Problems with ADVANCED WiFi config on quite old system / hardware

WDS AP to WDS STA is for connecting 1043 to 3220's.
STA (no WDS) is for connecting phone.
No ping 3220 adress(s) Ping to phone ok. Ping to things ok.

ok, so AR9100 is wlan1 and wlan1-1 ? what RT5370 gives you? scan not finding AP?

Yes, for some reason AR is wlan1 and RT (USB) becomes wlan0.
And yes again, "iw list wlan0 scanning" reports "No scan results". No matter plugged directly into router or trough a hub.

BTW on one of 3220's I have WORKING config with STA + WDS and AP + WDS. When there is only AP + WDS on 1043 they connect without problem. 2 other 3220 have simply STA + WDS.

Sorry for late answer but I'm hit by "6 answers / day for new users".

post output of ls -la /lib/firmware from 1043

root@Laurent_Home_OpenWrt_1043ND:~# ls -la /lib/firmware/
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Mar 7 14:27 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Sep 20 2014 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8192 Sep 20 2014 rt2870.bin

Strange: on Fedora laptop (where card works ok), there is NO rt*.bin in /lib/firmware, there are only rtl*.bin files. And today I've found in logwatch mail:
option1 ttyUSB0: option_instat_callback: error -2 ...: 53 Time(s)
?
Same error I can see sometimes on 1043.

can't really remember right now if i ever had such problems with rt5370, but firmware size does make a difference there. 8KB file is correct.

post output of iw list

root@Laurent_Home_OpenWrt_1043ND:~# iw list
Wiphy phy1
max # scan SSIDs: 4
max scan IEs length: 2257 bytes
Retry short limit: 7
Retry long limit: 4
Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
Device supports AP-side u-APSD.
Device supports T-DLS.
Available Antennas: TX 0x7 RX 0x7
Configured Antennas: TX 0x7 RX 0x7
Supported interface modes:
* IBSS
* managed
* AP
* AP/VLAN
* WDS
* monitor
* mesh point
* P2P-client
* P2P-GO
Band 1:
Capabilities: 0x104e
HT20/HT40
SM Power Save disabled
RX HT40 SGI
No RX STBC
Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
DSSS/CCK HT40
Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 8 usec (0x06)
HT TX/RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-15
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (disabled)
* 2472 MHz [13] (disabled)
* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
valid interface combinations:
* #{ managed, WDS } <= 2048, #{ AP, mesh point } <= 8, #{ P2P-client, P2P-GO } <= 1, #{ IBSS } <= 1,
total <= 2048, #channels <= 1, STA/AP BI must match
HT Capability overrides:
* MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
* maximum A-MSDU length
* supported channel width
* short GI for 40 MHz
* max A-MPDU length exponent
* min MPDU start spacing
Wiphy phy0
max # scan SSIDs: 4
max scan IEs length: 2257 bytes
Retry short limit: 7
Retry long limit: 4
Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
Available Antennas: TX 0 RX 0
Supported interface modes:
* IBSS
* managed
* AP
* AP/VLAN
* WDS
* monitor
* mesh point
Band 1:
Capabilities: 0x172
HT20/HT40
Static SM Power Save
RX Greenfield
RX HT20 SGI
RX HT40 SGI
RX STBC 1-stream
Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
No DSSS/CCK HT40
Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 2 usec (0x04)
HT RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-7, 32
TX unequal modulation not supported
HT TX Max spatial streams: 1
HT TX MCS rate indexes supported may differ
Frequencies:
* 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
* 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
* 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
* 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
* 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
* 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
* 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
* 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
* 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
* 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
* 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
* 2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm)
* 2472 MHz [13] (20.0 dBm)
* 2484 MHz [14] (disabled)
valid interface combinations:
* #{ managed, AP, mesh point } <= 8,
total <= 8, #channels <= 1
HT Capability overrides:
* MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
* maximum A-MSDU length
* supported channel width
* short GI for 40 MHz
* max A-MPDU length exponent
* min MPDU start spacing

In the meantime I have configured one of 3220 as WiFi client to phone-AP, after setting firewall it works. But I remarked another strange behavior: the UP/DOWN status of wlan0 (and associated routes) (as I switch On/Off AP in phone) does NOT change.

It is the DHCP client not the wifi system that installs the default route from the phone. Losing the wifi connection does not tear down this route.

For intermittent connections, multiple ISPs, etc. the helper packages travelmate and mwan3 are useful.

I use static IP on routers, so no DHCP. But what looks strange, loosing WiFi connection does not DOWN the associated interface, at least Ethernet on laoptop behaves differently.

I will look at mwan3, I have already read a short brief about it. But this is next step after solving WiFi related problems.

On 3220 trying to install fails, "no space left on device" despite I have removed VFAT, usb-storage.
Question: is it possible to build OpenWRT for 4M flash device WITHOUT IPv6 support at all? This would save a lot of space.
Question 2: is it possible to install mwan3 on a device other that the one having direct connection to backup link?

Hi dude,i saw the topic last year talking about the 2.3Ghz support on openwrt,but the issue link on github you provided dead,you said the ralink station can "detect" the 2.3Ghz nodes,but in general the drivers should not scan to those frequencies,did they made any patch to the ralink driver?I'd like to do some research on the new MT7603/MT7592 which is quite available than the old atheros 9k chips.

the ralink driver performs differ from the atheros chips,the general mode combinations that appliable to atheros doesnt mean work on Ralink,youd better checkout the driver code it self

rt2x00 patch applies to old chips only, latest being mt7620 and that one needs extra driver patch. everything else that is covered with mt76 driver needs different patch

so any giithub or gist link available?I can almost find nothing about ralink but just the common atheros,for MT7620,its actually the RT2860v2 style wireless chips and I think there should at least have some similarity in the driver path implemetation,I can find the channel register control define but dont know whether if its works,need some working code to get the basic concept of patching route

if its inconvienient to talks about such topic here,you can contact me with email