Netinstall transfer fails on some RouterBoards

Hardware MikroTik hardware general
1

What exactly does it mean (beyond “something isn’t working”) when, running netinstall, after the serial console displays “transfer started”, the usual line of dots ‘.’ start printing stars ‘*’ instead? (And continues to print stars until it gives up and boots from flash; see log output.)

As for clearing the condition, the following do not solve the problem:

  • re-launch netinstall (v6.6)
  • run older versions of netinstall (v5.17, v4.3)
  • run netinstall (all three versions) as administrator
  • reboot the PC and try all of the above again

In the most recent case, I was able to get a board working with ‘netinstall’ again only be re-flashing the boot code via XMODEM. What gives?! Two years of my test bench running netinstall flawlessly, and suddenly I’m running into boards that have this problem, either intermittently or consistently.

RouterBOOT booter 2.18

RouterBoard 532

CPU frequency: 264 MHz
  Memory size:  32 MB

Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup

RouterBOOT-2.18
What do you want to configure?
   d - boot delay
   k - boot key
   s - serial console
   o - boot device
   u - cpu mode
   f - try cpu frequency
   c - keep cpu frequency
   r - reset booter configuration
   e - format nand
   g - upgrade firmware
   i - board info
   p - boot protocol
   t - do memory testing
   x - exit setup
your choice: o - boot device

Select boot device:
   e - boot over Ethernet
 * n - boot from NAND, if fail then Ethernet
   c - boot from CompactFlash only
   1 - boot Ethernet once, then NAND
   2 - boot Ethernet once, then CompactFlash
   o - boot from NAND only
   b - boot chosen device
your choice: 1 - boot Ethernet once, then NAND

RouterBOOT-2.18
What do you want to configure?
   d - boot delay
   k - boot key
   s - serial console
   o - boot device
   u - cpu mode
   f - try cpu frequency
   c - keep cpu frequency
   r - reset booter configuration
   e - format nand
   g - upgrade firmware
   i - board info
   p - boot protocol
   t - do memory testing
   x - exit setup
your choice: x - exit setup


writing settings to flash... OK


RouterBOOT booter 2.18

RouterBoard 532

CPU frequency: 264 MHz
  Memory size:  32 MB

Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup..
writing settings to flash... OK
trying bootp protocol............ OK
Got IP address: 192.168.10.86
resolved mac address C8:9C:DC:38:86:14
transfer started ....................**************************************[stars continue for several pages]************ transfer timed out
falling back to small packet size
**************************************[stars continue for several pages]*****************kernel loading failed


RouterBOOT booter 2.18

RouterBoard 532

CPU frequency: 264 MHz
  Memory size:  32 MB

Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup..
loading kernel from nand... OK
setting up elf image... OK
jumping to kernel code
Starting...
Starting services...
MikroTik 5.24
MikroTik Login:
2

is router connected directly to PC or via some network. If the latter, then try to connect directly. Package transfer happen via TFTP (as in UDP) if packets go missing you get the star instead of a dot.

3

They are on the same subnet, but not connected directly. The odd thing is, this same setup (NIC, cat5, switch, cat5, OmniTik-UPA, cat5) has worked ~100% for the past couple years.

Thanks for explaining exactly what it means; that makes it easier to track down why it happens.