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Ubiquiti Rocket M5 Fails to Accept AREDN 3.16.1.1

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KK6DA
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Ubiquiti Rocket M5 Fails to Accept AREDN 3.16.1.1
AREDN gurus, this newby is stuck. So I'm attempting to flash a Rocket M5 -- my third experience in doing this (it does get easier). The unit accepted the downgrade to AirOS to 5.5.10, and the U-Boot test gave me two GREENs. All is well. I call up the file AREDN-3.16.1.1-ubnt-rocket-m-squashfs-factory.bin and upload to AirOS, which returns an error message: "Firmware image check failed. Error Code -6"  I re-downloaded the files several times -- same result. I even re-flashed the unit back up to 5.6 and then flashed again downgrading to 5.5. Same result. Any guesses please?

David Ahrendts, KK6DA, Los Angeles
AE6XE
AE6XE's picture
The latest boot loader
The latest boot loader versions of u-boot will give this kind of error message when trying to load an AREDN 3.16.1.1 or earlier image.  Best guess is the boot loader was never over written with the older version that is compatible with AREDN.  Does the u-boot tester show us the version of u-boot?  This is the critical data point to confirm what exists on the device.  There is  also a command line to type in AirOS to find out the version and confirm.   Let's get the specific version of u-boot on the device and then go from there.
AE6XE
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David, where about are you in
David, where about are you in LA area?   Verdugo Pk just swung around a 5Ghz to have coverage SW.   Pasadena has coveage southward.   Pleasants Pk has coverage, but a bit of a distance away.

Joe AE6XE
KG6JEI
A -6 error code isn't from

A -6 error code isn't from the boot loader its from the GUI. U-Boot has nothing to do with this.

On quick glance this sounds like this may be an XW M5 Rocket  which we do not currently support under the 3.16.1.1 release (have to be using the latest release candidate for rocket XW support)
KK6DA
KK6DA's picture
AREDN U-Boot Tester v. 1.1.4
AREDN U-Boot Tester v. 1.1.4.0 from 2015 from the web site about a month ago used when I flashed an NS2 and NS5.
Now, thanks to Orv, W6BI, I have successfully installed this file (which must be familiar to you):  AREDN-AE6XE-olsrd-gps-ubnt-rocket-m-xwsquashfs-factory.bin
Successsful flash to the AREDN program, 
Located in Los Feliz and I think I do have LOS to Verdugo.
Now I have a new problem: I've sucessfully given the program a new working name and password, but something got confused with the PW, so I've locked myself out. What's recommended reset procedure or password retireve?

David A., KK6DA
KK6DA
KK6DA's picture
OK, discovered the Ubiquiti
OK, discovered the Ubiquiti re-set button. Held for 15-seconds and now back to just-flashed status. Will carefully try again.
 
AE6XE
AE6XE's picture
David, the 3.17.1.0RC1 with
David, the 3.17.1.0RC1 with support for XW will also work.   The image you are using is testing an upgrade of olsr (the routing decision making program). We're working to address an issue in 3.17.1.0RC1 the Ventura group discovered.    W6BI would give more details separately if interested.     

I see the issue of XW firmware (a different chipset in your hardware rev) was identified.   my comments were related to the situation of using the 'tftp' method as I read the post to quickly. 

Your QTH is only 8.4 miles to Verdugo with a clear north-south line.    With a Rocket, what kind of antenna are you using?   The rocketdish will certainly do the trick.  You could connect into a sector out to 40+ miles with that.  At 8.4 miles distance you could get a  50+Mpbs link with a Nanobridge 5G25 for 1/3 the price, and easier to install.  Something to consider is putting a 5Ghz sector on the rocket to cover LA area.    Looks like you have some height that other hams blocked line-of-sight to Verdugo could then hop though you.   

Joe AE6XE
K5DLQ
K5DLQ's picture
sounds like it may be an XW
sounds like it may be an XW device.  If so, you must use the rocket-xw firmware file.
W6MJS
W6MJS's picture
Any Updates to this?

I just picked up an AirMax M5 Rocket (XW firmware build/test date of 7-28-16 ) and was able to downgrade it to 5.5 .10 AirOS just fine but both the AREDN 3.16.1.1  and AREDN  3.17.1.0RC1 failed with the same error code as mentioned by the OP.   I was able to get the nightly build of AREDN-develop-171-69937359-ubnt-rocket-m-xw-squashfs-factory.bin to load ok.     I have yet to try and connect to other nodes in my area and since I'm new to MESH I wanted to know if this would cause problems or am I supposed to keep "dev" devices of the network? 

If the later when is there going to be an allowed on the network version released?

Edit...  I found the AREDN  3.17.1.0RC1 "XW" for the M5 Rocket as it was also listed alongside the PowerBeam PBE-M5-400 towards the bottom of the release candidates webpage page which caused me to miss it at first since it was not listed with the other Rocket devices.

Thanks

Mike
W6MJS

AE6XE
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Mike,   The 3.16.1.1 and
Mike,   The 3.16.1.1 and prior releases don't have support for the Rocket XW models.  There isn't a 3.16.1.1 image that will load.   

Using the "Nightly Build" images comes with the understanding that we are actively making changes and at points in time some new features may not have been tested very much and there will be unknowns, possibly other broken features.   

A "Release Candidate" has had sufficient testing that we think it is ready to release,  but we want everyone to stress test in many different environments to be sure.    As of today, I would consider the build #171 better than the RC version for the Rocket XW.  (Not necessarily true of all models.)

There are a lot of people running the Rocket XW in production use on the RC images for 9 months or more.   There are probably a dozen Rocket XWs on the ocmesh.org network here in SoCal and I see the stability comparable to nodes and other devices running 3.16.1.1, except for one configuration scenario that you will not encounter when there are RF links established to the device. 

Joe AE6XE
W6MJS
W6MJS's picture
Thanks Joe
Thank you Joe for the reply.  I'm slowly moving forward in my progress into MESH networking :-)

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