Issue with Openwrt Installation on Netgear WNDAP360

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi,
i have 2 netgear wndap360. I tried to install openwrt. I already transered the generic initramfs and boot to it. Everything is fine so far.
Now I try to copy the sysupgrade file to it. I connected my PC with the AP via cable. I set a static IP (192.168.1.2) on my pc. I turned of the windows firewall and all antivirus tools.
But I am not able to copy the file. The command stuck all the time. I am not able to ping (not sure if it should be possible) and I am not able to use WinSCP.

I tried many things but now I am not sure. Do I need to upgrade to ath79 first?

If this was already ask by someone else please tell me the link. I did many resaerch but did not find anything.

thanks in advance.

2

this shouldn't be required.

without any error messages from winscp ? weird ...

make sure you isolate your client and the WNDAP360 from the rest of the network.

3

thanks for the quick reply.

I am not 100% sure. But I am able to use the openwrt OS after I tried to boot to the initramfs. I am able to use it with serial connection.

my client is not connected to anything else. No Wifi. Just 1 RJ45 to the AP and sie Serial to USB cable to the AP.

WinSCP is trying to connect. But nothing more. No other message. Just connecting. If I use the scp command in CMD it shows also nothing.

4

did you tell winscp to use the scp protocol, instead of default sftp ?

does ssh:ing to the DAP work ?

5

Yes I used SCP protocol.

ssh is also not possible. also no error message

6

can you ping it ?

if not, post ifconfig from the booted openwrt initramfs.

7

No. I cannot ping it.

root@OpenWrt:/# ifconfig
br-lan    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:03:7F:E0:00:96
          inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::203:7fff:fee0:96/64 Scope:Link
          inet6 addr: fd9f:5083:cb3a::1/60 Scope:Global
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:110 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:51 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:9703 (9.4 KiB)  TX bytes:3966 (3.8 KiB)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:03:7F:E0:00:96
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:114 errors:0 dropped:4 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:51 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:11483 (11.2 KiB)  TX bytes:3966 (3.8 KiB)
          Interrupt:4

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:81 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:81 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:6444 (6.2 KiB)  TX bytes:6444 (6.2 KiB)
8

interesting, since the IP's there.

post your /etc/config/network

I assume your client computer doesn't also have wifi, making it communicate with the DAP, and the rest of the world at the same time ?

9 
config interface 'loopback'
        option device 'lo'
        option proto 'static'
        option ipaddr '127.0.0.1'
        option netmask '255.0.0.0'

config globals 'globals'
        option ula_prefix 'fd9f:5083:cb3a::/48'

config device
        option name 'br-lan'
        option type 'bridge'
        list ports 'eth0'

config interface 'lan'
        option device 'br-lan'
        option proto 'static'
        option ipaddr '192.168.1.1'
        option netmask '255.255.255.0'
        option ip6assign '60'

I did not change anything. It is the default of openwrt-23.05.0-ath79-generic-netgear_wndap360-initramfs-kernel.bin.

No the PC does not have Wifi and is only connected to the AP

10

ok,

run logread -f on the console see if you get any reaction in the log if you disconnect and reconnect the ethernet cable.

11 
root@OpenWrt:/# [ 1223.118923] eth0: link down
[ 1223.121962] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered disabled state
[ 1227.279301] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[ 1227.284068] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
[ 1227.289337] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered forwarding state

root@OpenWrt:/# logread -f
Mon Oct  9 22:06:10 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
[ 1247.038924] eth0: link down
[ 1247.041959] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered disabled state
Mon Oct  9 22:06:13 2023 daemon.notice netifd: Network device 'eth0' link is down
Mon Oct  9 22:06:13 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 1247.038924] eth0: link down
Mon Oct  9 22:06:13 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 1247.041959] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered disabled state
Mon Oct  9 22:06:14 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
Mon Oct  9 22:06:14 2023 daemon.notice netifd: bridge 'br-lan' link is down
Mon Oct  9 22:06:14 2023 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'lan' has link connectivity loss
[ 1253.279300] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
[ 1253.283966] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
[ 1253.289219] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered forwarding state
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 1253.279300] eth0: link up (1000Mbps/Full duplex)
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 1253.283966] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered blocking state
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 kern.info kernel: [ 1253.289219] br-lan: port 1(eth0) entered forwarding state
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 daemon.notice netifd: Network device 'eth0' link is up
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 daemon.notice netifd: bridge 'br-lan' link is up
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'lan' has link connectivity
Mon Oct  9 22:06:19 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
Mon Oct  9 22:06:20 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
Mon Oct  9 22:06:23 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
Mon Oct  9 22:06:27 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
Mon Oct  9 22:06:36 2023 daemon.warn odhcpd[1526]: No default route present, overriding ra_lifetime!
12

that looks sane.

move the ethernet cable from the client, to a port with access to a DHCP

modify the lan section in /etc/config/network to look like

config interface 'lan'
        option device 'br-lan'
        option proto 'dhcp'

then issue a service network restart

try pinging 8.8.8.8, or some other known LAN/WAN IP afterwards.

13

The AP does not recieve an IP from the the router (with DHCP active)

14

then let's try an older initramfs - https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/?version=22.03.0&target=ath79%2Fgeneric&id=netgear_wndap360

you can keep the DAP connected to your LAN, but make sure to adapt the u-boot settings so the initramfs can be retrieved.

pretty sure you can skip the saveenv and the reset from the wiki, when doing it, if you're OK with the settings not being saved for next time.

15

Same result. I was looking for for a initramfs version 19.07 because it was mentioned in the wiki that it is the latest stable version for this AP. But I was not able to find the initramfs.

So the ethernet port is OK because it is usable with the netgear os.
The driver seems to be also ok in the initramfs because is detects if the link is up or down.

Do I need a crossover cable? Dont think so. Upgrading to ath79 is only possible if openwrt is already installed. Am I right?