[Solved] WRT3200ACM mwlwifi - random packets loss

Installing and Using OpenWrt Network and Wireless Configuration
1

Hi.

I bought my WRT3200ACM router 6 month ago and I am aware that there were problems with Marvel driver. Recently the wifi stability is far better than it was at the beginning, but I keep having this problem: my Mac randomly loses wifi for approximately 4 seconds. It seems to me that it doesn't matter if it's under heavy load or not.

Here is how it usually looks like (ping google.com):

64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=42 ttl=54 time=30.701 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=43 ttl=54 time=23.569 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=44 ttl=54 time=24.057 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 45
Request timeout for icmp_seq 46
Request timeout for icmp_seq 47
Request timeout for icmp_seq 48
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=49 ttl=54 time=23.787 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=50 ttl=54 time=25.946 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=51 ttl=54 time=28.704 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.12.142: icmp_seq=52 ttl=54 time=27.841 ms

System information and LEDE configuration

Device: Linksys WRT3200ACM

LEDE version:

~ $ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="LEDE"
VERSION="17.01.4, Reboot"
ID="lede"
ID_LIKE="lede openwrt"
PRETTY_NAME="LEDE Reboot 17.01.4"
VERSION_ID="17.01.4"
HOME_URL="http://lede-project.org/"
BUG_URL="http://bugs.lede-project.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://forum.openwrt.org/"
BUILD_ID="r3560-79f57e422d"
LEDE_BOARD="mvebu/generic"
LEDE_ARCH="arm_cortex-a9_vfpv3"
LEDE_TAINTS="no-all"
LEDE_DEVICE_MANUFACTURER="LEDE"
LEDE_DEVICE_MANUFACTURER_URL="http://lede-project.org/"
LEDE_DEVICE_PRODUCT="Generic"
LEDE_DEVICE_REVISION="v0"
LEDE_RELEASE="LEDE Reboot 17.01.4 r3560-79f57e422d"

wireless configuration:

~$ cat /etc/config/wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option country 'US'
        option channel '157'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio0'
        option device 'radio0'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'xxxxx'
        option network 'lan'
        option key 'xxxxx'
        option wpa_group_rekey '0'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option hwmode '11g'
        option path 'soc/soc:pcie-controller/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:02:00.0'
        option htmode 'HT20'
        option country 'US'
        option channel '9'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio1'
        option device 'radio1'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'xxxxxx-2GHz'
        option network 'lan'
        option key 'xxxxxx'
        option wpa_group_rekey '0'
        option encryption 'psk2+ccmp'

config wifi-device 'radio2'
        option type 'mac80211'
        option channel '36'
        option hwmode '11a'
        option path 'platform/soc/soc:internal-regs/f10d8000.sdhci/mmc_host/mmc0/mmc0:0001/mmc0:0001:1'
        option htmode 'VHT80'
        option disabled '1'

config wifi-iface 'default_radio2'
        option device 'radio2'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'LEDE'
        option encryption 'none'

Please note that radio2 is disabled.

wmlwifi driver version (Thank you @eduperez for the hard work!)

~$ opkg list-installed | grep kmod-mwlwifi
kmod-mwlwifi - 4.4.92+10.3.4.0-20180330-fcaea79-9326

~$ cat /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/mwlwifi/info

driver name: mwlwifi
chip type: 88W8964
hw version: 7
driver version: 10.3.4.0-20180330
firmware version: 0x09030206
power table loaded from dts: no
firmware region code: 0x10
mac address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
2g: disable
5g: enable
antenna: 4 4
irq number: 105
ap macid support: 0000ffff
sta macid support: 00010000
macid used: 00000001
radio: enable
iobase0: e0e00000
iobase1: e1080000
tx limit: 1024
rx limit: 16384

~$ cat /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy1/mwlwifi/info

driver name: mwlwifi
chip type: 88W8964
hw version: 7
driver version: 10.3.4.0-20180330
firmware version: 0x09030206
power table loaded from dts: no
firmware region code: 0x10
mac address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
2g: enable
5g: disable
antenna: 4 4
irq number: 106
ap macid support: 0000ffff
sta macid support: 00010000
macid used: 00000001
radio: enable
iobase0: e1200000
iobase1: e1480000
tx limit: 1024
rx limit: 16384

Mac:

ProductName:	Mac OS X
ProductVersion:	10.13.4
BuildVersion:	17E199

Model Identifier: MacBookPro14,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP143.0173.B00
SMC Version (system): 2.45f0

Network:

en0:
  Card Type:	AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x173)
  Firmware Version:	Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.77.37.29.1a7)
  MAC Address:	xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
  Locale:	FCC
  Country Code:	US
  Supported PHY Modes:	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  Supported Channels:	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 144, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
  Wake On Wireless:	Supported
  AirDrop:	Supported
  AirDrop Channel:	149
  Auto Unlock:	Supported

I've tried to:

  1. Disable WPA re-keying

I've tried to add option wpa_group_rekey '0' to both default devices (suggested on this forum). I've also tried other options:

  • option wpa_pair_rekey '0''
  • option wpa_master_rekey '0'

It didn't help a lot.

  1. Change DNS

I've set DNS to:

  • 1.1.1.1
  • 8.8.8.8
  1. Disable AMSDU (not sure it's related, btw):
~$ cat /etc/.rc.local
# Put your custom commands here that should be executed once
# the system init finished. By default this file does nothing.

echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy0/mwlwifi/tx_amsdu
echo 0 > /sys/kernel/debug/ieee80211/phy1/mwlwifi/tx_amsdu

exit 0
  1. Disable WMM

This only led to the problems with Wifi on Android Pixel.

There are three more devices in network: Synology NAS, Android Pixel and HP laptop (Fedora), but it happens regardless they turned on or off.

There are usually no messages in logs when these drops happen, but there are some log errors that might indicate the problem:

Wed Apr  4 20:49:57 2018 kern.err kernel: [  109.672874] ieee80211 phy0: fast: space 3774(61734) is not enough
Wed Apr  4 20:49:58 2018 kern.err kernel: [  110.656635] ieee80211 phy0: fast: space 3774(61734) is not enough
Wed Apr  4 20:49:59 2018 kern.err kernel: [  111.661832] ieee80211 phy0: fast: space 3774(61734) is not enough

Please let me know if any other information is needed.

I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks!

2

https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/commits/master
Try and make a New issue!
https://github.com/kaloz/mwlwifi/issues I haven't seen this on my wrt3200acm.
Here is a link to the build i am running:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13rDktyLa0m4OeBFx2Nlpm2dwPe_7Sy0H/view
It's latest code with just addblock and luci and dnscrypt installed.

3

@tapper Notice that OP is also running the latest driver: there have been no commits after the change to 10.3.4.0-20180330, and firmware 9.3.2.6 is also the latest available; unless your build contains some other change, I do not see the need to install a new build.

@obatiuk I think you have tried pretty much everything I would do... I think next step is to open an issue, as @tapper suggested.

4

@tapper I wanted to ask here first to see if I did everything correctly from the LEDE perspective since most of the people report that they don't have any issues any more (for example, on this forum, linksys forum, kaloz repo, etc.). The next thing would be to try to reinstall LEDE from scratch and only after that I will create new issue in kaloz repo.

@eduperez Thank you for the feedback, and again - thank you for the builds! Yes, I've been trying to fix this particular issue using your builds since, probably, November. I think I actually tried most of them since then :wink:

5

Btw, what is the best way to reinstall LEDE from scratch? I am assuming that the easiest way would be to boot router from original partition (e.g. load original firmware) and just repeat steps from installation guide? Would it be correct to use squashfs-factory image again, not the sysupgrade one?

6

If you already have the latest build installed, you do not need to reinstall anything to revert back to a fresh state: all changes you make after a complete installation go to the overlay partition, so cleaning that partition effectively reverts back to a fresh state.

There is a firstboot command that does precisely that.

7

@eduperez thank you. I'll try it and post the result.

8

@eduperez Nope. Didn't work. After full update and latest mwlwifi driver installation I have the same problem. I will open issue in kaloz repo.

9

Thank you everybody for help. I've connected router directly to modem and packet drop-offs are gone. It seems that the problem was with one of the cables going through the APC UPS network protection port (or with the port itself).

10

If your question is solved, please consider marking this topic as [Solved].

11

Done @tmomas

12

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