Alfa 2HP openwrt install, no WiFi option to enable

It took a bit of work but I was able to flash Lede 16M onto the unit but there is no WiFi option to enable. It's like the interface is gone. Any ideas on what to install in order to get the WiFi interface up?

What did you flash? I don't see the 2HP in the list of supported devices

https://openwrt.org/toh/start?dataflt[Brand*~]=Alfa

I flashed the 16M version of the Tube 2H which does load but no WiFi interface is active or available. I figured the 2H and 2HP were the same except for the housing.

The 16M version of the software is made for the 2HP after talking to tech at Alfa. The 2HP comes with 16MB/64MB instead of the 2H which is 8MB/32MB I beleive.

Only issue is, I cant seem to get the wifi up and running, any thoughts here?

Boot log to see if the radio is being detected and drivers assigned and, if so, the output of iw phy to see what the driver has enabled would be helpful.

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I agree with @jeff, you likely need the correct wireless deiver for your device.

I found from a site that sells the product:

MAC/BB processor
AR9331

You likely need the package kmod-ath9k.

Ath9k, ath common and ath are all installed. Let me see if I can pull up a log file.

Alfa gave me a link to a bin file but the system does not want to take it for a web update on the stock Alfa firmware. M

It's fixed in master and lede-17.01 branches:

For now, you can use snapshot image or build 17.01 branch yourself.

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That might be beyond my scope of expertise! How would I go about doing this? If this fixes the issue, why wouldn’t the current 16m firmware have that fix built in?

The "stable" (lede-17.01) branch is rather old now, and backports are generally only done for security and critical updates. Those patches should be in the "snapshot" (master) builds.

I loaded the latest build but I have no way to install Luci since it can not connect to the internet. WiFi does work though as I turned it on via CLI.

I know this is a lot to ask, but can someone compile me a build that would work for this unit? I have spent many hours working on this but compiling my own build with Luci built in is beyond my abilities.

Basic snapshot images (17.01 and 18.06) with LuCI:
http://projects.dymacz.pl/?dir=alfa-network_tube2h

Pepe2k: Thanks so much! loaded 18.06 and it's perfect! I can't thank you enough as it would take me ages to figure out how to compile my own builds. This unit is only being used as a bridge on a boat, so openwrt is a much easier user interface then Alfa has, picks up signals a lot better as well!

Is there a way that I can add this to the wiki so that the next person looking for 2HP files doesnt run into the same issue?

This doesn't make much sense. Official OpenWrt 18.06 release is at the corner and will include the fix.

What do you mean by its in the corner? I did pull it up on the downloads section.

Strange that now the Alfa Tube pages are all gone off of the Wiki site. Why is that? It's a great device and cant seem to find anything that would replace it with the 2HP series now.

Which page exactly are you missing? Do you have a link?

The full wiki site that was dedicated to the Tube 2H originally, along with the downloads section. I wish I could provide the link, yet it's completely gone!

Even when you search it on google, the section like all the other routers would come up with information and documentation on each select router. Very odd! Anyway, the Snapshot 18.06 works great and that is what I will be running.

I guess you must have seen a ghost: I checked openwrt.org and wiki.openwrt.org directly on filesystem level (no wiki software involved): There are no traces at all of a devicepage for the Tube 2H on both sites.

The only thing that exists is the dataentry page https://openwrt.org/toh/hwdata/alfa_network/alfa_network_tube2h

There was a openwrt page specifically for the Alfa tube and also a listing on the table of hardware. All missing now! Which has been probably a month or so since I was last on it. Anyway, doesn’t really matter but it would be nice to have a dedicated page setup like the rest of the routers that pass through here. The 2HP is a nice unit in my opinion.