This might be really simple but it's hard to search for. I've created a mesh, the nodes of which all have a question mark in the "Host" Section. I can just write down all the MAC addresses in the mesh and the one that isn't on the wireless page is this node, but there is probably an easier way, which I can't find. All I would want is to be able to say is this is the ground floor node etc. without referring to my piece of paper with MAC addresses on it. Is it possible and if so where is the setting?
The mesh11sd package does this automatically.
If doing it manually, the trick is to set hostname in the system config and have your meshnodes all use dhcp to get ipv4 addresses.
I already have a name set for each node and only the master serving DHCP but still I have just a question mark. Do you think it it the bit in the interface section where it defaults you to send your device name when collecting a DHCP address that has a manual setting I should choose something manual?
Batman-adv can resolves names by using /etc/bat-hosts but I have no clue how this is reflected by Luci...
Thanks, I tried twice to install Batman-adv but broke my setup both times. Almost all of the guides deal with the wireless mesh part but I was trying to include a wired bit and obviously did something wrong with it or the interface between wire and wireless in the mesh network. All I was trying to do was have a router connected by Ethernet to a dumb AP and from there to a wireless mesh. Doesn’t sound too complicated.
Have you seen a guide for using Batman Adv over wired or at the interface between wired and wireless? I already have all the Batman software installed, including batctl, which is where I think your suggestion is. As far as I’m aware there isn’t a Luci version of batctl.
As my current devices are unable to set a proper MTU on Ethernet I just do not speak batman on the Ethernet and just ensure I have no loops.
One ap is cable connected and all others via wireless only 
But I think you just need to set all interfaces to the batman hardif...
If you want to try it again, and post your config here in the forum we can have a look at it...
But batman or not, depends on preference.
@bluewavenet will of course promote mesh11sd.
I have setupd batman before I was aware of mesh11sd and it's vxlan support..
Edit: but if each dump ap has at least an management interface and uses dhcp or static assignments then you can have the name in DNS or not?
It is a different MAC address used in the mesh and the LAN port. I tried at first looking at the correspondence between MAC addresses and IPV4 served by the main router but I failed. I think it’s the MAC address of the radio that is used.
The reason I tried wired and wireless over Batman is that I wanted separate guest and iot VLANs and I wasn’t sure how to interface a BATMAN VLAN and a normal VLAN. Is this simple? I can maybe create a normal VLAN and then a BATMAN wireless only mesh (for which there are loads of guides)
Yes, you have to add all MAC addresses to that list. (See below)
A VLAN is a VLAN is a VLAN. The Ethernet Frame has a field more within, and thats where the VLAN "tag" sits.
Like with any other interface, you state that you want to exgress a tagged and not an untagged frame.
Ah I have to change a previous statement. The AP are fine with larger MTU on the Ethernet, but not my Switch with OpenWrt... How ever....
From one of my AP, non DSA
config device
option name 'bat0'
option macaddr '02:00:10:00:00:01'
config interface 'bat0'
option proto 'batadv'
option routing_algo 'BATMAN_IV'
config interface 'bat0_mesh0'
option proto 'batadv_hardif'
option master 'bat0'
config interface 'bat0_mesh1'
option proto 'batadv_hardif'
option master 'bat0'
config interface 'bat0_eth0'
option proto 'batadv_hardif'
option master 'bat0'
[...]
config switch_vlan
option device 'switch0'
option vlan '24'
option ports '0t 1t'
config device
option name 'br-vlan24'
option type 'bridge'
list ports 'bat0.24'
list ports 'eth0.24'
option macaddr '02:00:10:01:00:18'
config interface 'vlan24'
option device 'br-vlan24'
option bridge_empty '1'
option igmp_snooping '1'
option proto 'none'
And you just repeat that for every VLAN.
