Upgrade firmware via cli

[Otto Rodusek]

Hi,

Is it possible to upgrade the firmware via cli instead of webui? I have several AC88U, AX88U and AX3000(AX58) and would like to ssh remotely and initiate a firmware upograde but im not sure how to do an upgrade via the cli. Remote access to router is no issue. If there are any tutorials or instructions to upgrade the firmware via cli, I would very much like to know. Thank you for any assistance.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, it's possible. I wouldn't.

If you're able to access the router at all, the GUI is preferred (with all its checks and balances).

See a few recent threads whereby upgrading by other means effectively bricked the router.

 

[heysoundude]

If you're able to access the router at all, the GUI is preferred (with all its checks and balances).

This Is The Way

 

[Tech9]

As per @RMerlin comment below, SSH flash also performs the validation process:

Accidentally flashed RT-AX86U firmware on RT-AC86U and now unable to flash back the correct firmware

Hi, I made the mistake flashing the firmware first thing after waking up and accidentally downloaded the AX86U release (RT-AX86U_386.2_4_cferom_pureubi.w) and flashed it via the ASUS Firmware Restoration tool by putting the router into recovery mode. Since then, I'm unable to put the router...

www.snbforums.com

I still wouldn't do it. If it fails for some reason, without physical access to the router I'll have limited options to fix it.

 

[RMerlin]

The command line method does the validation process on HND, but not on the older models where it flats out writes direct to flash (hence the hnd-write vs mtd-write command difference).

Simply don't. Saving time is not a good enough reason to risk trashing a perfectly working router.

 

[RMerlin]

If it fails for some reason, without physical access to the router I'll have limited options to fix it.

Especially true for non-HND models, where you are writing to a live filesystem. The web-based update takes care of creating a temporary root where it copies essential files that will be needed for the reboot process. If you directly write to flash, your router has a very high chance of crashing on the reboot due to the corrupted filesystem, requiring a manual power cycle to reboot it, with nothing but a flood of SQUASHFS errors in your console.

 

[Tech9]

The command line method does the validation process on HND, but not on the older models where it flats out writes direct to flash (hence the hnd-write vs mtd-write command difference).

Good to know. Thank you for the detailed explanation.

 

[storkinsj]

Just putting 2 cents in here:
My router is currently about 7000 or so miles away being served over dsl speeds. But I can still administer it with a combination of ssh tunnelling and web admin.
The problem is that this presents enough bandwidth challenges (and who knows how much an american ISP will throttle the traffic because it looks maybe like a server responding) that there was no way this would work. I gave it 4 tries with lots of waiting.
I was able to scp the file to my merlin router (it took more than 10 minutes), and then use hnd-write <filename.w>. I rebooted right away and I had success.
This is the only way that worked for me.

 

[vlord]

Hi,

Is it possible to upgrade the firmware via cli instead of webui? I have several AC88U, AX88U and AX3000(AX58) and would like to ssh remotely and initiate a firmware upograde but im not sure how to do an upgrade via the cli. Remote access to router is no issue. If there are any tutorials or instructions to upgrade the firmware via cli, I would very much like to know. Thank you for any assistance.

Amtm —> MerlinAU

@ExtremeFiretop