I have the same issue with 19.07.3 on Archer C7. 2.4 ghz drops out after about 48 hours. Restarting the radio fixes it.
Does switching to the non-ct drivers help?
1 Like
Non-ct causes less lockups for me.
How bad are the lockups with non-ct
And what the hell is non-ct ?!
I'd love to try 19.07.3 on my C7v2. However I can't have it less than stable
I'm using two non ct archer c7v2's to have an encrypted mesh ("bridge over wireless of two networks"). At the consuming side of the bridge, high data rates are sometimes demanded (stream, ps4 downloading, ...) Now stable since weeks without a reboot but under heavy load (lan port to wifi bridge, 400 mbit+) it can lockup. It did more lockups before when I used ct drivers and wds bridging.
I seem to be having (possibly) the same issue with 19.7.3 (my first install), where every 24-48 hours some devices aren't able to connect via wifi. I get errors like "Authentication error" on Android, or just repeatedly asking for the password on my PinePhone with UBtouch. Restarting the router and affected devices fixes the issue temporarily. Strangely, some devices like our Xbox One and Chromebook seem unaffected.
I'm running on a C7 v5 with the following specs:
Model: TP-Link Archer C7 v5
Architecture: Qualcomm Atheros QCA956X ver 1 rev 0
Firmware Version: OpenWrt 19.07.3 r11063-85e04e9f46 / LuCI openwrt-19.07 branch git-20.221.53167-304ad04
Kernel Version: 4.14.180
I skimmed a lot of this thread, but not all of it, so are there any general suggestions people are trying? KRACK seems to be already off by default already. Is there an ath10k package I should be installing? I didn't see one for QCA956X... i'm also planning to check if my ISP supplied modem is also using the same internal IP a la this post.
@WoRThog Switch to non ct and be happy.
echo "[INFO] Switching WiFi firmware from ct to non-ct ..."
opkg update
opkg remove ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct kmod-ath10k-ct ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-full-htt
opkg install ath10k-firmware-qca988x kmod-ath10k
didnt work
login as: root
root@192.168.1.1's password:
Access denied
root@192.168.1.1's password:
BusyBox v1.31.1 () built-in shell (ash)
_______ ________ __
| |.-----.-----.-----.| | | |.----.| |_
| - || _ | -__| || | | || _|| _|
|_______|| __|_____|__|__||________||__| |____|
|__| W I R E L E S S F R E E D O M
-----------------------------------------------------
OpenWrt SFE, r13152-5019a06fc1
-----------------------------------------------------
root@OpenWrt:~# opkg update
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ath79/generic/packages/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_core
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/base/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_base
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/luci/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_luci
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/packages/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_packages
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/routing/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_routing
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/telephony/Packages.gz
Updated list of available packages in /var/opkg-lists/openwrt_telephony
root@OpenWrt:~# opkg remove ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct kmod-ath10k-ct
Removing package kmod-ath10k-ct from root...
root@OpenWrt:~# opkg install ath10k-firmware-qca988x kmod-ath10k
Installing ath10k-firmware-qca988x (2019-10-03-d622d160-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/packages/mips_24kc/base/ath10k-firmware-qca988x_2019-10-03-d622d160-1_mips_24kc.ipk
Installing kmod-ath10k (5.4.52+5.8-1-1) to root...
Downloading http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/ath79/generic/packages/kmod-ath10k_5.4.52%2b5.8-1-1_mips_24kc.ipk
Collected errors:
* check_data_file_clashes: Package ath10k-firmware-qca988x wants to install file /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA988X/hw2.0/board.bin
But that file is already provided by package * ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-full-htt
* opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package ath10k-firmware-qca988x.
* satisfy_dependencies_for: Cannot satisfy the following dependencies for kmod-ath10k:
* kernel (= 5.4.52-1-78d69ca85441e8b74ee2a9235409e45d)
* opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package kmod-ath10k.
root@OpenWrt:~# ^C
root@OpenWrt:~#
I've updated my post above.
So scrolling trought this post i see so many things, and it confuses me.
I own two Archer C7 V2 and flashed the latest OpenWRT SFE, I only use the device as AP so i disabled all services like firewall,dhcpd etc etc. Also removed Luci so i setup all using CLI.
As for now what is the best firmware for best performance CT/NON CT/ or stock ct-htt or maybe small-framebuffers?
