I would like to be able to use a MikroTik device as a Netinstall server for that rare occasion when a device goes into a reboot loop because it has corrupted firmware. It saves me a trip down to the client site if I can manage it all after hours, remotely.
RouterOS supports tftp. I don’t know if I can just rename the npk file to a ‘vmlinux’ filename and have it work, or not. I finally got past all the file doesn’t exist errors, and now I’m stuck at timeout errors.
I’ve tried changing values for allow-rollover and reading-window-size, all to no avail.
Is what I’m trying to do even currently achievable? If so, what might I be doing incorrectly?
If not, can you update RouterOS so that it is achievable?
If you make one vpn between your PC and one working remote device where routerboard is attached,
you can use netinstall between your PC and the remote device.
Actually this isn’t that bad idea as most needed parts of the process can already be handled by ROS as it is:
device asks BOOTP server for address
device downloads netinstall kernel with ramdisk from TFTP server
custom netsinstall protocol is used to get information from the device and to transfer packages to it
device is instructed to install uploaded packages, then it reboots
Only part that’s really missing is tool to do #3, but that would be a very simple console application, similar to tftp client. You tell it list of packages to send to device and it would do it, nothing fancy.
Based on what I’ve discovered of the sequence of events from doing packet captures and trial and error, I got as far as #2 (not the ramdisk part) trying to figure it out without using a tunnel. The problem I ran into was how to get the ‘vmlinux’ file from the .npk file. If I knew how to do that, I’d be able to try to figure it out further.
no, netinstall kernels are stored in resources of netinstall.exe binary. They are different from regular ROS kernels and contain embedded ramdisk with netinstall binary.
Open EXE with resource editor, and save binary resources to disk. Then remove first 4 bytes and you get kernel. That’s what should be on your TFTP server.
I have some more information here: https://www.r00t.cz/Misc/MikrotikNetinstallFromCF
I have put netinstall to CF card to revive RB800 with damaged ETH1 - it would not boot from ETH2/3 but could netinstall from them while booted from CF card.