Askey RAC2V1K / RT4230W REV6 Support

calipzone · 2021-03-20T18:21:56.731Z

Unfortunately, I don't have good wifi equipment (except a smartphone and old wifi card) for testing right now.

thespacepope · 2021-03-21T01:05:05.986Z

Howdy. I finally got back to this and was able to install over firmware 1.1.31. Thanks lmore377.

thespacepope · 2021-03-22T15:47:39.969Z

Question for any other users of this device. During normal operation, does the indicator light slowly pulse blue or is it a steady blue led?

lmore377 · 2021-03-22T16:32:12.815Z

That's just how it is. The LED has a separate microcontroller that does the effects and colors and it changes based on how the 3 led gpio pins in /sys/class/leds are changed and a solid blue takes 2 gpio pins. Here's an example if you want to mess with it

on,off,off = red glow
on,off,on = red/blue glow
off,on,on = solid blue

thespacepope · 2021-03-22T17:03:28.689Z

understood. I just wanted to make sure that the blue glow indicated proper function.

nolseek · 2021-03-22T21:41:23.397Z

lmore377:

@nolseek has been working on getting the wifi board files from the OEM firmware working so that'll hopefully improve things even more. We'll upload them to the improved_wifi branch in the github repo.

Hi,

I have extended the work of @lmore377 by adding WiFi board calibration data specific to the Askey, for improved WiFi performance. The updated builds for improved WiFi are here

There are two sub-folders - 1.0 and 2.0 - with two different versions of board calibration files. One is not necessarily better than the other. Try both and see which works better for you.

Please test the builds and share your results on this thread along with your build version number, router model, and router revision number, so that I can track and further fine tune the board calibration files for improved WiFi in future builds.

thespacepope · 2021-03-23T01:16:03.838Z

i will give it a shot. do I need to do anything with the /etc/apt/dist.conf?

nolseek · 2021-03-23T02:16:07.639Z

No, I don't think so. I have uploaded only the sysupgrade file (which you can use in Luci) to permanently upgrade, and the initramfs file (which you can use in U-boot) for temporary upgrade.

lmore377 · 2021-03-23T02:18:24.049Z

No. His build has a separate build number so the packages that rely on a specific build like kernel modules won't work. If you want to use my build with his Wi-Fi files, you'll have to extract the calibration files (/lib/firmware) from his build and put it in mine.

StephenR0 · 2021-04-05T21:59:53.743Z

This is to document an experience that I had when I replaced my Tp-link EAP245 V1 access point with an Askey RT4230W REV6 / RAC2V1K running Openwrt as an access point.

After replacing the EAP245 with the RAC2V1K, it became clear that two Raspberry Pi4s running Moode (https://moodeaudio.org/) couldn't connect to the access point. Looking at the logs in the RAC2V1K, the failure seemed to be from many errors with AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH. So, I upgraded Moode to see if that would fix it. It didn't.

After much more research, I came upon a post suggesting to downgrade the firmware-brcm80211 package on the Rpi4.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=269390&p=1635288#p1635288

After doing that, the problem was resolved. Interestingly, I didn't have a problem with the firmware with the EAP245. So, it seems to me that there's some kind of disagreement between the recent Broadcom firmware and the wifi in the RAC2V1K. Anyway, I thought I'd mention this.

nolseek · 2021-04-06T21:15:03.643Z

StephenR0:

So, it seems to me that there's some kind of disagreement between the recent Broadcom firmware and the wifi in the RAC2V1K. Anyway, I thought I'd mention this.

Thanks for sharing that feedback. Can you test with the images with the improved WiFi performance, linked to in this post below, and tell us if you still have the issue?

