Reinstall woes on TL-MR3040 fixed

To reinstall PirateBox I do this:

* Put the install folder and the openwrt firmware on USB as usual, and put in device.
* Start the device and connect directly via cable to a PC.
* Connect using for instance "telnet 192.168.1.1" or ssh if you have set the password.

Language: Bash
cd /mnt/usb
mv install/auto_package_done install/auto_package
sysupgrade -n  openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3040-v2-squashfs-factory.bin

You can now remove the cable and connect your PC to your normal network, but leave the 3040 blinking.
After a while it will be done and the SSID will appear on wifi. And the blinking stops for good.
You can now continue with post installation tasks or start using your PirateBox.

The background:
I am new to this stuff, but like it. Testing everything to see what is possible. It was really easy to install PirateBox the first time on the 3040, and it worked great, but then I wanted to try LibraryBox and see how that was. And things didn't work so great.

The procedure:
I turned the 3040 off and removed the USB-stick.
Wiped the contents and put in the install-folder for LibraryBox and the OpenWrt firmware.bin for my device.
Put the USB-stick back in, and started the 3040.

The problem:
No way to reflash the firmware. It was easy the first time to use the original web-based router setup.

Attempt to solution:
Direct connect via cable and telnet in.
Do the reflash using the mtd-command as described elsewhere.

New problem:
Every time the 3040 reboots it seems to check if the file /install/auto_package is on the USB. If it exists it renames the file to /install/auto_package_done and attempts an install. And fail, because there already are stuff installed. Normally this rename is used to avoid having the install running every time the device reboots, the install should only run directly after a reflash. Fine, but this also means that attempts to reinstall will fail since the file will be renamed to _done when you start the 3040 after updating the USB.

The "fixed" procedure:
This works fine if you want to install LibraryBox after you have tested PirateBox or if you want to install PirateBox after you have tested LibraryBox. Or simply want to reinstall PirateBox.

Just rename the file /mnt/usb/install/auto_package_done to /mnt/usb/install/auto_package and reflash the firmware.

(Actually it might be even more correct to call the install folder something else, and rename it to install before a reflash. But that is not what I actually did...)

Details:
See the start of this post...

---

edit ~ Matthias, 2014-10-06 ; changed flash command to prevent flashing the wrong firmware



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2014 09:26PM by Matthias.

Nice thanks for posting. I will add this to my notes. Cheers!

made sticky

---

This is only my signature.