LibreRouterOS 1.3 Release

Developer announces
#1

LibreRouterOs 1.3 “The shed”

We are happy to bring you the work of the last 6 months, with many improvements!
Thanks to everyone who collaborated with testing, documentation, development and ideas! A special recognition of the great work of @gferrero in the Lime-App, thank you Germán!
One of the most important improvements is the possibility of software updates
in a simplified way through the Lime-App :slight_smile:

We recommend updating as soon as possible, there are many improvements and corrections!

New features and improvements

Changes and improvements in LibreMesh

  • Shared password for the administration of the community nodes
  • Utilities to use Qemu as a development platform emulating a network with several nodes
  • Support for OpenWrt versions 18.06 and 19.07
  • Utility check-internet
  • Support for ethernet in batman, which makes it possible to connect nodes by ethernet without problems.
  • Improvements in DNS:
    • The node name returns the primary IP and not that of anycast
  • New configuration possibilities and assets files:
    • copy_asset to copy files
    • run_asset: to run scripts
    • generic_uci_config: to be able to configure any UCI file from libremesh
  • New functionalities of safe-upgrade:
    • Automatic reboot when the upgrade is finished. Use --no-reboot to disable this functionality.
    • Validate that the firmware is for the current device
    • Allows you to backup files from the current partition to the new one.
  • Firmware update remotely (for example through the Lime-App)

And many other small improvements and bug fixes!

Lime-App

  • New screen to update the firmware.
    • Allows you to choose a firmware image from the device.
  • Creation of the shared node administration password when creating a new network.
  • More intuitive menu item names.
  • Fix of bugs in the functionality of “Locate”, now “Map”.

General changes

  • OpenWrt updated to 18.06.8
  • Generation of automated firmwares in continuous integration of Gitlab
  • In addition to generating firmwares for the LibreRouter, they are also generated for WDR3500, WDR3600, WDR4300, x86_64 (qemu)
  • Automatic and dynamic wireless link distance configuration (using ATH_DYNACK). Configured by default.
  • Many improvements in the release process, firmware names, versions, etc.
  • Increase of the minimum multicast bitrate value for 5GHz. This improves the choice of skips for routing protocols (batman advanced and babel).

How to update

Any questions about the installation please ask here!

Simplified procedure for configured LibreRouter equipment

From this version, 1.3, the update process can be done from the Lime-App! But first we have to get to 1.3 so the procedure is more manual (for the last time!)

  1. Download the updater from https://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.3/targets/ar71xx/generic/upgrade.sh
  2. Copy the upgrader to the node: scp upgrade.sh root@thisnode.info:/tmp/
  3. Run the updater: ssh root@thisnode.info sh /tmp/upgrade.sh
  4. Wait about 2 minutes for it to update and the computer will restart
  5. Confirm the update within 10 minutes. It can be done through the Lime-App (a message appears on the screen above for that), or else entering by ssh and executing safe-upgrade confirm.

If the LibreRouter has internet, you can replace steps 1 and 2 with the following:

  • ssh root@thisnode.info" wget http://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.3/targets/ar71xx/generic/upgrade.sh -O /tmp/upgrade.sh"

Procedure for a LibreRouter not yet configured

Run on node:

  • Download: wget -O /tmp/firmware.bin http://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.3/targets/ar71xx/generic/librerouteros-1.3-r8118+1-8fa342b289-ar71xx-generic-librerouter-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
  • Update: safe-upgrade upgrade -n firmware.bin
  • Reboot: reboot
  • Confirm the update by entering with the Lime-App or by ssh executing safe-upgrade confirm

For other equipment (TP-Link 3500, 4600, 4200)

  • Download the required version from https://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.3/targets/ar71xx/generic/
  • To simplify the next steps it is advisable to rename the downloaded file to firmware.bin
  • Copy firmware to node: scp firmware.bin root@thisnode.info: /tmp/
    • If you want to keep the configuration:
      • Make a backup of the configuration: tar cvfz /tmp/archive.tar.gz /etc/config/lime-node /etc/config/lime-community /etc/config/libremap /etc/dropbear/ /root/.ssh/known_hosts /etc/shadow
      • Update sysupgrade -f /tmp/archive.tar.gz /tmp/firmware.bin
    • If it is not required to maintain the configuration:
      • Update sysupgrade -n /tmp/firmware.bin
1 Like
#2

Does this work from LibreRouterOS v1.0 and v1.1, or only from v1.2?

#3

It should work from LROs 1.0 and 1.1!

#4

The upgrade went smoothly on a LibreRouter that I had not configured.

However, on another LR that I had modified (changed the node name and set a wifi password), I didn’t want to keep my modifications, so I used safe-upgrade instead of updater.sh. When the LR rebooted, I went to thisnode.info, and got the message “Un unexpected error occurred, please contact the developer team” and none of the LiMe-App menu items work. I can login via SSH, so I tried something that works in OpenWrt: firstboot -y & reboot. Now when I go to thisnode.info, the node name has been reset to default, but the same error is present.

What information do you need from me in order to diagnose this error?

Thanks is advance :slight_smile:

#5

Hi @patogit! It seems that the error is related to a cache problem in the browser. Can you try refreshing the URL in the browser?

#6

Perfect! I refreshed the page and everything works now. Thanks @SAn :slight_smile:

This was a very simple error to resolve, and maybe there’s a simple way to avoid it completely? As I am doing right now, I think many people connect to various LRs in the same hour, especially while setting up a network or preparing LRs for a workshop. Do you think there’s a way to put a tag in the Lime-App code that prompts the browser to discard the cached page for thisnode.info when connecting to a different LR or a recently-reset LR? I see the term “cache busting”, maybe it’s relevant?