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jamesh
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MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:03 pm

I've been exploring WiFi performance using different ROS versions and WiFi drivers (see related thread: viewtopic.php?t=182481).

All was going well... until I tried downgrading right back to factory firmware. I now have an unusable wAP ac3 device and need some advice.

I started by exploring the various permuations of reset button pressed for 3, 10 & 15 seconds during power-up.

I saw factory configuration settings restored with reset on 3 seconds but not factory firmware. Is this as expected?

More importantly, my main problems emerged when I tried the NetInstall option (>15 seconds reset button):

  • I was unable to exit NetInstall mode. Power-down again and the device seems locked into NetInstall mode. I tried the various reset options and none had an effect. Is it possible to exit NetInstall mode?
  • I was unable to flash firmware using NetInstall. The Win-10 NetInstall application did not see my wAP ac3.

With NetInstall, I:

I tried:
  • Repeating the reset procedure several times
  • Disabling Win-10 firewall & AV
  • Rebooting with ethernet cable in ether-2 & then other ether ports.
  • Rebooting with NetInstall app ready in Win-10, ethernet cable connected to AP ether-1 and keeping reset button pressed for 1 minute.
  • NetInstall v7.1.3 and v6.48.6.

wAP ac3 still does not appear in NetInstall app.

This means I have an unusable wAP ac3 device - ouch! - and some open questions:

  • Does 3 second reset option change device configuration only, and leave firmware untouched?
  • If so, is there an option to reset back to factory firmware too?
  • How to exit NetInstall mode?
  • Why is my wAP ac3 device not being recognised by NetInstall app?
  • Which ether port on wAP ac3 should be used with NetInstall?

Lots of questions at this stage - thanks for your thoughts, guys.
 
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Hominidae
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Wed Mar 02, 2022 10:59 pm

....I did the same thing, going back and forth between v6 and v7 ROS on my hAP-ac^3 devices several times without issues.
Hence I cannot help with your problem, really.

All I can say is, that the netinstall method worked OK for me on other MT devices.
Sometimes, it felt that the devices seemed to ignore the timing given in the documentation, hence all I can recommend is "keep trying".
Also, the device might just come back without you noticing. Use ether2-5, not ether1 and use legacy mode in winbox for discovery and access.
Click on the hex-MAC instead of IP, when connecting if the device shows up.
 
jamesh
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 12:01 am

Hmmm, I've been using scripts, ssh and WebFig to admin and so winbox is not installed.

Maybe NetInstall has a dependency on Winbox?
 
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Hominidae
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 10:43 am

no, I don't think that there is a dependency.
What I meant is, that the reset-procedure is sometimes flaky. After trying to reset and expecting the MT device to enter netinstall mode, it simply does not but starts up with routerOS, but "empty" with no IP config enabled.
Hence IP based protocols cannot be used to access it.
Winbox has a special discovery and legacy mode, where you can connect with the MAC, not IP (MAC-Telnet?)....easy to use, hence my referral to winbox.
 
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BrateloSlava
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:13 pm

Does the computer from which the attempts are made have any configured vpn connections?
 
jamesh
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 2:32 pm

Thanks - and there's no VPN.

The setup is reasonably simple; a vanilla Win-10 LTSC laptop with a single ethernet cable to wAP ac3 port ether-2.

To add: I've also just tried the Linux cli tool. The RouterBoard remains invisible:
sudo ./netinstall -a 192.168.88.3 routeros-7.1.3-arm.npk
Using server IP: 192.168.88.2
Starting PXE server
Waiting for RouterBOARD...


I'm connecting using a USB-C-to-RJ45 dongle on my laptop. Wondered whether this might be a problem. Doubt it, but getting low on ideas. I'm going to dig out an old laptop with a hard-wired LAN socket & try that next under Win-10 & Linux.
 
jamesh
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:24 pm

Actually, it looks like network traffic is flowing between laptop and wAP. I used wireshark and it showed regular packets coming from wAP's MAC address.
 
jamesh
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:52 pm

Is it possible to reset MT wAP ac3 so it leaves Etherboot mode?
So it reboots from its last installed firmware.
 
r00t
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:31 pm

If it's still under warranty period and you can return it, return it.

If not, then you can try opening it and using UART pins on the PCB to connect UART to USB serial converter ($1 on ebay) and you will get some output.
Sadly console is disabled, as is the bootloader menu, but if there are any errors during netinstalling, you will see them.
You can also try booting openwrt from TFTP server instead of netinstall, to see if board is still working correctly.

If your device can't simply boot into last version of ROS when not pressing any buttons, it means flash contents are corrupted (ie. netinstall haven't finished it's job, so it wiped old ROS but failed to install new one). This usually means there is some hardware problem with the board (usually flash), but could also be bad capacitors (cpu stops working under load) or similar problem.
 
jamesh
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Re: MikroTik hAP ac3 stuck in NetInstall mode

Thu Mar 03, 2022 8:21 pm

Thanks - I've contacted the retailer & requested a replacement.

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