I want to build a travel router that uses mwan3 to switch between a mobile data connection and wifi.
I started off with raspberry pi because I have plenty and what is one more in the flock (herd?)... But I am running into issues with USB devices and I am not sure it is worth the trouble.
So I was thinking instead about a WE826-T2 based router, like this one.
What I like about this particular device is the mini PCI-e card is not repopulated with a 4g modem since I have an external 4g modem with ethernet out. I
So I could use the WAN labeled ethernet port for the 4g connection and I wondered about populating the mini PCI-e slot with a wifi card. I could have one wifi radio be WAN and one LAN.
Am I mad? Is this more frustration or less than the pi route?
If you have alternative hardware suggestions, I do want removable antennas so that I can use externally mounted antennas. I am not opposed to a 4g modem inside but like the external future-proof replacability for 5g.
I went ahead purchased the following items (upgraded the router to what I thought would be a better model):
WG3526
Intel 7260
I installed openwrt 21 (OpenWrt 21.02.1 r16325-88151b8303).
I am using the onboard WiFi radios for AP mode, client internal WLAN.
Then I installed the intel card in the mini PCI-e slot and connected the extra antennas.
I installed the package for kmod-iwlwifi. I found intel's link for the firmware ucode file and placed in /lib/firmware and set permissions the same as other firmware files.
The module is loaded in lsmod. Do I need to do any other configuration on the system to present or activate the device?
there's a iwlwifi-firmware-iwl7260 package, at least in 19.07, no need for external firmware.
what does dmesg and lspci say about the card.
'dmesg' relevant area, let me know if this is not enough info:
[ 12.047306] random: 7 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[ 12.140203] urngd: v1.0.2 started.
[ 12.346558] kmodloader: loading kernel modules from /etc/modules.d/*
[ 12.368009] Loading modules backported from Linux version v5.10.68-0-g4d8524048a35
[ 12.375582] Backport generated by backports.git v5.10.68-1-0-ga4f9ba32
[ 12.399827] xt_time: kernel timezone is -0000
[ 12.602896] Intel(R) Wireless WiFi driver for Linux
[ 12.641727] mt7621-pci 1e140000.pcie: bus=1 slot=0 irq=24
[ 12.647213] pci 0000:00:00.0: enabling device (0006 -> 0007)
[ 12.652894] mt7603e 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 12.659114] mt7603e 0000:01:00.0: ASIC revision: 76030010
[ 13.285321] mt7603e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: ap_pcie
[ 13.290927] mt7603e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 20160107100755
[ 13.323906] mt7603e 0000:01:00.0: firmware init done
[ 13.503824] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
'lspci' looks scant. Is this because firmware is not correct or something else?
root@03-k64-firefly:~# lspci
00:00.0 PCI bridge: Device 0e8d:0801 (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Device 0e8d:0801 (rev 01)
01:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. Device 7603
02:00.0 Network controller: MEDIATEK Corp. MT7662E 802.11ac PCI Express Wireless Network Adapter
I will check on the 19.07 version of the package for the firmware, I could not find it in the current version.
I tried the verbose listing in the lspci.
root@03-k64-firefly:/etc# lspci -vnn
00:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [0e8d:0801] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Device tree node: /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/pcie@1e140000/pcie@0,0
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
Memory at 60400000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00000000-00000fff [size=4K]
Memory behind bridge: 60000000-600fffff [size=1M]
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 60100000-601fffff [size=1M]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Root Port (Slot-), MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel
lspci: Unable to load libkmod resources: error -12
The error doesn't look good even though some search hits indicate it's no biggie.
The output continues with the pci bridge and then the mediatek network devices which I'll omit.
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Device [0e8d:0801] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Device tree node: /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/pcie@1e140000/pcie@1,0
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 255
Memory at 60410000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
I/O behind bridge: 00001000-00001fff [size=4K]
Memory behind bridge: 60200000-602fffff [size=1M]
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 60300000-603fffff [size=1M]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Root Port (Slot-), MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel