Unable to upgrade firmware

[iconoclast-net]

I have an ISY994iZ/ir-pro that I have been unable to upgrade from 4.0.5.  It's been working fine otherwise for years now, but I had to replace an insteon switch recently and the newer switch model isn't recognized by the ISY and I thought recent firmware might solve that.  Except that I can't seem to get it to upgrade the firmware.  Almost everything I try just results in the dreaded "(reported written size is invalid)" message.

I've tried the "automatic upgrade" option.  I've tried to "manually upgrade".  At various points I've tried to upgrade to 4.7.3, 4.6.2, 4.3.26 and even 5.0.15.

I've checked the downloaded zip files to make sure they weren't being mangled by firefox, I've re-downloaded them with curl, and I even matched the md5sum of the 4.7.3 against the one pulled down by the "automatic upgrade" option.

I've started the admin console through a browser, and I've started it directly with javaws.  I've deleted my java cache many times.  I've tried using Java 8 and I've tried with Java 7 (for the older firmwares at least).  I even attempted to use Java 11 at one point but it doesn't seem to know what to do with a .jnlp anymore.

I made sure there are no  firewalls or other barriers between me and the ISY and I've removed everything else from the network until I literally had just an ethernet cable going from my laptop to the ISY without so much as a hub in between.

I tried removing and reinserting the sdcard.  and after that I tried mounting the sdcard on my laptop and directly unzipping the upgrade files onto it overwriting the old ones.  While this did side-step the "invalid size" message, it also didn't result in an upgrade.  Actually this resulted in an odd situation where the "About" box reports that the ui version is 4.7.3 but the firmware version is still 4.0.5.  I double checked the size and timestamps of the files on the sdcard to make sure it didn't write only the WEB folder, but everything from the zip was there. 

So then I tried a factory reset.  And after that didn't do the trick I tried reformatting the sdcard (on the ISY via telnet) combined with a factory reset and manually unzipping the upgrade onto the now-empty sdcard.  Even after this the ISY showed it was running the newer ui code but insisted it was running firmware 4.0.5.  I checked the firmware version reported in telnet just in case there was an odd bug in the About box code, but it too showed firmware version 4.0.5. 

I don't even know where it's loading 4.0.5 from, because it's not on the sdcard at this point.  I would assume that must be what's burned into the rom except that after a factory reset you have to go through a special start url to bootstrap it back to a working configuration, which would imply that there isn't a full working firmware burned into the hardware, but that's just my guess. 

I also found that the admin console from 5.0.15 will refuse to do anything except attempt an upgrade (which fails with the usual "size is invalid" message) while the 4.x versions will continue to run as usual despite being unable to upgrade the firmware.   I've also found that restoring my configuration from a backup works splendidly, so that part is good at least.

I've searched the forums and anything google could find and I'm still unable to upgrade so I'm posting here.  Any suggestions are most welcome.

Thanks

 

 

 

 

[bdw72]

I believe this was the same problem I had and I had to disable my anti-virus and was able to get the upgrade to work after that.

[Techman]

Are you using the ISY launcher to open the admin console?

If so and you're still unable to update then open a support ticket:   support@universal-devices.com

They're quick to respond and will get you up and running

 

 

[iconoclast-net]

I did try using the ISY launcher, including after a factory reset, and the results were the same as when I pointed a browser directly at the ISY or when I launched the jnlp with javaws.   For what it's worth, the ISY launcher doesn't auto-detect my ISY but I can hit the Add button and feed it the ip address of the ISY (with the http:// prefix and no trailing slash) and then launch the admin console from there.  The extra steps to launch it that way don't seem to affect the resulting behavior of the admin console for upgrade attempts.

 

[Techman]

It's possible that with all the upgrade attempts, especially with the various versions of the firmware, you've corrupted your existing firmware.

You should only be using the ISY Launcher to access your admin console.

At this point it's best to submit a support ticket.

[Michel Kohanim]

@iconoclast-net,

Definitely related to firewall software on your computer. Please either put ISY in the trusted zone or use https.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[iconoclast-net]

Although it's possible that the existing firmware is corrupted, it appears to work fine for everything except upgrading to a newer version.

There are no firewalls running on this computer, iptables is empty, and no anti-virus software is running.  This is certainly not how I normally run my computers, but specifically for purposes of getting the upgrade to work I stripped everything down, removed everything else from the network and shut down all services and extraneous processes. 

It seems that https doesn't work at all.  I checked the configuration and it should be speaking https on port 443, but the browser refuses to connect to it all.  I suspect that perhaps there may not be much overlap between what the old firmware supports and what modern browsers consider the minimum requirements for SSL/TLS.  I haven't pulled out wireshark to try and debug it further since http pulls up the admin console.  The isy launcher also seems to recognize the device using http but not https.  I tried a real CA-signed certificate or anything since I don't expose the ISY interface to the open internet.

I would have thought that writing directly to the sdcard would bypass any issues with https or firewalls or other network related concerns.  I can debug the https connection further if it's expected to be relevant.

 

 

[mwester]

Try a Windows machine, or a Mac -- Linux systems are known to have issues doing the upgrade (yes, that's a problem on the ISY's networking stack, that's been noted on other threads).

[Michel Kohanim]

@iconoclast-net,

I responded to your ticket with a couple of suggestions. And, you closed the ticket. So, may I assume that this is solved?

With kind regards,
Michel

[iconoclast-net]

I haven't closed the ticket.  The ticket currently shows its status as "Awaiting customer reply".

However, the file you attached to the ticket is actually the first forward progress I've had on this so far.  It is a bit of "two steps forward and one step back", but we can continue from there in the ticket if you prefer, as It probably doesn't makes sense to do it in both places.