Sysupgrade

I should have discovered this years ago!

I never came across this feature, and it was apparently available a few versions ago. Just now, when version 25.12.0 was officially released, I learned how to simplify upgrading from one version to another (I did this from 24.10.2 to 25.12.0).

I have developed my own routine for backing up packages and configuration files, installing a new image, and restoring everything. To be honest, I always hate doing that, especially in a business environment, as it always requires some downtime. This is why I sometimes fall behind on some sub-versions of OpenWrt firmware (I was still on 24.10.2 instead of 24.10.5).

When you cannot afford extended downtime, you can minimise it with this approach: Attended Sysupgrade (ASU).

In the past, I have followed a method of updating OpenWrt devices with an option to restore all installed packages and their configurations without needing to spend hours on reconfiguring and testing everything.

This method uses a simple script run in the terminal to generate a list of installed packages, followed by a web interface to generate a backup file used to restore everything.

As long as the backup file is generated correctly, the restoration process works well, but the problem arises when it isn’t!

On several routers with OpenWrt (24.10.x) that I worked with over recent weeks, I experienced a strange issue that caused me to rethink how I generate a backup file to later use to restore all packages and settings after updating OpenWrt to the latest version.

I discovered this issue the hard way when I wanted to extract a backup to retrieve some configuration from individual files. I noticed that the backup failed to extract correctly.