In 6.47 that capability is actually still there!
First make sure that in your currently running combined package you have set all packages you do not need (like mpls) to disabled, and reboot.
Now on a PC download the all_packages.zip file and extract it. Take ONLY packages you STILL HAVE ENABLED now, and upload them to the device.
Then issue a reboot command on the device.
It will now upgrade the device and at the same time convert it to “separate packages” setup. So the next time you upgrade from the device itself, it will only download those packages and this will give some headroom (enough for now).
Of course when you have many devices you can script the above procedure.
Thanks for your input pe1chl - however the main issue with it is, what happens if some packages don’t make it fully, or at all, and the CPE loses power? We don’t have control over, or warning from, Kenya’s power grid, which is extremely temperamental, so power outages mid-upgrade are definitely an issue. The standard full-package upgrade is quite safe in this respect, as a broken download will not require a customer site visit to replace/re-provision.
In any case, Mikrotik have listened!
What’s new in 6.47.6 (2020-Oct-21 10:41):
*) cap - fixed L2MTU path discovery;
*) crs3xx - fixed hardware offloaded LACP bonding on Ethernet interfaces for CRS354 devices;
…
*) radius - added “Service-Type” attribute to Access-Request for IPv4 and IPv6 DHCP servers;
*) > smips - reduced RouterOS main package size;
*) switch - fixed Ethernet padding for small packets;
…
They have dropped from 7810370 bytes of 6.47.4 to 7351618 bytes in 6.47.6 - nice, thank you!
I can confirm this has worked with ~500 of our deployed hAP Lites, which were previously failing to upgrade. Good news!
Going from 6.44.6 to 6.45.9 - used to work fine using check for update
Going from 6.44.6 to 6.47.9 - no longer works with check-for-update, getting no disk space on hap lite
If you go 6.44.6 → 6.45.9 → 6.47.9 - only using winbox then everything works fine. Trying to /tool fetch will yield same error.
We are not rolling out 6.47.9 yet, but I can see that the .npk for 6.47.6 is 7,351,618 bytes, and for 6.47.9 it’s 7,390,379 bytes, a 38,761 byte difference (38kB). You must have some leftover files eg. backups, supout.rif, etc. to explain that IMHO.
We remove all files before an update, to make sure we don’t run into disk space issues.
Having the exact same issue trying to upgrade to from 6.47.* 6.48.3. The same issue as the person above, I’ve got hundreds of these devices deployed in customer’s homes and there is just no space left. Even after manually disabling all the unneeded packages, and manually dragging only the required upgrade files(1% space left over) and rebooting then logging in to find the update packages are removed from the files directory, and the system remains at the same version it was before. I’ve tried the instructions above on multiple hap lites and all of them do the same thing. They will not upgrade.
There is no way we can schedule an on-site for each of these devices installed in the field to intrude into a customer’s home so we can sit and fiddle around with their router trying to do a netinstall, that’s why we setup remote administration and the dude server to monitor them in the first place, it’s not feasible.
If a smaller upgrade package doesn’t come, we’re gonna be left with no choice but to just junk all these devices and replace them with something else.
Cost wise, it’s going to be far cheaper to simply re-deploy with a different device than to have an on-site tech sit and manually fiddle with each of these until we can finally get them to upgrade.
Thankfully, it’s only our residential customers that have ever had hap lites deployed to.
The following may help some people; it can mostly be scripted and automated, but always test first!
- backup existing configuration, including all credentials; also do a full configuration export, just in case
- copy backups and other files off router temporarily (e.g. with ftp)
- uninstall every package not necessary for you to maintain a connection to the router…
- reboot the router
- upgrade the remaining installed packages to the desired version
- reboot, upgrade the routerboard firmwire, then reboot again
- upload any additional desired packages (e.g. any removed in step 3), matching the updated version number from step 5; reboot to install these
- upload the backup file made in step 1. this will restore any configuration that got deleted because the relevant package were temporarily not installed
- one final reboot and tou should be good to go.
I just did this to upgrade from 6.47.10 to 6.48.5 and it worked fine. Best of luck!
{One more note: there was a forum post some time ago (1-3 years? - I can’t find the link at the moment) where MikroTik support posted a special .npk file that would run a Linux-side script to delete certain hidden files to free up extra space. Since RouterOS is running on top of Linux, there is a whole filesystem there where we users have zero visibility. Normal RouterOS updates replace they files they know about, but other files could build up over time (e.g. Linux logs, core dumps, corrupted system databases, etc.). As far as I understand, NetInstall erases the entire Linux filesystem, taking all that sort of cruft with it, which is why people often say they have success with NetInstall.}
I have the exact same problem. Tried 3 different newer versions (stable and long-term) but nothing worked.
