&gt; Reflashing an OpenWrt device generally consists of migrating a minimal environment over to a ramdisk, rewriting the kernel and read only portions and then writing a backup of the config files to the overlay.<p>Yup. Which is why auto updates will probably never work well.<p>What if the user is running some custom software on the device and it doesn&#x27;t have enough RAM to store the new compressed filesystem? These devices don&#x27;t have swap.<p>Routers are a subset of embedded systems, which means lots of different platforms, possibly with vendor included quirks, AND then users who run their own junk on them (<i>ahem</i>).<p>Given that most manufacturers are loath to even release their uboot source (come on guys, it&#x27;s a bootloader not missile launch codes) and most of the implementations I&#x27;ve seen are a ham fisted modification of an old revision of uboot; just enough to boot, but dragons exist in the code.<p>Short of an iPhone for routers moment (yes,the irony of Apple&#x27;s extremely closed system is not lost on me) where some company creates a router which just revolutionizes the whole industry[1], I don&#x27;t see it happening on a consumer level unless there is a legislative requirement.<p>[1] this won&#x27;t happen because phones are fun and shiny and routers aren&#x27;t. At least to your average consumer.<p>Also the internet is awesome. An OpenWrt founder replied to my comment! :D