Upgraded Linksys EA4500 from OpenWrt, Radio0 (2.4GHz) does not work

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I have a recently upgraded from OpenWRT, I did a blank recovery so no settings held over. I am using a Linksys AE4500. The wifi was working fine in OpenWRT.

Radio0, t he 2.4 GHZ radio, connects, but its super slow, and then stops to function at all. If I turn it off, turn it back on, the connection will work for about 1 minute and then basically cease to function again. Everything just times out.

I have tried setting it to N and Legacy. I have adjusted the channels, and set it to auto. I can't seem to tell which part is causing it to just stop function.

Here is my logread

https://paste.debian.net/925404/

Here is my (sanitized) wifi.

{
	"radio0": {
		"up": true,
		"pending": false,
		"autostart": true,
		"disabled": false,
		"retry_setup_failed": false,
		"config": {
			"hwmode": "11g",
			"path": "mbus\/mbus:pcie-controller\/pci0000:00\/0000:00:01.0\/0000:01:00.0",
			"country": "00",
			"channel": "auto"
		},
		"interfaces": [
			{
				"section": "default_radio0",
				"ifname": "wlan0",
				"config": {
					"mode": "ap",
					"ssid": "SomeWifiName",
					"encryption": "psk2",
					"key": "REDACTED",
					"network": [
						"lan"
					],
					"mode": "ap"
				}
			}
		]
	},
	"radio1": {
		"up": true,
		"pending": false,
		"autostart": true,
		"disabled": false,
		"retry_setup_failed": false,
		"config": {
			"hwmode": "11a",
			"path": "mbus\/mbus:pcie-controller\/pci0000:00\/0000:00:02.0\/0000:02:00.0",
			"htmode": "HT20",
			"country": "00",
			"channel": "44"
		},
		"interfaces": [
			{
				"section": "default_radio1",
				"ifname": "wlan1",
				"config": {
					"mode": "ap",
					"ssid": "SomeWifiName",
					"encryption": "psk2",
					"key": "REDACTED",
					"network": [
						"lan"
					],
					"mode": "ap"
				}
			}
		]
	}
}
2

You certainly mean Linksys EA4500?

3

S[quote="tmomas, post:2, topic:2751, full:true"]
You certainly mean Linksys EA4500?
[/quote]

Yes sorry, type, EA4500

4

Did you get your wifi problems fixed @Kocrachon ? Contemplating flashing my EA4500 to the 17.01 release, but that would be a serious issue.

5

@adrinux

Unfortunately no, I only have 5ghz wifi still right now.

6

Installed last night, thankfully both 2.4 and 5 ghz seem to be working normally.*

  • Probably still have the issue with ye olde iPad 2 dropping wifi connection whilst watching a movie, seems common with the EA4500.
7

FWIW @Kocrachon my wifi settings look the same as yours with the exception of the country code. It looks like you may have forgotten to set the country code for the wifi?

8

I'm contemplating the switch from OpenWRT to LEDE 17.01 for a EA4500...

With OpenWRT, this is a fix that worked for the exact same issue: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=327489#p327489 Though the original problem report was for the EA3500, I had the problem (and fixed it) for the EA4500.

Give it a shot and let us know!

9

I added the country code and set the Width to HT40, but not much improvement. I am getting better speeds, but I get random cases of it just, stopping.

For now I may just set 2.4 ghz as its own SSID that only devices that NEED it use it.

Or I may upgrade to a new router with less issues.

10

First, I should note I upgraded my EA4500 from OpenWRT to LEDE 17.01.1 successfully and have been running it flawlessly...

But I remember another issue I had with OpenWRT and the EA4500: If you add VLANs, you need to be careful. I can't remember the exact fix, but if I remember, if you add a VLAN (and even if you remove it later), the radio disables itself. Again, if I remember, you need to MANUALLY (via cli command line) re-enable it. Sorry if I can't remember the exact command to query and fix that... Anyone want to chime in?

