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markfrqs
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Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 9:23 am

I'm trying to upgrade a mAP lite from RouterOS 6.48 to 7.2.1.

I just uploaded the new firmware to the RouterBoard as usual and reboot. However, after the board reboot is still running the old version and the uploaded firmware disappeared from disk.

I had some issues in the past due the small storage of the device (16MiB), so I for previous upgrades on 6.x release I had to install the base package only. Although I see there are other routerboards with this storage size so I understand they should be able to be upgraded.

Does the mAP lite support 7.2.1? (I didn't found any support matrix)
Do I need to follow another upgrade process? (note that I'm using this box to test upgrade process, so I don't want to do a pure reinstall from scratch)
 
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woland
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:39 am

Hi,

you should pick the MIPSBE package. mAP Lite has the MISBE architecture as stated on the HW page: https://mikrotik.com/product/RBmAPL-2nD
Be warned I would wait with 7.x, that´s still not very stable. If you still want to go with 7, maybe you should install by reflashing via netinstall: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Netinstall
Otherwise you might run into issues resulting from the small flash it has.

W
 
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mkx
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:57 am

I just uploaded the new firmware to the RouterBoard as usual and reboot. However, after the board reboot is still running the old version and the uploaded firmware disappeared from disk.

Absolutely first thing one should be checking after failed upgrade is logs ... most of times one of first log entries contains a clue as to what went wrong.
And being that behind you may want to consider upgrading forwarders.
6.48 (as series) is not that far behind, it's current long-term branch. Upgrading to interim versions (6.49.x) can only be a last-resort try if absolutely nothing in logs indicate the problem.
 
holvoetn
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:27 am

Otherwise you might run into issues resulting from the small flash it has.
Not entirely correct.
There are plenty of other devices having the same amount of flash being perfectly capable of running ROS7.

It is true you need to assess if you want to use the new features from ROS7 and if you are willing to accept some other things might not work fully or not at all yet. Especially with the advanced routing stuff, there are quite some errrm ... "opportunities for improvement" (to put it positively) but I would think those are not target processes to be used on a mAP Lite.

I have ROS7 on a mAPLite since mid last year, normal upgrade from ROS 6 to ROS 7, and never had any problems with it for the use cases I have with that device (Road Warrior device with station mode wlan, virtual wlan AP and Wireguard VPN to home).
 
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woland
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:46 am

Otherwise you might run into issues resulting from the small flash it has.
Not entirely correct.
There are plenty of other devices having the same amount of flash being perfectly capable of running ROS7.
Hmm not eintirely correct? Just look at the forums: many reports of issues after transitioning from ROS6 to 7, which were resolved by using Netinstall.
Small flash size of 16M seems to make the problem worse, as you might just not have enough space for the upgrade.
Strangely I have two hAP minis (also 16MB of flash) and I have tried to upgrade both to ROS 7. One of them did upgrade without an issue, the other one did not and I had to use Netinstall...
Well they do work OK with ROS 7 for my usecase, which is just using them as a RoMON "access server", so no fancy stuff. My only reason for installing ROS7 was curiosity.

W
 
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mkx
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 6:29 pm

Just look at the forums: many reports of issues after transitioning from ROS6 to 7, which were resolved by using Netinstall.

I'm not saying that forum feedback is irrelevant, but I'll argue that one can not draw any statistical conclusions from forum posts. I'm sure that only very minor share of users with successful "operation" come by to report success. OTOH large share of those having issues will come by to either seek help or simply to complain. To make any kind of ststistical assessment one would have to know number of upgrade attempts which is impossible.

