Upgrade Mikrotik RB133c 3.20 to last version?

[DimebagDarrell]

I have this relic of the past that I want to revive. It is a RB433c licensed level 3 firmware 3.20. I am trying to update it to some newer version of RouterOS.

I tried to upload the File by FTP and reboot but nothing happens, it does not update. Also upload the files separately as seen in the image and it is not updated either. I can enter the team through Winbox v2.2.14 and MAC-Telnet through another RB, but I can’t get it to update to any version.

Try with:

/system routerboard upgrade
/system reboot

Also try Netinstall, but the computer doesn’t show up.

[Sob]

Check log, maybe there’s some useful info there.

But you won’t be able to do much with it. While mipsle family can go up to 6.3x (last one I have is 6.32.4 and there wasn’t much after that, if anything), RB133c has only 16MB RAM, which is the bottleneck. I have one in my minimuseum with 5.26, it’s able to boot (takes a long time), but that’s about it.

[DimebagDarrell]

I was able to update it as follows: 3.30 (verify license) > 4.0 (verify license) > 4.17 (verify license) > 5.25 (verify license).

But at the time of passing it to v6.30.1, it’s in brick mode. It’s in an infinite boot loop. Starts, turns on the light, makes the beep and does not respond anymore.

I am trying to use the serial port, with this RB and others like 411 and 450. But I do not receive information, I followed the procedures of: https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:RouterBOOT Is there any combination with the reset button or the jumpers it has?

[Sob]

Serial console is your best chance. I found this:

@http://www.routerboard.sk/files/pdf/rb133&133c_startup.pdf

The serial port is set by default to 115200bit/s, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity. Note that the device does not fully implement the hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control, so it is suggested to try to disable hardware flow control in the terminal emulation program in case the serial console does not work as expected, and if it does not help, make a new cable using the pinout given in the User’s manual.

But unless you’re doing it for fun, with RB133c you’re wasting your time. Even if you manage to install newest available v6, it will still be terribly outdated. And the device doesn’t have enough resources anyway. If it was at least RB133, that could perhaps be used for something (I know about one that still works today, because owner is too cheap to get anything better, it runs 5.26 and is sort of usable). But RB133 has 32MB RAM, while RB133c has only 16MB, and it’s huge difference.