Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Report wireless and/or network connectivity problems in this forum.

Moderator: Moderators

Culex
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am

Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by Culex »

1.5.2 w/ a wrt54gl. After about 15 hours the wifi just died, wired worked fine. The SSID was being broadcasted intermittently, but could not connect.

ifconfig showed wlan0, but bringing it up and down did nothing. Rebooting the router didn't fix it either even though the LED for the wireless remained on both times. Running...
root@Gargoyle:~# rmmod b43
root@Gargoyle:~# insmod b43
root@Gargoyle:~# wifi
Configuration file: /var/run/hostapd-phy1.conf
Using interface wlan1 with hwaddr 00:23:69:a1:e9:e3 and ssid 'Culex'
Fixed it and the wireless came back up under the new wlan1 interface ?
b43-phy1: Broadcom 5352 WLAN found (core revision 9)
ieee80211 phy1: Selected rate control algorithm 'minstrel_ht'
Registered led device: b43-phy1::tx
Registered led device: b43-phy1::rx
Registered led device: b43-phy1::radio
Broadcom 43xx driver loaded [ Features: PL ]
b43-phy1: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy1: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
b43-phy1: Loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
device wlan1 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entering forwarding state
device wlan1 left promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entering disabled state
device wlan1 entered promiscuous mode
br-lan: port 2(wlan1) entering forwarding state
Was the removal and reinstallation of the module necessary? not sure. but it's working, for now.

1.2.5 didn't have this problem, but it seems every version I've tried after that does. Does 1.2.5 use a different module for the wireless? Also doing wifi detect comes up blank.

mix
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:18 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by mix »

I'm not having any problems using my WRT54GL with 1.4.5. I am using WPA-TKIP for encryption.
WRT54GL v1.1
Gargoyle 1.4.7

Culex
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by Culex »

This seems to be a common occurence in openwrt for some time. I've enabled remote logging hoping to see something. On startup I have noticed the following readout
2012/01/07 18:10:24.53 M loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
2012/01/07 18:10:24.63 M invalid max-tx-power value in sprom.
2012/01/07 18:10:25.46 M loading firmware version 410.2160 (2007-05-26 15:32:10)
2012/01/07 18:10:25.57 M 14>jan 7 18:11:09 kernel: device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
2012/01/07 18:10:25.63 M port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state
2012/01/07 18:10:28.82 M sta 00:1e:e5:4d:7e:0d ieee 802.11: authenticated
2012/01/07 18:10:28.83 M sta 00:1e:e5:4d:7e:0d ieee 802.11: associated (aid 1)
2012/01/07 18:10:29.76 M sta 00:1e:e5:4d:7e:0d ieee 802.11: authenticated
2012/01/07 18:10:29.76 M sta 00:21:63:d2:62:29 ieee 802.11: authenticated
2012/01/07 18:10:30.22 M sta 00:21:63:d2:62:29 ieee 802.11: associated (aid 2)
2012/01/07 18:10:30.54 M sta 00:21:63:d2:62:29 wpa: pairwise key handshake completed (rsn)
2012/01/07 18:10:30.94 M 14>jan 7 18:11:14 kernel: device wlan0 left promiscuous mode
2012/01/07 18:10:30.95 M port 2(wlan0) entering disabled state
2012/01/07 18:10:31.34 M 14>jan 7 18:11:14 kernel: device wlan0 entered promiscuous mode
2012/01/07 18:10:31.34 M port 2(wlan0) entering forwarding state
For some reason wlan0 is enabled, disabled, and re-enabled again. Not sure why.

mix
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:18 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by mix »

Before upgrading to 1.4.5 earlier this week, my WRT54GL had over 40 days of uptime using 1.4.2. Wifi worked perfectly through the entire period. I have several computers and smart phones that use wifi exclusively for internet access, and didn't have any problems.
WRT54GL v1.1
Gargoyle 1.4.7

Culex
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am

Re: Wifi Dies/Dropsout 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by Culex »

Thank you for the info. I know there was postings about the wireless driver suspected of crashing due to associated and authenticating of wireless clients over in the OpenWRT forums. In the mean time I've written a little script to monitor the wireless and automatically restore it if it should dropout.
#!/bin/sh

