BPI-R3 Mini, 5G Client doesn't work

For Developers
1

I have tried using release and snapshot and mainline firmware files to get the 5GHz band working in client mode but I can't get it to work. The 5GHz band stays in HE mode 160MHz regardless of what setting I choose. I've tried just about everything. It associates and gets an IP but it stops there. I can't even ping the access point. Traceroute stops at the bpi. It's just not doing anything. I can connect the 2.4Ghz just fine to the same access point and I don't have any problems.

Does anyone else have this problem with this board? When I first got it it had the ancient openwrt with vendor mediatek and the 5g access point was working but I didn't test client.

Here's a screenshot of what the link looks like. The numbers bounce around a little, with the RX rate most if not always at 6Mbit and the highest on TX I've seen is like 240Mbit. But even with AC mode and 20MHz bandwidth it still says this exact thing. I see no errors in system logs.

Screenshot From 2025-05-17 14-16-46
Screenshot From 2025-05-17 14-16-46520×111 8.05 KB

2

Check if supplicant conf properly narrows channel width as configured. Generated files in /var/run/

ref:

3

I’m just using the LUCI web interface, this should be setting it correctly. I looked and it seems this problem isn’t specific to my configuration, I’m not the only one having problems with 5G client access.

4

Lets try again :wink: Lets look together what you configured. We will tell which checkboxes to check in the luci, dont fear about editing files on the router

Please connect to your OpenWrt device using ssh and copy the output of the following commands and post it here using the "Preformatted text </> " button (red circle; this works best in the 'Markdown' composer view in the blue oval):

Screenshot 2025-10-20 at 8.14.14 PM

Remember to redact passwords, VPN keys, MAC addresses and any public IP addresses you may have:

ubus call system board
cat /etc/config/network
cat /etc/config/wireless
cat /etc/config/dhcp
cat /etc/config/firewall
5

I have come to find out the MT7986 linux drivers do not work with 5GHz client mode. It doesn’t seem documented anywhere but is a common problem with routers with this chipset. I’m either going to build snapshot or just wait. Probably build it once I get my main router together.

6

Also add output of iw phy to see if it is true. 5GHz is veeeryyyy slooow to connect in client+AP mode as it waits for DFS to (not) detect the radar. On some you can make it faster with background_scan like OpenWrt One does (not always but often supported)