Mikrotik RouterOS crashed during update, no longer booting.

[Greg_E]

I have a Mikrotik 309-1g-8s+in that I recently decided to update to the latest RouterOS. It transferred and then shut off. When I power it back up, and connect a serial terminal, it gives a no OS or corrupt OS error.

So I downloaded Netinstall, connected laptop directly to the management port, configured Netinstall and selected the correct firmware, and powered the switch again. The switch finds the netinstall, and said it transferred the firmware, but then goes into the same loop of no OS or corrupt OS.

I posted on the Mikrotik forums, no help there, and just a little while ago emailed support, but I'm thinking I might get a faster response here.

Should I format that partition and try Netinstall again?

It is currently booted into SWOS, so parts of the storage still work, but it would be nice to get back to RouterOS in case I need to do something.

 

[mostlycorn]

Just to double check, for your netinstall, you're sending the ARM and not the ARM64 version of RouterOS, right? It's been a while since I've done a netinstall and I don't remember if the tools are smart enough to verify the package is valid for the hardware. I would think so, but worth a check.

One other thing that might be worth trying is installing an older version of RouterOS via netinstall.

 

[Greg_E]

I had both when I first started, then thought it might be too dumb and removed the arm64 to make sure. I should probably give this another try with a dumb switch in the middle, using usb-ethernet on the laptop and they say there can be problems like this, a simple switch h in the middle can help solve some of the connections issue (so they say).

 

[mostlycorn]

I had both when I first started, then thought it might be too dumb and removed the arm64 to make sure. I should probably give this another try with a dumb switch in the middle, using usb-ethernet on the laptop and they say there can be problems like this, a simple switch h in the middle can help solve some of the connections issue (so they say).

Using a switch is a good idea. Good luck!

 

[klui]

If you're using Windows to connect to the Mikrotik try using Linux. My simple 100Mb USB adapter will revert back to public profile whenever the serial port is disconnected (during switch reboots).

Connect to the serial port during the install to see if there are messages that could tell you what the problem is.

 

[Greg_E]

I had a second device on serial the whole time, nothing really different from the no OS boot loop. I'll have to dig the photo out of my phone and see.

I'll look into the linux version, do you think it will run on raspberry pi? That's the only linux boxes I have available right now, both are Pi4 based running on Clockwork Pi hardware (Devterm and uConsole) but Raspian based Trixie images with Clockwork drivers and overlays.

 

[klui]

> I'll look into the linux version, do you think it will run on raspberry pi?

No.

$ file netinstall-cli
netinstall-cli: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel i386, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, stripped

 

[blunden]

I had a second device on serial the whole time, nothing really different from the no OS boot loop. I'll have to dig the photo out of my phone and see.

I'll look into the linux version, do you think it will run on raspberry pi? That's the only linux boxes I have available right now, both are Pi4 based running on Clockwork Pi hardware (Devterm and uConsole) but Raspian based Trixie images with Clockwork drivers and overlays.

You can always live boot it from a USB stick on another computer if you need to.

 

[Greg_E]

OK, here was the fix that Support got me...

First you need the boot firmware, this was a link they sent and I don't remember seeing this. I had to xmodem this through a serial terminal (minicom), for some reason putty on Windows did not have the xmodem option so I used my Devterm for this.

Then I had to load the OS firmware with Netinstall. I tried a simple TP Link switch, but it didn't allow connection. As soon as I connected directly, I heard a beep from the router, and saw it listed in the Netinstall drives window. Select the router, select the firmware, click the install and wait. All settings will be gone when this finishes.

I booted back to Switch OS because that's what I need right now and don't have the time to reconfigure RouterOS. I have some equipment moves to get done, and need it done ASAP. After the moves and me CRS326-24s+2q+ is free, I can switch things around again and get the CRS309 configured. Lots of ups and downs for things right now.

 

[mostlycorn]

Glad you got it working again!