BPI-R3 Upgrade openwrt to 24.10.0

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R3/R3 Mini(MT7986)
1

Hello, i wanted to upgrade openwrt from 23.05 to 24.10 and i’m getting this message :

i’m actually booting from sd-card (all jumpers high), i don’t know exactly what i am supposed to do about the bootloader, I did some research and found this page that explains what to do for spi-nand. So I did what it says, but I still get the bootloader message. https://openwrt.org/toh/sinovoip/bananapi_bpi-r3#upgrading_bootloader

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install kmod-mtd-rw
Package kmod-mtd-rw (5.15.167+git-20160214-2) installed in root is up to date.
root@OpenWrt:~# insmod mtd-rw i_want_a_brick=1
module is already loaded - mtd-rw
root@OpenWrt:~# mtd erase fip
Unlocking fip ...
Erasing fip ...
root@OpenWrt:~# mtd write /tmp/*bananapi_bpi-r3-snand-bl31-uboot.fip fip
Unlocking fip ...

Writing from /tmp/openwrt-24.10.0-mediatek-filogic-bananapi_bpi-r3-snand-bl31-uboot.fip to fip ...
root@OpenWrt:~# # clear environment
root@OpenWrt:~# ubiupdatevol /dev/ubi0_0 -t
root@OpenWrt:~# ubiupdatevol /dev/ubi0_1 -t
root@OpenWrt:~#

What should i do now ?? thank you for helping

2

You don’t need to. SDcard Image includes ALL you need. So if you downloaded the new 24.10 sd card image and are running from that you can use official OpenWRT wiki from the installation part on how to flash onto eMMC.

If you can’t or don’t want to use serial console, you should boot your device from microSD. You can then instruct the bootloader to perform installation on the next reboot using the bootloader environment accessible from inside OpenWrt, eg. via SSH.

To instruct the bootloader to install to SPI-NAND (A=1, B=1, C=1, D=1):

root@OpenWrt:/# fw_setenv bootcmd "env default bootcmd ; saveenv ; run ubi_init ; bootmenu 0"

To instruct the bootloader to install to SPI-NOR (A=1, B=1, C=0, D=1):

root@OpenWrt:/# fw_setenv bootcmd "env default bootcmd ; saveenv ; run nor_init ; bootmenu 0"

For installation to eMMC, you need to first install to SPI-NAND, and then initialize the eMMC from there. This is because you cannot access both, microSD and eMMC, at the same time, but only what is selected on boot according to the position of dip switch D. So first install to SPI-NAND from microSD, then disconnect the board from power and set dip switches to install to eMMC (A=1, B=0, C=1, D=0). Then boot from SPI-NAND and instruct the bootloader to install to eMMC:

root@OpenWrt:/# fw_setenv bootcmd "env default bootcmd ; saveenv ; saveenv ; run emmc_init ; bootmenu 0"

3

i have the 23.05 version actually on my sdcard. Do you mean i have to flash 24.10 on it, and just boot ?

4

Yep, but you will loose the whole configuration!

5

hi.i have similar problem. i have BANANA BPI-R3 with openwrt 23.05.5 installed in emmc. my sd card on Banana BPI-R3 doesn’t work. i tried upgrading u-boot for nor and for nand and both failed and when trying to boot i don’t even get the BOOT menu via UART. the emmc boots fine and i also have nvme m.2 installed and working. how can i upgrade the u-boot and than upgrade to 24.10 without sd card? is there away to do this using usb port with sd card to usb device? ill appreciate if you can point me to the right direction to solve this. thank u

6

Is there a way to upgrade without losing configuration?

7

i just upgraded to 24.10 by flashing my sdcard, hopefully my configuration is simple so it just took me a few minutes to reconfigure.

8

I tried upgrading from 35.05.5 to 24.10 via system upgrade file/menu option, but this didn’t work. Then I tried upgrading via SD card and serial cable, but this failed too for me as my keyboard input wasnt recognized to stop endless boot cycle from SD with 24.10 image on it. I would appreciate if anybody shared their instructions how they did it.