OpenWrt 22.03.3 on WRT1900ACS: WPA3 broken for 5GHz/2.4GHz, WPA2 working flawlessly

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,

I have a router and two access points, all running OpenWRT 22.3.3.
The router is a Linksys WRT1900ACS using a Marvell 88W8864 Wifi chip.

I finally had time to debug a long running issue: I could not get devices to connect to the router's wifi, no matter if it is on 5GHz or on 2.4GHz. Or if they connected, I had frequent disconnects.

I was side-tracked by the many "deauthenticated due to local deauth request" errors and tried all of the solutions ("Station inactivity limit", wpa_group_rekey, etc). No improvements.

The same settings were working fine on both of the APs (I could connect to the same WIFI using the AP's mac addresses, but not router's).

The solution in my case was to switch from WPA3 to WPA2.
Suddenly the clients are connecting without errors and seem to hold their connection properly.

After I found the solution I found a thread that sounded similar. So this might be a known issue.

Is there any chance this will be fixed in the future? Or is this something that I just have to live with?

Kind Regards,
Johannes

2

The hw is abandonware, are you using mixed mode ?
That's usually a bigger issue.

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3

These devices are problematic using wpa3 or mixed mode wpa3/wap2.

I wouldn’t raise much hope of a resolution soon.

Here some forum links: https://forum.openwrt.org/search?q=Wpa3%20on%20wrt1900acs

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4

Actually I was using pure WPA3. Switching to pure WPA2 fixes the issue.

5

Thanks for the reply. I was hoping somebody was working on this, as the chip might have been used in more devices.

Well, I can live with WPA2 for now...

6

It's still fine as a wired router, but the radios will cause you issues, sooner or later.

7

WPA3 being utterly broken on mwlwifi (as well as other bugs) is old news and not going to be fixed.

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8

My understanding is because there is no more update on wifi driver so WPA3 will never work, I have WRT1900ACv2 as well as WRT3200ACM (which supposed to be same family) and WPA3 is never working.

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9

Hi sorry to chip in, not sure as to why WRT1900ACS and WRT32000ACM....hardware has been abandoned...if there are good technical reasons (validated and not subjective like radios will fail...seems somewhat defeatist sorry) that developers have decided this or is it because its not the 2023 latest and greatest SOTA router ...sorry.. seems to me a reverse on why WRT custom firmwares exists in the first place to give a lease of life to old tired hardware..hey ho. . In anycase have switched to WPA2 and will live with it....Not planning on spending any more cash on routers anytime soon.

10

The OEM manufacturer dropped the development and support for the large closed-source WiFi firmware blob. That leaves mwlwifi dead.

(Marvell sold their WiFi business to NXP in 2019)

This is four-year-old news.

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11

Thanks.....Backport ?

12

Backport what?

We have the newest that there is. And it is closed-source.
Feel free to start reverse-engineering the binary blob, and then further developing it.

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13

Reverse Backport.....but i get it. Too much to do. I know Its rock and hard place....yet I still have half dozen wireless N routers, ready for landfill just always feels a waste everytime, still have a Netgear RN104 nas with Openwrt on, maybe I'm just a sad in what other people will call junk....but keeping them going is where the fun is.... Alas ....will keep the WRT1900ACS going with 22.03 with WPA2 :slight_smile:

14

Can you explain what this means?
It's sad that manufacturer decided to abandon it without opening source for continue development, maybe you mean "reverse engineering" which could build some thing that working in same way, but it's not always possible and not guaranteed to work better than OEM, to add a new feature this is also nearly impossible because you have nothing to follow.

I am still keeping both, one is already in my mom's home which is fine with WPA2. The other usage I am thinking is guest wifi with captive portal.

15

Doesnt seem dead to me.

16

DIW, has been for years, Just because one individual has been trying to fly blind, in the dark, inside a black box, does not mean mwlwifi ain't abandoware (long time passing). Context is everything.