How to Firmware Upgrade Ubiquiti UniFI AP Long Range

Just bought some used Ubiquiti UniFI AP Long Range access points for my own internal project. The UniFi came with old firmware version 2.4.8.2200. So first thing I have to do is upgrade the firmware to the latest version.

Firmware-Upgrade-Ubiquiti-UniFI-AP

Basically we can do firmware upgrade of the Ubiquiti UniFI by using the controller. Add the UniFI into the controller and then adopt it. Once it is connected to internet it will automatically detect available firmware update.

However using this method seems not work. The UniFi AP disconnected several times while updating. After waiting for around 30 minutes without success, I tried to upgrade the firmware using local upgrade via SSH. Using this method the firmware upgraded successfully.

Follow the below instructions on how to do firmware upgrade of the Ubiquiti UniFi AP

1. Download the firmware from https://www.ui.com/download/unifi. Make sure that you choose the correct firmware for your UniFi AP device.

2. Change the firmware filename to fwupdate.bin

$ mv BZ.ar7240.v4.0.69.10871.191109.0532.bin fwupdate.bin

4. Upload the fwupdate.bin file to the UniFi AP by using SSH / SCP

$ scp Downloads/fwupdate.bin ubnt@192.168.123.106:
ubnt@192.168.123.106's password: 
fwupdate.bin 100% 7032KB 1.3MB/s 00:05

Change the IP 192.168.123.106 to your Unifi AP IP address. Login using default username and password of UniFi AP (username: ubnt password: ubnt)

If you see errors when you tried to upload the file via SCP/SSH like below:

Unable to negotiate with 192.168.123.106 port 22: no matching key exchange method found. Their offer: diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

then you need to add the option in the ssh / scp command as follows:

$ scp -oKexAlgorithms=+diffie-hellman-group1-sha1 -c aes256-cbc Downloads/fwupdate.bin ubnt@192.168.123.106:
ubnt@192.168.123.106's password: 
fwupdate.bin 100% 7032KB 1.3MB/s 00:05

3. Login to the UniFi AP using SSH and check the current version. Check the UniFI information by typing ‘info’ in the terminal.

BZ.v2.4.8# info

Model: UAP-LR
Version: 2.4.8.2200
MAC Address: 24:a4:3c:98:27:78
IP Address: 192.168.123.106
Uptime: 381 seconds

As you can see above, the firmware version of the UniFi AP is version 2.4.8.2200.

4. Upgrade the firmware

fwupdate.bin file should currently be in the root / home directory. Verify by using ‘ls’ command. Move the fwupdate.bin to temporary folder (/tmp)

BZ.v2.4.8# mv fwupdate.bin /tmp/

Now run the upgrade script ‘syswrapper.sh upgrade2 &’

BZ.v2.4.8# syswrapper.sh upgrade2 &
BZ.v2.4.8# Switching to ramdisk
Writing 'u-boot ' to /dev/mtd0(u-boot ) ... [%100]
Writing 'kernel ' to /dev/mtd2(kernel ) ... [%100]
Writing 'kernel ' to /dev/mtd3(rootfs ) ... [%100]
Could not open U-Boot env MTD device: open(/dev/mtd1) failed: No such file or directory
Done

During the update, the Unifi LED will be blinking green and orange. You can ignore the warning / error message ‘Could not open U-Boot env MTD device: open(/dev/mtd1) failed: No such file or directory’

Login to the UniFI AP and verify the firmware version by using ‘info’ command.

$ ssh 192.168.123.106 -l ubnt
ubnt@192.168.123.106's password: 


BusyBox v1.25.1 () built-in shell (ash)


___ ___ .__________.__
| | |____ |__\_ ____/__|
| | / \| || __) | | (c) 2010-2019
| | | | \ || \ | | Ubiquiti Networks, Inc.
|______|___| /__||__/ |__|
|_/ https://www.ui.com/

Welcome to UniFi UAP-LR!

UBNT-BZ.v4.0.69# info

Model: UAP-LR
Version: 4.0.69.10871
MAC Address: 24:a4:3c:98:27:78
IP Address: 192.168.123.106
Hostname: UBNT
Uptime: 169 seconds

The UniFI AP has been successfully upgraded.