Your own success rate is 50% and due to low number of samples this number is not statistically relevant. I tried to netinstall one audience so far and failed to do it by following the usual path (press button, apply power and keep pressing button until something happens), so my fail rate is 100%. I'm pretty sure this number is statistically irrelevant as well.
 
sindy
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Thu Apr 21, 2022 10:05 pm

A lot has been said here so far but no one has mentioned the fact that 7.x always uses the bundle package, so if some packages are not installed in the current 6.x installation, the upgrade will fail. I'm not sure whether it is enough to install the missing packages in 6.x or whether only "full 6.x bundle to 7.x bundle" upgrade is possible, nor whether you can upgrade from a complete set of individual 6.x packages to a 6.y (y>x) bundle. What I do know, though, is that recent 6.x versions are smaller than older ones, so even those resource-limited devices can be upgraded using bundles again. So if netinstall is complicated for you, it is worth trying to upgrade to 6.48.x (x<6), install the missing packages, and then trying to upgrade to 7.2.1; if that still doesn't work, try to upgrade to a 6.48.6 bundle first.
 
markfrqs
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Re: Unable to upgrade to 7.2.1

Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:49 pm

Tyring to give answers to your comments in one post:
you should pick the MIPSBE package. mAP Lite has the MISBE architecture as stated on the HW page: https://mikrotik.com/product/RBmAPL-2nD
Be warned I would wait with 7.x, that´s still not very stable. If you still want to go with 7, maybe you should install by reflashing via netinstall: https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/Netinstall
Otherwise you might run into issues resulting from the small flash it has.

Yes I already picked the MIPSBE (all my boxes are same arch). I don't want to do a netinstall, because my goal is precisly to test upgrade process on mAP-Lite before doing it on the rest of my oards to check the current configuration is kept/migrated and foreseen any potential issues.

Absolutely first thing one should be checking after failed upgrade is logs ... most of times one of first log entries contains a clue as to what went wrong.

Due the low storage capacity I have logging to disk disabled, however just after the reboot is confirms my fears:
12:59:37 system,info installed system-7.2.1 
12:59:37 system,error not enough space for upgrade 
There are plenty of other devices having the same amount of flash being perfectly capable of running ROS7.

It is true you need to assess if you want to use the new features from ROS7 and if you are willing to accept some other things might not work fully or not at all yet. Especially with the advanced routing stuff, there are quite some errrm ... "opportunities for improvement" (to put it positively) but I would think those are not target processes to be used on a mAP Lite.

I have ROS7 on a mAPLite since mid last year, normal upgrade from ROS 6 to ROS 7, and never had any problems with it for the use cases I have with that device (Road Warrior device with station mode wlan, virtual wlan AP and Wireguard VPN to home).

Right, I seen many other (newer) devices with the same storage capacity (16MiB) so that's why I asked
I'm not too much worried on any 'advanced' stuff, the most I use are some simples VLANs and BGP.
At least is good to know somebody achieved to upgrade to 7 even using some of the features I am using. I would really appreaciate if you can share the config as I also use it as RoadWarrior in similar setup (VLANs and VPN).

A lot has been said here so far but no one has mentioned the fact that 7.x always uses the bundle package, so if some packages are not installed in the current 6.x installation, the upgrade will fail. I'm not sure whether it is enough to install the missing packages in 6.x or whether only "full 6.x bundle to 7.x bundle" upgrade is possible, nor whether you can upgrade from a complete set of individual 6.x packages to a 6.y (y>x) bundle. What I do know, though, is that recent 6.x versions are smaller than older ones, so even those resource-limited devices can be upgraded using bundles again. So if netinstall is complicated for you, it is worth trying to upgrade to 6.48.x (x<6), install the missing packages, and then trying to upgrade to 7.2.1; if that still doesn't work, try to upgrade to a 6.48.6 bundle first.

Really interesting, as the first thing I realized is that 7 is bundled differently (at least on base/extra stuff)
I already used netinstall in the past, but as said before my goal is precisely test the upgrade process.

I upgradde from 6.48 to 6.49.6 wihtout issues, but when tried upgrade to 7 I faced same problems, I think related to what you comment.

I tried to remove some of the installed packages to reduce the size used, but although small (I only left system,dhcp and wireless), it still reports only 3MiB of 16MiB are free (even withhout logging, DNS-cache or proxy and nothing in files). After trying to upgrade I get:
12:59:37 system,error broken package wireless-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package dhcp-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package security-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package ppp-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package ntp-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package advanced-tools-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,error broken package routing-7.2.1-mipsbe.npk 
12:59:37 system,info installed system-7.2.1 
12:59:37 system,error not enough space for upgrade
Indeed sems is looking for the same packages I'm using on 7.2, however they are not now bundled in the base packages. Also note it also complains about not enough space for upgrade

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