Unable to flash firmware due to bad blocks

[rcfw]

Something is deffinetly wrong with this, is this the entire log? The upgrade isn't even starting in that log.
You have constant logs indicating:



Which to my understanding (someone correct me if I'm wrong) these repeated mismatch errors indicate the driver is hitting low-level issues when tearing down (or reinitializing) the wireless interface.
Seems like something in the broadcom driver is overwriting the interface: https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-me...s/net/wireless/brcm80211/brcmfmac/core.c#L784

This would likely indicate why your SSIDs are changing after the attempt.
You also have a log indicating a timeout action in the shutdown process:



According to this: https://android.googlesource.com/ke...aa5/drivers/net/wireless/bcmdhd/wl_cfg80211.c
The broadcom driver would timeout after about 1.5 seconds and give the error your seeing. Considering the last interface it was trying to tear down was wl3.1 I would say a safe bet is the 2.4GHz is your issue.

Something is wrong with your wireless interface, run this command:

wl -i wl3.1 status

to report the status of the interface.
You can always try to manually take the interface offline before doing the upgrade via LAN:

wl -i wl3.1 down

Wouldn't be a solve to the issue as much as work around if it works.
What tool did you use to recover? The official ASUS recovery tool? Or tftpd64? TFTP has worked for me in the past when the ASUS tool has failed. (More info here: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/i...ition-mounting-in-read-only.89499/post-914083)

You can always check the health using @JGrana 's script to do a NAND check: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/a...available-for-select-models.81644/post-801367 but I would be seriously surprised if you have such bad luck to have bad blocks after only a few months of use.

Ran the tool and I have 3 bad blocks just my luck

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

Ran the tool and I have 3 bad blocks just my luck

Doesn't mean it's the end of the road. Taking the discussion with you in the DMs

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

Doesn't mean it's the end of the road. Taking the discussion with you in the DMs

Just wanted to circle back

@rcfw has managed to flash the firmware update with some guidance... However he does have bad blocks within data, JFFS2, and defaults.

nand_read_bbt: bad block at 0x000004000000
nand_read_bbt: bad block at 0x000008020000

The device is doing a bunch of recoveries it shouldn't be while flashing. For example:

Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: devtmpfs: mounted
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 1280K
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: Checked W+X mappings: passed, no W+X pages found
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: Run /sbin/init as init process
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): background thread "ubifs_bgt0_10" started, PID 130
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): recovery needed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): recovery completed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 0, volume 10, name "data"
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): LEB size: 126976 bytes (124 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): FS size: 19808256 bytes (18 MiB, 156 LEBs), journal size 1015809 bytes (0 MiB, 8 LEBs)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): reserved for root: 935592 bytes (913 KiB)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:10): media format: w5/r0 (latest is w5/r0), UUID 24F7B5EA-8D8F-4339-9026-BAD8B6302FD6, small LPT model
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: Initializing WLCSM Module
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: WLCSM Module loaded successfully
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): background thread "ubifs_bgt0_11" started, PID 241
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): recovery needed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): recovery completed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 0, volume 11, name "defaults"
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): LEB size: 126976 bytes (124 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): FS size: 7237632 bytes (6 MiB, 57 LEBs), journal size 1015809 bytes (0 MiB, 6 LEBs)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): reserved for root: 341850 bytes (333 KiB)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:11): media format: w5/r0 (latest is w5/r0), UUID 707155B4-38FF-41B9-89B2-8B88CDD2FEEE, small LPT model
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): background thread "ubifs_bgt0_13" started, PID 272
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): recovery needed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): recovery completed
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): UBIFS: mounted UBI device 0, volume 13, name "jffs2"
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): LEB size: 126976 bytes (124 KiB), min./max. I/O unit sizes: 2048 bytes/2048 bytes
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): FS size: 51171328 bytes (48 MiB, 403 LEBs), journal size 2539520 bytes (2 MiB, 20 LEBs)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13): reserved for root: 2416947 bytes (2360 KiB)
Jan 1 00:00:45 kernel: UBIFS (ubi0:13)

Might be worth checking into a warranty replacement before you run out of time if this happens to you. Bad luck from the manufacturer in this case I think and nothing more though.

He is on the latest firmware, but I wouldn't call the issue solved, more worked around lol.

 

[visortgw]

Just wanted to circle back

@rcfw has managed to flash the firmware update with some guidance... However he does have bad blocks within data, JFFS2, and defaults.



The device is doing a bunch of recoveries it shouldn't be while flashing. For example:



Might be worth checking into a warranty replacement before you run out of time if this happens to you. Bad luck from the manufacturer in this case I think and nothing more though.

He is on the latest firmware, but I wouldn't call the issue solved, more worked around lol.

When is his replacement coming?

 

[ExtremeFiretop]

When is his replacement coming?

Good question LOL. I basically said the same thing. Even if the firmware is flashed it's probably worth replacing. Considering it's only a few months old, I don't think he should have a problem with the warranty process.

 

[visortgw]

Good question LOL. I basically said the same thing. Even if the firmware is flashed it's probably worth replacing. Considering it's only a few months old, I don't think he should have a problem with the warranty process.

And he deserves one sent as advanced replacement given the cost of the device!

 

[rcfw]

Good question LOL. I basically said the same thing. Even if the firmware is flashed it's probably worth replacing. Considering it's only a few months old, I don't think he should have a problem with the warranty process.

And he deserves one sent as advanced replacement given the cost of the device!

Don’t think ASUS will accept the warranty as the device is from the us and I’m in the uk they basically said to go to newegg and that the warranty is only covered under local warranty

 

[rcfw]

Big thanks to ExtremeFiretop for helping me and showing me a very dangerous but effective method on how to flash it

 

[visortgw]

Big thanks to ExtremeFiretop for helping me and showing me a very dangerous but effective method on how to flash it

It wasn't working before flashing, so sometimes you need to live on the edge for a potential fix!