Hello
I have received a not working RB951G-2HnD from a friend and i am trying to fix it.
The symptoms are: apparently it is booting, led blinking, it is beeping, but it does not allocate an IP address and Winbox rarely detects it, and even when it is detected, i cannot connect to it with Winbox.
As i mainly use Windows, first i tried with the latest version of netinstall on Windows.
The board never got detected by netinstall.
I downloaded different versions of netinstall, but no luck.
I tried to monitor traffic with Wireshark and i saw that the board tried to communicate. It also broadcasts the board model, RouterOS version, date etc.
I booted a live Ubuntu and tried to run netinstall from Linux.
Still not working, but i got some strange things in the verbose mode ( I am masking some of the Mac )
sudo ./netinstall-cli3 -v -r -i enp6s0 routeros-7.9.1-mipsbe.npk
Version: 7.17.2(2025-02-06 10:17:39)
Will reset to default config
Waiting for Link-UP on enp6s0
Using client IP 192.168.88.3
Waiting for RouterBOARD…
Received a BOOTP request from 64:D1:54:xx:xx:xx (mips)
Assigned 192.168.88.3 to 64:D1:54:xx:xx:xx
…
(This repeats many times)
…
Could not determine architecture for BOOTP request from 64:D1:54:xx:xx:xx
From here, this last line keeps repeating .
Google is not very helpful, but i hope this forum can help me.
Thanks in advance,
On windows netinstall can be tricky because of windoiws firewall settings and/or other installed software conflicting.
Besides there are several reports that inserting a (dumb) switch between the MIkrotik and the PC helps, but usually it is for cases where the netinstall doesn’t see the device at all.
Have you tried booting both the “main” and the “backup” bootloader? (pressing the reset button immediately after powering the device vs. powering the device with the reset button already pressed?)
Since you are trying to install 7.9.1, I would try with the same release of netinstall:
That is the first version a tried. After that, i also tried with the same version of RouterOS and netinstall as the one on the board.
Why is the packet you are trying to install called “enp6s0 routeros-7.9.1-mipsbe.npk”?
Shouldn’t it be “routeros-7.9.1-mipsbe.npk”:
The packet is called routeros-7.9.1-mipsbe.npk and enp6s0 is the name of network interface used in ubuntu. I also tried with the switch -a 192.168.88.3 but the result is the same.
On windows netinstall can be tricky because of windoiws firewall settings and/or other installed software conflicting.
I also tried on Ubuntu, but before that i completely disabled firewall on Windows.
Besides there are several reports that inserting a (dumb) switch between the MIkrotik and the PC helps, but usually it is for cases where the netinstall doesn’t see the device at all.
Yes, i tried with a Gigabit switch, and yes, on Windows i thought that netinstall doesn’t seem the device. I only saw those messages on Ubuntu.
Have you tried booting both the “main” and the “backup” bootloader? (pressing the reset button immediately after powering the device vs. powering the device with the reset button already pressed?)
Yes, i tried both ways.
I almost forgot, i tried 2 computers (a desktop and a laptop) and several cables, all with the rest of network interfaces disabled.
Hmmm.
It seems to me like you have exhausted all “normal” ways.
From the error you get it sounds like the board is not sending the whatever allows netinstall to select the “appropriate” boot image.
Semi-random thought (and YMMGV) could it be that it is possible to “force” a single boot image (the mips one in your case) with some dnsmasq trickery under Linux?
No idea if it can work, and it is seemingly some work to setup such a system, so maybe it is better to wait if some other forum member can provide other ideas.