Asus Router: WiFi suddenly not working anymore

I have an Asus RT-AC85P and since I rebooted it yesterday, the wifi is not working anymore, as in: the wifi interface seems to fail to get initialized.

I haven't changed anything in the config or done any updates since almost a year, but I also tried restoring a backup from February this year, and strangely it produces the same error.

The Wireless Panel looks like this:

I had the other SSIDs enabled as well, they're just disabled from troubleshooting.

This is in the System Log:
(ignore the incorrect date, this is just from having restored the old backup)

Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice hostapd: Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf (phy wlan0) --> new PHY
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.err hostapd: Could not set interface wlan0 flags (UP): I/O error
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.err hostapd: nl80211: Could not set interface 'wlan0' UP
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice hostapd: nl80211: deinit ifname=wlan0 disabled_11b_rates=0
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.err hostapd: nl80211 driver initialization failed.
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.err hostapd: hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0 wasn't started
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0-1: CTRL-EVENT-TERMINATING
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.err hostapd: hostapd_free_hapd_data: Interface wlan0-1 wasn't started
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (2212): Command failed: Invalid argument
Sat Feb 11 18:25:31 2023 daemon.notice netifd: radio0 (2212): Device setup failed: HOSTAPD_START_FAILED

And this is in dmesg:

[   13.216614] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: HW/SW Version: 0x8a108a10, Build Time: 20180518100604a
[   13.216614]
[   13.227177] mt7615e 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[   13.284529] ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   13.338802] PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
[   13.352963] NET: Registered protocol family 24
[   13.357982] random: crng init done
[   13.368689] random: 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[   13.378269] mt7615e 0000:02:00.0: HW/SW Version: 0x8a108a10, Build Time: 20180518100604a
[   13.378269]
[   13.410349] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   13.564305] SQUASHFS error: xz decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[   13.578055] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x98bbe
[   13.642831] SQUASHFS error: xz decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[   13.656594] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x98bbe
[   13.720998] SQUASHFS error: xz decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[   13.734804] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x98bbe
[   13.749050] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: loading /lib/firmware/mediatek/mt7615_n9.bin failed with error -5
[   13.767197] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for mediatek/mt7615_n9.bin failed with error -5
[   13.785787] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to sysfs fallback for: mediatek/mt7615_n9.bin
[   15.467645] SQUASHFS error: xz decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[   15.481453] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x98bbe
[   15.495900] mt7615e 0000:02:00.0: N9 Firmware Version: A     v!, Build Time: !7'MFD(
[   15.496177] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: N9 Firmware Version: A     v!, Build Time: !7'MFD(
[   15.518142] mt7615e 0000:02:00.0: Failed to send firmware to device
[   15.534903] mt7615e 0000:01:00.0: Failed to send firmware to device

Does anyone have any ideas what could be the problem or what I could try?
Many thanks for any help in advance.

Here is your error:

The filesystem is corrupt (probably due to bad blocks on the flash memory) and the kernel fails to load the firmware files. Pretty much your only option is to flash OpenWrt again.

2 Likes

That worked, Danke Andi!

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