Linksys WRT320N - no Wifi after adding guest WLAN

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi,

I just flashed my Linksys WRT320N with LED 17.01.4 and so far everything is working fine. But on adding a second WLAN for guest Wifi the Wifi breaks completely and only can be restored after deleting the guest WLAN and rebooting.
I followed the steps in https://lede-project.org/docs/user-guide/guestwifi_configuration closely and as I said, a single WLAN works just fine.

This is the dmesg output for rebooting with a single WLAN enabled and adding/saving the second WLAN through LuCI:

dmesg output 
[   13.321075] b43-phy0: Broadcom 4716 WLAN found (core revision 17)
[   13.328589] b43-phy0: Found PHY: Analog 8, Type 4 (N), Revision 5
[   13.334949] b43-phy0: Found Radio: Manuf 0x17F, ID 0x2056, Revision 7, Version 0
[   13.343284] Broadcom 43xx driver loaded     [ Features: NL ]
[   13.354804] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
[   13.498131] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[   15.444966] random: jshn: uninitialized urandom read (4 bytes read, 24 bits of entropy available)
[   27.060455] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[   27.106043] device eth0.1 entered promiscuous mode
[   27.110963] device eth0 entered promiscuous mode
[   27.133008] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-lan: link is not ready
[   27.273934] device eth0.2 entered promiscuous mode
[   27.314290] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-wan: link is not ready
[   28.803957] bgmac_bcma bcma0:2 eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control off
[   28.811549] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[   28.893917] br-lan: port 1(eth0.1) entered forwarding state
[   28.899757] br-lan: port 1(eth0.1) entered forwarding state
[   28.906143] br-wan: port 1(eth0.2) entered forwarding state
[   28.911913] br-wan: port 1(eth0.2) entered forwarding state
[   29.053988] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-lan: link becomes ready
[   29.061124] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): br-wan: link becomes ready
[   30.893848] br-lan: port 1(eth0.1) entered forwarding state
[   30.903875] br-wan: port 1(eth0.2) entered forwarding state
[   33.417401] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[   33.836240] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[   33.879890] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[   34.644372] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   34.651263] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[   34.657144] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[   36.653758] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[   72.743816] random: nonblocking pool is initialized
[  331.264913] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[  331.269716] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state
[  332.396528] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): br-guest: link is not ready
[  338.999261] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[  339.326326] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  339.412517] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[  342.164286] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[  342.171213] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[  342.177105] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[  342.227430] device wlan0-1 entered promiscuous mode
[  342.245274] device wlan0-1 left promiscuous mode
[  342.250029] br-guest: port 1(wlan0-1) entered disabled state
[  342.330929] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[  342.336101] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state
[  353.963799] b43-phy0: Loading firmware version 666.2 (2011-02-23 01:15:07)
[  354.266222] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  354.284242] device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
[  355.364314] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[  355.371255] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[  355.377135] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered forwarding state
[  355.427053] device wlan0-1 entered promiscuous mode
[  355.437159] device wlan0-1 left promiscuous mode
[  355.441914] br-guest: port 1(wlan0-1) entered disabled state
[  355.572485] device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
[  355.577411] br-wan: port 2(wlan0) entered disabled state

Any advice is highly appreciated!

2

Unfortunately the B43 driver is limited. There is no support for multiple SSID’s. This is why you can add a guest network. For more details see this: https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/hardware/soc/soc.broadcom.bcm47xx

1 Like
3

@drbrains, thanks a lot for the clarification! As I am right now in the process of migrating my DD-WRT driven infrastructure to LEDE I am wondering if there are any limitations I will get, when flashing my TPLINK-WDR4300 with LEDE. As far as I can tell the documentation (https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/hardware/soc/soc.qualcomm.ar71xx) does not indicate that, but than the documentation I read upon flashing the Linksys WRT320N did not mention the multi SSID limitation either.

4

No limitations for the wdr4300. In fact, depending if you need SQM, with the latest fast path patches, you should be able to get close to gigabit speeds on LAN-WAN.

Wifi should work fine as well as using guest Wifi. For your Broadcom router you could either live with the fact that it’s single SSID or have a mix of LEDE and DDWRT devices. I didn’t follow up yet on ddwrt and the latest wpa2 patches, but I assume Kong and Brainslayer will try to patch ddwrt soon (if not done yet).

5

Funny you should ask. I just went through the exercise of hunting this down today
https://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=311799

You may also want to see the OpenWrt wiki article on the Guest LAN.
https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/recipes/guest-wlan
At the top is a link to the Luci version

and to complete the roundup
Guest LAN on an AP without VLANs
https://blog.doenselmann.com/gaeste-wlan-auf-openwrt-access-point/

6

For the Broadcom SoC it’s a problem with the driver. Since it’s not open source and we can’t use it like DD-WRT is using it, as binary blob under a Non disclosure agreement, we are “stuck” with a limited driver with limited features that a full driver could give.

The how-to references assume that the Wifi driver is able to have multiple SSIDs. (Like the Atheros, Mediatek/Ralink to name a few).

7

Hello.

I'm not a pro.
I have: hotspot wifi from iphone.
Could I use my linksys wrt320n as repeater(extender) of the wifi signal or not?
Thank you.

8

@wegosi, welcome to the community!

This thread is over a year old, please consider creating a new thread for your inquiry.