All Linksys MX5300 APs (OpenWrt 24.10.2) Rebooting at Same Time, No Power Loss

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,

I have four Linksys MX5300 units running OpenWrt 24.10.2 (ipq807x) configured as APs only. 3 of them are connected to a UPS and 1 without, so there’s no power interruption. However, I’ve noticed that all APs reboot at the same timeunexpectedly.

What I’ve observed:

  • Uptime shows all APs reset together, within the same minute. Example:

    root@Linksys01:~# uptime
 12:25:14 up 43 min

  • Logs (/overlay/log/messages) confirm a fresh start around the same timestamp on every AP. Example:

    root@Linksys01:~# grep -m1 "" /overlay/log/messages
Thu Sep 18 12:44:48 2025 daemon.debug dawn: MUTEX unlock...

  • No entries in logread or dmesg show kernel panic, OOM, watchdog, or crash around the reboot.

  • Installed kmod-pstore, but /sys/fs/pstore is empty after reboot.

  • Cron is not enabled, and there are no scheduled reboot jobs.

  • All APs run DAWN for client steering/roaming.

Environment:

  • Hardware: Linksys MX5300 (Qualcomm ipq807x)

  • OpenWrt 24.10.2, clean install with DAWN

  • All APs powered through UPS (no outages)

  • Role: AP-only, wired backhaul

Questions:

  1. What could cause all four APs to reboot in sync if not power?

  2. Any suggestions on enabling more persistent crash logging (pstore, kernel params, etc.)?

  3. Could DAWN or hostapd be triggering a synchronized reset across nodes?

I’d really appreciate input from anyone who has seen similar behavior with DAWN or ipq807x builds.

Thanks!

2

Connect one AP not on the UPS and see what happens

3

Ahh……..let me correct my post, I have 3 AP’s on UPS and 1 without UPS, yet all 4 gets rebooted around the same time.

4

...when what occurs?

Nothing?

5

Yes its constantly been rebooting, just happened again, I am guessing since I upgraded it to 24.10.2, it started, but could be happening even before, now its more frequent.

BusyBox v1.36.1 (2025-08-28 19:17:44 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

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OpenWrt 24.10.2, r28739-d9340319c6

root@Linksys01:~# uptime
14:25:50 up 4 min, load average: 1.22, 0.83, 0.38
root@Linksys01:~#

BusyBox v1.36.1 (2025-08-28 19:17:44 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

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| - || _ | -| || | | || || |
|_____|| |||||___||| |____|
|| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M

OpenWrt 24.10.2, r28739-d9340319c6

root@Linksys03:~# uptime
14:26:06 up 6 min, load average: 1.25, 0.95, 0.47
root@Linksys03:~#

BusyBox v1.36.1 (2025-08-28 19:17:44 UTC) built-in shell (ash)

| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_

| - || _ | -| || | | || || |
|_____|| |||||___||| |____|
|| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M

OpenWrt 24.10.2, r28739-d9340319c6

root@Linksys04:~# uptime
14:26:10 up 5 min, load average: 1.34, 0.95, 0.44
root@Linksys04:~#

6

Happened again just now, it looks like its constantly started to reboot without any reason.

root@Linksys01:~# uptime
15:07:12 up 2 min, load average: 1.07, 0.43, 0.16
root@Linksys01:~#
root@Linksys02:~# uptime
15:07:53 up 0 min, load average: 1.48, 0.39, 0.13
root@Linksys02:~#
root@Linksys03:~# uptime
15:07:25 up 0 min, load average: 0.98, 0.25, 0.08
root@Linksys03:~#
root@Linksys04:~# uptime
15:07:28 up 1 min, load average: 0.53, 0.21, 0.07
root@Linksys04:~#

7

Quick update folks, since the chronic reboot was a no go, here’s what I ended up doing:

  • Downgraded all APs from OpenWrt 24.10.2 → 24.10.1

  • Restored each AP’s config backup with sysupgrade -r

  • Radios came up but some SSIDs stayed disabled

  • Found hostapd errors caused by unsupported options (wnm_sleep_mode, bss_transition)

  • Removed those options from /etc/config/wireless on each AP

  • Reloaded WiFi → all SSIDs are now broadcasting normally

I’m monitoring for the reboot problem and will report back, but for now I’m leaving everything in monitoring mode.

8

After the downgrade, all AP’s are UP for the past 17 hours, looking good, now I need to find the reason what’s really wrong with the 20.10.2 firmware, perhaps a driver conflict?

OpenWrt 24.10.1, r28597-0425664679

root@Linksys01:~# uptime
10:38:10 up 17:55, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
root@Linksys01:~#

OpenWrt 24.10.1, r28597-0425664679

root@Linksys02:~# uptime
10:38:17 up 18:20, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
root@Linksys02:~#

OpenWrt 24.10.1, r28597-0425664679

root@Linksys03:~# uptime
10:38:20 up 18:09, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
root@Linksys03:~#

OpenWrt 24.10.1, r28597-0425664679

root@Linksys04:~# uptime
10:38:23 up 18:01, load average: 0.08, 0.01, 0.00
root@Linksys04:~#

9

While you're in the 'stable' state, try manually rebooting each device in turn while all the others are fully up and running. That is to say, reboot unit 1 when 2, 3, and 4 are all running normally. Observe what happens. Wait for unit 1 to complete the boot process and then try unit 2, while observing units 1, 3, and 4. And so on.

It would be good to know any individual unit going down is responsible for triggering the rest of the units to reboot. And if so, it would be worth figuring out why the others go down (and ideally resolving it). Further, it would point a specific AP as potentially unstable for some reason (could be config based, OOM, thermal, power, hardware failure, etc.).

If you don't get any clues from the above, after you upgrade to 24.10.2, repeat the process/

10

so the units are up for the last day and a half. It was either the 24.10.2 firmware or the setting wnm_sleep_mode, bss_transition.

11

Can you give an update about your reboot issue with the latest OpenWRT 24.10.4? I am thinking about buying 3 of them to replace my EA7500v1’s.

12

I am running 24.10.3 and it looks like the reboot issue was related to settings. It’s been fine no reboots anymore.

1 Like
13

Thanks for your update.