• Related pages:
  • Flash Layout: provides background on how OpenWrt uses device storage space
  • Forum post Identify packages to be re-installed after system upgrade (contains a promising script by forum members mforkel and Rafciq that automates package re-installation)

An OpenWrt upgrade will replace the entire current OpenWrt installation with a new version. This includes the Linux kernel, the SquashFS partition and the JFFS2 partition.

The common upgrade paths below will automatically preserve much of the OpenWrt OS configuration by saving and then restoring configuration files in specific common locations (including /etc/config). This will preserve things like OpenWrt network settings, WiFi settings, the device hostname, and so on.

The first part of the upgrade process is to prepare for the upgrade. This includes documenting programs and settings that will need to be re-installed or restored after the upgrade, locating and downloading the correct OpenWrt upgrade image for your hardware.

Next is the actual upgrade. There are two common upgrade paths to actually perform the upgrade. One uses the LuCI web interface "Flash new firmware image" command and one uses the command-line sysupgrade command. You can use either approach.

After the OS upgrade, there are usually some additional configuration steps required to re-install additional packages not part of the base OpenWrt install, to configure new OpenWrt functionality or to update configuration files to reflect new settings or updated packages. Please see the section below with more details.

Both the LuCI and sysupgrade upgrade procedures work by saving specified configuration files, wiping the entire file system, installing the new version of OpenWrt and then restoring back the saved configuration files. This means that any parts of the file system that are not specifically saved will be lost.

In particular, any manually installed software packages you may have installed after the initial OpenWrt installation have to be reinstalled after an OpenWrt upgrade. That way everything will match, e.g. the updated Linux kernel and any installed kernel modules.

Any configuration files or data files placed in locations not specifically listed as being preserved below will also be lost in an OpenWrt upgrade. Be sure to check any files you have added or customized from a default OpenWrt install to back up these items before an upgrade.

This script is from forum member gsenna and was originally posted in the forum discussion "Default packages attitude 12.09rc2 tplink 1043nd" at https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=43480

• Create the script

vi /tmp/listuserpackages.sh

#!/bin/ash
echo >&2 User-installed packages are the following:
sed -ne '/^Package:[[:blank:]]*/ {
	s///
	h
}
/user installed/ {
	g
	p
}' /usr/lib/opkg/status

• Run the script

/bin/ash /tmp/listuserpackages.sh

• Example output:

User-installed packages are the following:
snmpd-static

Note that the script may list several packages that are part of the default OpenWrt install and will have their changed configuration files automatically backed up and restored. In addition, packages installed as dependences of other packages may show here. It is only important to note the names of packages that you directly installed manually. Any dependencies of these packages will automatically be reinstalled when the primary package is reinstalled.

An alternative script, that uses awk instead of sed/grep and is much shorter (provided by user valentijn):

• Create the script

vi /tmp/listuserpackages.awk

/^Package:/{PKG= $2}
/^Status: .*user installed/{print PKG}

• Run the script

awk -f /tmp/listuserpackages.awk /usr/lib/opkg/status

This script will only output a list of user (and default) installed packages.

This is an alternative to the script above. This command will list all packages related to any file in the whole file system that has changed from the default OpenWrt default version.

Note that the script may list several packages that are part of the default OpenWrt install and will have their changed configuration files automatically backed up and restored. In addition, packages installed as dependences of other packages may show here. It is only important to note the names of packages that you directly installed manually. Any dependencies of these packages will automatically be reinstalled when the primary package is reinstalled.

