RB433 Software ID Changed, License lost upgrading to ROS4rc1

RouterOS General
1

Good day!

I have a Routerboard 433 that I experienced consistent trouble with, running ROS 3.17 (I tried running mipsbe Dude package on it - which lost all it’s settings after each reboot, no matter what I tried - until I finally gave up trying to run Dude on a routerboard!); Well, eventually after several months in operation this board disappeared from the network. Plugging it into a serial console revealed that the kernel was corrupted and that it refused to boot up.

I finally seemed to have figured out that Netinstall seems to be able to upgrade a routerboard via the serial console, if connected to COM1 of a Windows XP machine, after a netboot (After several failed attempts with from several identical computers, only difference being that the serial port was not COM1!)

I installed RouterOS v4 RC1, just the system package, via the serial port. It took what felt like more than 30 minutes just to write the system package to the Routerboard. It booted up fine, and informed me that I should connect using Winbox, and click in “Upgrade License” from a computer connected to the internet - which I did. Everything seemed successful - but before rebooting again, I copied over all the other RouterOS 4 RC1 package files via Winbox.

When rebooting, the router gives me 24hours; Pasting the previously saved software ID does not work, as the Routerboard now reports a different Software ID.

The previous License said “Upgradable to 4.x”.

Is this a bug with RouterOS 4.x? Did I do something wrong? (Should I have rebooted first before copying over the rest of the RC1 packages?) Am I going to have to purchase a new license now, for my Routerboard 433, which I already paid so much for!?

I have tried downgrading to Ros 3.28 - but the software ID is still different. Can anybody explain to me why and/or how this happened? I thought that the software ID is linked to the hardware. :frowning:

(/sys resources reports only 5 bad blocks, and has since I got the board)

Answers to any or all of the above questions will be much appreciated!

Thank you in advance.

2

Okay, I have found and read: http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/All_about_licenses

Here it states that it will cost me $10 to get a replacement license. Does anybody know if Mikrotik will fix my license for free, seeing as that I did not use any third party tools, and this is clearly due to a bug in the upgrade process to the new SoftID?

I am sure they will be able to check their logs to see that the request came through.

It still baffles me how the ID of my routerboard could just change. Does this happen often?

I am too scared to upgrade my other routerboards to RouterOS v4 now… Should I be? With the 802.11n support it sure seems worth it!

Man, I’m bummed. Sigh. Hold thumbs they don’t make me fork out more cash :open_mouth:

3

v4 uses longer SoftID

have you tried to login via WinBox, go to System → License and press ‘Update license key’?

4

Yes - and it seemed to be successful, until I rebooted only to discover that my Routerboard is now unlicensed! :frowning:

5

Even with 3.28 ? Well downgrade to 3.25 and try giving it the old key file and you can even try to downgrade to older version but one at a time and please don’t upload anything but the system package when you do all this! Keep an eye on the free space on the flash - if its low - upgrade will fail miserably and board will need to be saved via COM port again. Probably no space on the flash made The Dude forget its settings. And for the love of god before downgrading to anything issue these commands:

/system check-installation

and see if all is OK and if it is OK do this:

/system routerboard upgrade

to upgrade the bootloader code/lower level firmware!

then do the downgrading and testing But actually instead of uploading .npks to the board at this point you could try COM flashing it with 3.30 system pacakge after the bootloader has been upgraded…

p.s. sorry for not giving you 100% step by step to follow but this exact issue I dont have a ready solution to. Just keep in touch and don’t forget to tell support@mikrotik.com about it , generate a supout and send them etc.

6

Thanks for the tips, NetworkPro.

The super helpful Mikrotik support staff replaced my key for me in no time in response to a detailed email I sent to support (which I had to follow up with a supout.rif attachment!)

They recommended I upgrade via FTP upload and reboot after the key upgrade…

Well, I really hope this doesn’t happen to anybody with gear installed on a mountain, requiring several hours of hiking to replace :laughing: