[Solved] OpenWrt on MT7621/MT7615N devices with 5GHz problems

gtxent · 2023-01-01T00:10:08.276Z

@anon72830772 Just ordered a DIR-2640, and saw this thread...

From a quick glance, 5ghz is not working properly even on latest master?

anon72830772 · 2023-01-01T03:25:12.029Z

Correct.
At least as of snapshot dated December 12, 2022.

Error messages are not displayed
however
The 5 GHz WiFi is slow, to the point I don't bother using it.

e.g. Using a budget android phone, with the 2.4GHz WiFi, a sample news webpage loaded completely in 15 seconds. The 5 GHz WiFi still had not opened after a minute.

EDIT: Using the lower channels 36, 40, 44, 48 makes the 5 GHz WiFi tolerable, unlike upper channels such as 149.

anon72830772 · 2023-01-09T11:41:41.863Z

For those willing to experiment,
Stable 22.03.3 is available for MT7621 routers.
Download available from ̶F̶i̶r̶m̶w̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶S̶e̶l̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶ or the original download Releases page.

EDIT: Not sure what happened but I was unable to login to my DIR-878 via LuCI after I updated with firmware using Firmware Selector. Wanted the irqbalance, AdBlock and LuCI for AdBlock packages included. Possibly temporary glitch?
No problems using firmware downloaded traditional method/download server, then installing packages manually using opkg.

EDIT2: Tested Firmware Selector again but with DIR-882 this time, same problem.
No problem using download/firmware from original download server.

Spudz76 · 2023-01-12T03:15:10.784Z

5GHz didn't work well at all for me either until I found the right combo of settings.

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0'
        option country 'US'
        option band '5g'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option channel 'auto'
        option txpower 'auto'

When I didn't set country it definitely was broken and wouldn't connect. Default is to not set it...

anon72830772 · 2023-01-12T05:18:18.946Z

I doubt that setting the country is source of the problem
since
Majority, if not all of the users do set the country settings by habit.

I set the country settings in three different D-Link router models and it had no effect.

As for the channel width,
The default is 80 MHz.

alcazaurus · 2023-01-12T12:04:40.114Z

I found out that if you set channel bandwidth to 80 mhz and channel to auto and get DFS radar(which you will if you live in area with a alot of wifis) openwrt will shut down the wifi altogether. Openwrt will insist on using the upper DFS channels. I've been using channel 44 and 40 mhz BW because of that. I am using 22.03.2 and quite frankly, it feels just as buggy as as the early 22.03 rc releases I tested back then. I am mostly using eth as much as the ports allow me to these days together with piVPN(which is awesome, love it). As soon as I add more 5ghz devices it starts dropping connections and other weird connection issues happen. Cannot wait to disassembly this device and sink the PCB to baltic sea to corrode. Unfortunatelly finding a reasonably priced replacement is difficult as usual. Nighthawk R8500 and R7500(v1 unfortunatelly) are the only ones I have seen used 30-40 euro a pop.

tankwrt · 2023-02-13T20:32:04.818Z

I have a couple of mt7621 devices and have no issues with 5ghz wlan. I use to have for devices conected at the same time. 2 androids + 2 laptops

all of them get between 100 and 300 mbps wan upload download tests (300 is limit in my wan)

I was on 21.02 and now on 22.03 since it was released
My devices are zbt we1326 v5 256Mb ram and v1 512Mb ram with same results

anon72830772 · 2023-03-03T21:53:55.031Z

tankwrt:

My devices are zbt we1326

The ZBT WE1326 wireless chips are not MT7615.
The two listed are MT7612EN and MT7603EN.

tankwrt · 2023-03-04T10:43:30.848Z

My apologies

anon72830772 · 2023-03-05T01:04:13.036Z

No worries.
Many look only at MT7621 and overlook the WiFi chip(s).
Mentioned as to not confuse others browsing this topic.

molnaratt · 2023-03-06T14:16:11.692Z

anon72830772:

As of March 03, 2023: Snapshots functions but 5 GHz still slower than 2.4 GHz in performance.

Does someone know how slow it 5Ghz recently comparing with 2.4 GHz?
I needed to buy a new phone, and Android 13 doesn't support L2TP/IPSec VPN anymore which is the only one possibility on stock firmware. So I needed to switch back to OpenWRT after a time, in order to reach my network from my phone (maybe with use of Wireguard). I didn't plan to buy a new router, but I do not want to flash a problematic or slow image. Is it safe not to flash snapshots? Or shall I wait for
a new stable release and hope that 5Ghz bug will be solved? Thank you.

anon72830772 · 2023-03-08T04:06:45.002Z

molnaratt:

Does someone know how slow it 5Ghz recently comparing with 2.4 GHz?

Can be 3x slower than 2.4 GHz.

molnaratt:

Is it safe not to flash snapshots?

If your router is a D-Link DIR-878, DIR-882, DIR-2640... series,
The recovery process is simple and quick, so no problems using snapshots. Use the Firmware selector to include necessities. e.g. LuCI, irqbalance.
Just make sure to have a firmware that you know works to your liking as a backup/standby.
e.g. Stable 22.03.3 release.

molnaratt:

Or shall I wait for
a new stable release and hope that 5Ghz bug will be solved?

Would not count on it.
The 5 GHz problem has been present for months/years.