# this version is for OpenWrt 14.07 "Barrier Breaker" or earlier
find /overlay/ | sed s:/overlay::g | while read file; do opkg search $file; done | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq
 
# this command is for OpenWrt 15.05
find /overlay/upper/ | sed s:/overlay/upper::g | while read file; do opkg search $file; done | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq

• Related pages:
  • /etc/sysupgrade.conf

The LuCI and sysupgrade upgrades will preserve configuration files:

• listed by

opkg list-changed-conffiles

• files listed within the text files in /lib/upgrade/keep.d/ (for example, /lib/upgrade/keep.d/base-file-essential)
• files listed in /etc/sysupgrade.conf

Based on the list of user-installed packages identified above, you may know that you have other configuration or data files that need to be preserved and that are not included in the default set of files to save. Your new files should be added to /etc/sysupgrade.conf. By default, this file just has comments in it.

Go to System > Backup/Flash Firmware > Configuration tab. This will display the current contents of /etc/sysupgrade.conf file and the edit window can be used to add additional lines to the file. Click "Submit" when done editing.

To view all the configuration files that will be saved on an upgrade, click the "Open list…" button.

Edit /etc/sysupgrade.conf with an editor. For example:

vi /etc/sysupgrade.conf

## This file contains files and directories that should
## be preserved during an upgrade.

# /etc/example.conf
# /etc/openvpn/

## customization: preserve sudo files
/etc/sudoers
/etc/sudoers.d/

Luci has a separate set of settings in the "config extern 'flash_keep'" section of the file /etc/config/luci relating to configuration files that should be preserved.

In the past, it appears this list was used by LuCI (see https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=100739#p100739). However, at least as of OpenWrt 14.07, the LuCI OpenWrt upgrade procedure actually calls the sysupgrade script and so it appears the flash_keep settings in /etc/config/luci are now ignored.

• Only the "…-sysupgrade.bin" version of the OpenWrt download image should be used for OpenWrt upgrades. The "…-factory.bin" file is for switching from the vendor-default firmware to OpenWrt and is not used for OpenWrt-to-OpenWrt upgrades.
• Locate the correct "…-sysupgrade.bin" upgrade file for your particular device hardware in the OpenWrt download area

For x86 systems there is no "sysupgrade" image, just be sure to use the new firmware image has the same family of filesystem (if the current firmware uses squashfs then the new will use squashfs as well and if the current has ext the new will use ext filesystem. Note that an upgrade from ext2 [10.03.1] to ext4 [12.09] seems not working. Tested 10.03.1 squashfs to 12.09 squashfs, working ; 10.03.1 squashfs to 12.09 ext4 failed; 10.03.1 ext2 to 12.09 ext4 failed)

• Download the desired upgrade file to your PC using a web browser
• Proceed to the LuCI upgrade procedure, below

• Download the desired upgrade file to the local /tmp RAM drive on your OpenWrt system. The /tmp directory is stored in RAM (using tmpfs), not in the permanent flash storage.

# example downloading the OpenWrt 15.05 upgrade image for a TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND ver. 1.x router
cd /tmp
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/chaos_calmer/15.05/ar71xx/generic/openwrt-15.05-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr1043nd-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
 
# check the integrity of the image file
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/chaos_calmer/15.05/ar71xx/generic/md5sums
# the desired result is that the downloaded firmware filename is listed with "OK" afterwards
md5sum -c md5sums 2> /dev/null | grep OK

• Proceed to the "Ensure desired configuration files will be saved" section, below

If your device's /tmp filesystem is not large enough to store the OpenWrt upgrade image, this section provides tips to temporarily free up RAM.

First check memory usage with the free or top or cat /proc/meminfo commands; proceed if you have as much free RAM as the image is in size plus an some additional MiB of free memory.

In this example there are precisely 11416 KiB of RAM unused. All the rest 32768 - 11416 = 21352 KiB are used somehow and a portion of it can and will be made available by the kernel, if it be needed, the problem is, we do not know how much exactly that is. Make sure enough is available. Free space in /tmp also counts towards free memory. Therefore with:

One has actually 752+6636 KiB of free memory available.

