2,4GHz Wifi does not start

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi,

I have a Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800 with an outdated OpenWrt 19.07.1 r10911-c155900f66 / LuCI openwrt-19.07 branch git-22.052.50988-1b6c126.

Recently 2,4GHz (bgn) networks stopped working, I only see the 5GHz ac network. Before resetting and updating to the recent version, I like to see what’s broken, or if it is a hardware damage.

In Luci I see the Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984 802.11nac and the Qualcomm Atheros QCA9984 802.11bgn, both with 1 netowk enabled. But no client can see the bgn network.

2

It b0rked ?

3

Time to get 6 years worth of updates?
Also can happen that in 6 years at high power some amp or cap goes to have a walk....

4

My recommendation would be to install 24.10 and see if the radio comes up. I don't see any value in troubleshooting on 19.07.

The update will require a complete reset to defaults (for 2 reasons: upgrades while keeping settings are only supported for n-1 --> n, not n-2 or further back and also your device has transitioned from DSA which is incompatible with the older swconfig syntax). This is a good thing in your situation.

You'll be able to start with a completely default config (remember: wifi is disabled by default, you need ethernet for the initial config). From the default state, enable wifi and see if it comes up. If it does -- great! If not, that probably indicates a hardware issue.

5

I tried the upgrade to 24.10.4 via Luci.

I unchecked Keep config. I needed to check the force option.

But after minutes, the power LED stays red. What can I do?

6

Is the color an issue, or did it actually soft brick ?

7

The interface does not come up, and it looks like rebooting as the LED sometimes switches to off and on again, any my ethernet comes up and down again…

8

Try https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/troubleshooting/failsafe_and_factory_reset 1st.

9

Should I try a TFTP flashing? Why are there 2 sections and which is the right?

10

Both TFTP procedures seem identical to me...

11

No, the 2nd does rename the file to factory.img. Do I need that?

I tried Failsafe mode, it does not work, the LED is never flashing, only statically red.

12

Which tftp client to use? Gentoo Linux has https://sourceforge.net/projects/atftp/ but that does not know the -i option.

13

Since you're uploading, probably not.

That's not an Openwrt question.

Start by running man atftp ?

14 
atftp --trace --put --local-file factory.img 192.168.1.1

SUCCESS. Thank you very much. Interesting, I was able to access the IP from the usual Ethernet without replugging to the yellow WAN port. Anyway, it’s up and running with an empty configuration now.