Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion

NullDev · 2024-08-14T12:00:07.407Z

That version of TF-A was used in multiple versions of the UBI installer, so we would need more info to know exactly which one. However, as @peca89 says, that version of TF-A is OKD safe, so OKD should not affect you.

For you, moving to 23.05.4 stable release is also safe.

Ryus-J · 2024-08-14T13:00:57.907Z

I have to thank @daniel for the efforts and time to fix OKD!
And @NullDev for the path to downgrade the TF-A.
Now I can use the RT 3200 again.

Lostpuppy · 2024-08-14T13:36:05.026Z

thanks for all of the efforts to fix the OKD!

I have created a Github Gist with instructions that I created from this post and successfully followed to fix the OKD on three E8450s via SSH. Perhaps this will help someone: https://gist.github.com/abmcmillan/9771991da9d4422ccd61fb76eaba236f

I am happy to have survived the OKD without having to ever do serial recovery on my devices. Thanks to all who fixed this!

far_galaxy · 2024-08-14T14:26:20.908Z

Thank you for the details. Do you mind sharing your opinion about running the openwrt snapshot on your 3 devices ? Is it stable enough?

mvtech · 2024-08-14T15:06:20.595Z

I have been using recent snapshots with no issues. Iphones seem to not like my ax wifi6 settings but I doubt its a firmware issue.

daniel · 2024-08-14T15:26:23.744Z

Lostpuppy:

I have created a Github Gist with instructions

Thanks a lot for summarizing and making it easier for users to escape from OKD before it happens.

Once little detail: Also TF-A v2.10 is affected by OKD before version v2024.01.17~bacca82a-3 (ie. v2024.01.17~bacca82a-2 and v2024.01.17~bacca82a-1 are affected as well).

joaochainho · 2024-08-14T15:44:22.743Z

Are you running at 80MHz or 160MHz? I've been running my RT3200 at 80Mhz (latest 23.05-SNAPSHOT), and I'm getting good performance on a MBP '21 Apple silicon (can't test on an iPhone).
IIRC, 160MHz seems to cause performance issues.

Hope it helps

eginnc · 2024-08-14T16:00:50.790Z

I've been running main snapshot for years and have found it to be as stable as "Stable" on my devices, including an RT3200. Probability of bugs in main snapshot is higher, but bugs get fixed in snapshot much faster than the interval between stable point releases on those occasions when a stable point release has a bug or two in it. On balance, I have been very satisfied with main snapshot stability and performance.

I sysupgraded my RT3200 to current main snapshot last night (r27140-ccc06f6716), including installing the kmod-mtd-rw package, and followed the instructions above in this thread to write the current snapshot preloader.bin. It rebooted fine, is running as stable as always and now OKD risk free thanks to the persistence and tenacity of several contributors in this thread.

mvtech · 2024-08-14T17:17:12.200Z

I am using wpa3. Frequent disconects/reconnects. Moved them to 2.4ghz seems fine now.

el_charlie · 2024-08-14T18:31:37.846Z

I have it on 160MHz and zero problems with it connecting it to my laptop with the AX210 card. But I use WPA2 because I can't make 802.11r work with WPA3 on both RT3200 and my WDR4300 AP. With WPA2, I can roam to one AP to the other and it seamlessly changes to the stronger SSID.

With WPA3 and applying every guide I've read, the client disconnects and then connects to the other AP only when the signal is unusable. I'm sticking with WPA2 beacuse of this.

u251 · 2024-08-14T20:34:59.083Z

I too have just updated my (2) RT-3200 and (1)E8450 using the detailed instructions within
https://gist.github.com/abmcmillan/9771991da9d4422ccd61fb76eaba236f#file-okd_fix_instructions-md

and all three responded to the fix as advertised.

My three were/are running on SNAPSHOT r27143-0b7d99147b for the fix.

root@e8450:~# grep "(release)" /dev/mtd0ro
v2.10.0	(release):OpenWrt v2024.01.17~bacca82a-3 (mt7622-snand-ubi-1ddr)
v2.10.0	(release):OpenWrt v2024.01.17~bacca82a-3 (mt7622-snand-ubi-1ddr)
v2.10.0	(release):OpenWrt v2024.01.17~bacca82a-3 (mt7622-snand-ubi-1ddr)
v2.10.0	(release):OpenWrt v2024.01.17~bacca82a-3 (mt7622-snand-ubi-1ddr)
root@e8450:~#

Thanks is not enough. May I just say BRAVO! BRAVO! to the community effort.

One question...
The way I read it I don't need to have kmod-mtd-rw on board any more after the fix is that correct?

daniel · 2024-08-14T22:22:27.519Z

u251:

The way I read it I don't need to have kmod-mtd-rw on board any more after the fix is that correct?

Correct. You only needed it once to update bl2. It should never be needed again (unless we discover yet another crazy bootloader bug, but let's just hope that won't happen...)

fda · 2024-08-14T23:02:39.408Z

Users with the last "good" UBI-Installer v1.0.2 are fine to just install the v1.1.3 without anything additional?

daniel · 2024-08-15T00:40:18.694Z

fda:

Users with the last "good" UBI-Installer v1.0.2 are fine to just install the v1.1.3 without anything additional?

Yes. If you want to move to current snapshot builds instead of using older snapshots or releases you can just force-flash the v1.1.3 installer.

ka2107 · 2024-08-15T00:46:58.082Z

@daniel Please consider removing Installer v1.1.0, v1.1.1 and v1.1.2 files (which contain the buggy BL2 TF-A) from https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer/releases page so that people don't accidentally download and use those installer versions. Thank you.

account4538 · 2024-08-15T00:52:30.804Z

To be clear this with the bl2 v2.10 won't work with the current v23x release, just snapshots?

mikeataol · 2024-08-15T01:06:35.147Z

Thank you to @Daniel and others who kept working on this, and to you @lostpuppy for the clear instructions in the Github Gist.

The freezer trick only went so far, lol, and I was getting much better at the serial connection to rewrite the flash, but

Now, I believe I can put all the screws back in!

Thanks again to all who persevered .

daniel · 2024-08-15T01:09:37.341Z

account4538:

the bl2 v2.10 won't work with the current v23x release, just snapshots?

Yes, exactly. For v23.05.x you should stick with bl2 from TF-A v2.4 (aka 1.0.2 installer). Scroll up in this thread to find out if your current bl2 is affected by the problem and if so, how to fix the issue.

orev · 2024-08-15T03:15:49.198Z

To fix the Apple issues, try setting DTIM Interval to 3 on the wireless interfaces.

quarky · 2024-08-15T03:25:05.160Z

My router is servicing almost entirely iOS and Macs. Works fine .

mt76 driver is not really polished for 23.05 or earlier. Lots of bug fixes have gone into snapshots since 23.05 have branched off.