On a device with DSA, the config looks like:
config bridge-vlan
option device 'br-vlan'
option vlan '24'
list ports 'eth0:t'
list ports 'bat0.24'
And a sample from bat-hosts:
# ap-flur
02:00:10:00:00:01 bat0.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:00 br-vlan.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:10 vlan16.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:11 vlan17.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:18 vlan24.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:31 vlan49.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:38 vlan56.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:40 vlan64.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:41 vlan65.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:47 vlan71.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:4c vlan76.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:00:4d vlan77.ap-flur
02:00:10:01:0f:fe vlan4094.ap-flur
02:00:10:02:00:01 mesh0.ap-flur
02:00:10:02:01:01 wlan0.ap-flur
02:00:10:03:00:01 mesh1.ap-flur
02:00:10:03:01:01 wlan1.ap-flur
cc:32:e5:fa:e7:36 radio0.ap-flur
cc:32:e5:fa:e7:37 eth0.ap-flur
And this is how it looks or how it can be used:
root@ap-flur:~# batctl ping ap-wz
PING ap-wz (02:00:11:03:00:01) 20(48) bytes of data
20 bytes from ap-wz icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=1.12 ms
20 bytes from ap-wz icmp_seq=2 ttl=50 time=0.81 ms
^C--- ap-wz ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.815/0.965/1.116/0.151 ms
If you are not using batman the you can use /etc/ethers to store a list of mac addresses with friendly names. Like
DA:0D:17:A4:6F:B7 ap-1
DA:0D:17:A4:6F:CB ap-2
DA:0D:17:A4:6F:A7 ap-3
DA:07:B6:0B:56:8B ap-4
DA:07:B6:0B:5C:0B ap-5
Then your mesh nodes show up with a friendly name instead of a ?.
Today I learned something.
I thought this file is only consumed by dnsmasq nowadays..
Thanks. I have already found that file. Just reading the syntax.
Thanks I am trying to understand. I think it is is bridging the Batman.24 to the normal.24?
Never heard of igmp_snooping so no idea what that is doing.
My thinking was that (and I’ve not seen this drawn) but you maybe have a mesh in the wired bits and Batman would do some magic with VLAN traffic on the wired part of the mesh, hence why I thought Batman VLAN would be different than normal VLAN but now that I’m thinking about it I have never seen a wired mesh, so maybe Batman is about connecting multiple wireless meshes over wired bits?
I think luci looks first at /etc/hosts and then at the /tmp/dhcp.leases file.
Edit: And also it seems, /etc/ethers
If it provides an answer to a question, why not? 
Yes, I found that too, at least in a uci config.
I had to resort to doing ip link set [ifname] mtu [mtuvalue]
I hope you know that I'm not hostile regarding mesh11sd when I find the time to give it a try and be able to ditch batman why not. And yes of course, if it helps to solve the issue pointing user to it is the way.
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If you use the mesh11sd project is it possible to add a third VLAN? I looked into it and wanted 3 but saw it did 2. I intend to have a normal VLAN, a Guest Vlan and and IoT VLAN and couldn’t find a way of doing it with mesh11sd: should I have gone that route?
I am going to try Batman again. Third time lucky. Some guests staying from tomorrow to the weekend so I’m not going to try till the weekend, but have already created BAT devices on all the devices. Just left with creating interfaces and bridging the BAT devices to my LAN, but that will wait till the weekend in case I mess up again.
Mesh11sd does not create any vlans, instead it creates a vxlan vtun point to multipoint conduit that can be used to support as many vlans as you like, call it a "trunk over wireless" if you like.
By default, the package uses the mesh backhaul for the base wireless network and the vtun conduit for a guest network without needing vlans at all.
If you want to learn more about this, please open a new topic as it is unrelated to your original question.
Thanks it is a bit late now. I read this
“ 1. Portal-Node to Peer-Group Mode, enabling "guest" networking over mesh backhaul without the need for setting up a VLAN (Default).”
Plus the script used in the OpenWRT Firmware Selector and concluded that although the guest network was automatic it went over some sort of VLAN. As the setup script does not request a separate Guest Network and password I assumed it was some sort of captive portal. I will look up VXLAN. Would it have been simple in mesh11Nasd to add an extra ‘VLAN’ equivalent and not needed me to write on paper what MAC corresponded to what node? Presumably I would need to adjust the script so all nodes know the name/password.
No, mesh11sd provides a point to multi-point conduit. Consider this to function like an ethernet connection to a switch, with switch ports going to the end points on the remote nodes.
This means you can use it as a trunk connection to use in whatever way you want.
By default it is used for the guest network, no vlan needed.
If I understand correctly it only uses 1 SSID and 1 Password and defaults to Guest for all MAC addresses it sees? If so how do you tell it this device MAC is my laptop and needs to be able to connect to everything or this is a Button and needs to be accessible from an IoT network? Is there some sort of look up table?