Askey RAC2V1K / RT4230W REV6 Support For Developers

Hi, I have extended the work of @lmore377 by adding WiFi board calibration data specific to the Askey, for improved WiFi performance. The updated builds for improved WiFi are here There are two sub-folders - 1.0 and 2.0 - with two different versions of board calibration files. One is not necessarily better than the other. Try both and see which works better for you. Please test the builds and share your results on this thread along with your build version number, router model, and router rev…

StephenR0 · 2021-04-06T21:40:44.110Z

I can do that, but I'd rather not flash the whole image. I've copied out the /lib/firmware subdirectories from those images. Can you tell me exactly what files from those subdirectories I need to replace? I'd like to replace only what is required. And do you think that board calibration might cause such an issue?

nolseek · 2021-04-06T21:54:28.426Z

StephenR0:

I can do that, but I'd rather not flash the whole image.

You can try out the initramfs images, in the same folder. They will load only in memory and do not need flashing the router.

StephenR0:

I've copied out the /lib/firmware subdirectories from those images. Can you tell me exactly what files from those subdirectories I need to replace? I'd like to replace only what is required.

You need to replace this file - /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/board-2.bin

StephenR0:

And do you think that board calibration might cause such an issue?

It is a possibility. The other possibility is that it could be a firmware/driver issue.

There are two firmware/drivers available - the images that @lmore377 and I have posted use the firmware/driver from Candela, which is the default firmware/driver recommended by OpenWrt. There is another firmware/driver available from Qualcomm. If the improved WiFi calibration does not resolve your issue, let me know, and I can post an image with Qualcomm firmware/driver for you to test.

StephenR0 · 2021-04-06T22:43:47.186Z

I reverted the firmware on the Rpi4, which brought the problem back. Then I tested each of your board-2.bin files in turn. Neither one changed anything. There were several cycles of these messages.

Tue Apr  6 17:37:57 2021 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d IEEE 802.11: authenticated
Tue Apr  6 17:37:57 2021 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 7)
Tue Apr  6 17:37:57 2021 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d
Tue Apr  6 17:37:58 2021 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d
Tue Apr  6 17:37:59 2021 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d
Tue Apr  6 17:38:00 2021 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-POSSIBLE-PSK-MISMATCH dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d
Tue Apr  6 17:38:06 2021 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA dc:a6:32:5f:d2:2d IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to local deauth request

I did notice that the original board-2.bin file was much larger than the new ones, although I didn't have any trouble with them. I hope this helps.

StephenR0 · 2021-04-06T22:58:55.503Z

And if you want me to try a different driver, could I have a package that I can install on my current firmware? Thanks.

lmore377 · 2021-04-06T23:08:10.802Z

@StephenR0 I have a Pi 4 so look into it. I've had the same issue before (but I can't remember if it was this router on the stock firmware or a different router) so it should be something simple hopefully.

nolseek:

If the improved WiFi calibration does not resolve your issue, let me know, and I can post an image with Qualcomm firmware/driver for you to test.

StephenR0:

And if you want me to try a different driver, could I have a package that I can install on my current firmware? Thanks.

Since I have the opkg repo up, we should be able to test the Qualcomm firmware and driver without completely recompiling everything. Just make sure you edited the distfeeds.conf file.

StephenR0 · 2021-04-06T23:22:06.079Z

So, to be clear, I should replace the original board-2.bin in the /lib/firmware directory. Then I should uninstall the kmod-ath10k-ct package. And finally, install the kmod-ath10k package. Is that about it?

And if you want to see the problem for yourself, Moode is very easy to install if you have a spare sdcard. It comes up as an access point where you configure it for your network.

lmore377 · 2021-04-06T23:23:07.580Z

StephenR0:

So, to be clear, I should replace the original board-2.bin in the /lib/firmware directory. Then I should uninstall the kmod-ath10k-ct package. And finally, install the kmod-ath10k package. Is that about it?

Yup that's it

StephenR0 · 2021-04-06T23:38:16.958Z

That all went off without problems. Wifi is functional after a reboot. But the problem with the Rpi4 with the more recent firmware is still there.

lmore377 · 2021-04-06T23:55:14.614Z

I tried it on 2.4ghz and 5ghz and a Pi3 and Pi4 with the latest moode image and it all worked fine. I even tried wpa2/wpa3 mixed and it still worked. Does it just happen with moode or does it happen across other distros?