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All of that is a nope. The solution is that a router should have a standard unattended upgrade system built into it that is on by default and pulls from the stable release stream, preserves your configuration automatically with a 100% guarantee of it working, automatically falls back to the last known working image if the update fails, and has a way to notify you of what’s going on with it. This must work out of the box with the first install without you having to do anything at all or even be aware of it except perhaps setting the time of day and day of week/month when the router is allowed to reboot itself for the upgrades (but the default should be set automatically by the system). Anything less than that is simply broken for anything that is considered production quality. Words like “image builder” and “config baked into the image” are for those developing the system, not end users.
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> The solution is that a router should have a standard unattended upgrade system built into it that is on by default...

Mmm, no. Unexpected downtime for infrastructure is godawful... just ask Windows Home users.

OpenWRT has a "Click a button to upgrade" thing, just like just about every consumer/prosumer-grade equipment does. [0] It also has a command-line tool that one can use to automate upgrades, for environments where the phrase "production grade" is actually an important thing to think about. [1]

[0] <https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/attended.sy...> [2]

[1] <https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/sysupgrade....> [2]

[2] Those documents mention that you need to install some things to get operator-initiated upgrades. As of March, the button to click is installed by default, and the CLI tool is installed on systems that have enough disk space for it. [3]

[3] <https://openwrt.org/releases/25.12/notes-25.12.0#integration...>

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hahaha You try building that all in to a small flash chip mate. Good luck!
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That’s why I prefer things like Debian, OPNSense, etc. It IS hard. But that doesn’t mean that not doing it should be considered a done deal.
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A multitude of router products manage to do this.
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