I have a puzzling problem with a WiFi device that fails to associate to my GL.iNet GL-MT6000 Flint2 running OpenWrt 23.05.5 (r24106-10cc5fcd00), yet the same device happily connects via tethering on an Android (Pixel 6a, Android 15).
The device is a Shelly Pro EM-50, it's a variation of an ESP (ESP32-D0WDQ6) 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi-and-Bluetooth SoC. Interestingly, the device did connect to the Flint2 (same SSID) just fine on the older version of the firmware that it was delivered with, it now fails after I (foolishly!) hit the "sure, why not" button on the Shelly's update firmware prompt, to the latest stable Shelly firmware, 1.5.1. I've also tried the latest beta 1.6.something. Shelly don't support downgrading back to the older 1.4? firmware (their support flatly refused with no explanation, but I now believe this is actually a technical issue due to flash partition changes). Their support also stated they haven't seen any other reports; mind you this firmware's only been out for a month and their 1.5.0 release was a mess.
Anyway, though the problem's very likely with the Shelly device I'm at a loss as to why it works via the phone but not OpenWRT (haven't yet had a chance to try other APs; will be able to in a week or so). Shelly state, and their support reiterated, they support WPA2, and I've tried both my WPA and WPA2 SSIDs, neither work.
I'm in Australia (i.e. ch 13 is available), but I checked the 2.4GHz radio is on channel 6, so should not be any kind of regulatory mismatch.
The SSID config (iwinfo)
phy0-ap2 ESSID: "IOmmm"
Access Point: 92:83:C4:xx:xx:xx
Mode: Master Channel: 6 (2.437 GHz) HT Mode: HT20
Center Channel 1: 6 2: unknown
Tx-Power: 33 dBm Link Quality: unknown/70
Signal: unknown Noise: -91 dBm
Bit Rate: unknown
Encryption: WPA PSK (CCMP)
Type: nl80211 HW Mode(s): 802.11ax/b/g/n
Hardware: embedded [MediaTek MT7986]
TX power offset: none
Frequency offset: none
Supports VAPs: yes PHY name: phy0
Does anyone know how to configure an OpenWRT wifi interface identically to that of an Android 15 tether?
How does one go about troubleshooting an issue like this? I'm pcapping the phy0-ap2 interface but can't see any traffic from the Shelly device; unfortunately atm I can't easily access the Shelly device to kick it to try and reconnect, but I'd have expected it to continue to try connecting (an aassumption). Having said that I guess there won't be anything on the network interface if the lower layer wifi connection fails.
What's the moral equivalent of a tcpdump on a wifi physical device on openwrt? (ah, seems like https://openwrt.org/packages/pkgdata/airmon-ng ?)
(FTR I can see traffic on that interface from another 'iot' device I have connected to it; that device is working fine)