Dumb AP with linksys e8450 / Belkin RT3200 occasionaly client associates but no connectivity

I followed @golialive advice and disabled WPA3 and selected WPA2-PSK only and also I disabled 802.11w.
I have now 802.11r enabled and fast BSS transition (FT) works fine regardless the "key addition failed".

With 802.11r or without 802.11r the main issue lies with the WPA3-SAE and it should be investigated further.

2 Likes

Interestingly I always had it set to WPA2-PSK & 802.11w disabled

I will keep that configuration for the next days to see if the no connectivity bug hits again and I will report back, for the moment it looks promising.

1 Like

After some days the "no connectivity" issue occurred again...
But little before the "no connectivity" event, I found in the logs for the particular android phone that I had the issue

IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE
IEEE 802.11: disassociated due to inactivity

I disabled the wifi and re-enabled the wifi on the phone and the phone was reconnected again without needing to reboot the router.

After searching the around for the de-authenticated due to inactivity i found the following suggestions for hostapd parameters.

disassoc_low_ack=0
max_inactivity=900
skip_inactivity_poll=1
wpa_group_rekey=0

Can anyone elaborate further on those hostapd parameters ?

Now i am thinking that we have to do with a multitude of issues some are related with WPA3 and some with the de-authentication due to inactivity.

I applied the

disassoc_low_ack=0
max_inactivity=900
skip_inactivity_poll=1

For the moment the "no connectivity" issue has not reoccurred but at least a couple of days should pass to verify it.

Can a hostapd graybeard elaborate further on those ?

disassoc_low_ack=0
max_inactivity=900
skip_inactivity_poll=1
wpa_group_rekey=0

As i was trying to get more info for the wireless interfaces with iw tool.
When I run to get the driver events:

iw event -f -t

i stumped on the following:

1645945618.215152: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1645945619.244104: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60

Searching the unknown event 60 i run into the following forum post
Archer C7 2.4 GHz wireless dies in 24~48 hours
In the post @sammo user notes:

I have also monitored the wifi event without the workaround

iw event -f -t

and notice when things goes bad you get event number 64,84
64 = notify_cqm
84 = probe_client

I am monitoring the iw event logs by saving the log in the /tmp by running

iw event -f -t > /tmp/iwevent.log &

Moreover in the main discussion thread about Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450
Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion and bugs
In the post @ilshatms notes:

I run into a similar problem on a regular basis. Restarting radio0 for 2.4G helps. In the kernel log, from interesting things, I observe the following entries

167014.660438] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[167014.665114] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167014.832227] mt7622-wmac 18000000.wmac: Message 000025ed (seq 13) timeout
[167014.839140] mt7622-wmac 18000000.wmac: Message 00002aed (seq 14) timeout
[167015.305356] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167015.310767] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167015.316530] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[167015.321506] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167015.326961] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[167015.721544] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167024.735905] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[167024.742584] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167024.747992] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered forwarding state

When you get the "no connectivity" issue can you check the kernel logs and the iw event logs to check if it is any of the two above cases ?

I have a single client (iPhone 11) that gets dropped. The WiFi connectivity symbol on the phone disapears and the LTE symbol is displayed. There is a corresponding event in logread output showing these lines:

Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1-1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED xx:xx:xx
Sun Feb 27 08:02:45 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: disassociated
Sun Feb 27 08:02:47 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1-1: STA xx:xx:xx IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)

I did not reply because I thought this one was about setups with fast roaming. So I started a
new thread at the time. Seeing this from @nkef, makes me think my issue and the issues here are related:

I'll try to capture the events. Started logging and monitoring
iw event -f -t > /tmp/iwevent.log &

I literally just caught an event with a broken wifi for 2.4G.

iw event -f -t:

1646049267.941741: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049268.506660: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049269.446994: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.447690: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.507885: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.557064: wlan0: del station 78:28:ca:07:f9:48

1646049269.558367: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049269.558615: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049269.560283: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.561416: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.561950: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.563643: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.564115: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.565792: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.566349: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.568266: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.569346: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049269.569674: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049270.603817: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049271.757194: wlan0: del station 44:23:7c:60:a5:26

1646049271.759102: wlan0: new station 44:23:7c:60:a5:26

1646049271.760379: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049271.765658: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049271.770014: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049271.782243: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049274.935932: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60

