How To: Recover from a bad firmware 2.0.4 OTA flash

[humor4fun]

Hopefully my misery over the past 14 hours can help solve someone elses problems. If you find this page READ THE WHOLE THING. I flashed and reflashed and downgraded my firmware probably 15 times during my testing and set up. This seems to have worked.

When I power on the device (Mark V, powered using official wall adapter) the device settles with a solid green light and blinking blue light (steady blink, constant interval). This will continue for over 8 hours (let it go all night after multiple 30 and 60 minute tests). The device responds to a ping during bootup but after it has steadied, pings timeout. The web interface at 172.16.42.1:1471 also times out.

This happened as a result of trying to initiate an OTA update from 1.2.0 to 2.0.4. I logged in to the pineapple web interface and initiated the OTA update, the process finished from the GUI standpoint but the lights on the device continued to show solid green and flashing blue for 2 hours before I decided it was probably time to give up.

Flash a new Factory Firmware

1. Downloaded the Factory1.2.0.bin file from the site here
2. Verified the md5
3. Used the 11110 ds settings to boot the device
4. Connect via ethernet and static address 192.168.1.2
5. Conect via web interface at 192.168.1.1
6. Uploaded factory1.2.0.bin and proceeded to flash the firmware
7. Wait for the page to suggest it is ready for a reboot
8. Power down the device
9. Reset ds to 11111
10. Power on the device
11. Wait for the installation process to finish <<<<------ This is the point where I get stuck at the solid green & blinking blue situation above

Reset to Factory Firmware

1. Used the 10011 ds settings to boot the device
2. Allow for flashing process; wait until the red/blue/amber lights are rotating in cycle (with solid green)
3. Power down the device
4. Reset ds to 11111
5. Power on the device
6. Connect ethernet with static address 172.16.42.42
7. Wait for 3-5 minutes until lights rotate in cycle again
8. Connect to web interface at 172.16.42.1:1471
9. Create a password and accept licence and eula (this causes the lights to be solid green and blinking blue)
10. Wait for device to finish configuration; lights settle at solid green, amber and blue
11. Click Continue on the setup page
12. Log in with my password
13. The browser shows the following status (title bar, logout button, but does not ever load the full interface)
14. 
15. To get past this, you need to reset your browser cache or use a fresh browser, and then the interface loads with FW1.2.0 successfully installed.

Good luck!

[fringes]

So you did you ever get 2.0.4 installed? It looks like you only used the ethernet interface, right?

Needing to clear the browser cache is an obvious necessity that apparently gets overlooked often. The JS and CSS files often change between versions but keep the same names, so your browser can't tell the difference. I think I read that Seb plans to address that in the future.

[Sebkinne]

So you did you ever get 2.0.4 installed? It looks like you only used the ethernet interface, right?

Needing to clear the browser cache is an obvious necessity that apparently gets overlooked often. The JS and CSS files often change between versions but keep the same names, so your browser can't tell the difference. I think I read that Seb plans to address that in the future.

Yes, the issue will not be present in the next firmware.

Best Regards,

Sebkinne

[humor4fun]

I have not successfully updated to 2.0.4 yet (been distracted by DerbyCon, which I was disappointed to not see a hak5 booth this year).

I'll be trying to finish the update process later tonight and I'll edit my post to add the necessary steps that I had to take.

[humor4fun]

I just spent a few hours today trying to upgrade the firmware from the Factory1.2.0.bin image to the Upgrade2.0.4.bin image. I've tried doing it via the web interface OTA method as well as the manual method, but it looks like my device just gets stuck in some sort of limbo. Here's what I've done so far to try the manual upgrade:

Upgrade to the New Firmware

1. Download the new firmware file (Upgrade2.0.4.bin)
2. I renamed it to upgrade.bin for ease of use
3. Connect ethernet with static address 172.16.42.42
4. Use puttyscp to upload the file to the pineapple
5. pscp C:\Users\cholt\Downloads\upgrade.bin root@172.16.42.1:/tmp/upgrade.bin
6. Use Putty to connect to the pineapple through SSH
7. cd /tmp/
8. md5sum upgrade.bin
9. Compare the md5 hash to the posted one
10. If an only if the md5 has matches, then continue
11. sysupgrade -n -v /tmp/upgrade.bin
12. Wait for the system to reboot itself
13. Clear browser cache again (you can do this while it’s rebooting)
14. During the reboot process, you will see solid green and blinking blue lights; after it is finished booting, you should see solid green solid/flashing blue and solid/flashing amber
15. Run an infinite Ping to see when the device comes back online (it never did)

How long should it take for the upgrade process to complete? the longest I've waited was 45 minutes.

[python2004]

Hopefully my misery over the past 14 hours can help solve someone elses problems. If you find this page READ THE WHOLE THING. I flashed and reflashed and downgraded my firmware probably 15 times during my testing and set up. This seems to have worked.

When I power on the device (Mark V, powered using official wall adapter) the device settles with a solid green light and blinking blue light (steady blink, constant interval). This will continue for over 8 hours (let it go all night after multiple 30 and 60 minute tests). The device responds to a ping during bootup but after it has steadied, pings timeout. The web interface at 172.16.42.1:1471 also times out.

This happened as a result of trying to initiate an OTA update from 1.2.0 to 2.0.4. I logged in to the pineapple web interface and initiated the OTA update, the process finished from the GUI standpoint but the lights on the device continued to show solid green and flashing blue for 2 hours before I decided it was probably time to give up.

Flash a new Factory Firmware

1. Downloaded the Factory1.2.0.bin file from the site here
2. Verified the md5
3. Used the 11110 ds settings to boot the device
4. Connect via ethernet and static address 192.168.1.2
5. Conect via web interface at 192.168.1.1
6. Uploaded factory1.2.0.bin and proceeded to flash the firmware
7. Wait for the page to suggest it is ready for a reboot
8. Power down the device
9. Reset ds to 11111
10. Power on the device
11. Wait for the installation process to finish <<<<------ This is the point where I get stuck at the solid green & blinking blue situation above

Reset to Factory Firmware

1. Used the 10011 ds settings to boot the device
2. Allow for flashing process; wait until the red/blue/amber lights are rotating in cycle (with solid green)
3. Power down the device
4. Reset ds to 11111
5. Power on the device
6. Connect ethernet with static address 172.16.42.42
7. Wait for 3-5 minutes until lights rotate in cycle again
8. Connect to web interface at 172.16.42.1:1471
9. Create a password and accept licence and eula (this causes the lights to be solid green and blinking blue)
10. Wait for device to finish configuration; lights settle at solid green, amber and blue
11. Click Continue on the setup page
12. Log in with my password
13. The browser shows the following status (title bar, logout button, but does not ever load the full interface)
14. 
15. To get past this, you need to reset your browser cache or use a fresh browser, and then the interface loads with FW1.2.0 successfully installed.

What does 9 from above mean?? Solid green and blinking blue appears when the device is awaiting acceptance of EULA??

I thought that means the device is booting up?