If you already have a router (MT7621/MT7615), you can avoid the headache altogether by disabling the router's Wifi and purchasing/using a separate access point.

molnaratt · 2023-03-08T07:08:20.495Z

Thank you for your answer. I thought anyhow that arinc9's patches will solve this issue permanently, that's why I was looking for snapshots. Maybe with turning on HW flood offloading function.

Anyhow the slow output of 5Ghz is somehow hardcapped? I mean I have an ISP with DL speed 500 Mbit/sec (far lower then the output of the router). Will this be affected as well, or the issue only happens to ones that have higher DL speed from the provider.
I know I should try it myself, just I'm interested with that.

Thank you.

lexmark3200 · 2023-03-08T11:51:19.006Z

The radio is correct discover on startup??
On Netgear r6220 is a lottery with newest version.

github.com/openwrt/openwrt

Netgear r6220 wifi issue - low speed and connection issues

opened 08:59AM - 22 Jan 23 UTC

lexmark3200

bug

### Describe the bug Hi, I've flashed openWRT to Netgear r6220. With the newe…st version of OpenWrt 22.03.3 I can't connect with my mobile, Yoga 11e WIN10 connecting a long time, longer than different AP (Meraki MR16 or tp-link 1043wd v2), sometimes it takes maybe 60-90sec. But the best part is that, the cable connection is fine. Everything is working fine, I can browse pages in Internet, but I can't update the openWRT. I get failed to connection.... It looks like the router doesn't have a correct DNS or gateway, but LAN connection is working fine. This problems are presents 22.03.2 and 22.03.3 OpenWRT. The second issue is the wlan speed. It is very slow. I messured it with LibreSpeed in Docker. My Yoga have Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9260 160MHz, it connect to r6220 AP with 300/300, but after speed test I get only 40-50Mbps download and about 200Mb Upload. On stock firmware the same test is 190 DW and 210 UP. I check a few version with the same problems, even I took another Netgear R6220, without possitive result. the wifi speed is very slow. I check with openwrt version: 22.03.3 22.03.2 21.02.5 19.07.9 The second issue is present on all versions I've ckecked (slow speed download). First issue is not present on 21.02.5 and 19.07.9, so mobile and Yoga can connect to AP in a part of seconds. Now on the second router Netgear r6220 I have flashed r20028-43d71ad93e and the best thing is that, when I connect to wifi with my Yoga (mobile Xiaomi cann't connect) it takes a long time, when the laptop connect to wifi I have no internet connection, only my LAN is working, but when I plug a LAN cable, the Internet is working fine. I used router as Dumb AP with switch. (WAN is not connected). ### OpenWrt version r20028-43d71ad93e ### OpenWrt target/subtarget ramips/mt7621 ### Device Netgear R6220 ### Image kind Official downloaded image ### Steps to reproduce _No response_ ### Actual behaviour _No response_ ### Expected behaviour _No response_ ### Additional info _No response_ ### Diffconfig _No response_ ### Terms - [X] I am reporting an issue for OpenWrt, not an unsupported fork.

anon72830772 · 2023-03-09T09:21:57.875Z

molnaratt:

I thought anyhow that arinc9's patches will solve this issue permanently

? arinc9's patches don't deal with WiFi.

wepee · 2023-03-20T09:58:20.058Z

Just wondering this problem applies to my totolink X5000R router?
It is using:

SOC = MediaTek MT7621AT
WLAN H/W = MediaTek MT7915DA or MT7915DN
Thank you.

anon72830772 · 2023-03-21T09:22:05.204Z

Different WiFi chips, so problem should not apply.

Not aware of any widespread negative feedback.

wepee · 2023-03-21T09:58:04.316Z

Sorry, I am a newbie here. I just want to confirm something.
So are you saying, it must have matching chips, like MT7621 + MT7615, then I need to watch out? Like I need to avoid buying those D-link routers: DIR-878, DIR-882, and DIR-2640 which use these chipsets?

anon72830772 · 2023-03-21T13:20:14.129Z

wepee:

MT7621 + MT7615

Correct.
The MediaTek MT7615 is the chip that deals with WiFi
and
While no one has pinpointed the exact source of the problems, the combination mentioned has numerous negative feedback.

And yes, I have encountered 5 GHz WiFi problems with DIR-878, DIR-882 and DIR-2640. All using the MT7621/MT7615 combination.

ThiloteE · 2023-03-21T14:05:34.946Z

Some devices with mt7615 chipset, as well as mt7610, mt7613 and mt7603 ones suffer from wrong tx power control values in the eeprom.

See this comment in mt76 repository. There have been some workarounds via some hacking and scripting that seem to achieve decent results, but it's fairly technical and it is very very unlikely these workarounds will make it into official OpenWrt releases (there are good reasons for why not).

Radio discovery for netgear r6220 and some other devices is not yet fixed on newest master snapshot. PCI paths of the WLAN devices have changed between Linux kernel 5.10 and 5.15, hence their broken state, but there is already this PR: ramips: mt7621: add migration script for WLAN PCI paths #12198 , so next release might have that one fixed

Affected devices:
Netgear R6220
Netgear WAC104
Netgear WNDR3700 v5
Zbtlink ZBT-WE1326
Wiflyer WF3526-P
Arcadyan WE420223-99
Beeline Smartbox Flash (Arcadyan WG443223)
MTS WG430223 (Arcadyan WG430223)

Edit: the pr has been merged, so radio discovery for those devices should work in snapshot.