• quickest and safest way to free up, some RAM is to delete the opkg packages file:

rm -r /tmp/opkg-lists/

• drop caches:

sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

• prevent wireless drivers to be loaded at next boot and then reboot:

rm /etc/modules.d/*80211*
rm /etc/modules.d/*ath9k*
rm /etc/modules.d/b43*
reboot

The wireless drivers, usually take up quite some amount of RAM and are not required (unless you are connected via wireless of course ), so an easy way to free up some RAM is to delete the symlinks in etc/modules.d so these are not loaded into memory at the next reboot.

• Log in to the LuCI web interface of the router (default: http://192.168.1.1)
• Select System ⇒ Backup / Flash Firmware ⇒ Configuration to edit /etc/sysupgrade.conf (Attitude Adjustment)
  • Select System ⇒ System ⇒ Custom Files to edit /etc/sysupgrade.conf (Previous versions)
• Select System ⇒ Backup / Flash Firmware ⇒ Actions (Attitude Adjustment)
  • Select System ⇒ Flash Firmware (Previous versions)
• Upload the OpenWrt upgrade image file you downloaded
• LuCI will calculate the MD5 checksum of the file, if it's correct, you are green to go

• Wait until the router comes back online
• After the automatic reboot, the system should come up the same configuration settings as before: the same network IP addresses, same SSH password, etc.
• Proceed to the "Additional configuration after an OpenWrt upgrade" section, below

• Related pages:
  • sysupgrade command – Technical Reference

• Use the following command to upgrade:

sysupgrade -v /tmp/filename-of-downloaded-sysupgrade.bin

• The verbose-option should give some output similar to this. The list of configuration files saved will change depending on what packages you have installed and which files you have configured to be saved, as per above.

Saving config files...
etc/config/dhcp
etc/config/dropbear
etc/config/firewall
etc/config/luci
etc/config/network
etc/config/snmpd
etc/config/system
etc/config/ubootenv
etc/config/ucitrack
etc/config/uhttpd
etc/config/wireless
etc/dropbear/authorized_keys
etc/dropbear/dropbear_dss_host_key
etc/dropbear/dropbear_rsa_host_key
etc/firewall.user
etc/group
etc/hosts
etc/inittab
etc/passwd
etc/profile
etc/rc.local
etc/shadow
etc/shells
etc/sudoers
etc/sudoers.d/custom
etc/sysctl.conf
etc/sysupgrade.conf
killall: watchdog: no process killed
Sending TERM to remaining processes ... ubusd askfirst logd logread netifd odhcpd snmpd uhttpd ntpd dnsmasq
Sending KILL to remaining processes ... askfirst
Switching to ramdisk...
Performing system upgrade...
Unlocking firmware ...

Writing from <stdin> to firmware ...  [w]
Appending jffs2 data from /tmp/sysupgrade.tgz to firmware...TRX header not found
Error fixing up TRX header
Upgrade completed
Rebooting system...

Note: The "TRX header not found" and "Error fixing up TRX header" errors are not a problem as per OpenWrt developer jow's post at https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/8623

• Wait until the router comes back online
• After the automatic reboot, the system should come up the same configuration settings as before: the same network IP addresses, same SSH password, etc.
• Proceed to the "Additional configuration after an OpenWrt upgrade" section, below

• In case it does not, try a cold reset (= interrupt the electrical current to the device, wait a couple of seconds and then connect it again).
  • Be careful about /etc/opkg.conf as explained here: https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/13309

For unknown reasons such a cold reset has often been reported to be necessary after a sysupgrade. This is very very bad in case you performed this remotely!

• In LuCI, go to Status > Overview to verify you are running the new OpenWrt release
• In SSH, the login banner has the release information

After the initial update, it is good to check for any updated packages released after the base OS firmware image was built.

