Mikrotik Os Installation On Pc

[Noreen]

MikroTikdevices are preinstalled with RouterOS, so installation is usually not needed, except in the case where installing RouterOS on an x86 PC or virtual instance CHR. The upgrade procedure on already installed devices is straightforward.

RouterOS versions are numbered sequentially when a period is used to separate sequences, it does not represent a decimal point, and the sequences do not have positional significance. An identifier of 2.5, for instance, is not "two and a half" or "halfway to version three", it is the fifth second-level revision of the second first-level revision. Therefore v5.2 is older than v5.18, which is newer.

RouterOS versions are released in several "release chains": Long term, Stable, Testing, and Development. When upgrading RouterOS, you can choose a release chain from which to install the new packages.

The package upgrade feature connects to the MikroTik download servers and checks if there is another RouterOS version for your device under the selected release channel. Can also be used for downgrading, if you, for example, are using stable release at the moment, but changed the release channel to the long-term.

After clicking the Upgrade button in QuickSet or in the Packages menu upgrade window will open with the current Changelog (if a newer version exists) and buttons to download and install the latest versions.

By clicking "Download & Install", downloads will start, and after a successful download will reboot to install the downloaded packages. Even if custom packages are installed, the downloader will take that into account and download all necessary packages.

Choose your system type, and download the upgrade package. Connect to your router with Winbox, Select the downloaded file with your mouse, and drag it to the Files menu. If some files are already present, make sure to put the package in the root menu, not inside the hotspot folder! The upload will start.

You can automate the upgrade process by running a script in the system scheduler. This script queries the MikroTik upgrade servers for new versions, if the response received says "New version is available", the script then issues the upgrade command:

Your device must support booting from ethernet, and there must be a direct ethernet link from the NetInstall computer to the target device. All RouterBOARDs support PXE network booting, it must be enabled inside RouterOS "routerboard" menu if RouterOS is operable or in the bootloader settings. For this, you will need a serial cable.

Note: For RouterBOARD devices with no serial port, and no RouterOS access, the reset button can also start PXE booting mode. See your RouterBOARD manual PDF for details.

NetInstall can also directly install RouterOS on a disk (USB/CF/IDE/SATA) that is connected to the Netinstall Windows machine. After installation just move the disk to the Router machine and boot from it.

Ray KK6RAY (formerly KM6WUH) devised a procedure to install AREDN firmware on Mikrotik using a Windows computer. The widespread familiarity with Windows and fewer steps in Ray's procedure should greatly reduce any anxiety you may have about trying a Mikrotik unit.

Ray produced a 20-minute video to demonstrate the installation procedure. The video is on YouTube here.

In addition to a Windows computer, an AREDN-supported Mikrotik device (see Supported Platform Matrix), and an Ethernet cable, you will need:

NOTE: Ray updated these instructions with the following: "If your home WiFi network gives you an IP address in the 192.168.1.x subnet, you will need to disconnect from the WiFi. In my case, my home WiFi router gives me a 10.0.0.x IP address, so I had conflicts remaining connected to my home network while flashing."

In the Firmware Tips section of the How-To Guide you will find assistance if you experience an issue uploading firmware to your device. The How-To Guide also contains a Virtual Machine Installs section for help installing x86_64 firmware images on a VM for a virtualized node.

For all of the device models discussed below you will be asked to set a static IP address on your computer as part of the install process. Various computer operating systems have different ways of accomplishing this, and there is a wealth of information in computer manuals, publications, and online resources to walk you through the steps for your specific computer.

If you choose not to use an intermediary network switch, then you will be responsible for making sure your computer maintains an active interface with the static IP address. You may need to power on the node temporarily in order for your computer to bring up its interface, but then immediately power off the node in order to follow the installation instructions for your model. Having an intermediary network switch eliminates these steps.

Depending on your computer operating system you may not have various command line tools available on your computer. The required tools are native to both Linux and MacOS computers. For Windows computers you may need to enable specific features or install appropriate programs as noted below.

