TP-Link RE200 v2 w/ 22.03.0, mac error detected

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,

after upgrading from openwrt 21.02.3 to 22.03.0 on my TP-Link RE200 v2 repeater, the kernel log gets spammed with

kernel: [ 9721.878978] mt76x0e 0000:01:00.0: MAC error detected

and the repeater only works pretty unstable.

Any ideas of what I could try to get it to work again?

Thanks!

2

Does the MACs displayed in openwrt, match the ones on the devices stickers?

3

Well… yes and no.

The mac address that's printed on the sticker is something like b0:be:76:0c:xx:a2 and the mac addresses seen by OpenWRT are

  • b0:be:76:0c:xx:a2 (eth0 and br-lan)
  • b0:be:76:0c:xx:a3 (wlan0, which is the generic 802.11bgn interface)
  • b0:be:76:0c:xx:a4 (wlan1, which is the MT7610E interface)
  • b2:be:76:0c:xx:a3 (wlan0-1, generic 802.11bgn, note the b2)

So, yes, the MT7610E interface's mac address does match.

4

According to this: https://github.com/openwrt/mt76/issues/666 this has nothing to to with the MAC address, but with the MAC hardware. The RE200 series WiFi was/is unstable for years, and the link above gives some insight why this may be (incomplete EEPROM, wrong Tx power settings ...).

When it reads "fixed" at the very last comment it means in the current development version of the driver, not in the current stable release of OpenWrt.

5

Thanks. I guess I'll downgrade then.