v7.1beta4 on RB600A

RouterOS RouterOS beta
1

Hi,

I cannot get it to work..
After netinstall:

RouterBOOT booter 6.48.1

RouterBoard 600A

CPU frequency: 400 MHz
  Memory size: 128 MiB
    NAND size:  64 MiB

Press any key within 2 seconds to enter setup..

loading kernel... OK
setting up elf image... kernel out of range
kernel loading failed

Is this old device unsupported?

v7.1.2 is released!
RouterOS 7 on RB600 and RB800
2 
RouterBOOT booter 6.49.1

RouterBoard 600A

CPU frequency: 533 MHz
  Memory size: 128 MiB
    NAND size:  64 MiB

Press <delete> key within 1 seconds to enter setup.

loading kernel... OK
setting up elf image... kernel out of range
kernel loading failed

Same thing still…

I have found a fix for it:

Get the FWF bootloader for v7.1rc7 (tested that one only), paste into “files” in RB600 running 6.49.1, /sys routerboard upgrade

reboot and netinstall with 7.1rc7

Et voilá, the thing boots!

the catch is since the backup routerboot (2.20 in my case) cannot load a kernel from the new location, this may complicate a further unbricking attempt.

Reboot, yes? [y/N]: 
y
system will reboot shortly

Rebooting...
[   42.806006] reboot: Restarting system


RouterBOOT booter 7.1rc7

RouterBoard 600A

CPU frequency: 400 MHz
  Memory size: 128 MiB
    NAND size:  64 MiB

Press <delete> key within 1 seconds to enter setup.

loading kernel... OK
setting up elf image... OK
jumping to kernel code
Starting...
Starting services...




[admin@MikroTik] > system/resource/print 
                   uptime: 5m19s
                  version: 7.1rc7 (testing)
               build-time: Nov/25/2021 14:35:34
              free-memory: 91.2MiB
             total-memory: 128.0MiB
                      cpu: e300c1
                cpu-count: 1
            cpu-frequency: 399MHz
                 cpu-load: 1%
           free-hdd-space: 39.4MiB
          total-hdd-space: 64.0MiB
  write-sect-since-reboot: 209
         write-sect-total: 555109
               bad-blocks: 0%
        architecture-name: powerpc
               board-name: RB600A
                 platform: MikroTik
[admin@MikroTik] >
3

If anybody wonders where to get the FWF file: open the main package (routeros--.npk) using 7zip. In folder etc there will be one or more (depending on architecture) .fwf files. Use the file with file name containing name of firmware type (as reported by /system routerboot print). E.g. package routeros-7.1rc7-arm.npk contains firmware files for al2, dx3230L, ipq4000, ipq4000L and ipq8060. If doing surgical operation on hAP ac2, one should choose FWF file for ipq4000L (because that’s reported as firmware-type by ROS itself).

NPK file for PPC architecture contains 7 different FWF files, not sure which one is appropriate for RB600A.

4

I refrained from detailing instructions on the “getting the FWF” preciselly to avoid people bricking their devices without fully understanding the workings/risks of this hack

RB600A uses “mpc8343-7.1rc7.fwf”

5

guipoletto: Awesome!
Some time ago I contacted support about this and they simply told me to buy a newer hardware.
Being able to run ROS 7 on RB600 will save me a lot of upgrading as these are still great boards.

6

Thanks for the tip. This works great!

7

You might be able to upgrade your backup routerboot.

Seems high risk though

https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:RouterBOARD_settings

But more likely get :frowning:

FAILED to enable protected RouterBOOT: RB is too old, upgrade not supported

8

Interesting, thanks for the heads-up!

Unfortunatelly, all RouterBoot up-to and including 6.49.1 cannot load V7 kernel in the RB600A

So either

  • mikrotik has to release a new “DANGEROUS backup routerboot upgrader” specifically for V7
  • or they have to adjust the kernel for v7 so that is loadable from (ancient) routerboot.

i am inclined to the first option, but they would probably have to stabilize RouterBoot for a while before releasing such a package (see RouterBoot 6.49 bug)

9

Firmware file can also be uploaded via serial terminal using x-modem.