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Vooray
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Firmware upgrade

Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:52 am

Hi All!

What is an idea behind second reboot for firmware update after update installed? Why this is not done in one step?
 
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mkx
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:19 pm

The work flow is as follows:

  1. device under old ROS somehow gets npk files. One of those will contain package "system".
  2. device under old ROS unpacks packages an installs them - in single shot. After that it reboots so that SW state is consistent
  3. part of installation of new system package is the firmware file
  4. device under new ROS has the new firmware available. Admin can instruct it to flash the firmware
  5. reboot is needed so that the new firmware bets actually run at device initialization time

I usually perform steps #1-#4 but not the step #5 if changelog doesn't indicate some bug fix in Routerboot (usually it doesn't). So the new firmware gets actually used after subsequent boots (either due to another ROS upgrade or power outage or ....). I guess that what I do is safe because flashing is done at the time command is executed (and thus finished). Power outage, happening after that, is effectively the same as after number of reboots ... nothing special about first reboot after firmware flashing.
 
pe1chl
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:27 pm

There certainly is potential for improvement here, because when the automatic firmware upgrade is selected in the settings
it is the first thing the router does after reboot to the new version, before interfaces are brought up etc.
So there could be another option to immediately reboot again at that point, and load the new firmware, before proceeding to
bring up the interfaces etc. This would minimize the disruption to the network due to updates.
(of course best would be when the firmware numbering was changed again so it is only changed when the firmware really
has any changes, not only the version number)
 
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kmansoft
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:10 pm

There certainly is potential for improvement here, because when the automatic firmware upgrade is selected in the settings
it is the first thing the router does after reboot to the new version, before interfaces are brought up etc.
So there could be another option to immediately reboot again at that point, and load the new firmware, before proceeding to
bring up the interfaces etc. This would minimize the disruption to the network due to updates.
(of course best would be when the firmware numbering was changed again so it is only changed when the firmware really
has any changes, not only the version number)
But it would still likely be a second reboot - even if automatic, because ...

... if the firmware is like BIOS and gets loaded before the main OS - then during the first reboot, the upgrade firmware is still not available, it's still inside the OS update package and not extracted...

Just thinking aloud I guess, excuse-moi. A one step process (for when automatic fw updates are enabled) would be slick indeed.

And by the way, looking at IP / neighbors on my WAN interface, I see so many devices running 6.28 - 6.32 - 6.42 and just a few with 6.43 / 44. So your "average user" doesn't upgrade very often :)
 
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Paternot
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Fri Apr 26, 2019 3:36 am

But it would still likely be a second reboot - even if automatic, because ...
The second reboot isn't the problem. The slow one is the first - when the router is doing all the upgrade. The problem is the fact that it isn't automatic. It increases the workload and time needed to complete the task.

If the device just rebooted twice - without intervention - no one would be complaining about the second one.
 
Vooray
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:02 pm

Feel little bit confusing about this process. If we have an option to upgrade or not - no questions. But if i have to reboot device twice manually i need a straight arguments for that.
And i don't like idea that something could be changed on occasion reboot, if i decide not to make second reboot after upgrade.
 
pe1chl
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Re: Firmware upgrade

Fri Apr 26, 2019 9:05 pm

It is well explained by mkx above, when you still find that confusing I don't know how to help you.
When you don't want to reboot 2 times, do not enable the auto update and wait until the releasenotes say something about updated firmware, then do it manually.

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