GXP2130, GXP2135, GXP2140, GXP2160, GXP2170
What’s the problem?
Recently I had a bunch of Grandstream GXP2130 phones and needed to update them to the latest firmware. The phones had a mixture of firmware from 1.0.1.x to 1.0.5.x, all fairly early versions.
These phones all have a www interface, with a screen giving all sorts of options allowing firmware upgrades via HTTP, HTTPS and TFTP. The default settings specify a URL on the Grandstream site where the phone will look by default for updates.
So, following all of these defaults, you can choose an ‘Update Firmware’ option and then wait as the phone does it’s thing. BUT many people find that the phone just does nothing and does not update firmware.
There are various pages that you will find when you Google this problem, suggesting that you use TFTP with various options, etc.
What’s the cause?
The main problem here is that when the phone updates it first downloads part of the new firmware file and looks to see if what it has found is suitable to use for an upgrade. The earlier firmware versions don’t like what they see when they look at the latest firmware (1.0.11.39 at the time of writing) – and then just abandon the attempt to update, with no notification back to the user.
What’s the answer?
The Grandstream Firmware page mentions that you must perform a stage-by-stage upgrade if your phone has an earlier firmware version.
If you have 1.0.5.x or below, you should upgrade to 1.0.7.97, then 1.0.8.56 and then to 1.0.11.39
If you version is greater then 1.0.5.x then upgrade as needed following the same steps, just starting at a later version.
These earlier firmwares are all available from the Grandstream Firmware page, where there are links to .zip files for each version.
HTTP or TFTP
Doesn’t matter – both should work.
To upgrade following the steps above, you will need to serve the firmware files from your own TFTP or HTTP server. I will leave it to you to set up your server – although any Windows, Linux or MAC standard server application will work.
So, if (for example) you want to upgrade to 1.0.7.97
- Download the firmware .zip file from Grandstream
- Set up your HTTP or TFTP server
- Unzip the firmware and put the .bin file in your www root folder, or your TFTP root folder on the server
- Start your phone, access the www interface using the phone’s IP address (you may need to factory reset the phone if you don’t have the username & password). Default is admin/admin.
- On the www menu, go to the Maintenance->Upgrade and Provisioning page.
- Choose to upgrade via TFTP or HTTP
- Enter your server IP in the ‘Firmware Server Path’ field.
- Click ‘Save and Apply’
- To start the upgrade, either:
- reboot the phone
- Click on the ‘provision’ button at the top of the Upgrade and Provisioning www page
- On the phone itself, navigate to the ‘system settings’ menu, and then select the ‘upgrade’ option
As the upgrade starts, you should see a prompt on the phone screen saying that new firmware has been found, and asking you to update – Yes or No
Reply Yes and the phone will pull the firmware file, go through an update process and reboot.
Once the phone is started again, if you need a further upgrade step just replace the firmware file on your server with the next version and repeat the process.
WWW issues
I was upgrading through all three steps and I found that in some cases, when logging in to the newly upgraded www ui, the page would freeze, or fail to accept the username & password. Just clear cookies in your browser or press CTLT+F5 on the login page to refresh it from the phone – and the problems should go away.