Possibly similar to this topic, but in this one I'll try to provide the relevant information for troubleshooting.
I recently updated my TP-Link TD-W8980 to LEDE 17.01.4 (target: Lantiq/xrx200):
[root@td-w8980:~] cat /etc/openwrt_release; uname -a DISTRIB_ID='LEDE' DISTRIB_RELEASE='17.01.4' DISTRIB_REVISION='r3560-79f57e422d' DISTRIB_CODENAME='reboot' DISTRIB_TARGET='lantiq/xrx200' DISTRIB_ARCH='mips_24kc' DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION='LEDE Reboot 17.01.4 r3560-79f57e422d' DISTRIB_TAINTS='no-all' Linux td-w8980 4.4.92 #0 Tue Oct 17 17:46:20 2017 mips GNU/Linux
I have restored all the additional packages I had installed in 17.3 and all of them are up-to-date.
[root@td-w8980:~] opkg list-upgradable
[root@td-w8980:~]
I also restored all the configurations from the previous release.
However, when I try to start the wi-fi interface, it always fails and the following events appear in logread:
Sat Oct 28 11:09:40 2017 daemon.err hostapd: Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
Sat Oct 28 11:09:40 2017 daemon.err hostapd: Line 31: unknown configuration item 'wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries'
Sat Oct 28 11:09:40 2017 daemon.err hostapd: 1 error found in configuration file '/var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf'
Sat Oct 28 11:09:40 2017 daemon.err hostapd: Failed to set up interface with /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
Sat Oct 28 11:09:40 2017 daemon.err hostapd: Failed to initialize interface
Searching for the wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries setting, I found out it has been introduced in 17.04.1 in relation to the CRACK vulnerability to improve security of the AP clients that cannot be updated. The setting appears the hostapd configuration file:
[root@td-w8980:~] grep wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries /var/run/hostapd-phy0.conf
wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries=0
I removed the setting from both that file and /etc/config/wireless, but when i restart the wi-fi the setting is automatically added back into the first configuration file and I am back to issue above described: unknown configuration item 'wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries_ and Failed to initialize interface
The issue seems to have something do with this patch introduced in the new LEDE release, however despite the configuration file has the new wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries configuration, my hostapd daemon does not seem to be able to handle it and therefore fails to start.
The version of hostapd I have is from December 2016:
[root@td-w8980:~] /usr/sbin/hostapd -v
hostapd v2.7-devel
User space daemon for IEEE 802.11 AP management,
IEEE 802.1X/WPA/WPA2/EAP/RADIUS Authenticator
Copyright (c) 2002-2016, Jouni Malinen j @w1.fi and contributors
And that version is in line with the latest hostapd-common and wapd-mini packages available in the LEDE 17.01 packages list for my device:
[root@td-w8980:~] opkg list-installed wpad-mini; opkg list wpad-mini
wpad-mini - 2016-12-19-ad02e79d-6
wpad-mini - 2016-12-19-ad02e79d-6
[root@td-w8980:~] opkg list-installed hostapd-common; opkg list hostapd-common
hostapd-common - 2016-12-19-ad02e79d-6
hostapd-common - 2016-12-19-ad02e79d-6
Up to LEDE 17.01.3 my wi-fi configuration was working OK and I have not touched it. I also have restored exactly the same packages I used to have with the previous version.
I checked LEDE 17.01.4 release notes as well as wireless configuration Wiki without finding anything of use (yes, the new setting is mentioned but no matter if I set it to 0 or 1 or I remove it from /etc/config/wireless I have hostatpd complaining and not starting).
Is there anything I should install or change in my setup because of the newly introduced wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries setting?
Is there anything wrong with LEDE 17.01.4 for Lantiq/xrx200 (TP-Link TD-W8980) and wi-fi?
What is the package that has been changed by the aforementioned patch introducing wpa_disable_eapol_key_retries, if it is not hostapd-common nor wapd-mini?
Thanks in advance to whoever will provide help.
Ayeye