Which .bin file to flash Turris Omnia Router

[tcb]

Just purchased a used Turris Omnia and seek to install Gargoyle upon it.

Instructions on Gargoyle site say to download the 'correct' factory.bin file and flash over the stock firmware.

However, Gargoyle site provides two *.bin files but I can locate no docs to determine which of the following two .bin files is the correct file to use and when.

• gargoyle_1.11.0-mvebu-cortexa9-turris-omnia-initramfs-kernel.bin
  
  gargoyle_1.11.0-mvebu-cortexa9-turris-omnia-kernel.bin

Can anyone provide links to documentation that would inform me which .bin file to use and the best/safest way to flash my Turris Omnia Router?

Thanks in advance!

[RomanHK]

If TurrisOS is currently installed, be careful and have a serial cable with you . TurrisOS in defaut supports the BTRFS file system and Gargoyle (OpenWrt) F2FS file system - it has some limitations as OpenWrt: https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/turris/t ... rris_omnia

Here's how to load OpenWrt - Gargoyle's firmware is similar: https://openwrt.org/toh/turris_cz.nic/t ... .nic_omnia Method1 or Method2.

If you are already using Openwrt, you must first load "loader" (xxx-initramfs.tar.gz) eg omnia-medkit-gargoyle_1.11.x-mvebu-cortexa9-turris-omnia-initramfs.tar.gz and then firmware (xxx-sysupgrade.img.gz) eg gargoyle_1.11.x-mvebu-cortexa9-turris-omnia-sysupgrade.img.gz: https://openwrt.org/toh/turris_cz.nic/t ... .nic_omnia Method1

P.S. I've never tried the *.bin method and I've never found a way to use it.

[tcb]

Roman,

Thanks for the links!

They'll give me plenty to look into before I begin any flashing.

In the meantime, as you suggest using a serial cable rather than an ethernet cable, do you have any recommendations on where to purchase either an Omnia-compatible serial or JTAG cable, or find instructions for building one? I typically use a Mac Laptop, but could just as easily use a Linux laptop for making a console/CLI connection to the Omnia router.

I use to work in embedded systems many years ago and would like to avoid wasting a lot of time getting a working connection to my router

TCB

[RomanHK]

Yes, this router model is a bit more complicated at the OpenWrt transition though TurrisOS is based on OpenWrt, but the hardware is really perfect.

Here's how to connect the serial cable to the router. There is also an example of the type of cable that is used. In theory, you can use any USB TTL serial adapter that is powered by USB and does not need 3.3V from the router (Omnia has 3.3V, so there is no problem). The line with the cable is a datasheet.

To lighten:
Serial connection with router: https://doc.turris.cz/doc/en/troublesho ... rris_omnia
Cable example: https://www.ftdichip.com/Products/Cables/RPi.htm
Datasheet USB TTL: https://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Docume ... 2R_RPi.pdf