hazarjast wrote: Wed Aug 16, 2023 8:25 am
Firmware recovery isn’t possible over SSH to my knowledge. Others have used the TFTP instructions successfully, if they are not working I would recommend going through the steps again carefully to ensure nothing was missed and/or trying a 30-30-30 reset (details on netgear support site and elsewhere online).
TLDR - I have the router working again.
I was not familiar with the 30-30-30 reset, so I looked up the procedure to try it. After performing it, when I accessed the router IP address in my browser, I was greeted with the initial Orbi setup screens (option to set up satellites, set the admin password and security questions, etc.). After I did those steps, I was able to login and found that the Voxel firmware was still installed.
To be on the safe side, I reinstalled the recommended Netgear firmware (2.5.2.20) firmware, did a factory reset and then reinstalled the Voxel firmware. The strange thing is that all my scripts were still present from before so not sure if the factory reset under the Netgear firmware really worked. So I decided to do one more factory reset under the Voxel firmware (using the admin page) and found myself again not able to log into the router web interface even though I could connect via SSH.
I again did the 30-30-30 reset, but this time I noticed that the power LED was flashing orange similar to what the Netgear instructions mention on recovering from a bad flash. So I then tried to transfer the 2.5.2.20 firmware via TFTP via the command line and it worked. After about 5 minutes, the firmware was flashed and I when I accessed the router's IP via a browser, I was again shown the initial Orbi setup screens. I then did one more factory reset through the admin page and again went through the initial set up screens.
I then proceeded installing the latest Voxel firmware and followed the rest of the initial steps to configure the router (turn off the bloatware, create the firewall scripts, set up TTL, etc.) The device is now working again as expected.
@hazarjast, thanks for the recommendation of the 30-30-30 reset and all of your help overall.