These devices are programmed to download a boot image from an external source. Your computer will provide the Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) which will give the node an IP address via DHCP as well as providing the firmware image via TFTP.

If you have a Windows computer you must install and configure a PXE server. The examples below use Tiny PXE which can be downloaded from erwan.labalec.fr. There may be other alternative Windows programs that accomplish the same goal, such as ERPXE or Serva. For TP-LINK devices you may be able to run a simple TFTP server such as Tftpd64 as explained in the TP-LINK section below.

The recommended method for installing AREDN firmware is to download and follow the appropriate Install Checklist below which matches your device hardware. Additional descriptions are also provided in the sections that follow.

Download the Install Checklist for Ubiquiti 802.11n devices. These devices have a built-in TFTP server to which you can upload the AREDN factory image. Your computer must have TFTP client software available. For more information, see the Preparing Your Computer section above.

Different TFTP client programs may have different command line options or flags that must be used, so be sure to study the command syntax for your TFTP client software. The example shown below may not include the specific options required by your client program.

You can choose any number for the fourth octet, as long as it is not the same as the IP address of the node. Of course you must also avoid using 192.168.1.0 and 192.168.1.255, which are reserved addresses that identify the network itself and the broadcast address for that network. Other devices may have different default IP addresses or subnets, so select a static IP for your computer which puts it on the same subnet but does not conflict with the default IP of the device.

Open a command window on your computer and execute a file transfer command to send the AREDN firmware to your device. Target the default IP address of your Ubiquiti node, such as 192.168.1.20 (or 192.168.1.1 for AirRouters). The following is one example of TFTP commands that transfer the firmware image to a node:

The installing computer must be capable of connecting to the command line of the target device. This will require that the computer support both the ssh and scp protocols. SSH and scp are native to both Linux and MacOS. The OpenSSH package (which contains both commands) can be enabled on Windows computers. For more information, see the Preparing Your Computer section above.

Before you install AREDN firmware on a Ubiquiti 802.11ac device, you must first make sure it is running a specific version of the standard Ubiquiti AirOS software. This procedure will not work if the device is running any other version. Fortunately you can upgrade or downgrade the standard Ubiquiti software.

Once the upgrade has been completed, the device will return you to the login page. Log in using the username and password you created earlier (admin / admin!23). Once again you will see the System page and if everything has been successful, the firmware version will now read either WA.V8.7.0 or XC.V8.7.0 and you can move to Step 2.

The upgrade can fail on newer hardware which requires 8.7.4 firmware. This problem has only been observed and tested on newer LiteBeam 5AC devices. For these devices, follow the same firmware downgrade procedure but use the following firmware instead:

To install the AREDN firmware you first need to create a program to do this. Ubiquiti devices expect signed firmware but AREDN is not signed, so we need to bypass the checking process. To do this type or copy/paste the following two commands:

These commands take the standard Ubiquiti program used for flashing new firmware and change a few bytes to create our own version with the signature checking code disabled. The first command can take a little while to complete but when successful will return you to the shell prompt.

Do not unplug the device until the flashing process is complete and the device has rebooted. The device will install the AREDN image, boot into it, and end up on IP address 192.168.1.1 as a normal AREDN device. If you cannot connect to the device on its new IP address after five minutes, power cycle the device and try connecting to 192.168.1.1 again. You can then configure the device by following the steps in the Basic Radio Setup section of the documentation.

Download the Install Checklist for Mikrotik devices. These devices require a two-part install process: First, boot the correct Mikrotik initramfs-kernel file, and then use that temporary AREDN environment to complete the installation of the appropriate sysupgrade file.

Mikrotik devices have a built-in PXE client which allows them to download a boot image from an external source. See the Preparing Your Computer section above for an explanation. The Windows example below uses Tiny PXE, while the Linux example uses the native dnsmasq program.

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