Netgear R7800 19.07.04 wifi issues

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi,
to replace my TP-Link 1043 v2, I just bought a Netgear R7800 and installed 19.07.4 with wpa3 (wpad-openssl). Unfortunately, I have Wifi issues, which I did not have with the TP-Link 1043 v2 running 19.07.4 with wpa3.

My old ipad2 can not connect at all to the Netgear R7800 (neither wpa2 nor wpa2/wpa3 mixed mode configured in openwrt).

A Samsung M21 looses the wifi connection and occasionally can not connect to wifi at all.

Similiar problems with the Amazon FireHD tables

The wifi issues also exist when I configure the R7800 to use wpa2 (wpa-basic).

Any idea to solve those wifi issues of the R7800?

1 Like
2

Also have problems with my iPad 2nd gen but not as bad when running a Kong build, it will disconnect once in a while 2 or 3 times a day but all other devices work fine ie Fire Cube gen2, iPhone 7+ and Roku 3

Kernel Version 4.14.202

3

if there is no solution i guess i will return the r7800. i thought this is one of the most popular und hence best supported / stable enthusiast openwrt wifi router.

any suggestion for a good upgrade for the 1043 with stable wifi?

4

I have a Kong build too (Oct 20). Rock solid no disconnects on my 7800.

5

Recommend you try the ath10k drivers. OW ships with the ath10k-ct drivers which I have found to be problematic particularly with apple devices.

1 Like
6

It seem 19.07.5 ist not different (i.e. not improved) from 19.07.4 regarding the wifi issue of the R7800, since I do not see any changes in the change log regarding the ath10k wifi driver or hostapd, right?

7

I am running builds from master and I am not using the -ct drivers so I cannot comment. If you are experiencing this issue, recommend that you use a build from master that also does not use the -ct drivers. @hnyman kindly provides these. You want the one he names "old" mainline ath10k

8

thanks, but I hesitate since I guess there are no timely regular updates of these „special builds“.

Hence I‘d prefer to use the standard release. Isn’t it planned to incorporate the R7800 fixes in the standard release? If so, when is it planned?

I tend to return my R7800 and replace it with a router that is well supported by the standard release. So far didn‘t find an enthusiast one that is well supported, staying with my old TPLink 1043

9

To be clear, changing the driver/firmware for your radio is not a fix per-say. You can do this on your own using opkg, remove the -ct stuff and install the non-package. You can search on my name and a key word or two to find the example to do this if you can't figure it out on your own. I think I likely posted it somewhere.

10

A couple of "long shot" suggestions if you try the ath10k-ct driver/firmware again. For the record, I've yet to observe a change in my r7500v2 wifi behavior when playing with these features...

In your testing with ath10k-ct with apple devices, did you try disabling mu-mimo on the r7800? (The method I used to disable mu-mimo is here.) Alternatively, do you know if the apple (or other) devices are mu-mimo capable and if so, is mu-mimo being used with any AP/firmware?

Also, I noticed hostapd advertised vht capabilities are inconsistent with those reported by iw phy (which I think are obtained from the ath10k-ct driver/firmware - I'm not 100% certain). I made an attempt to adjust the 5GHz hostapd config file to "correct" this but I do not observe a difference - at least the way I did it. See here for details about trying that - the r7800 may be different.

HTH

11

I would first try to stay with the standard release and just exchange the wifi driver.

But I didn‘t find a post that explains how I can change the driver from ath10k-ct to ath10k. Can anybody help?

12

you can do it through the web interface, under software.

remove the -ct and corresponding firmware package, and install the the non -ct package and firmware.

13

It's been a while but from memory if you don't want to use the LuCI interface something like:

opkg update
opkg remove kmod-ath10k-ct ath10k-firmware-qca9984-ct
opkg kmod-ath10k ath10k-firmware-qca9984

wifi down
rmmod ath10k_pci
rmmod ath10k_core
rmmod ath

modprobe ath10k_pci
wifi up

Or you can just remove the -ct driver/firmware, install the non-ct and reboot (so run the first 3 commands then run a reboot).

Note that if you update your image (for example to 19.07.05) you will need to repeat this.

14

Thanks, that's easy (I thought the non-ct driver is not contained in the repository). I successfully changed the wifi driver to non-ct.

