Netgear EX6120 - MT7620 fails to activate when set to any channel

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

The problem I am experiencing is similar to what happens in this topic yet only in releases AFTER 22.03.3.

Setting it to 'auto' enables the wifi to come up and work just fine. If I set up a wifi SSID with any specific channel (checked and verified correctly configured for the region) the wifi link refuses to come up. Even when using a channel which the AUTO channel selection will pick.

Is there any reason for this behavior? Is anyone else experiencing this issue as well?

My current wifi config:

root@EX6120:~# cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
	option channel 'auto'
	option band '5g'
	option htmode 'VHT40'
	option cell_density '0'
	option country 'NL'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet1'
	option device 'radio0'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid '[snip]'
	option encryption 'psk2+tkip+ccmp'
	option key '[snip]'
	option wnm_sleep_mode '1'
	option wnm_sleep_mode_no_keys '1'
	option bss_transition '1'
	option proxy_arp '1'
	option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'
	option network 'lan'

Change "option channel 'auto'" to anything else and it breaks the wifi.

2

Nobody has the same issue?

Anyone have a suggestion where to look for a solution?

3 
Thu Sep 14 16:00:27 2023 daemon.warn hostapd: Failed to check if DFS is required; ret=-1
Thu Sep 14 16:00:27 2023 daemon.warn hostapd: Failed to check if DFS is required; ret=-1
Thu Sep 14 16:00:27 2023 daemon.err hostapd: Wrong coupling between HT and VHT/HE channel setting

I noticed it again, this time while being set to 'auto'. I now have it active, set on a specific channel. I had to restart the WIFI device once more to get it to work... the mistery deepens :thinking:

4

I have an EX6120. I can test it.
What would be a well defined test to try?
Change channel to X and check log for hostapd warn or err? Or, something else?

Is it that the SSID never comes up when the problem happens?

This link may help, hostapd needs at least 30 mins after a DFS-RADAR-DETECTED to go back to the same channel.

5

It will actually but only some times, after a little while all clients get booted off and it stops working.

6

Don't think I'll be much help.
Tried a few things, but didn't see that problem or error message.
My device isn't in normal use. I got errors for some of the lines in your config, likely you have some extra packages I don't have.

I ran the limited value tyrekick test script on 22.03.2, 22.03.5, and 23.05 rc3. It just sets different channels and other parameters and does a local test for success. Got the same results for all, every test passed. I checked hostapd logs, didn't see anything interesting.

model,OUI,testID,result-v1
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,inet-dns-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,ntp-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,uhttpd-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,firewall-fw4-test-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,opkg-unzip-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,iperf3-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,all-radio-on-000001,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,wireless-extra-options-radio0-5g-36-10-psk2+ccmp,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,wireless-extra-options-radio1-2g-11-10-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-4-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-4-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-4-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-36-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-4-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-4-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-4-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-100-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-4-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-4-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-4-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-149-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-4-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-4-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-4-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio0-5g-165-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-10-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-10-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-10-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-1-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-10-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-10-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-10-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-6-1-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-10-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-10-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-10-sae-mixed,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-1-psk2,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-1-sae,pass
Netgear-EX6120,80cc9c,radio1-2g-11-1-sae-mixed,pass

Seems like there have been a lot of similar issues searching on those log lines you shared.

Shot in the dark. Are you using radio as STA also?

7

not at all.

I have it in use as an additional AP, I have it wired to a backbone and have batman-adv running over the wire with the tooling to suggest another AP once the signal quality dips below some strength level...

But the log above is it running without any of that, I have had this issue every since 22.03.4 was released and have reinstalled it a couple of times. If I install 22.03.3 back on the device the problem goes away. But for obvious reasons that is not a solution.