The latest OpenWRT 18.06.4 release lists as one of the highlights:
- MT76 wireless driver updates
And there has indeed been progress with respect to WiFi performance and stability, however, there are still some significant issues I'm observing, and wanted to get input from other MT76 users to see if it might be something unique to my hardware (ZBT WE3526 which uses 7612e + 7603) or to the driver updates.
Specifically, with about seven connected devices (3 on 5Ghz rest on 2.4), if there is significant load run through the router (WLAN->WAN (e.g. speedtest)) or even locally (WLAN->LAN (e.g. backup)), the driver panics and restarts. This is from the system log:
Wed Jul 10 14:03:28 2019 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA a4:5e:60:db:96:6f IEEE 802.11: deauthenticated due to inactivity (timer DEAUTH/REMOVE)
Wed Jul 10 15:06:05 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6995.807516] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
Wed Jul 10 15:06:05 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6995.813015] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build: 1
Wed Jul 10 15:06:05 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6995.817199] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
Wed Jul 10 15:06:05 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6995.845733] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware running!
Wed Jul 10 15:06:05 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6995.855838] ieee80211 phy1: Hardware restart was requested
Wed Jul 10 15:06:06 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6997.697481] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
Wed Jul 10 15:06:06 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6997.702966] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build: 1
Wed Jul 10 15:06:06 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6997.707120] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
Wed Jul 10 15:06:06 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6997.735691] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware running!
Wed Jul 10 15:06:06 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6997.745776] ieee80211 phy1: Hardware restart was requested
Wed Jul 10 15:06:09 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 7000.637392] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
Wed Jul 10 15:06:09 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 7000.642879] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build: 1
Wed Jul 10 15:06:09 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 7000.647057] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
Wed Jul 10 15:06:09 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 7000.675636] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware running!
Wed Jul 10 15:06:09 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 7000.685719] ieee80211 phy1: Hardware restart was requested
Edit 5 minutes after posting this, I retested the speedtest load, and immediately caused this error where the driver had to restart:
Thu Jul 11 08:31:23 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6795.098234] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
Thu Jul 11 08:31:23 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6795.103742] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build: 1
Thu Jul 11 08:31:23 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6795.107909] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
Thu Jul 11 08:31:23 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6795.136123] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware running!
Thu Jul 11 08:31:23 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6795.146208] ieee80211 phy1: Hardware restart was requested
Thu Jul 11 08:31:24 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6796.898182] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware Version: 0.0.00
Thu Jul 11 08:31:24 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6796.903682] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build: 1
Thu Jul 11 08:31:24 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6796.907851] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Build Time: 201507311614____
Thu Jul 11 08:31:24 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6796.936069] mt76x2e 0000:01:00.0: Firmware running!
Thu Jul 11 08:31:24 2019 kern.info kernel: [ 6796.946178] ieee80211 phy1: Hardware restart was requested
Thu Jul 11 08:31:32 2019 daemon.info hostapd: wlan1: STA f8:da:0c:73:3b:c1 IEEE 802.11: authenticated
If just surfing the web, reading email or doing other non-bulk transfers, it seems to stay up reasonably well, but when running pingplotter for hours at a time, it does detect small periods (<2 seconds) of total ping loss. But there is nothing in the logs to indicate an issue.
Where would one look for more details on what might be going on during those periods, and for the larger restarts of the driver?
Thanks in advance.