and opened a case there. I got assigned instantly a case number and was given a phone number to call (in France since it is where I live).
I called and after 5 minutes or less got someone, explained more in detail the problem and what I found about it in their forums.
The person told me that he will refer the case to superiors/engineers and that I will receive an email with what to do next.

That’s where I’m at for now.

 

[L&LD]

Unlikely, because my router is quite recent (a few months)

New to you doesn't necessarily mean 'new'.

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

New to you doesn't necessarily mean 'new'.

I understand what you mean...
Mine was produced: 2019-05-16 and I bought it new: 2020-01-06. Not that old and should not have such a problem... Let’s hope it is a bad batch. Several people are definitely encountering this problem but I believe more are never, so not all devices are affected.

 

[kamoj]

"New" devices have a production date that can be obtained by the command:

artmtd -r protime

 

[tommytqt]

Just saying, but do you think this router has a "Killswitch"? Netgear will eventually does that their devices.

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

Just saying, but do you think this router has a "Killswitch"? Netgear will eventually does that their devices.

What do you mean?

 

[tommytqt]

I meant Netgear remotely kills the router but not in an obvious way.

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

Maybe, I wonder if it was a local problem or something triggered from outside (hack, killswitch you describe...)

The cause is described as hardware by Netgear to people having this problem, but that does not explain what happens.
I suppose it is some kind of memory flash that is suppose to store the data when the router reboots that is corrupted or defective, hence the hardware problem. Don’t know if it is the NVRAM or something else.
Where is all the configuration saved?

Would be great if it was possible to copy that data somewhere else (usb) and restore it (not the web GUI backup) as it would avoid to have to manually set everything up each time router resets.

 

[Sizzlechest]

Something strange happened when I upgraded to the 74.1 firmware. My USB drive that contains my restore of OpenSSH keys, firewall-start.sh, and script to patch dnscrypt config went bad. The drive was completely unreadable. It's probably a coincidence since I was using an ancient 1GB flash drive. I never had any internal memory failures.

 

[verbage]

"New" devices have a production date that can be obtained by the command:

artmtd -r protime

Awesome, very cool! My RMA replacement spits back a very late July 2019 date so together with the shrinkwrapped retail packaging and absolutely pristine condition, I conclude it is not a refurb.

I have been poking around a bit on my R7800 because I now have some more flextime due to COVID-19, and I am sure most of you are in the same situation. But, in particular, I was thinking of a way to help mitigate this issue for those who are beyond warranty period. The main issue is that restoring a previously saved configuration does not seem to work after a loss of settings episode... Uggh, so one has to manually reenter all the settings. Anyway, my point in exploring was to see if there might be a way to restore settings via telnet. For example, uploading or rewriting certain text configuration files, and that could eventually be scripted vs. a one-by-one replacement. This is directly in line with what @HELLO_wORLD suggested in his/her last posting--a way restore router settings that does not involve using the web GUI.

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

The question is to know where the configurations are stored.

If it is only in the NVRAM, then it is easy : ssh/telnet then

nvram backup output-file-name

on USB or transfert via scp.

I noticed that I cannot backup anymore from web GUI, it produces a .cfg file but it is an html document saying that I am not authenticated (like I am trying to access the page without login first).
I tried from Safari, Firefox and Chrome, same problem. This is new as I could save config backup before.
Is it related to the plain problem or has to do with the firmware version (latest Voxel) no idea and I would not dare playing with that now.

Awesome, very cool! My RMA replacement spits back a very late July 2019 date so together with the shrinkwrapped retail packaging and absolutely pristine condition, I conclude it is not a refurb.

I have been poking around a bit on my R7800 because I now have some more flextime due to COVID-19, and I am sure most of you are in the same situation. But, in particular, I was thinking of a way to help mitigate this issue for those who are beyond warranty period. The main issue is that restoring a previously saved configuration does not seem to work after a loss of settings episode... Uggh, so one has to manually reenter all the settings. Anyway, my point in exploring was to see if there might be a way to restore settings via telnet. For example, uploading or rewriting certain text configuration files, and that could eventually be scripted vs. a one-by-one replacement. This is directly in line with what @HELLO_wORLD suggested in his/her last posting--a way restore router settings that does not involve using the web GUI.

 

[verbage]

The question is to know where the configurations are stored. If it is only in the NVRAM, then it is easy : ssh/telnet then

nvram backup output-file-name

on USB or transfert via scp.

My understanding is that this goes beyond backing up or restoring the NVRAM via telnet/ssh, but I could be completely wrong... Here is how I interpret the situation.

I am assuming the NVRAM has failed electronically. In this case, either backing it up or restoring it via telnet/ssh will not make a difference (even though no apparent user-facing errors are noted). But what is true is that if you manually reenter your configuration via the web GUI, it sticks around till the next reboot or power cycle at which point it is lost again. So the current configuration is stored somewhere in memory/RAM--it can just never be read/written to via the NVRAM, where it has a (semi-)permanent home. And when you poke around under the filesystem, there are plenty of config files where the information is stored after it is read in from NVRAM (or typed in manually after a loss of settings). Hence, the thought about manually restoring certain text-based config files, and the restarting a series of processes to make them reread the updated text files. So basically, you are manually circumventing the NVRAM to deal with configuration because the NVRAM has failed electronically.

 

[kamoj]

"New" devices have a production date that can be obtained by the command:

artmtd -r protime

To get date/time when nvram was last updated by the Netgear firmware:

date -d $(nvram get config_timestamp) -D '%s' "+%F %T"

 

[L&LD]

@kamoj I know the above commands are for NG routers. Just hoping you may have an equivalent set for Asus/RMerlin powered routers too.

(I know, long shot, but I'm hopeful).

Edit. @RMerlin, are these types of commands possible for Asus routers? Thank you.

 

[kamoj]

If you are adventurous I have some code to save and restore nvram early in the boot process.
Please PM me if you want to try it, and include some wording about your "situation".
No guarantees that it will work for you though.

 

[kamoj]

I've got an Asus RT-AC86U as well in my network...
But for now I think it's better Merlin takes care of those questions.

I have "bond" with @Voxel and try to help with the Netgear things.

If Merlin can't or don't want to help you, please PM in a month or so.

@kamoj I know the above commands are for NG routers. Just hoping you may have an equivalent set for Asus/RMerlin powered routers too.

(I know, long shot, but I'm hopeful).

 

[spocko]

"New" devices have a production date that can be obtained by the command:

artmtd -r protime

Thanks kamoj.

I have a R7800 purchased in July 2019, and it returns an empty response to that command.

Does "New" mean more a recent date of manufacture, or does it mean the device has never been factory reset?

 

[L&LD]

@spocko 'Production Date' is the date of manufacture.

 

[spocko]

@spocko 'Production Date' is the date of manufacture.

Of course, but that doesn't answer my question. To rephrase it, what distinguishes a "New" device from an "Old" one?

 

[HELLO_wORLD]

I might experiment tomorrow morning with nvram backup and restore from command line. Might because I need to expect to lose all my config and set up everything manually, and that is a pain,If that works, the early nvram restore in boot process might be a solution.
I might try also an older firmware to be sure, but again... need to have a lot of time and family ready to have no internet for a while.