1646049274.946629: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60

1646049281.528183: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049281.539219: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049281.539982: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049282.389580: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049282.391006: wlan0: new station 78:28:ca:07:f9:48

1646049282.392734: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049282.395072: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049282.762708: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049283.652474: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049284.498770: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049285.500944: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049285.537014: wlan0: del station 78:28:ca:07:f9:48

1646049285.537377: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049285.628089: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049286.498129: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049286.500589: wlan0: new station 78:28:ca:07:f9:48

1646049286.503066: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049286.505387: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

1646049286.609654: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049287.839240: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60

1646049287.850068: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60

1646049288.614127: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

1646049288.614472: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139

Kernel log:

167014.660438] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[167014.665114] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167014.832227] mt7622-wmac 18000000.wmac: Message 000025ed (seq 13) timeout
[167014.839140] mt7622-wmac 18000000.wmac: Message 00002aed (seq 14) timeout
[167015.305356] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167015.310767] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167015.316530] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[167015.321506] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167015.326961] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[167015.721544] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered disabled state
[167024.735905] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[167024.742584] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered blocking state
[167024.747992] br-lan: port 5(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[185339.514787] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan3: Link is Down
[185339.519722] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered disabled state
[185355.117529] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan3: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[185355.125377] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered blocking state
[185355.130700] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered forwarding state
[185358.234701] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan3: Link is Down
[185358.240108] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered disabled state
[185360.318329] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan3: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[185360.326188] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered blocking state
[185360.331512] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered forwarding state
[219495.827558] br-lan: port 3(lan3) entered disabled state
[219495.834313] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan3: Link is Down

After I applied the :

disassoc_low_ack=0
max_inactivity=900
skip_inactivity_poll=1

The "no connecitity" issue has not occurred again but not enough days have passed.
Could you try to apply those also to both wifi interfaces to see if you get disconnected ?

I applied them the via uci:

uci set wireless.wifinet0.disassoc_low_ack='0'
uci set wireless.wifinet1.disassoc_low_ack='0'
uci set wireless.wifinet0.max_inactivity='900'
uci set wireless.wifinet1.max_inactivity='900'
uci set wireless.wifinet0.skip_inactivity_poll='1'
uci set wireless.wifinet1.skip_inactivity_poll='1'

uci commit wireless
wifi
1 Like

I am on OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r18777-1847382456 i have not stumbled yet on that issue yet, the wlan0 went completely down if I get it correctly ...
I got also a phew "unknown event 139" but wifi did not not went down.
Which snapshot are you using ?

Forum user @ex-git suggested at [Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion] for another issue I don't know if it is related.
(Belkin RT3200/Linksys E8450 WiFi AX discussion - #1719 by ex-git)

echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/aql_enable
echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy1/aql_enable
1 Like

this time wlan0 didn't go down completely. More than 16 devices are sitting on wlan0. Communication lost 14

OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r18752-1b311aab31

I am using the latest snapshot download for the E8450, OpenWrt SNAPSHOT r19040-247eaa4416.

After a clean flash with the default configuration and installing luci package, I setup radios ending with this /etc/config/wireless:

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path 'platform/18000000.wmac'
        option channel '1'
        option band '2g'
        option htmode 'HT40'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'
        option noscan '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid '2G'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'
        option key 'arandomwifikey'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path '1a143000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option channel '36'
        option band '5g'
        option htmode 'HE160'
        option country 'US'
        option cell_density '0'
        option noscan '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid '5G'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'
        option key ''arandomwifikey'

Well, 2G works fine, but not 5G. The output of iw event -f -t when restarting the radios is:

1646423090.933209: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 60
1646423090.936422: phy #1: unknown event 94
1646423090.936546: phy #1: unknown event 94
1646423090.936594: phy #1: unknown event 94
1646423090.936639: phy #1: unknown event 94
1646423090.983843: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 8
1646423091.329078: wlan1 (phy #1): unknown event 7

2G is not giving me any problem. When connecting a device I get this output, but everything seems to be working fine:

1646423189.089119: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1646423189.206039: wlan0: new station a6:7a:63:04:80:29
1646423189.254339: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1646423189.286364: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1646423189.289723: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1646423189.486137: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139
1646423189.490765: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 139
1646423189.742290: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60
1646423189.748647: wlan0 (phy #0): unknown event 60

Any info on why 5G is not working in this snapshot but it is working fine in the UBI sysupgrade image used in the firmware installation from Nov 2021.