But unfortunately I still have wifi issues with the R7800 even with the non-ct driver. E.g. my old ipad 2 still does not connect at all using wifi. But it works with my old TPLink 1043 ruinning 19.07.5.

Disabling mu-mimo also didn't help.

It seems R7800 just does not have stable wifi with current openwrt. I guess I have to return it and stick to my old TPLink 1043

15

Blockquote
Any idea to solve those wifi issues of the R7800?

With the given info it is hard to tell what's wrong. A few screens of your wifi config and + debug info from /var/log/messages would help.

Current ct drivers are extremely stable, I have no issues with Iphones or Ipads and we have 5 Samsungs in the house.

P.S. If you want the R7800 to do wpa3 then you should install hostapd-openssl.

16

wireless config is as follows:

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel '36'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid '...'
        option key '...'
        option ieee80211w '1'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'
        option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'

config wifi-iface 'guest_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'guest'
        option network 'guest'
        option key '...'
        option ieee80211w '1'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11g'
        option path 'soc/1b700000.pci/pci0001:00/0001:00:00.0/0001:01:00.0'
        option channel 'auto'
        option htmode 'HT20'
        option country 'DE'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option mode 'ap'
        option network 'lan'
        option ssid '...'
        option key '...'
        option ieee80211w '1'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'
        option wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries '1'

config wifi-iface 'guest_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'guest'
        option network 'guest'
        option key '...'
        option ieee80211w '1'
        option encryption 'sae-mixed'

