Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Apr 04, 2020

Question regarding Voxel firmware

Hey everyone! Quick question regarding Voxel firmware. I have a RBK53 system (bought from Costco). I'm thinking about installing Voxel firmware only if it prevents Netgear from forcing an update. ...

FURRYe38

Guru

Jun 01, 2020

This can be a factor:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/custom-firmware-build-for-orbi-rbk50-rbk53-rbr50-rbs50-v-9-2-5-1-18sf-hw-v-9-2-5-1-18-1sf-hw.64414/page-3#post-590043

Check your Windows versions. Possible TFTP issues seen with 10 vs 7.

SLK-Purdue wrote:
Flashed Voxel firmware on and RBR50 and it was running fine. It experienced a power cycle (I knocked the power cube out with my knee :-) ) and it now beboots (fast LED flash) and then goes into a white LED pulsing varing brightness up an down). Ethernet ports are dead and I can't do TFTP, but I see that plugging in a USB drive get some activity on the drive. Any chance there is a UBS recovery trick or a way to "autorun" a firmware update to reflash this? Doesn't pulsing white mean trying to do factory reset? Thanks.

Scott

ps. this is a test RBR50 so I am not SOL but would like to unbrick this.

SLK-Purdue

Luminary

Jun 10, 2020

Update on this - there were really two problems. First, the Orbi was in "soft brick" mode and, secondly, the eEhernet interface had a hardware issue. The second is NOT related to Voxel in any way. After I understood it, the first was a self-inflicted issue again, not related to Voxel. Voxel does nice work and this sould not have be posted as relating to Voxel. My bad!!

After I was able to get the serial interface working (most certainly something that voids the warranty :-) ), I was able to use U-Boot to unbrick the router. WiFi worked great but Ethernet still completely dead. I am debugging that issue now but it is hardware and not software.

If there is interest, I can post information about the serial interface access but that is NOT for people without some real experience with hardware/firmware access.

Scott

CrimpOn
Guru
Jun 10, 2020
SLK-Purdue wrote:
After I was able to get the serial interface working (most certainly something that voids the warranty :-) ), I was able to use U-Boot to unbrick the router. WiFi worked great but Ethernet still completely dead. I am debugging that issue now but it is hardware and not software.
Is the the U-Boot you employed to "Unbrick" the Orbi?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-Boot
SLK-Purdue
Luminary
Jun 11, 2020
Yes but Orbi uses an older version.

U-Boot 2012.07 [Barrier Breaker unknown,unknown] (Jan 04 2017 - 13:54:09)
U-boot dni1 V1.4 for DNI HW ID: 29765352; NOR flash 32MB; EMMC flash 4000MB; RAM 512MB
smem ram ptable found: ver: 1 len: 3
DRAM: 512 MiB
machid : 0x8010001
NAND: ID = 0
Vendor = 0
Device = 0
Nand Flash error. Status = 64
ONFI Read id cmd failed
ONFI probe failed
SF NAND unsupported id:ff:ff:ff:ffSF: Unsupported manufacturer ff
ipq_spi: SPI Flash not found (bus/cs/speed/mode) = (0/0/48000000/0)
0 MiB
MMC: qca_mmc: 0
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
PCI0 Link Intialized
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Valid chip addresses: 27 48
machid: 8010001
flash_type: 1
Net: MAC0 addr:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
PHY ID1: 0x4d
PHY ID2: 0xd0b1
ipq40xx_ess_sw_init done
eth0
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 2 1 0

You can see the releases at https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/releases

Scott

CrimpOn wrote:
SLK-Purdue wrote:
After I was able to get the serial interface working (most certainly something that voids the warranty :-) ), I was able to use U-Boot to unbrick the router. WiFi worked great but Ethernet still completely dead. I am debugging that issue now but it is hardware and not software.
Is the the U-Boot you employed to "Unbrick" the Orbi?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_U-Boot