J100 series firmware update issues 2

[BerettaGuy]

I've read through multiple topics on here regarding this process and I just can't seem to get this to work.

We just got a IP Office system installed, in a rush since our old Inter-Tel system died, and now I'm just trying to get/keep these devices updated and I can't see to figure out how to do this.

My main goal is to get at least ONE J179 phone up to version SIP 4.1 so it will support joining it to a hidden SSID WIFI. Right now all the phones I have are on 4.0.8 and I've attempted to upload a J100Supdate.txt file and the FW_S_J179_R4_0_9_0_4.bin file to the SD card via embedded file management but when restarting a currently connected phone I just get a "Software update failed" error message.

There was no 46xxsettings.txt file in the primary directory and I never configured one for any specific settings... I don't know if that missing is the cause of this, and I don't even know what I would put there since I'm not using it for configuration.

IP Office version is 11.1.0.0.0 Build 237 so GA release of 11.1.

This is my first time using an Avaya phone system and I'll say the installer was more versed in working with the 9500 series and 9600 series phones... the J100 series phones are new to him. The installer was also not 100% on going to the latest FP3 or even FP2 SP4.

*Edit, I'm able to browse to

http://serverIP/46xxsettings.txt

and I can see the autogenerated file, but I was under the impression that this would reside in the primary directory where you could edit it... Or do I need to take what I see on that URL and then save it to a TXT file and put it in the primary directory? Sorry for the newb questions here.

 

[nnaarrnn]

J100 phones on my test rigs are running J100 R3.0.10.3.2 on IP Office R11.1.3. My IP Office's have been upgraded numerous time but never once have I had to manually fiddle with the J100 firmware files, they just upgrade in parallel with the IP Offices.

Your firmware is many MANY versions behind the latest though.

 

[gwebster]

@sizbut. The 11.1.3.0 Tech Bulletin calls for J100 4.0.10.3.2 firmware. I believe that IPO actually stopped bundling J100 software in their CD a few years ago.

 

[BerettaGuy]

Still spinning my wheels here... I've gone as far as assigning a static IP to the phone, enabling the Web Server and directly connecting that to a second ethernet port on my laptop. I can login to the web server perfectly fine, I go to management and firmware upload, Pick a file and click on update. The A logo comes up with a spinning circle and I see a 9-10mpbs load on the ethernet adapter hooked to the phone for at least 45seconds... then it drops off and the website says "File upload failed. Please try again" and the phone reboots with no changes.

This is making no sense at all because this setup/scenario is completely eliminating my whole IPO install from the equation and proving that the phone itself wont take a firmware upgrade at all. This same scenario happens on every phone that I've tested this on, so it's not limited to one phone. The main one that I've been testing this on is a brand new out of the box phone too.

 

[BerettaGuy]

I have no explanation as to why this worked but I finally went against what my installer recommended and upgraded the IPO to version 11.1.2.4 and amazingly the phones accepted the default 4.0.10.3.2 firmware that is pre-loaded with that release, the SAME firmware that I had tried to update to multiple times before. I then uploaded the same 4.1.1 firmware that I had tried earlier and the the phone took that as well. There has to be something else somewhere in the auto generated config files that changed how these phones work when provisioned and connected to the system in that latest release because on 11.1.0 AND out of the box never connected to a IPO and testing via the Web Server, they refused to update. I changed nothing on how I attempted to update to 4.1.1, I took the extracted files, uploaded the J100Supdate.txt file and the JEM24 and J179 firmware files to the SD card and then rebooted a phone and it updated. I don't know and honestly I don't care at this point.

I'm now on 4.1.1 for some of my phones, I'm slowly updating them as I go to avoid a long downtime with 20 phones trying to update all at once. Now onto figuring out how to connect a phone to a hidden Wi-Fi network since all of those fields in the web server are still grayed out... ugh... There is no way to select a hidden Wi-Fi on the Phone UI either. I'll search and maybe start another topic on that since it's not related.

 

[sizbut]

@nnaarrnn - "Your firmware is many MANY versions behind the latest though." - Go back and READ my explanation of why. It is not a problem.

@gwebster - "I believe that IPO actually stopped bundling J100 software in their CD a few years ago." Phone firmware is still bundled within the IP Office core software. So when installing or upgrading an IP Office, it also installs the phone firmware which it has have been tested with. I don't know why they've fallen so far behind with the latest J100 releases (except for all the Avaya company churn in the last year plus).

Stuck in a never ending cycle of file copying.