dmesg using ct-driver is as follows

[ 5074.078597] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[ 5074.080430] kmodloader: done loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[ 5076.246147] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: No VIF found for vdev 1
[ 5076.246173] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: no vif for vdev_id 1 found
[ 5076.279242] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 2
[ 5076.279401] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 2
[ 5076.422296] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: No VIF found for vdev 1
[ 5076.422346] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: no vif for vdev_id 1 found
[ 5076.428172] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: No VIF found for vdev 1
[ 5076.432707] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: received addba event for invalid vdev_id: 1
[ 5076.442534] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 2
[ 5076.446015] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 2
[ 5076.548556] device wlan3 left promiscuous mode
[ 5076.548714] br-lan: port 2(wlan3) entered disabled state
[ 5076.587552] device wlan2 left promiscuous mode
[ 5076.587752] br-lan: port 3(wlan2) entered disabled state
[ 5081.016787] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: disabling bus mastering
[ 5081.097061] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: disabling bus mastering
[ 5086.652335] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: assign IRQ: got 67
[ 5086.652372] ath10k 4.19 driver, optimized for CT firmware, probing pci device: 0x46.
[ 5086.656998] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling bus mastering
[ 5086.664817] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[ 5086.839082] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: fwcfg key: nobeamform_mu  val: 1
[ 5086.839335] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/ct-firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[ 5086.844523] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5086.877707] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!ct-firmware-5.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5086.877897] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/ct-firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[ 5086.885957] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5086.920958] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!ct-firmware-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5086.921162] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
[ 5086.929304] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5086.954668] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5086.955599] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: qca9984/qca9994 hw1.0 target 0x01000000 chip_id 0x00000000 sub 168c:cafe
[ 5086.962632] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 0
[ 5086.974822] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: firmware ver 10.4b-ct-9984-fW-13-795874169 api 5 features mfp,peer-flow-ctrl,txstatus-noack,wmi-10.x-CT,ratemask-CT,regdump-CT,txrate-CT,flush-all-CT,pingpong-CT,ch-regs-CT,nop-CT,set-special-CT,tx-rc-CT,cust-stats-CT,txrate2-CT,beacon-cb-CT,wmi-block-ack-CT,wmi-bcn-rc-CT crc32 f3d4b769
[ 5089.292577] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id 0:1 crc32 85498734
[ 5095.120066] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
[ 5095.120093] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: msdu-desc: 2500  skid: 32
[ 5095.202207] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'P 48/48 V 16 K 144 PH 176 T 186  msdu-desc: 2500  sw-crypt: 0 ct-sta: 0'
[ 5095.203060] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'free: 84920 iram: 13316 sram: 11224'
[ 5095.459348] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: htt-ver 2.2 wmi-op 6 htt-op 4 cal pre-cal-file max-sta 32 raw 0 hwcrypto 1
[ 5095.559521] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x0
[ 5095.559564] ath: EEPROM indicates default country code should be used
[ 5095.562176] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[ 5095.568851] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x3a
[ 5095.574121] ath: Country alpha2 being used: US
[ 5095.578819] ath: Regpair used: 0x3a
[ 5095.588813] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: assign IRQ: got 100
[ 5095.588851] ath10k 4.19 driver, optimized for CT firmware, probing pci device: 0x46.
[ 5095.593631] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: enabling bus mastering
[ 5095.601528] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: pci irq msi oper_irq_mode 2 irq_mode 0 reset_mode 0
[ 5095.778032] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: fwcfg key: nobeamform_mu  val: 1
[ 5095.778202] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/ct-firmware-5.bin failed with error -2
[ 5095.783460] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5095.831342] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!ct-firmware-5.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5095.831557] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/ct-firmware-2.bin failed with error -2
[ 5095.839667] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5095.892365] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!ct-firmware-2.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5095.892523] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9984/hw1.0/firmware-6.bin failed with error -2
[ 5095.900651] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[ 5095.931253] firmware ath10k!QCA9984!hw1.0!firmware-6.bin: firmware_loading_store: map pages failed
[ 5095.931403] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: qca9984/qca9994 hw1.0 target 0x01000000 chip_id 0x00000000 sub 168c:cafe
[ 5095.939225] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: kconfig debug 0 debugfs 1 tracing 0 dfs 1 testmode 0
[ 5095.951353] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: firmware ver 10.4b-ct-9984-fW-13-795874169 api 5 features mfp,peer-flow-ctrl,txstatus-noack,wmi-10.x-CT,ratemask-CT,regdump-CT,txrate-CT,flush-all-CT,pingpong-CT,ch-regs-CT,nop-CT,set-special-CT,tx-rc-CT,cust-stats-CT,txrate2-CT,beacon-cb-CT,wmi-block-ack-CT,wmi-bcn-rc-CT crc32 f3d4b769
[ 5098.293215] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: board_file api 2 bmi_id 0:2 crc32 85498734
[ 5104.186375] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
[ 5104.186420] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: msdu-desc: 2500  skid: 32
[ 5112.869803] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
[ 5112.869833] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: msdu-desc: 2500  skid: 32
[ 5112.951931] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'P 48/48 V 16 K 144 PH 176 T 186  msdu-desc: 2500  sw-crypt: 0 ct-sta: 0'
[ 5112.952784] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'free: 84920 iram: 13316 sram: 11224'
[ 5113.305112] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Firmware lacks feature flag indicating a retry limit of > 2 is OK, requested limit: 4
[ 5113.305351] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan4: link is not ready
[ 5113.320711] br-lan: port 2(wlan4) entered blocking state
[ 5113.320892] br-lan: port 2(wlan4) entered disabled state
[ 5113.326926] device wlan4 entered promiscuous mode
[ 5113.868258] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: NOTE:  Firmware DBGLOG output disabled in debug_mask: 0x10000000
[ 5119.502092] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
[ 5119.502120] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: msdu-desc: 2500  skid: 32
[ 5119.586290] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: wmi print 'P 48/48 V 16 K 144 PH 176 T 186  msdu-desc: 2500  sw-crypt: 0 ct-sta: 0'
[ 5119.587172] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: wmi print 'free: 84920 iram: 13316 sram: 11224'
[ 5119.962248] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Firmware lacks feature flag indicating a retry limit of > 2 is OK, requested limit: 4
[ 5119.962566] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan5: link is not ready
[ 5119.981620] br-lan: port 3(wlan5) entered blocking state
[ 5119.981670] br-lan: port 3(wlan5) entered disabled state
[ 5119.986632] device wlan5 entered promiscuous mode
[ 5120.273366] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan4: link becomes ready
[ 5120.273700] br-lan: port 2(wlan4) entered blocking state
[ 5120.278921] br-lan: port 2(wlan4) entered forwarding state
[ 5120.300091] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan4-1: link is not ready
[ 5120.354211] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan4-1: link becomes ready
[ 5127.519109] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Invalid peer id 1 or peer stats buffer, peer: dbdfd000  sta:   (null)
[ 5133.924992] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan5: link becomes ready
[ 5133.925324] br-lan: port 3(wlan5) entered blocking state
[ 5133.930564] br-lan: port 3(wlan5) entered forwarding state
[ 5133.950369] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan5-1: link is not ready
[ 5133.993478] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan5-1: link becomes ready
[ 5999.663270] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: Invalid VHT mcs 15 peer stats

There are some error msgs (e.g. direct firmware load ...failed), but not sure what it means.. And it seems I forgot to set the country code for 5Ghz radio, which I just did.

