User NVRAM Save/Restore Utility (R26.2)

[DaveMishSr]

Appreciate the feedback folks, but let's drop the matter. What had to be said has been said by now.

Agreed. I am 100% fine with the scope and pace of this project.

 

[unknownUser]

Hey guys, I believe I read all details but I still have a question.
I want to migrate from AC87 380.69 to AC86 wich version I don't know (will need to buy it).
What Asuswrt-Merlin firmware version do I need to install on the AC86 so I can migrate the data?
I use the 87 as an OpenVPN client & server, WIFI is deactivated, so I need all the certificates and routing tables copied

Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I want to migrate from AC87 380.69 to AC86 wich version I don't know (will need to buy it). What Asuswrt-Merlin firmware version do I need to install on the AC86 so I can migrate the data? I use the 87 as an OpenVPN client & server, WIFI is deactivated, so I need all the certificates and routing tables copied

This utility is only tested with firmware versions up to 380.x. There has never been a version of that firmware for the AC86U so you can only put 382.x or 384.x on it. Neither of those have been properly tested with this utility, so use it at your own risk.

 

[unknownUser]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Marko Polo]

Previously they said that SSH host key should be restored with this script, but after the last restoration I got this

C:\Program Files\platform-tools>ssh somebody@192.168.1.1 -p 29
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the ECDSA key sent by the remote host is
SHA256:8Sok1T1FXD2d8HQEBOcVUNvbON9R7I4N90F6lA8Ao44.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in C:\\Users\\Alan/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending ECDSA key in C:\\Users\\Alan/.ssh/known_hosts:4
ECDSA host key for [192.168.1.1]:29 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

Have something changed with latest firmware or I am missing something?

 

[john9527]

Previously they said that SSH host key should be restored with this script, but after the last restoration I got this

Have something changed with latest firmware or I am missing something?

The latest firmware releases store the keys in jffs,...so you also need to do a jffs restore as well.

 

[Marko Polo]

Thanks, that worked.
One more question. Previously I disabled auto-generation of certificates

and imported the certificate to root CA storage to not to see red mark in browser.
Afther firmware upgrade I see it again. Does your script include certificates backup or not?

 

[john9527]

Thanks, that worked.
One more question. Previously I disabled auto-generation of certificates
and imported the certificate to root CA storage to not to see red mark in browser.
Afther firmware upgrade I see it again. Does your script include certificates backup or not?

That nvram variable I think is a new one with 382/384, so isn't covered. The cert itself should be in /jffs/ssl so you can re-import it.

 

[Marko Polo]

The cert itself should be in /jffs/ssl so you can re-import it.

Import where? I have cert already imported in Chrome. As I conducted jffs-restore, I assume that the old certs should be restored to firmware again and Chrome should recognize them automatically. No?

 

[naruto267]

Is this a bug?: wpa key ending in "\" cause restore script to break with
Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

 

[joegreat]

Is this a bug?: wpa key ending in "\" cause restore script to break with
Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

You should not use special chars in SSID, WPA-Key, etc. - only ASCII A-z and 0-9!

This was discussed many times in the forum and can cause a lot of issues in the firmware - not only this backup/restore script.

 

[john9527]

Is this a bug?: wpa key ending in "\" cause restore script to break with
Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

What @joegreat said.....

If you want the technical details, the '\' is the escape character. I do handle some some special characters in the script, like '$', but handling escaping the escape character creates a lot of complications in ash. In this case, is escapes the closing double quote of the command, so it fails. If it's embedded elsewhere, it would also cause problems it it happened to hit another special sequence like '\t' for tabs. So '\' should not be used.

 

[naruto267]

What @joegreat said.....

If you want the technical details, the '\' is the escape character. I do handle some some special characters in the script, like '$', but handling escaping the escape character creates a lot of complications in ash. In this case, is escapes the closing double quote of the command, so it fails. If it's embedded elsewhere, it would also cause problems it it happened to hit another special sequence like '\t' for tabs. So '\' should not be used.

OK i'll remove the "\" from the key. Thanks.

 

[elorimer]

I think perhaps 26.2 does not backup an openvpn custom configuration box? I did a factory reset and power cycle to update an 87U from 384.4 to 384.5b1, and 26.2 to backup and then clean restore, but that didn't get restored. Couldn't find it in the files either. Mine is three lines long, so it might be a length problem too.

Otherwise most helpful.

 

[joegreat]

I think perhaps 26.2 does not backup an openvpn custom configuration box? I did a factory reset and power cycle to update an 87U from 384.4 to 384.5b1, and 26.2 to backup and then clean restore, but that didn't get restored. Couldn't find it in the files either. Mine is three lines long, so it might be a length problem too.

The current version of the NVRAM save/restore utility is made for the 380 branch of the firmware - and was last updated in Sept 2017 - with all later firmware you risk to miss some settings (especially those listed in the change-log - like VPN-Settings)!

 

[elorimer]

It looks like the custom configuration box is "vpn_server1_custom", and it used to back up as plain text. The backups in the 380 branch looked fine. I looked at the backup I made from 384.4, and it came out like this:

vpn_server1_custom2=bG9jYWwgbm9ydGhsb3JpbWVyLmFzdXNjb21tLmNvbQpzY3JpcHQtc2VjdXJpdHkgMgpjbGllbnQtY29ubmVjdCAvamZmcy9zY3JpcHRzL292cG4tY2xpZW50LWNvbm5lY3Quc2g=

Not surprised it didn't restore.

Still extremely useful via a clean restore, as I haven't found anything else garbled.

 

[Xentrk]

It looks like the custom configuration box is "vpn_server1_custom", and it used to back up as plain text. The backups in the 380 branch looked fine. I looked at the backup I made from 384.4, and it came out like this:

vpn_server1_custom2=bG9jYWwgbm9ydGhsb3JpbWVyLmFzdXNjb21tLmNvbQpzY3JpcHQtc2VjdXJpdHkgMgpjbGllbnQtY29ubmVjdCAvamZmcy9zY3JpcHRzL292cG4tY2xpZW50LWNvbm5lY3Quc2g=

Not surprised it didn't restore.

Still extremely useful via a clean restore, as I haven't found anything else garbled.

Like @joegreat said, the utility does not support the 384 branch which may result in issues. I did a how to do the 380 to 384 branch upgrade manually in this blog post.

 

[joegreat]

Like @joegreat said, the utility does not support the 384 branch which may result in issues. I did a how to do the 380 to 384 branch upgrade manually in this blog post.

The link to the blob post does not work - looks like: http://how to do the 380 to 384 branch upgrade manually/

 

[Xentrk]

The link to the blob post does not work - looks like: http://how to do the 380 to 384 branch upgrade manually/

I fixed the link. Sorry about that. I also spotted a couple typos I need to fix.

I had to retrain myself how to do the manual upgrade since I got so used to using the nvram backup and restore utility during fw upgrades. I have used these instructions myself on several routers just to make sure I don't forget any steps and muck something up.

 

[Marko Polo]

Why jffs restore script cannot find jffs directory?

No valid jffs saved directories found. Exiting.

jffs backup is located inside backup dir inside script root directory.