Unable to get mesh to working

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi, I followed this page to setup a OpenWrt One and a D-Link EAPX1860EEU for mesh networking but it seems they are not connected yet.

From the main router…

root@OpenWrt:~#iw dev phy1-mesh0 mpath dump
DEST ADDR         NEXT HOP          IFACE	SN	METRIC	QLEN	EXPTIMEDTIM	DRET	FLAGS	HOP_COUNT	PATH_CHANGE

root@OpenWrt:~# iw dev phy1-mesh0 info
Interface phy1-mesh0
	ifindex 22
	wdev 0x10000000a
	addr 20:05:b7:00:4f:ea
	type mesh point
	wiphy 1
	txpower 20.00 dBm
	multicast TXQ:
		qsz-byt	qsz-pkt	flows	drops	marks	overlmt	hashcol	tx-bytestx-packets
		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0


root@OpenWrt:/etc/config# cat wireless

config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'platform/soc/18000000.wifi'
	option band '2g'
	option channel '7'
	option num_global_macaddr '7'
	option cell_density '0'
	option htmode 'HT20'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path 'platform/soc/18000000.wifi+1'
	option band '5g'
	option channel '36'
	option htmode 'HE20'
	option num_global_macaddr '7'
	option cell_density '0'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet0'
	option wps_pushbutton '1'
	option device 'radio0'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'OpenWrt'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option key 'aaaaaaaaaaa'
	option network 'lan'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet1'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'OpenWrtAX'
	option encryption 'psk2'
	option key 'aaaaaaaaaaa'
	option network 'lan'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet2'
	option device 'radio0'
	option mode 'ap'
	option ssid 'OpenWrt'
	option encryption 'none'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet3'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'mesh'
	option encryption 'sae'
	option mesh_id 'keraseasmesh'
	option mesh_fwding '1'
	option mesh_rssi_threshold '0'
	option key 'aaaaaaaaaaa'
	option network 'lan'


root@OpenWrt:/etc/config# opkg list-installed wpad*
wpad-mesh-mbedtls - 2024.09.15~5ace39b0-r2

For the secondary (D-Link)…

root@OpenWrt:~# opkg list-installed wpad*
wpad-mesh-wolfssl - 2023-09-08-e5ccbfc6-8


config wifi-device 'radio0'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0'
	option channel '7'
	option band '2g'
	option htmode 'HT20'
	option cell_density '0'

config wifi-device 'radio1'
	option type 'mac80211'
	option path '1e140000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0+1'
	option channel '36'
	option band '5g'
	option htmode 'HE20'
	option cell_density '0'

config wifi-iface 'wifinet0'
	option device 'radio1'
	option mode 'mesh'
	option encryption 'sae'
	option mesh_id 'keraseasmesh'
	option mesh_fwding '1'
	option mesh_rssi_threshold '0'
	option key 'aaaaaaaaaaa'
	option network 'lan'
2

I use wpa-supplicant-mesh-openssl and hostapd.

3

Probably upgrade to a supported OpenWrt 24.10 ? luci-app-attendedsysupgrade may help in travails.

4

As you only have two nodes, you would only expect to one entry here.
As there is none, the other node has not connected (yet).

You should run logread -f and watch to see if the other node is even trying to connect...

Expect to see something like this (obviously with your node's mac address):

Wed Mar  4 15:09:48 2026 daemon.notice wpa_supplicant[1791]: m-11s-0: new peer notification for 96:83:c4:2d:c5:24
Wed Mar  4 15:09:48 2026 daemon.notice wpa_supplicant[1791]: m-11s-0: mesh plink with 96:83:c4:2d:c5:24 established
Wed Mar  4 15:09:48 2026 daemon.notice wpa_supplicant[1791]: m-11s-0: MESH-PEER-CONNECTED 96:83:c4:2d:c5:24

But if something is a bit squiffy, you might get something like:

Wed Mar  4 15:11:32 2026 daemon.notice wpa_supplicant[1791]: m-11s-0: new peer notification for 96:83:c4:2d:c5:24
Wed Mar  4 15:11:50 2026 daemon.notice wpa_supplicant[1791]: m-11s-0: MESH-SAE-AUTH-FAILURE addr=96:83:c4:2d:c5:24

This type of log might just be things settling down, or it could be a problem with your config.

Have a look at the logread output and see what you find.