For wpa3 I use wpad-openssl, but the ipad2 problem should be independent of wpa3, since ipad2 has not wpa3 and I also tried with wpa1/2 openwrt config

Can I somehow increase the verbose level to identify errors in a log file during the wlan association of the ipad 2? I tried with uci set wireless.radio0.log_level=0, but I can't see more details in the dmesg than that:

[ 8741.128721] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: 10.4 wmi init: vdevs: 16  peers: 48  tid: 96
[ 8741.128772] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: msdu-desc: 2500  skid: 32
[ 8741.210706] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'P 48/48 V 16 K 144 PH 176 T 186  msdu-desc: 2500  sw-crypt: 0 ct-sta: 0'
[ 8741.211535] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: wmi print 'free: 84920 iram: 13316 sram: 11224'
[ 8741.562457] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: Firmware lacks feature flag indicating a retry limit of > 2 is OK, requested limit: 4
[ 8741.562712] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan4: link is not ready
[ 8741.574914] ath10k_pci 0001:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 0
[ 8741.679004] br-lan: port 2(wlan5) entered disabled state
[ 8741.716718] ath10k_pci 0000:01:00.0: peer-unmap-event: unknown peer id 0
[ 8741.976796] device wlan5 left promiscuous mode
[ 8741.976848] br-lan: port 2(wlan5) entered disabled state
17

What happens when you disable all the guest networks and just use one SSID for 2.4ghz and one SSID for 5ghz?

I’ve seen several threads over the past couple weeks with issues with guest networks. It would be worthwhile to simplify your config to see if that is your issue.

I use apple devices exclusively on my 5ghz SSID with good results on a r7800. Apple devices like simple settings,

These 5ghz vanilla settings should provide good connectivity (no matter the driver), you can add features and see what is causing the issue:


config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/1b500000.pci/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option channel '36'
        option txpower '20'
        option legacy_rates '0'
        option country 'US'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid ''
        option key ''
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'
18

Blockquote
Can I somehow increase the verbose level to identify errors in a log file during the wlan association of the ipad 2? I tried with uci set wireless.radio0.log_level=0, but I can't see more details in the dmesg than that:

This doesn't work with wpad-openssl, if you use wpad-openssl then no hostapd config file is created and the util that configures in case wpad-ssl is used is stripped in that manner and cannot turn on log_level. If you use hostapd-openssl and set log_level it will work

Have you tried without krack option?

19

@ACwifidude: Since some of devices (including Apple devices and including devices that I do not want to have on my "real" LAN due to security reasons) do not support 5 Ghz, I need a second wifi network (guest) for both 2,4 and 5 Ghz. Furthermore, it works on my TPlink 1043...

@KONG: Krack option is already disabled. I changed to hostapd-openssl from wpad-openssl and enabled logging as described below, but I still cannot see more information in dmesg.

opkg update
opkg remove wpad-openssl
opkg install hostapd-openssl

uci set wireless.radio0.log_level=0
uci set wireless.radio1.log_level=0
uci commit wireless
wifi up

# grep _level /var/run/hostapd-phy4.conf
logger_syslog_level=0
logger_stdout_level=0
# grep _level /var/run/hostapd-phy5.conf
logger_syslog_level=0
logger_stdout_level=0

/etc/init.d/network restart

Any other idea?

20

hmm, after updating to 19.07.5 everything seems to work fine so far running the ct-drivers and hostapd-openssl for all devices (apple, samsung, firehd).

Only exception is the (very old) ipad2, but that seems to be a client problem, since it cannot connect to any of my wifi router. No idea what the reason is. I cannot see any hostapd log entry when trying to authenticate with the ipad 2. It seems the ipad2 doesn't even send anything to the router. Strange...