Adding OpenWrt Support for Netgear RAX120 (Nighthawk AX12)

You have to add an mbn file containing the firmware, referenced in this post: Adding OpenWrt Support for Netgear RAX120 (Nighthawk AX12) - #320 by pipe2null

I am in the same boat. I keep searching to see if I can find any info. There is this issue with a buffalo router, same chipset, where using a generic BDF file helps, but does not fix the issue. Could this 'workaround' work for the RAX120v2?

I'm about to get another RAX120. Will give that a shot when it arrives next week.
In the meantime the only "custom" firmware that has worked fine is that SWRT fork by paldier.

In general, even in its current state, the mesh works fine, I tested a full-fledged mesh between RAX120 and Mi Router 4 and it worked perfectly (despite completely different chipsets), and through the WDS Client. The only thing I didn’t check was Fast Roaming, I just needed Mesh.

I also have a RAX120v1, if you need anything from this router, write. In general, the v1 and v2 boards look very similar, maybe the v1 version can help?

Just tried it and it still didn't work. After applying both parts of the fix, 5G radios are still low powered. 2.4G has proper power output. Also of note, part 2 of the fix deletes cal-ahb0000.bin. This file gets recreated when rebooting.
Edit: Just to add, I am using the NSS build for RAX120 posted here: Qualcommax NSS Build

Nuts, was hoping that would work. With stock Netgear firmware, I don't have these issues with the wireless radios. It's only OpenWRT that seems to be an issue.

I am using an NSS build as well, though when using stock OpenWRT build the same issues occur with the 5Ghz radio. Only the generic BDF file fixes the 5Ghz, but disables the secondary 5Ghz radio.

I just got myself a second hand RAX120 and want to figure out how to use it as a mesh ( not as an AP ) which is only possible if I learn how to flash it properly with OpenWRT firmware ( and only if it is possible )
I was wondering if someone could help me guide to some documentation which I can use to achieve the same ?

I am a technology guy but not a very low level one to build the firmware from scratch on a specific operating system but have the time in hand and may be learn a few things on the way.

Please help

I also tried pulling the caldata from a wrx-36 using the method described in the MX4200 workaround and placing it on a RAX120 and it did mostly the same as the generic BDF, disabling the second radio but giving different power values. 27db for 2.4G and 25db for 5G.
Edit1: It seems the Xiaomi AX9000 also has 3 radios. Maybe we could try using its caldata?

I actually tried something else too. Trying the cal-ahb-c0000.bin from another device https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/pull/14512#issuecomment-1924421757
In this case, an MX4200, actually fixed the power issue and enabled all radios. Only problem is one of the radios ignores channels and sets itself to 6 GHz which is an error.
I think we're closer to solving this one.

Edit 2: That seems to have done it!

All radios enabled and with full power! Will test its actual performance but it seems all we need to do is fix how cal-ahb-c0000 is parsed for RAX120
Reflashed the latest NSS build, didn't delete the BDF IPQ package, just replaced the aforementioned file.

Hi! Could you check if HT160 (160MHz) is working?

Edit:

I tested it by myself, with generic BFD and this cal-ahb, and with this config HT160 works!

Yeah, with the default included BDF setting 160Mhz throws up the same error of 6 GHz. Will try with both shoehorned WRX36 and generic BDF.
It really seems we're about to have a great OpenWRT router.
Edit1: Only issue I seem to have with the new cal-ahb is very slightly lower 2.4G performance, which may or may not be a issue.
Edit2: Nevermind, seems to be an issue with my NIC.

Looks like the Github repo does not exist anymore.

The file is still there:
https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/files/14143614/cal-ahb-c000000.wifi.bin.tar.gz
However, it seems to be a bit unstable. I would like to try the cal-ahb from another unit such as the AX3600 and AX9000 from Xiaomi.
It would be greatly appreciated if someone could send a copy of the cal-ahb from those.

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I've been testing the calibration from the MX4200 for a week now and I must say that together with the generic BDF and NSS build everything works great, including the 160 HT, but only 2 radios. The stability is excellent, there are no client disconnections, no reboots, the speed on my equipment is 1 gigabit over the air.

Do you think it’s a good idea to ask the authors of NSS builds to enable and use generic BFD and calibration from the MX4200 by default?

In my testing it is only a bit unstable but that may be because of my usage case (AP with DHCP delegation to another router and using the AQR switch as WAN).
But overall it works better than it has done so far and I would therefore recommend, until we get a fix for our BDF/cal issues to use these files.

There is also a big question about what to do with the cooling fan, because now, according to monitoring, the temperature according to the sensors of my router is from 75 to 80 degrees, which I think is very high. And this is with SQM NSS for 100 megabits of everything configured. Is there any way to add fan support?

P.S for monitoring I installed luci-app-statistics, lm-sensors and lm-sensors-detect. It would be great if someone on a device with a regular snapshot checked the temperatures, it would be interesting to compare whether there is a difference with the NSS build.

The SWRT fork does activate the fan.
I'm currently running the standard snapshot and no VPN-ing.
EDIT: I'm currently sitting at 81.2Β° Celsius .

@zerojj This is the temp graph for my RAX120 over the course of a day.


It mostly tracks the ambient temperature, no real temp spikes.
(As a sidenote, ambient temperature on the hottest times is around 35C).
Again, in my case this RAX120 is set as a secondary AP with RelayD.
I'm waiting for a new build of Lorenzo's NSS so I can migrate this to be the main router and retest.

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Has anyone encountered problems with usb3.2 flash drives? I'm seeing strange behavior:

The device keeps disconnecting and reconnecting...
Perhaps there are some solutions?
(OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r26353-a96354bcfb / LuCI Master 24.135.65178~2bb1e06)
---[updated]---
The above situation stabilizes after several reconnections. But after that, while working with the volume, observe the device reset, although this does not seem to affect the copying process.

In the end, after 1-2 minutes the volume turns off with errors :frowning:


In this case, the flash drive becomes noticeably hot. The flash drive is obviously intact and works without problems in other devices. I tried several flash drives - always the same result.

I'll try this with a SMB server. I'm also running snapshot too.
I was using an NSS build but for my AP usage case it was too unstable and crash prone.
The "temporary" solution is based on this post: Ath11k possible firmware bug - traffic interruptions when a client disconnects from WLAN - #42 by Pow
Basically using 2.7.0.1 firmware in combination with cal-ahb and board-2.
I'm still running same 160MHz on 5G and it works flawlessly with RelayD.
Gonna leave it running for a couple days and report the stability of the WiFi stack.

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