I'm confused again-still/as usual...

Setting up to "upgrade" my mesh nodes...

In the node itself the term used is "firmware"? On broadband-hamnet.org the
term used is "software"? Unless I am looking in the wrong place... Are
those two words synonymous?

When I go into any of my node | administration menus I see a place for
Firmware Update and dialogues for Uploading from local hard drive or
Downloading from someplace else.

My WRT54G node's current version of software/firmware is: 1.0.0

Node is connected to internet.

When I refresh the "Select Firmware" Download list there appears a list of
four items:
bbhn-1.0.0-brcm.trx
hsmm-mesh-0.4.3-brcm.trx
Linksys-WRT54GL.trx
Linksys-WRT54G.trx

Hold that thought...

When I go to http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/software-download.html and see
the header Software Download there is a table listing "Broadband Hamnet
firmware" and there I see the first item:
bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx to upgrade an existing mesh node.

I have downloaded that item to a local hard drive.

Which file should I use to do this "upgrade"?

How come the bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx file does not appear in the
node's "Select Firmware" list

Once the upgrade file is uploaded to the node will it be necessary to redo
all the steps regarding Node Name, and Password as found in "Firmware
Installation Instructions" under the heading "DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!!"?


~ajo

ajo,

Use the file bbhn-3.0.0-brcm-2.4.squashfs.trx to upgrade/upload from any/all prior versions of bbhn on linksys.

The terms firmware and software and the lines between them are often blurred. Embedded devices refer to loading the 'firmware' or the controlling software of the device. In our case with bbhn, the firmware is a linux operating system and the devices have the capabilities approaching a desktop computer, except very limited with cpu performance, memory, and disk space. We start to talk about the 'software' or programs we can load on this 'computer', same as on a desktop computer.

I've not looked on linksys for a while, did you try the "refresh" button to see if the 3.0.0 shows up in the link? The list can only be 'refreshed' if you have an internet gateway node on your mesh or this linksys node is directly plugged into the internet on the WAN port.

Joe AE6XE

"Once the upgrade file is uploaded to the node will it be necessary to redo all the steps regarding Node Name, and Password as found in "Firmware Installation Instructions" under the heading "DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!!!"?"

Yes. There has been discussion on preserving the configuration from upgrade to upgrade, but this gets increasingly complicated when advanced and/or manual settings have been applied. The jury is still out as to what extent settings can and will be preserved across an upgrade, but do look for this in a future release. There's a related request to make it easier to upgrade remote nodes that are not readily accessible.

BBHN->ticket:72 created for the issue with the firmware list not showing the latest firmware releases to avoid this re-occurring.