• List any available upgradable packages

opkg update
opkg list-upgradable

• Upgrade any packages listed (if any were listed) – more than one package can be included
  • Note: on a device with only 4MB of NVRAM, these updates may not fit – check free space on / first with "df -h /" and ensure there is at least 600KB or so free
  • Note: the updates below were the OpenWrt 15.05 updates available as of Sept. 12, 2015

opkg upgrade luci-lib-ip luci-theme-bootstrap luci-app-firewall luci-proto-ppp luci-mod-admin-full luci-base luci-proto-ipv6 luci-lib-nixio luci

• Verify no more packages can be upgraded; the command should display no output now

opkg list-upgradable

After a successful upgrade, you will need to reinstall all previously installed packages. You made a list of these above. Package configuration files should have been preserved due to steps above, but not the actual packages themselves.

• For example:

opkg update
opkg install snmpd-static

The new package installations will have installed new, default versions of package configuration files. As your existing configuration files were already in place, opkg would have displayed a warning about this and saved the new configuration file versions under …-opkg filenames.

The new package-provided configuration files should be compared with your older customized files to merge in any new options or changes of syntax in these files.

The diffutils program is helpful for this.

For example:

# install diffutils
opkg install diffutils
 
# locate all -opkg files
find /etc -name *-opkg
 
# compare old customized /etc/config/snmpd with new generic file /etc/config/snmpd-opkg
diff /etc/config/snmpd /etc/config/snmpd-opkg
 
# merge in any needed changes to the active version of the configuration file
vi /etc/config/snmpd
# and clean up by removing the package manager-version of the configuration file
rm /etc/config/snmpd-opkg
 
# or if the new version provided by the package maintainer should just replace the old config file then just swap it in
mv /etc/config/snmpd-opkg /etc/config/snmpd

• Finally, the newly installed packages should be enabled and started (if they need this; many do)

/etc/init.d/snmpd enable
/etc/init.d/snmpd start

The upgrade is fully complete now. It is a good idea to do a test reboot and ensure all expected functionality is working as before.

reboot

The OS upgrade options are much more manual than using either LuCI or sysupgrade. They are only needed in unusual circumstances.

1. If sysupgrade is not supported for your embedded device, you should use mtd instead:

   mtd -r write /tmp/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-wzr-hp-ag300h-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin firmware

Netcat could be employed if you cannot free enough RAM. See netcat. Netcat needs to be installed first.

This method is NOT recommended!

1. On your Linux PC run:

   nc -q0 192.168.1.1 1234 < openwrt-ar71xx-tl-wr1043nd-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

2. On the router run:

   nc -l -p 1234 | mtd write - firmware

This method is much SAFER if you have enough RAM.

This method is fine for self built firmwares.

You should check how much RAM you have currently available.(In case you do not have enough left, consult Free up RAM.)

free

1. On your Linux PC run:

   cat [specified firmware].bin | pv -b | nc -l -p 3333

2. On the router run:

   nc 192.168.1.111 3333 > /tmp/[specified firmware].bin 

The port 3333 an IP address 192.168.1.111 are just examples. The command 'pv -b' is optional for tracking progress but maybe you have to install pv to your system previously.

• sysupgrade:

  sysupgrade -v /tmp/[specified firmware].bin 

• mtd:

  mtd -r write /tmp/[specified firmware].bin firmware

I have tested under Ubuntu 11.10.

• http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/11/06/netcat-a-couple-of-useful-examples/
• http://www.screenage.de/blog/2007/12/30/using-netcat-and-tar-for-network-file-transfer/
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem/TAR
• http://www.aboutdebian.com/tar-backup.htm

Make sure your router has enough memory.

root@OpenWrt:/# free

Make sure you have set the password for your router (you must set a password for your router to enable the SSH). See First Login for more details.

On your Linux PC run:

linux$ scp openwrt-ar71xx-tl-wr1043nd-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin root@192.168.1.1:/tmp

root@OpenWrt:/# sysupgrade -v /tmp/[specified firmware].bin 

192.168.1.1 is the ip address(may be called GateWay) of your router. Check by run:

linux$ ip r 

root@OpenWrt:/# grep ipaddr /etc/config/network