Auto-update should copy files to ram if I understand correctly but it doesnt work
It works like that on the more capable devices that have only 16MB of flash but do have a reasonable amount (128MB or more) of RAM.
They implement a “RAMdisk” (the Files area shown outside the “flash” folder) and the new version is downloaded there and installed into the 16MB Flash.
However, for the hAP Lite (and the hAP mini) it is different. These devices have only 32MB of RAM which is not enough to have a RAMdisk, they need most of this space for normal operation.
So there devices do download the new version into flash, and there simply is not enough space to hold an existing installed version and this new download.
These devices realistically are at the end of the road. You can limp by when you install only separate packages (only what you need) instead of the bundled package, but it brings only very little and they will be in trouble again.
The best move is to replace them with a newer device, e.g. for the hAP Lite that would be the hAP ac2 or ac3.
Don’t get another “lite” model or other out-dated device with only 64MB of RAM, it will quicky get in the same trouble.
Ok I understand that it has limited capabilities due to low flash and ram size.
But! Even as a basic wifi AP I can not upgrade it right now without netinstall.
If I remember correctly I might have installed the bundle package when an older upgrade bricked my device…so it was my mistake trying to solve MK’s mistake!
To be honest for a basic wifi AP if I need to replace it I will not buy MK again. They should design their devices and firmware better. 16MB flash size in 2021 creating such problems is ridiculous.
The problem is in this case not caused by 16MB flash size, but by the combination of 16MB flash and 32MB RAM.
The larger devices with 16MB flash and more RAM (128MB and more) do not have this problem yet. It could happen in the future.
The problem in this case is not “MikroTik” but the fact you bought the cheapest possible device.
And yes, it is probably not a good idea to buy MikroTik when all you want to have is a cheap and simple access point…
These devices can do much more than that, thus have complex software and are on the limits of their hardware…
(remember exactly the same software is running on a hAP lite as on their largest enterprise router… that is nice when you want to build a toy lab or have some particular wish, but for a generic dumb access point it is not at all necessary)
For now you can just netinstall the device to get uptodate again. Which probably does not matter anyway, as you will not be using all those updated features.
Low cost home wireless AP with dual chain 2.4GHz wireless, powered by USB
The home Access Point lite (hAP lite) is an ideal little device for your apartment, house or office.
It sounds like bad design/marketing from the manufacturer.
Add the need for netinstall to recover a bricked device after a LONG-TERM update!!!
Is there any alternative reliable (!) wifi AP with similar price?
https://www.skroutz.gr/c/125/access_points.html?o=wifi+ap&order_by=pricevat&order_dir=asc
Before hap lite I had bought TP-LINK TL-WA801ND 300MBPS WIRELESS N ACCESS POINT €32.90 and I had wifi disconnects so I returned it.
Which probably does not matter anyway, as you will not be using all those updated features.
I don’t care about updated features but I care about security updates.
When you are using it as a basic access point on a home network (bridge mode, behind an ISP-provided NAT router), and you had already updated it in the last two years or so, there is really nothing to worry about.
You can change the password when you are not sure if it may have been leaked or not.
(the update would not fix that issue anyway)
Security updates are much more important for routers that have an internet-facing interface, especially when the firewall has been tinkered with.
(so login to the admin interface is possible from the internet side, by default that is not possible)
There have been several issues over the years that could be exploited that way, and the passwords harvested from those attacks are currently still being used to exploit devices that have been updated but whose password hasn’t been changed (and their firewall hasn’t been fixed).
Hi!
Trying to accomplish this by doing a package x package upgrade to ros v7.2.3
However, anyone know why the latest SMIPS all_packages only include 1 package (tr069-client)???
Anyone/where to ask to check?
Thanks!
All other optional packages, that were available for SMIPS, are now integrated in the big package.
But it is unlikely that you can just upgrade to that version without running out of space, choose the “backup, netinstall, restore backup” path instead.
Thanks for the update! Any indication why?
Precisely why I was looking to do a multi step upgrade. Can only do a netinstall when on site (or someone helping)… and don’t have an ETA for a visit atm.
So, at least the previous method gave us the alternative to try remotely.
Prepare a new and better router with new RouterOS and ship it to the site. Tell them to throw the hAP Lite in the bin, where it belongs.
Ahh, fantastic! Why didn’t I think of that sooner 
Thanks!