Can't netinstall hAP ac2

RouterOS General
1

Hello everyone!

This router got into my hands in an already broken state.
I couldn’t get the PC to detect the router in any way. I tried releasing the reset button after the flashing stopped, I tried holding it for a longer time, I tried holding it for 300 secs to trigger reformat, but nothing helped.
Also, after releasing the button it starts enabling and disabling all port LEDs, making a “loading”-like animation.
The PC couldn’t be the issue - I already used it to netinstall my another MikroTik router.
The IP settings and netinstall settings are perfect.

Just plugging it in without holding any buttons just shows the same LED animation.
I tried two different AC supplies.

Video demo: https://youtu.be/QoRJNY1DLsk

2

Have you tried adding a dumb switch in between the hAP and your computer?

3

So, I reset my other MikroTik which i wanted to use as a dumb switch, and put this configuration on it

/interface bridge
add name=bridge1
/interface wireless
set [ find default-name=wlan1 ] ssid=MikroTik
set [ find default-name=wlan2 ] ssid=MikroTik
/interface wireless security-profiles
set [ find default=yes ] supplicant-identity=MikroTik
/interface bridge port
add bridge=bridge1 interface=all
/ip service
set telnet disabled=yes
set ftp disabled=yes
set www disabled=yes
set ssh disabled=yes
set api disabled=yes
set api-ssl disabled=yes
/system note
set show-at-login=no

Then I proceeded to plug my PC into ether1 and the hAP ac2 into ether2. I kept the same IP settings on windows (IP 192.168.88.2, mask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.88.1).
Trying to boot the ac2 into netboot and… nothing. It still doesn’t appear in netinstall.
Tried plugging both PC and the ac2 in different ports - didn’t help in any way.

4

It can take multiple tries before it launches.
Try to KEEP reset inserted until it appears in netinstall window.
Make sure no other ethernet ports are active on that PC (not even Wifi)
A really dumb switch … I am not 100% sure your zero config is really dumb in the context of netinstall.

And last resort … use Linux for initiating netinstall. I have close to 100% success using that platform.

5

Yeah, I’ve been trying to boot it into netinstall for whole night. Tried different variants - holding for a minute after the usr LED goes off and releasing right after the usr LED goes off - nothing helped. I have disabled all other interfaces on the PC too - this was the first thing I did.

Gonna install Arch and try netinstalling from it.

6

Even more geeky … I use since early this year a container solution on AX3 and netinstall from there.
:laughing:

7

Well, no result. The same issue on Linux. The netinstall utility just straight up doesn’t see any router.

Vid: https://youtu.be/xP2r8NRzdtk

8

Can you use some sniffer like Wireshark on eth1 of that device to see if it sends something out at all during that reset/netinstall sequence ?
If not, it might be pretty dead … :confused:

9

have you checked for any active firewall on your PC?
and why arch? just boot a live iso like debian of fedora, check to see if any firewall is surely disabled and run netinstall on cli

netinstall has never let me down on any of my 3 linux machines

10

No packets at all… It seems like it doesn’t even try to boot into netboot mode. Maybe it has some protection options enabled? If so, how to disable them?

11

Arch just because that's what first got into my mind. I don't think that the situation will change on another distro because it's probably a problem with the router itself, but I'm gonna try to run netinstall from Debian livecd.

iptables is installed, though there are no rules.

12

It is possible that it has a protected routerboot timing set, see:
https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/RouterBOARD#RouterBOARD-Protectedbootloader
But when that is enabled the led should be blinking at regular 1 second intervals, so if the led doesn’t blink it is not in that mode.

13

Well, it doesn’t blink, but when the router is booted normally the USR led lights up all the time.

Regarding my last post, I just tried netinstalling it from Debian livecd, but still no progress - same “Waiting for Link-UP” message.

14

make sure there is no “ufw” or “firewalld” or “iptables” service active (regardless of rules being present or not)

and deaktivate all other interfaces other than the one connecting to your router

if nothing of that works, good chance there is something down with the bootloader or the routerboard itself, sure

15

So, I’m here to report my results.
I followed the guide from http://forum.mikrotik.com/t/trying-to-unbrick-my-rg750gl/165209/14 and it seems that it perfectly downloaded the rescue image, but it still didn’t show up in netinstall.
After 5-6 tries to boot it into etherboot, netinstall finally caught it but didn’t manage to flash it:

root@archlinux voskreshenie# ./netinstall-cli -r -a 192.168.88.103 ../../Downloads/routeros-7.16-arm.npk 
Version: 7.16(2024-09-20 14:05:37)
Will reset to default config
Using interface enp1s0
Using interface enp1s0
Waiting for Link-UP on enp1s0
Waiting for RouterBOARD...
Assigned 192.168.88.103 to C4:AD:34:BF:31:41
Booting device C4:AD:34:BF:31:41 into setup mode

After that every subsequent try to flash it failed:

root@archlinux voskreshenie# ./netinstall-cli -r -v -a 192.168.88.103 ../../Downloads/routeros-7.16-arm.npk 
Version: 7.16(2024-09-20 14:05:37)
Will reset to default config
Using interface enp1s0
Using interface enp1s0
Waiting for Link-UP on enp1s0
Waiting for RouterBOARD...
Received a BOOTP request from C4:AD:34:BF:31:41 (arm)
Assigned 192.168.88.103 to C4:AD:34:BF:31:41

And with an older version of netinstall (from ROS 6):

root@archlinux voskreshenie# ./netinstall -r -a 192.168.88.103 ../../Downloads/routeros-7.16-arm.npk 
Will reset config
Using server IP: 192.168.88.1
Starting PXE server
Waiting for RouterBOARD...
PXE client: C4:AD:34:BF:31:41
Sending image: arm
TFTP timeout

Now I don’t know where to dig further, but at least it’s some progress, right?

16

Can you netinstall using latest ROS6 version, also using latest ROS6 package ?

17

Have you tried to use the interface name instead of ip address ?
Like this:

./netinstall-cli -r -i enp1s0 ../../Downloads/routeros-7.16-arm.npk
18

It’s either I broke the reset button or it’s just not responding to it. Gonna get a multimeter tomorrow and check, but for now I can’t do anything about it :confused:

Yeah, but it seems that with a specified IP address I had better results