# A wireless client that should always be up
CLIENT_IP=192.168.1.2

# seconds to wait after failed ping to try again
FAIL_AGAIN=10

# seconds between checks
CHECK_EVERY=60

# Client must be up before starting main loop
while true
do
if ping -c 1 ${CLIENT_IP} >/dev/null
then
echo "${CLIENT_UP} ok - monitoring wireless."
break
fi
done

# main script
while sleep ${CHECK_EVERY}
do
if ping -c 1 ${CLIENT_IP} >/dev/null
then
sleep 1
else
echo "${CLIENT_IP} dropped one"
sleep ${FAIL_AGAIN}
if ! ping -c 1 ${CLIENT_IP} >/dev/null
then
echo "${CLIENT_IP} dropped two, restarting wireless."
wifi
fi
fi
done 2>&1


I called it /root/wifi_mon.sh and added it to /etc/init.d/done

btw, I always used WPA2 PSK

mix
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:18 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by mix »

Let us know what you figure out. You could make this test pretty interesting if you wanted to try some of the 17 different encryption possibilities and see if you can come to some conclusions on which ones work best and worst with the b43 driver.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/uci/wireless#wpa.modes

Looks like you already figured out that you don't need the b43legacy module which is installed and enabled by default on Gargoyle firmware. We only use b43 with the 5352 rev 9 wlan, b43legacy just wastes precious memory.
WRT54GL v1.1
Gargoyle 1.4.7

Culex
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:38 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by Culex »

Yeah, I noticed 1.5.2 doesn't use as much memory as earlier versions. b43legacy is only for 802.11b devices, I'm surprised it's even there.

https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/7552 seems to be the openwrt ticket regarding the b43 dropouts.

It would be nice if B43_DEBUG was compiled. Gargoyle uses 410.2160 of the b43 driver from 2007, openwrt just switched to 666.2 from 2011.

A cifs module would be nice too, but then it would probably take forever to compile using the router.

mix
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:18 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by mix »

The "driver" you refer to is actually firmware. It is unlikely that newer broadcom drivers, which the firmware is exacted from, actually contains newer firmware for our older wlan cards. Even if they seemingly did, it might just be a revision number change, the code itself is likely identical. There are plenty of open bug reports on the openwrt Trac that detail the problems (mostly out of memory [OOM]) errors with newer firmware. I believe this is one of the reasons it took so long for openwrt to get a working b43 implementation. I don't know, what you are saying has crossed my mind before but I haven't seen any real straight forward answers as to why things are the way they are.
WRT54GL v1.1
Gargoyle 1.4.7

mix
Posts: 292
Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2011 11:18 am

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by mix »

In any case, the 410.2160 firmware is considered the "stable" firmware. I found in openwrt trunk (not backfire which Gargoyle uses) where hauke added support for 666.2. He writes with the code change "Newer experimental firmware for BCM43xx devices. This firmware is mostly untested. It is needed for some N-PHY devices. If unsure, select the 'stable' firmware." A quick search of the Makefile for mac80211 shows that 410.2160 is the stable firmware.
WRT54GL v1.1
Gargoyle 1.4.7

User avatar
DoesItMatter
Moderator
Posts: 1373
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 3:56 pm

Re: Wifi Died 1.5.2 wrt54gl

Post by DoesItMatter »

Go back to 1.3.9 and see how your WRT54 wifi works.

1.3.10 is where the Broadcom 2.6 branch was added in.

Goto 1.3.9, fresh config (no loading an old config) and test stuff!

If it all works good for a few days, no drop outs, then I'd say to
backup that config, and flash upgrade to 1.4.5 and load that 1.3.9
backup config into 1.4.5 and do more testing.

There is NO use to go to the 1.5.x branch in a wrt54g
The 1.4.5 branch has the exact same OpenWRT, Gargoyle, etc.
The 1.5.x branch is for newer routers / 5GHZ routers / TOR
:twisted: Soylent Green Is People! :twisted:
2x Asus RT-N16 = Asus 3.0.0.4.374.43 Merlin
2x Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH V1 A0D0 = Gargoyle 1.9.x / LEDE 17.01.x
2x Engenius - ESR900 Stock 1.4.0 / OpenWRT Trunk 49400

Post Reply