Or as i only used it for AP my router will consume way less ram and i'm good regardless?
Hope someone with some expierence can update me 
I'm no expert, but this part of your log:
...looks like you just needed to also remove the package ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-full-htt as well, before installing the non-ct packages...
I just installed mentioned SFE fork and still loosing the 2.4GHz. It's a crap ;-(
On my own build i diden't encounter any 2.4 drops yet, i have the 5ghz as mesh backbone andx 2.4 for the devices.
2 Likes
Can you share your build ?
1 Like
Hello folks. Figured I could comment with my own experience.
I've been watching this thread for a bit and i've had major problems with 19.x when I first migrated to it. I could barely get a few hours if not minutes with the devices becoming unresponsive. It did not appear to be a memory issue based on logs. No variation of ath10k packages changed the behavior. No special changes around KRACK, inactivity timeouts, flow offloading etc. Pretty default aside from zones, AP/client, routing.
With ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-htt and kmod-ath10k-ct-smallbuffers on a fresh reset as well as everything re-configured by hand, its been working pretty stable. At least no worse than 17.x was. All the other packages are updated to their latest version.
Activity & traffic is quite high as I use it in a business setup w/ a fibre uplink.
I have two v2 devices acting as an AP, and another as a STA using WDS.
Both devices serve 2.4 and 5ghz with the STA using both radios to connect to the AP.
In addition I have a virtual interface to serve guest wifi on 2.4
There is a lot of heavy traffic with a NAS and a Pi manging VPN via strongswan connected to the client.
I have not been able to identify what in the configuration is different from the initial installation of 19 upgraded to 19.07.3 to my fresh install on 19.07.3. So far so good?
1 Like
Hello marok,
have you changed the 5GHz channel?
With channel 44 my C7 seems to be very stabile.
Uwe
Hi marok, thanks for adding your experience.
I'm trying to follow what exactly you did. Is this right: You were on a previous version of OpenWRT, then you upgraded to 19.07.3 and had a lot of problems, then you did a fresh install of 19.07.3 and reconfigured all your settings and it has been stable?
So when you did your initial upgrade to 19.07.3, did you take the option to preserve settings? I have been having 2.4 GHz cut out within a few days, and I always upgrade by not preserving settings.
Thanks!
@uweklatt. I run mine on 36: 80mhz, due to being near an airport and DFS. 52 still worked fine just not ideal. Canadian band regulations
@smeep Correct. Though I tried a few things:
- One device I tried 18->19 keeping settings. Not stable
- Another device 19 (one of the earlier releases) direct. Not stable.
- Tried 19.07.3 fresh followed by backup from 18.x. Not stable. Then updating to trunk
- Variations of the ath10k drivers
- Keeping devices unlinked from each other. No difference.
For all I found the 5ghz radio would even fail to start unless i did a restart on the radio from luci after it booted.
So this time around. Fresh install of 19.07.3 first thing i did is change the ath10k packages. Update the rest of the packages. Then configure. So far so good for a week? Perhaps it was the order of operations before I configured it.
opkg update
opkg remove ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct kmod-ath10k-ct; opkg install kmod-ath10k-ct-smallbuffers ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct-htt
opkg list-upgradable | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | xargs opkg upgrade
Differences I spot in the two configuration backups are minor. LED settings in system, default firewall rules have more icmp types. One of my additional zones is created with a default bridge associated with to it. The port syntax for the vlans in network are slightly different.
For what its worth, I found out that 80MHz on 5GHz is buggy and if you don't need 866Mbps+ speed then switch to 40MHz and setting channel to 44 is working great for me. I also have 0 problems on 2GHz channel set to 1 at 20MHz. Both radio power levels are maxed out.
I'm on snapshot build with default kmod and QCA packages (-ct pre-installed) on Archer C7 v5.
1 Like
It's a good point, I don't need to use the 5 GHz because my connection is a 50 mbit VDSL. With that connection speed, all you need is a 20 MHz channel. I have used 20 MHz on 5 GHz before when I noticed that a PC that I had temporarily in a new location wasn't doing as well on 2.4 GHz for some reason--normally it is on a LAN cable.
I'm preferring to use 5Ghz because syncing from pc to phone goes with naerly 30 mbyte/sec and my nas transfers around 20 mbyte/sec. over wifi. It does not fit for my Google home and alexa devices, they only respond reliably and play multi speaker correctly when on 2.4 ghz.