Ι have not tested extensively the 5G band, occasionally some of my phone connect to 5G but not for a long time.

For both bands I had all short of issues until I applied the disconnected due inactivity fix as i said before. I am testing it for a phew days now , my android's S8 and S9 phones was always been able to connect to wifi successfully mostly at the 2.4G band.

I have narrowed the problem down to the support HE160 mode in the CH36-64 band. When using HE80 everything works fine. I really don't know when that happened, but for sure HE160 mode (160MHz channel) was properly supported in the past. Tested and validated in SNAPSHOT r18646-3869ccbcc8 but fails in SNAPSHOT r19040-247eaa4416

Might be fixed in future by

2 Likes

Well I got hit by the "no connectivity" issue once again after couple days this time, similar to the @ilshatms.

From dmesg:

[543156.909270] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered disabled state
[543156.922398] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan1: Link is Down
[543179.791306] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan1: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control off
[543179.798928] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered blocking state
[543179.804235] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered forwarding state
[543189.158624] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered disabled state
[543189.164827] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan1: Link is Down
[543191.231516] mt7530 mdio-bus:00 lan1: Link is Up - 100Mbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[543191.239306] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered blocking state
[543191.244615] br-lan: port 1(lan1) entered forwarding state

From logread:

Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: binding station to interface 'wlan0'
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: authentication OK (FT)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-AUTHENTICATE.indication(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0, FT)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: association OK (aid 4)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: associated (aid 4)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan0: AP-STA-CONNECTED 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-REASSOCIATE.indication(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: binding station to interface 'wlan0'
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 WPA: event 6 notification
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1: Prune association for 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.notice hostapd: wlan1: AP-STA-DISCONNECTED 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0
Mon Mar  7 05:34:16 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan0: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 WPA: FT authentication already completed - do not start 4-way handshake
Mon Mar  7 05:34:18 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan1: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-DISASSOCIATE.indication(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0, 1)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:18 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan1: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-DELETEKEYS.request(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:46 2022 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:46 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan1: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-DEAUTHENTICATE.indication(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0, 2)
Mon Mar  7 05:34:46 2022 daemon.debug hostapd: wlan1: STA 08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0 MLME: MLME-DELETEKEYS.request(08:c5:e1:61:0d:b0)

I checked if the phone was still connected with :

iw dev wlan0 station dump

It was still connected (unfortunately I forgot to copy the output).

I tried to perform the

iw dev wlan0 scan trigger freq 2447 flush

as user @sammo stated in https://forum.openwrt.org/t/archer-c7-2-4-ghz-wireless-dies-in-24-48-hours/44163/150?u=nkef

And I got connectivity back without needing to restart wifi or reboot the router , we may need to apply one of the workaround scripts suggested on that forum posts to apply the scan every time an event 60 occurs.

Maybe it is related to the https://forum.openwrt.org/t/archer-c7-2-4-ghz-wireless-dies-in-24-48-hours/44163/223?u=nkef

1 Like

I applied the workaround script provided by @Catfriend1 in https://forum.openwrt.org/t/archer-c7-2-4-ghz-wireless-dies-in-24-48-hours/44163/211?u=nkef

that triggers "iw dev wlan0 scan trigger freq 2447 flush" when event 60 occurs.

https://github.com/Catfriend1/openwrt-presence/blob/master/scripts/ath9k-watchdog/ath9k-watchdog.sh

1 Like

The workaround seems to work , I have not encountered the "no connectivity" issue on the 2.4 GHz band the last 8 days.

Of course it is not a proper solution ...

I tried the same solution & yes it works, but because the unknown event 60 occurs every 30 seconds to 3 minutes, the script runs iw dev wlan0 scan trigger freq 2447 flush every 30ish seconds.

I'm not sure what's the performance implications of the above, but just wanted to highlight that.

BTW this is just FYI, the ath9k-watchdog.sh script only triggers the scan when 2.4GHz encounters event 60, but I have more event 60s on 5GHz & it works w/o a problem.