11

@Kocrachon There are known issues with this router dropping connections to Apple devices. My iPad2 tends to lose connection to it if we watch a movie on Netflix, its OK for an hour or whatever then dies for a minute or two. I swear it does it more at the edge of the routers wireless range.

12

Just updated to 17.0.1.1, didn't go well. Did the usual sysupgrade.tar via LuCI but chose to keep settings, router was unresponsive after. So I did the reset to backup ROM by switching off power 3 times in a row during boot. Flashed again, this time not keeping settings and its now reachable. Just need to spend half an hour setting it up again.

I'd like a better router too, but I hate throwing away things that work, even if they are a bit cantankerous :slight_smile:

13

The dropping problem during high wifi data transfer (i.e watch movie) is not only and Apple client problem, it actually affects also android device. It got worst somewhere during the transition between snapshots and 17.01. It has something to do with hostapd, even if I am not saying the problem is in hostapd, it is more at mwl8k driver level, that depending on the hostapd version (and more specific the EAPOL key management) it get better or worse. In fact I have compiled a hostapd git version from 10 May, clean with no LEDE path. The stability is much better, in the sense there are no so many disconnection, but the wifi speed is erratic due to the re-buffering in mwl8k driver....
I have written to the linux wifi mailing list wit cch the maintainer of the driver and also a guy from openwrt forum that made some detailed logs. As I expected, no answer at all, it is like this driver has been letto behind and no one care of it

14

I can't find the thread where i ran across this unfortunately, but someone on the OpenWrt forum mentioned that adding -

disassoc_low_ack '0'

to the wifi-faces solved the dropping problem on their ea4500.

1 Like
15

Where did you read this should solvente the problem? Indeed it is not, unfortunately

16

I finally found the thread @Menion, apparently I remembered wrong, the fix is actually adding -

option wpa_group_rekey '0'

to the wifi-face, and makarel suggested -

option disassoc_low_ack '0'

would have the same effect. There's discussion there about the security implications, so something to take into account.

17

And the discussion says DON'T set it to 0.

I'm trying upping it from the default 600 secs to 10800, ie from 10 mins to 3 hours. Maybe that will let us get through a movie without wifi dying on the iPad...

(also added the line for both radios the ea4500 has)

18

@adrinux curious to know if your changing the default helped at all with wifi disconnections and re-buffering?

I have some wifi stability issues on the EA4500, particularly 2.4ghz. I don't think it is the same issue as described in this thread, but I would like to explore all the options as by in large consensus just seems to be the mwl8k driver is bunk.

As an aside, reboot from LuCI or CLI doesn't appear to work. It seems like it just shuts down the CPU, but doesn't power it off.

19

EA4500 should be same as EA3500. I have 2 EA3500 and both work well.

20

I think it probably helped in the short term, but didn't eradicate the problem - what do you have to lose in trying?

Hard to say now because a couple of months ago my ea4500 got really bad, could barely maintain a connection at the other end of the house, had the feeling it was about to die. Couldn't decide what to replace it with though so I dragged my old TP Link WR1043ND out of the loft, updated it to LEDE and set it up as a wireless extender connecting to the ea4500. Much better connections now at the far end of the house and it's still going strong.

Still dies when we're watching movies at the far end of the house though, and it's still the ea4500 wireless that stops working for a minute or so (can log into the wr1043nd and see its lost the connection to the 4500). To be fair it does work happily for an hour or two before this happens.

A driver problem? I don't know – if I stream a movie and look at the Realtime graphs in LuCI on both the ea4500 and the wr1043nd the the former looks like a nice steady plateau and the latter like jagged mountain peaks.

I have noticed the ea4500 gets really warm, so I've always wondered whether it doesn't just overheat the wireless after an hour or so of movie streaming...

@art your LuCI suggests something isn't quite right - did you sysupgrade between LEDE versions? I've had problems with that, seem to end up with a messy half upgraded system. For each new LEDE release I have to backup settings, flash factory upgrade and re-import settings. I'd suggest you try a reinstall by flashing the factory.